3rd Jan
Today was a pretty hectic day. We arrived at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport in the morning after an overnight flight, and it wasn't long before we were boarding an internal flight to Chiang Mai in the north, a distance of about 600 km by air. See the map below.
We landed at Chiang Mai at around the middle of the day and were met by Nick and set off in a brand new Toyota minibus, heading initially to our hotel where we would be staying the night. This was the small but comfortable KM Hotel which wasn't far from the airport. After a really long and tiring journey we had a couple of hours siesta to recover.
My first bird around the hotel was a smart Black-naped Monarch, a stunning blue flycatcher which became a very familiar bird, followed swiftly by a Black Drongo. We headed off in the Toyota and found ourselves at the Mae Hia Agricultural College, where birders are allowed in the grounds provided they are well behaved! The grounds were quite extensive with areas of water, copses of trees and more open areas, so a good place to start to get a general feel of what to expect. Much to my delight one of the first birds we saw was a Rufous-winged Buzzard sitting in a tree - a very smart raptor and my first of many lifers. Having been to Nepal in 2019, and China and Myanmar on previous trips, I was wondering how many lifers I would see, as I expected there to be quite a bit of overlap of species with these other locations. The first area in the college grounds comprised an area of cultivation plots where careful scanning soon gave us a good start to the trip list, with White-throated Kingfisher, Chinese Pond Heron, Eastern Cattle Egret, Red Collared Dove, Green Bee-eater, White-breasted Waterhen, Hoopoe, Stejneger's Stonechat, Black-collared Starling and along a track, a couple of Ruddy-breasted Crakes showed briefly, and several other species were also logged.
We then moved to a more sheltered area out of the hot sun, and walked along a road in the shade of some trees. The best bird along here was an Asian Barred Owlet whose presence was given away by scolding Bulbuls - Streak-eared and Sooty-headed - and a Racket-tailed Treepie also appeared to join in the fun. Other birds we picked up here included Lineated Barbet, Black- and Ashy Drongos, Oriental Magpie-robin, Yellow-browed Warbler, Rufescent Prinia and Ashy Woodswallows.
The day was marching on so we headed to another area where there were a couple of largish lagoons where we could spend the rest of the daylight looking for other species. One of the lagoons is shown in the header image above. The area here proved quite productive and we soon had good views of Striated Swallows swooping down to feed over the water, together with Himalayan Swiftlet, Asian Palm Swift, House Swift and Germain's Swiftlet. More static species were Brown Shrike, Black-collared Starling/Mynah, Hoopoe, Golden-headed Cisticola, Pied Bushchat, and the diminutive Scaly-breasted Munia. We were also luck y to get on to an Indochinese Bushlark although it wasn't close enough for decent photographs. A White-breasted Waterhen (a very common species), skulked around the edges of the lagoon, and Spotted Doves and Large-billed Crows flew around, and Red-wattled Lapwings crept around in the grassy areas. Eventually at dusk we drove out of the grounds, noting a Black-crowned Night-heron standing on a pontoon, just before we exited.
After the two flights and a decent half a day birding we were pretty whacked, so after dinner at a nearby restaurant we headed back to the hotel for a well-earned sleep. I didn't take any bird images so there's just a selection of views below. Most of the birds were too distant or flighty to get decent images.
My first bird around the hotel was a smart Black-naped Monarch, a stunning blue flycatcher which became a very familiar bird, followed swiftly by a Black Drongo. We headed off in the Toyota and found ourselves at the Mae Hia Agricultural College, where birders are allowed in the grounds provided they are well behaved! The grounds were quite extensive with areas of water, copses of trees and more open areas, so a good place to start to get a general feel of what to expect. Much to my delight one of the first birds we saw was a Rufous-winged Buzzard sitting in a tree - a very smart raptor and my first of many lifers. Having been to Nepal in 2019, and China and Myanmar on previous trips, I was wondering how many lifers I would see, as I expected there to be quite a bit of overlap of species with these other locations. The first area in the college grounds comprised an area of cultivation plots where careful scanning soon gave us a good start to the trip list, with White-throated Kingfisher, Chinese Pond Heron, Eastern Cattle Egret, Red Collared Dove, Green Bee-eater, White-breasted Waterhen, Hoopoe, Stejneger's Stonechat, Black-collared Starling and along a track, a couple of Ruddy-breasted Crakes showed briefly, and several other species were also logged.
We then moved to a more sheltered area out of the hot sun, and walked along a road in the shade of some trees. The best bird along here was an Asian Barred Owlet whose presence was given away by scolding Bulbuls - Streak-eared and Sooty-headed - and a Racket-tailed Treepie also appeared to join in the fun. Other birds we picked up here included Lineated Barbet, Black- and Ashy Drongos, Oriental Magpie-robin, Yellow-browed Warbler, Rufescent Prinia and Ashy Woodswallows.
The day was marching on so we headed to another area where there were a couple of largish lagoons where we could spend the rest of the daylight looking for other species. One of the lagoons is shown in the header image above. The area here proved quite productive and we soon had good views of Striated Swallows swooping down to feed over the water, together with Himalayan Swiftlet, Asian Palm Swift, House Swift and Germain's Swiftlet. More static species were Brown Shrike, Black-collared Starling/Mynah, Hoopoe, Golden-headed Cisticola, Pied Bushchat, and the diminutive Scaly-breasted Munia. We were also luck y to get on to an Indochinese Bushlark although it wasn't close enough for decent photographs. A White-breasted Waterhen (a very common species), skulked around the edges of the lagoon, and Spotted Doves and Large-billed Crows flew around, and Red-wattled Lapwings crept around in the grassy areas. Eventually at dusk we drove out of the grounds, noting a Black-crowned Night-heron standing on a pontoon, just before we exited.
After the two flights and a decent half a day birding we were pretty whacked, so after dinner at a nearby restaurant we headed back to the hotel for a well-earned sleep. I didn't take any bird images so there's just a selection of views below. Most of the birds were too distant or flighty to get decent images.