Pak Thale Shorebird Site Bird Watching Pt 1

Is not my first visit to Pak Thale, yet is so excited to re-visit this place year after year during the birds migration period. 

The sign was very clear, stay on the bunds. Venture too close will give unnecessary stress to the birds.

Common sandpiper being one of the most common shore birds.

Black drongo perch quite near us.

Painted Stork in flight 

Another bird in flight, this time round was a Little Cormorant.

Long pink leg, Black-winged stilt is such a nice bird to watch.

Red-Necked Stint

Lesser Sand Plover also known as Mongolian Plover

Little Ringed Plover with black ring and yellow eye ring.

While in flight, this Whiskered Tern pay close attention on the mud flat for food.

Marsh Sandpiper wading through water looking for food.

The bamboo support at this mangrove re-planted area means no obstacle for this Whiskered Tern.

Caspian Tern are slightly bigger than Whiskered tern and with orange bill.

Sri Phang Nga to Bangkok

After the good trip at Sri Phang Nga yesterday. We will be driving North for our next birding spot  today. Just before the long trip ahead, we pay a quick visit to Sri Phang Nga National Park one last time before depart to north.

There are many bulbuls that we saw and Black Creasted Bulbul is one of them.

Another surprise for us is this Brown wood owl (Strix leptogrammica). Really didn't expect to see it in the day!

Thailand is really a big country with so many national park and everyone is unique! From coastal, mangroves to forest!

Saw this truck with 2 very loyal & energetic "worker". They are trained & very skillful worker to pick & pluck the right coconut.

There are so many nice local food along the way and stopover at Kra Buri to buy this buns/dumpling.

They are so good. They use different colour to differentiate different filling. From corn, beans to meat.

These is another type of dumpling that I find it so good and really value for money. This serves as our breakfast!

I will sure to buy this again when I next return here for birding.

We do a slight detour to Khao Dinsor, which is an important raptor migration count station.

Flock of Black Baza fly pass our head.

We stop at Amphoe Tha Sae for lunch. We have local noodle for lunch.

I like their service, free flow of salad for all customers!

The sun almost set when we pass by Huahin - a seaside resort on the Gulf of Thailand, in the southern Thai province of Prachuap Khiri Khan. We will need to travel another hour or two to Ban Pak Thale for shore bird watching the next day.

Day Trip to Sri Phang Nga National Park

When my guide told me that the chance of seeing a Green broadbill is almost zero as the fruiting of the fig tree is coming to an end. He ask me if I still wants to travel thousand of kilometers from Bangkok to South of Thailand? In the Land of Smile, every place is worth to spend time on, be it local market or national park. Every trip to this part of the world, I will get to see something new. So, we are set to travel to Southern of Thailand.

After breakfast at the local market at Khura Buri, we head to Sri Phang Nga National Park.

What a beautiful morning as we head to the forest.

I don't know the name of this tree with the long seed pods.

So happy to see this very beautiful Cookeina mushroom. Glowing in pink colour!

Isn't this cycads fruits cute?

 This is the carnivorous Pitcher plants

 This skink trying to get the best spot to warm up his body.

 Up on a fig tree is all the actions we are looking for. First was this Red Throated Barbet.

 Streaked Bulbul is one of the most common birds on this tree.

Not so frequent but we do see warbler darting around this fruiting tree.

Lesser green leafbird also join the buffet party.

Is always nice to see bigger bird such as this Chestnut Breasted Malkoha

Another small bird that come for the free buffet party - Orange-bellied Flowerpecker.

Sadly, the Green broadbill really no show. But saw an Chinese Blue Flycatcher! Is my first sighting too.

My biggest surprise & bonus of the trip is this very elusive Banded Pitta! Although is just few seconds,  is really worth the thousands km road trip.

Just before we leave the forest, saw this very scary big jaw ants. I'm sure it will be very painful if bitten.

We stop on a bridge to enjoy the sun set and what a very nice way to end our birding trip.

Day Trip to Khura Buri Town @ South Thailand

Not really a day trip but a stop over before our birding trip to Sri Phang Nga National Park. My guide pick me up at the Bangkok airport around 8pm the night before and we drove straight to Khura Buri at Phang Nga, Southern of Thailand.

After check-in to our resort, it was already 6.30am. We decided to go check out the local market and see we can get some breakfast before heading for our birding trip.

 The market is just across the street of where we stay and is already very bright at 6.30am

The scene like this is long gone in Singapore. Open air market is no longer available in Singapore. This really bring back my old memories when I was still a kid.

 From local deserts, cakes

 to fresh vegetables

 and cooked food. Just pick what you want.

 Fresh chicken from the village is available too.

 We bough some deep fried bananas as our snacks

 is so yummy!

 We also bought some pan cake freshly baked

We also get a bowl of noodle for our breakfast. With all this goodies, looks like birding has became a secondary objectives for our trip... what will I see later in the National Park?