PeterHG's BY in whatever form it will take.

[PeterHG]

111 / TH 92. Kalij Pheasant. Kaeng Krachan, February. One of the beautiful pheasant species Thailand has and unfortunately the only one we managed to see.

 

112 / 93. Asian Koel. Baan Maka, February. We heard them literally everywhere, but is is surprisingly difficult to see. This is the only photo I could take.

 

113 / TH 94. Black-hooded Oriole. Baan Maka, February. Seen and heard a few times

 

114 / TH 95. Racket-tailed Treepie. Baan Maka, February. Striking blue eyes/

 

115 / TH 96. Greater Racket-tailed Drongo. Baan Maka, February.

[PeterHG]

116 / TH 97. Yellow-bellied Warbler. Kaeng Krachan, February. One of the asier warblers to identify.

 

On two different occasions we booked a hide through the Baan Maka lodge. The first one we went to was the Bird's hide. We spent some three hours there in the afternoon. We really enjoyed both times as it gives you the chance to see some of the forest birds close-up. As the hides are situated in the forest, you do not have a lot of light to work with, so the iso numbers went up quite high.

 

117 / TH 98. Brown-cheeked Fulvetta. Bird's Hide, February. A rather inconspicuous little bird and quite common at the feeders.

 

118 / TH 99. White-rumped Shama. Bird's Hide, February. It often terrorized the other birds near the feeders, but as it is such a handsome bird, we did not hold it against him.

 

119 / TH 100. Puff-throated Babbler. Bird's Hide, February. We only saw it at both hides.

 

120 / TH 101. Greater Necklaced Lauging-thrush. Bird's Hide, February. The first of three laughing-trush species we saw at the hide.

 

121 / TH 102. Lesser Necklaced Laughing-thrush. Bird's Hide, February. Note the pale eyes.

 

This moment reminded me of a muppet show scene from long ago....;)

 

122 / TH 103. White-crested Laughing-thrush. Bird's Hide, February.

[michael-ibk]

Congrats on your first 100 Peter, bravo! Some wonderful colourful birds here, and excellent photos. Love the Pygmy and the Broadbill expecially but particularly that Butterfly. 

[PeterHG]

Thank you @michael-ibk!

 

More from the Bird's Hide:

123 / TH 104. Stripe-throated Bulbul. Bird's Hide, February. 

 

124 / TH 105. Indochinese Blue Flycatcher. Bird's Hide, February. This beautiful little male was present most of the time we spent in the hide.

 

125 / TH 106. Common Flameback. Bird's Hide, February. Both male and female showed up a few times.

 

 

126 / 107. Red Junglefowl. Bird's Hide, February. Hard to imagine this is really a wild bird.

 

127 / TH 108. Black-naped Monarch. Bird's Hide, February. Another spectacularly coloured flycatcher.

 

128 / TH 109. Asian Emerald Dove. Bird's Hide, February. Doves are not among the most popular birds here, but we've got to make an exception for this one, I think.

 

129 / TH 110. Pin-striped Tit-babbler. Bird's Hide, February.

 

 

[PeterHG]

Apart from the birds, there were enough mammals to entertain us. Although they don't really belong in this thread, I'll throw in a few to complete the hide experience.....

 

Grey-bellied Squirrel

 

Swinhoe's Striped Squirrel

 

Lesser Mouse Deer. Really tiny

 

White-throated Marten. Two of them suddenly appeared from the forest. Much bigger than our martens. All other creatures disappeared at the sight of them and it took some 20 minutes before the first squirrel ventured back.

[Soukous]

So many beautiful birds Peter, I won't even try to pick a favourite.

[TonyQ]

Great sightings @PeterHG. You did really well in Thailand. Congratulations for passing 100 overall, and for Thailand

[BRACQUENE]

Incredible birds Peter ! 

[PeterHG]

Thank you @Soukous @TonyQ @BRACQUENE!

 

Some more from the Baan Maka lodge

 

 

130 / TH 111. Indochinese Roller. Baan maka, February. Seen in various places. Always quite distant, though.

 

131 / TH 112. Verditer Flycatcher. Baan maka, February. 

 

132 / TH 113. Indochinese Bushlark. Baan Maka, February. Only seen once.

 

133 / TH 114. Black-browed Reed Warbler. Baan Maka, February.

 

134 / 115. Vernal Hanging Parrot. Baan maka, February. Also the only sighting. It's not living up to its name here...

 

135 / TH 116. Red-wattled Lapwing. Baan maka, February. Quite common in many areas.

