Happy Lunar New Year

Wish all my Chinese friends a very Happy and Prosperous Year of the horse!

Northern Thailand Trip Day 1 Part 2

The sun was setting when we are on the way down from Doi Ang Khang.

A beautiful scenery looking down from Doi Ang Khang. The city below is Fang, where we are heading for the night.

We will be staying here at Khunyuw Place for the next few night as this is in the middle to all the birding spot that we will be visiting for the next few days.

This place is one of the few 'IBA' (not important birding area but important birder area) here in Northern Thailand during the winter birds migratory period. You will be able to meet lots of birders, photographer here. A good place to share birding information, etc.

This place is economic, simple yet equip with all the necessary. An really ideal place to stay if you are birding at Northern Thailand.

Before I go to bed, I try out using my iPad to sketch one of the bird I seen this afternoon. Not too used to the stylus yet. But, I think is a good start... :)  (to be continued)

Winter Northern Thailand Trip Day 1

After months of waiting for my first winter trip to Northern Thailand, I finally made it in January 2014. Our flight from Singapore landed at Chiangmai International airport around 10.45am. After immigration and custom clearance, we proceed to Doi Ang Khang right away. Is about 3 hours journey from Chiangmai. We stop for lunch while on the way to Doi Ang Khang.

Is a simple but nice eating place. Is a fusion of traditional and modern Thai food cafe.

I get myself a cup of iced coffee and a bowl of curry chicken noodle.

My first birding spot was at a private camp site/ resort at Doi Ang Khang. This resort have a nice garden, a small stream flow through at the back of the resort. It was indeed a perfect place for birding. One of the nice corner is this patch of Chinese Cabbage. Chinese Cabbage is a popular vegetable and they are nice flowering plant too.

I'm not sure what berry or what plant is this. However, since Chinese New Year just around the corner, this is a perfect ornamental plants for Chinese New Year!

I like this very unique natural air freshener. Is so 'organic'!

We leave Doi Ang Khang around 6pm and will stay at Fang, a small city north of Chiangmai. I stop by a stall selling all kinds of products made of straw berry.

It looks nice but I didn't get any except the fresh straw berry.

We get a big box of straw berry.

The roof of the stall are made of dry leaves. 100% bio-degradable, 100% organic.... (to be continued)

Brown Anole - New Introduced Lizard of Singapore

Brown Anole - another introduced species of lizard into Singapore believed to have been brought in together with plants unintentionally. 

There are quite different from Changeable lizard and can easily tell the difference from their large throat fan that usually in bright colour (from orange to red).

They are believed to have been established in Singapore. How many can you find in just the area of 1 square feet?

What impact will they cause to the resident species? Only time will tell...

New Year Day on Sea Shore

Happy New Year! Today is the first day of 2014. I was expecting a good low tide today on our Northern shore but end up the water didn't really go down. So, I can only explore around the shore area & the inter-tidal area remained submerge when we left the shore. Nevertheless, it was a nice outing and a good opportunity to catch up with old friends.

 The fan shell or fan clams used to be very common here. But I only saw one today. Perhaps most of them is still covered under water?

 The hermit crab happily come out from his host shell to wish us Happy New Year! :)

 The dog whelk busy looking for food using the long siphon to pin point the food source.

 Saw this really tiny stone crab moult. Crabs moult to grow bigger & also to replace their lost limbs.

 Another moult of flower crab.

One of the "must see" creature on this shore will be this sea cucumber that with bright colour - Sea apple sea cucumber. Nice?

 As the name says it all - Ball sea cucumber.

 As usual, there are a number of Pink sea cucumber on the shore.

 Slightly bigger than the Pink sea cucumber - Orange sea cucumber.

One of the very common sea star here is the Biscuit sea star. No bad to be able to see two of them on a not so low tide day.

 There are several Peacock anemones on the shore including this one the looks like glass transparent.

Despite the clean up, the rubbish on this shore is just too many! This rubbish is most likely brought in by the current. From cups, empty cans to shoe! sigh...