Lampakbia and Kaengkrachan 16-17/2/09


I have done many short trips to Lampakbia and Kaengkrachan National Park of late.
The shorebirds at Lampakbia are bountiful and produce an amazing variety of rare species. After a day at the saltpans and open area birding, a visit to the tropical forest brings on an amazing array of colorful and vivid birds.

Here is a sample of such a trip.


I picked up Sally and Roger Whymark (British) at their hotel near Khao San road at 5 am. Drove directly to the Royal Mangrove project at Lampakbia, Petburi.
This area has a lot of larger birds as well as waders, crakes, kingfishers and small passerines.
The project does not use pesticides so there are lots of insects as well as fish for birds to feed off in the many fish ponds.

Black-crowned Night Heron
Pond Herons
Little Cormorant
Indian Cormorant
Ruddy-breasted Crake
White-breasted Waterhen
Common Moorhen
Common Kingfisher
Collared Kingfisher
White-throated Kingfisher
Black-capped Kingfisher
Greater Cocual
Red-wattled Lapwing
Spotted Redshank
Wood Sandpiper
Marsh Sandpiper
Common Sandpiper
Black-winged Stilt
Long-toed Stint
Pin-tailed Snipe
Common Snipe
Little Ringed Plover
Golden-bellied Gerygone
Black-browed Warbler
Oriental Reed Warbler
Black Drongo
White-vented Myna
Asian Pied Starling
Whiskered Tern
Little Egret
Great Egret
Paddyfield Pipit
Yellow Wagtail
Pied Fantail
Asian Koel

We only stayed in the project for 45 minutes as we wanted to go and look for Spoon-billed Sandpiper.
The Sandpiper is regularly encountered at Bahnbahktaley, some 15 minutes drive up the road. After a bit of search we had one in the scope. The birds are in the area but keep changing pans as the farmers work their ponds and water levels keep changing. Many other birds were seen as well.

Red-necked Stint
Sanderling
Broad-billed Sandpiper
Kentish Plover
Lesser Sand Plover
Greater Sand Plover
Asian Pacific Plover
Black-tailed Godwits
Curlew Sandpiper
Gull-billed Tern
Little Tern
Common Tern
Caspian Tern
Germain’s Swiftlet
Dunlin
Ruddy Turnstone

These were new additions to our list.

Then back towards Lampakbia and a quick scan through a large mixed flock of waders.
Here we saw many Great Knots and 22 Nordmann’s Greenshanks. New species.

Great Knot
Red Knot
Grey Plover
Nordmann’s Greenshank

We had a boat waiting for us at 10 am. One have to get out on the sandspit at high tide, just before the tide starts going down. Why? Lots of people come out and collect sea creatures as the waters recede. This makes it harder to spot the rare White-faced Plover whom is best found at the spit.

Boat ride takes about 25 minutes. Immediately we had a Chinese Egret in the scope.
Out search for White-faced Plover turned negative so we got in the boat and went to the next islet. Even here it was hard to find what we wanted though we did get to see a pair of Malaysian Plovers.
The shell collecting folks had now come all the way out where we were so we decided to go back to where we first started. Here we now found a single 1st year White-faced Plover in breeding plumage. Lovely little bird it is!

We then took the boat to check out some terns further out. At least 200 Little Terns was a
real spectacle.

White-faced Plover
Greater Crested Tern
Lesser Crested Tern
Chinese Egret
Brahimy Kite
Whimbrel

Boatman Daeng’s wife had prepared a lovely lunch for us after the journey. She is very accommodating and shows great appreciation to visiting birders.
I was able to leave Daeng with a pair of binoculars as his old pair had stopped working.
This simple fisherman is quickly learning about the birds and is of great help providing reliable service to visiting birders.



After that the car headed West towards Kaengkrachan. We did manage to pick up a Greater Spotted Eagle, Hoopoe, Blue-tailed Bee-eater and Plain-backed Sparrow at a field. Once in the vicinity of BahnMaka resort we went to sit in a blind (hide) set up by locals. The forest is very dry at this time of year and birds kept coming for a drink of water. It was fascinating to see how these birds would approach the waterhole always ‘on guard’. A lovely Racket Treepie was first to show up. A flock of White-crested Laughingthrushes came by. A male Grey-headed Woodpecker was a wonderful sight to behold. Surprisingly, a Green Magpie also came for a drink. An hour in the blind produced 7 species. A Lesser Mouse Deer was special, secretive animal as it is.

Laced Woodpecker
White-crested Laughingthrush
Green Magpie
Racket-tailed Treepie
Brown-cheeked Fulvetta
Strek-eared Bulbul
Stripe-throated Bulbul

BahnMaka resort was as nice as always. Good and generous plates of food with cold beer awaited us. A day tally of 95 birds were accounted for.

Morning came and off we went. A fruiting tree had a flock of Pied Hornbills. We may have been a bit too early as there were no other species in the tree.
Morning was spent birding around Bahnkrahng which also features a new nature trail.
Many good birds were seen in pleasant morning temperatures.

Silver-breasted Broadbill
White-browed Scimitar Babbler
Banded Broadbill
Verditer Flycatcher
Great Slaty Woodpecker
Blue-winged Leafbird
Heart-spotted Woodpecker
Taiga Flycatcher
Sultan’s Tit
Asian Brown Flycatcher
Asian Fairy Bluebird
Junglefowl
Green-eared Barbet
Blue-eared Barbet
Coppersmith Barbet
Black-crested Bulbul
Green-billed Malkoha
Crested Jay
Abbott’s Babbler
Puff-throated Babbler
Striped Tit Babbler
Radde’s Warbler
Pale-legged Leaf Warbler
Yellow-browed Warbler
Two-barred Warbler
White-rumped Shama
Olive-backed Sunbird
Bronzed Drongo
Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo
Ashy Drongo
Spangled Drongo
Black-winged Cuckoo Shrike

We decided to leave the park mid day as it was getting very hot. Instead of heading back to Bangkok we headed to Bahn Song Nok Resort, very close to Bahn Maka.
This place is not really a resort though there are 2 bungalows available. The owner is a lady with a keen interest for birds and she has set up a blind and 3 waterholes for birds in the dry season. We had an amazing array of species in front of us. 20 species all in all in no less then an hour 45 minutes time. Best of all was a pair of Kalij Pheasants feeding for about half an hour. These are considered Silver Pheasants by some and Kalij by others.
Never the less, they are magnificent birds to behold.

Streak-eared Bulbul , common
Scaly-breasted Partridges, regular
Stripe-throated Bulbul, regular
Junglefowl, 10 birds towards the end
Black-crested Bulbul, regular
Siberian Blue Robin, once only
Black-headed Bulbul, one only
Bronzed Drongo, once only
Soothy-headed Bulbul, regular
White-bellied Yuhinna, once only
Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush, common
Brown-cheeked Fulvetta, once only
Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush, common
Spotted Dove, common
White-rumped Shama, now and then
Green-eared Barbet, once only
Green Magpie, one only
Black-naped Monarch, a pair
Asian Brown Flycatcher, once only
Tickell's Flycatcher, regular


On the way back we picked up Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Ashy Wood Swallow and Vinous-breasted Starlings perched on wires.

All in all 166 species was a pretty good account though some common birds went missing.

Peter

PS. If you need help in the field let me know.