 

136 /TH 117. Black-naped Oriole. Baan Maka, February. More sightings than its black-hooded cousin and at the lodge it was not really shy.

[xelas]

Hides are not my favorite hangouts but boy they do delivers. Congratulations on reaching the Triple-One number with Triple-A photos!

[PeterHG]

17 hours ago, xelas said:

Hides are not my favorite hangouts but boy they do deliver

My thoughts exactly!

[PeterHG]

The day after we made a half-day trip to Pak Thale, the well-known wader site. We had booked Mr Daeng as a guide there. He is also well-known with visiting birding groups, though mostly for the boat trip to the sand pit. We walked round the salt pans with him, accompanied by his daughter. As Mr Daeng does not really speak any English apart from the bird names, she acted as an interpreter. They both brought scopes, invaluable in that area. He asked me what birds I was after and I told him I was unfamiliar with many of the Asian waders, so I would be happy to get acqainted with some of them. But of course he would try for the holy grail of the area, too: the spoon-billed sandpiper.

The first one was familiar, but no less beautiful.

 

137 / TH 118. Black-winged Stilt, Pak Thale, February

 

138 / TH 119. Pacific Golden Plover. Pak Thale, February. Already seen in Sri Lanka, quite a few years ago

 

139 / TH 120. Chinese Egret, Pak Thale, February. A pretty rare winter visitor. I doubt that we had picked it out ourselves. A lifer, of course.

 

140 / TH 121. Brown-headed Gull. Pak Thale, February. Perhaps not the most exciting species, being so similar to our Black-headed Gull (for which the name brown-headed would be more suitable) , but a bird I'd only seen once before, also in Sri Lanka.

 

141 / TH 122. Asian Dowitcher. Pak Thale, February. Another lifer. We saw quite a few in the area.

 

142 / TH 123. Little Tern. Pak Thale, February. The terns haven't returned to our country yet, so it was nice to meet them here.

 

143 / TH 124. Red-necked Stint. Pak Thale, February. The most numerous of the waders in Pak Thale.

 

 

144 / TH 125. Kentish Plover. Pak Thale, February. Always a nice sighting, for they have become very rare in the Netherlands.

 

145 / TH 126. Bar-tailed Godwit

146 / TH 127. Grey Plover. Pak Thale, February.  Familiar waders, of course, but not yet seen this year.

 

[PeterHG]

147 / TH 128. Nordmann's Greenshank. Pak Thale, February. Another lifer, which I had hoped to see here.

 

148 / TH 129. Great Knot. Pak Thale, February. Lifer.

 

149 / TH 130. Red Knot. Pak Thale, February. Just a few amidst the Great cousins.

 

150 / TH 131. Caspian Tern. Pak Thale, February.

 

151 / TH 132. Marsh Sandpiper. Pak Thale, February. This elegant wader is not uncommon here.

 

152 / 133. Curlew Sandpiper. Pak Thale. Only a few, mixing with the red-necked stints.

 

153 / TH 134. Red-necked Phalarope. Pak Thale, Fenbruary. Quite a gathering of them.

 

154 / TH 135. Terek Sandpiper. Pak Thale, February. Only seen once before as a vagrant to the Netherlands.

 

155 / TH 136. Broad-billed Sandpiper. Pak Thale, February. You can clearly see how the bill is turned down at the tip, a good way to identify them.

 

156 / TH 137. Tibetan Sandplover (lesser sandplover). We saw a few groups of them towards the end of our walk.

[PeterHG]

Did we get to see the much-desired and rare sandpiper every  birder comes looking for? Well thanks to the sharp eyes of Mr Daeng we did. The first sighting was very distant, but to my surprise I aven maged a flight shot. The second sighting was closer, though it was difficult at first to pick out the sleeping bird among the other small waders. We had to wait a while for the bird to raise its head, so that we could see the tell-tale bill. But we saw it and that was very special.

 

157 / TH 138. Spoon-billed Sandpiper. Pal Thale, February

 

[PeterHG]

The day after our visit to Pak Thale, we had booked another afternoon at one of the hides. This time it was the Dab Toon hide. Equally pleasant experience.

 

158 / TH 139. Bar-backed Partridge. Dab Toon, February. We had not seen any partridges at the previous hied, but here we saw three different species

 

159 / TH 140. Green-legged Partridge. Dab Toon, February

 

160 / TH 141. Ferruginous Partridge. Dab Toon, February.

