19th & 20th Jan
19th Jan
Sadly our last breakfast was enjoyed at the fabulous Baan Maka resort this morning. Basically today was to involve making our way back to Bangkok by evening, to overnight in a hotel near the airport, for easy access to catch our middle of the day flight tomorrow. The plan was to stop off at various locations along the way. The first port of call was a very dry open area with scattered scrub, a known location for Indian Thick-knee, but try as we might we couldn't find any. We satisifed ourselves by crisscrossing the area to see what we could find. There were a few mynahs, notably Great Mynah {IOC name for White-vented Mynah}, Pied Mynah {Asian Pied Starling}, Common Mynah and our only Vinous-breasted Starlings of the trip. A Eurasian Hoopoe was spotted, then we had Asian Koel in trees on the fringes of the area, quite a few Paddyfield Pipits, Plain-backed Sparrows, a few Red-wattled Lapwings scuttling amongst the scattered bushes, Red-rumped Swallows passing overhead together with a sustained passage of Germain's Swiftlets. I spent quite some time trying to get a decent flight shot of these fast moving birds - and out of very many I got one vaguely passable one. My loitering behind meant I missed a couple of birds but nothing new - Olive-backed Sunbird, Zebra Dove and Oriental Magpie-robin. As we made our way back to the bus we found an Indochinese Bushlark.
We headed off again, in the direction of the coast near Petchaburi and fairly shortly we stopped at what first appeared to be just a rather unpromising scrubby area behind a building, but there was a small stretch of wet habitat, and it gave us a few birds, kicking off with Marsh Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, and Common Snipe, but best of all a Greater Painted Snipe was skulking in cover at the far end of the wet marshy strip of water. Also present were a few Lesser Whistling Ducks, Chestnut Munias and an Indochinese Bushlark. Not far from here, we stopped at a location known for Oriental Pratincole, as it was near the time of their usual arrival, but we didn't connect and had to be satisfied with Little Ringed Plover and Oriental Skylark.
We carried on to the furnace that is Pak Thale but decided not to search in the heat again for Spoonies, but the 1000's of waders were still around and we ticked a few off whilst heading for a shelter that overlooked the shoreline and some adjacent mangroves. Highlights of the waders present were Lesser Sand Plover, Kentish Plover, Pacific Golden Plover, Great Knot, Red-necked Stint, and Terek Sandpiper. At the shelter we did some relaxed scanning in the shade and found Golden-bellied Gerygone in the adjacent mangroves - the only other example of this family I have seen is Grey Gerygone in New Zealand. It's an odd family, the members looking like chunky Phylloscopus warblers. Offshore there were a few Eurasian Whimbrel, plus Caspian, Greater Crested, Little, Common and Whiskered Terns. I think possibly the Whiskered's were more likely to have been over the salt pans on reflection. It was good to see another Black-capped Kingfisher having fishing forays from the edge of the mangrove. The usual herons and egrets were present, plus Painted Storks and Asian Openbills.
All done, we headed back to the main coast road and found a nice little restaurant to have our lunch. It turned out that we were the first Western folk to have eaten there and we were really treated like royalty, photos taken and all. It was a real pleasure. After that it was a long three hour drive back to Bangkok and our overnight hotel, the Mariya Boutique Residence, which was very comfortable.
We carried on to the furnace that is Pak Thale but decided not to search in the heat again for Spoonies, but the 1000's of waders were still around and we ticked a few off whilst heading for a shelter that overlooked the shoreline and some adjacent mangroves. Highlights of the waders present were Lesser Sand Plover, Kentish Plover, Pacific Golden Plover, Great Knot, Red-necked Stint, and Terek Sandpiper. At the shelter we did some relaxed scanning in the shade and found Golden-bellied Gerygone in the adjacent mangroves - the only other example of this family I have seen is Grey Gerygone in New Zealand. It's an odd family, the members looking like chunky Phylloscopus warblers. Offshore there were a few Eurasian Whimbrel, plus Caspian, Greater Crested, Little, Common and Whiskered Terns. I think possibly the Whiskered's were more likely to have been over the salt pans on reflection. It was good to see another Black-capped Kingfisher having fishing forays from the edge of the mangrove. The usual herons and egrets were present, plus Painted Storks and Asian Openbills.
All done, we headed back to the main coast road and found a nice little restaurant to have our lunch. It turned out that we were the first Western folk to have eaten there and we were really treated like royalty, photos taken and all. It was a real pleasure. After that it was a long three hour drive back to Bangkok and our overnight hotel, the Mariya Boutique Residence, which was very comfortable.
20th Jan
After a very restful night in the hotel we had a relaxed breakfast there and then got the hotel transfer bus to the airport to catch our flight back to the UK. I can't for the life of me recall when we bade farewell to Nick, but we obviously did and thanked him for being an excellent guide, getting us a fantastic list of birds with his expert knowledge of the birds and their calls, and also for being great company. He and Paul made it a very relaxing and rewarding trip.
Bangkok airport has some amazing exhibits illustrating Thai legends - there's a few photos below.The flight back went very smoothly and we all headed off in our respective directions, Anne & I travelling back to South Wales with Paul. Big thanks for the lift Paul, much appreciated.
Enjoy the rest of the site - lots of photos in the galleries and the trip list, which I've tried to code for the species that just I saw, and for the ones that everyone saw or heard.
Bangkok airport has some amazing exhibits illustrating Thai legends - there's a few photos below.The flight back went very smoothly and we all headed off in our respective directions, Anne & I travelling back to South Wales with Paul. Big thanks for the lift Paul, much appreciated.
Enjoy the rest of the site - lots of photos in the galleries and the trip list, which I've tried to code for the species that just I saw, and for the ones that everyone saw or heard.