 

Suddenly a rather large snake moved towards the hide, determined on joining us there. I grabbed a stick to deter it, but that made it more aggressive at first. Eventually it made its way into the forest again. As it turned out later it was a harmless Copper rat snake, but I had no time to google the proper ID first, so I took no chances....;)

 

161 / 142. Spotted Dove. Dab Toon, February. Well, I had already seen many, but never got round to adding it to the photo collection.

 

162 / TH 143. White-browed Scimitar-babbler. Dab Toon, February. Though there was considerable overlap in the species seen from both hides there were also a quite a few differences, like the partridges. This is another one we only saw here.

 

163 / TH 144. Indian Paradise Flycatcher. Dab Toon, February.

 

164 / 145. Black-crested Bulbul. Dab Toon, February. Although it is quite a common bird it did not present us with many photo opportunities.

 

Like at the Bird's hide there were many squirrels around and also this little fellow, a sort of mix between a squirrel and a shrew, aptly named Treeshrew

 

 

[PeterHG]

On our last night at the Baan Maka lodge we walked to the gardens, a few hundred metres from the lodge itself. Our neigbours had told us that a nightjar came there every night and rested on the steel tubes, lining the the entrance path. Though it was already dark when we got there, it didn't take long for us to locate it. Some careful manoeuvring with the torch got me just enough light to take a photo. I did need iso 25600, but the result certainly did not disappoint. The bird did not seem bothered by our presence at all and was still resting quietly when we left.

 

145 / TH 146. Large-tailed Nightjar. Baan Maka, February.

[xelas]

If not the Spoon-billed Sandpiper than surely the Terek sandpiper will attract @michael-ibk attention to Pak Thale and the rest that Thailand offers! 

 

25600 ISO shows how nicely highISO photos from OM-1 can be cleaned. 

[michael-ibk]

So cool you got Spoonie! Wader heaven indeed.🙂

[Kitsafari]

congrats on the 100th - that bird is the unofficial (as in voted by the Nature Society members) national bird for Singapore!

Very Jealous of the Kalij pheasant. 

Super you got spoonie in the air! Mr Daeng is very well known in Pak thale as he is there almost every day and if anyone needs to know where the spoonies are, just ask Mr Daeng. I didn't know that he guides as well. 

Edited April 3 by Kitsafari

[TonyQ]

A wonderful outing to Pak Thale, so many beautiful waders. Excellent photos

[Galana]

A splendid trip all round. You picked up some great lifers with the Spoonie as the icing on a big cake. Loved the snake. If somebody picked up a large stick with intent I think I would get a bit aggressive too.

[Peter Connan]

What a haul of magnificent creatures and photos!

[pedro maia]

Congrats on the century Peter, so many nice birds and great pictures, of course.

[PeterHG]

Thank you @xelas @michael-ibk @Kitsafari @TonyQ @Peter Connan @Galana @pedro maia!

 

My mind has been elsewhere, but it's about time I continue the Thailand photos. Our next stay was at Chiang Saen, near the lake. Defintely a  pleasant spot, though the number of birds we saw there was rather limited.

 

166 / TH 147. Red-whiskered Bulbul, Chiang Saen, February

 

167 / TH 148. Grey-headed Lapwing. Chiang Saen, February. Only seen at two locations

 

168 / TH 149. Glossy Ibis. Chiang Saen, February. 

 

169 / TH 150. Citrine Wagtail. Chiang Saen, February. 

 

170 / TH 151. Burmese Shrike. Chiang Saen, february

 

171 / TH 152. White-rumped Munia.

 

172 / TH 153. Purple Sunbird. The female.

 

173 / TH 154. Black-collared Starling. Quite common in these northern parts.

 

174 / TH 155. Spot-billed Duck.

 

[PeterHG]

More from Chiang Saen:

 

175 / TH 156. Great Coucal.

 

176 / TH 157. Blue Peafowl. We did not see the Green Peafowl and I don't know for sure if the Blue Peafowl has a wild population in Thailand, but this was taken in one of the nature reserves, so I may as well count it....

 

177 / TH 158. Coppersmith Barbet. The 'default' barbet on our trip.

 

178 / TH 159. Black-headed Bulbul. Our only sighting and quite distant.

 

179 / TH 160. Long-tailed Shrike. Our only sighting from a hide in the Nam Kham NR.

 

180 /TH 161. Asian Green Bee-eater. On an late-afternoon walk along the shores of the lake.

 

181 / TH 162. Thick-billed Warbler. A rather nondescript little bird. But a lifer...

 

182 / TH 163. Common Iora.

 

183 / TH 164. Pied Harrier. A very handsome harrier, which we only saw here.