THAILAND Dec 1978/Jan 1979: the North

25 December.  We stopped at Lumphun, a little way to the south of Chang Mai, at 02:00 feeling really shattered (and I’d not done any driving – something I’d yet to learn to do).  We crashed out straight away but were up before dawn to put up a mist net, soon catching a Thick-billed Warbler and female Siberian Rubythroat.  We packed up and continued into Chang Mai, arriving at 10:00.  Here we visited the Tourist and Post Offices before driving up to Doi Suthep.  Here we met the Australian Birders we’d seen in Bangkok although they didn’t seem to have seen an awful lot.  We found a useful looking trail behind the temple and met an expat American Birder along it who had a tape recorder and played us some interesting calls.  He’d also seen a Red-headed Trogon that morning, very gripping.  I saw two more new phylloscopus warblers and a Grey Bushchat which were good but completely outshone by a superb Chestnut-fronted Shrike-Babbler.  We returned to Chang Mai at dusk to eat and write up notes before camping in a grim area south of Chang Mai.

Siberian Rubythroat south of Chang Mai

Thick-billed Warbler

Doi Suthep Temple

entrance steps

all very ornate

looking back down on Chang Mai

26 December.  I saw a couple of Dusky Warblers from the tent at dawn and then we headed straight up towards Doi Pui, rather anxious as to whether we’d get past the King’s Palace as there had been loads of soldiers there the previous day.  We made it past the palace and got to what we thought was the summit.  Here we decided to split up with Andrew and I working our way slowly down a ridge where we saw Long-tailed Broadbill, Grey-headed Parrotbill and, as we were returning to the road, an amazing Spotted Babbler – our best birding of the trip so far.  On the road a Landrover with six soldiers stopped by us somewhat suspiciously.  Fortunately one spoke English as Peter had the Thai cards that Dr Boonsong had written for us.  After looking at our passports, Boonsong’s Bird Guide of Thailand, and asking a few questions they drove off, telling us that the summit of Doi Pui was actually another 6-7 kms further on.  We returned to the car, ready to continue to the top when the others returned, to find an armed guard sitting on it.  He did not speak English or understand when I tried to explain that his captain had given us the OK.  Peter and Steve returned, having seen a White’s Thrush – very gripping indeed, then a pickup full of police.  They made insistent gestures that we turned around and go back.  We argues for 15 minutes saying we’d come all the way from England to visit Doi Pui to no effect.  Dr Boonsong’s cards cut no ice here either.  We reluctantly turned around when they started making shooting gestures.  We drove a mile back down the track to an open picnic area, a god viewpoint, to await further developments.  The police left and after 30 minutes the army returned.  As they’d been more positive towards us we spoke to them again and were told that it was OK for us to continue but to beware of bandits.  Also the army was doing a survey of the area for about 3-4 days, although I wasn’t sure that ‘survey’ was the word he was looking for?  With this consent to continue we wasted no time driving to the top, not least before the army changed their mind or the police returned.  We spent the rest of the day there hearing occasional distant explosions and not so occasional, not too distant shots.  I hoped survey meant training exercise rather than bandit clearance.  We saw Spot-winged Grosbeak towards dusk but otherwise the summit area was a little disappointing.  We returned to Chang Mai after dark and decided to hear further north for a few days in the hope that the army would have finished their ‘survey’ by the time we returned.  We drove up to Ban Dan Kaeo, just north of Chang Mai, where we camped.

 

Doi Pui

view to NE

leaf insect somewhat staged on a similarly coloured leaf

me on Doi Pui

Doi Pui sunset

27 December.  We spent 3-4 hours at in mainly open scrub at Ban Dan Kaeo seeing Painted Snipe, Siberian Rubythroats and at least 3 Lanceolated Warblers.  By then it was getting quite hot and we continued north towards Tha Thon with a few unproductive roadside stops.  The last two hours of daylight were spent in a large area of marsh and paddyfields about a mile south of the town.  Here we saw Rufous Turtle Dove, buntings, an amazing sunset and, after 45 minutes of crashing around after dark, torchlight views of Collared Scops Owl.  We slept on site.

Doi Chang Dao from the road north to Fang, an interesting looking area that we knew nothing about or even if it was possible to get up there

poor shot of Indian Roller

even worse of Chestnut-backed Shrike

Taffon paddyfileds at dusk

Taffon sunset

28 December.  We were up at dawn and split up to more fully cover the paddyfields where we spent most of the morning.  It was a bit like crop bashing on an amazing Fair Isle and I saw Citrine Wagtail, Red-throated and 3 Richard’s Pipits, Lanceolated and 7 Dusky Warblers and 5 Little, 10 Crested and 40 Yellow-breasted Buntings.  Andrew also saw a Chestnut Bunting although didn’t see the Blossom-headed Parakeets the rest of us did.  We drove south stopping in various patches of roadside woodland where we saw Grey-headed Parakeet, Large Cuckoo-Shrike and Black-hooded Oriole.  North of Chang Mai we saw a sign to Mae Sa Waterfalls and diverted to spend the last couple of hours of daylight there.  This turned out to be an excellent move as although I only saw 8 species they included three species of Forktails, Plumbeous Redstart, River Chat and Blue Whistling Thrush – all new.  We ate in Chang Mai and drove up to the summit at Doi Pui where we camped.  Thankfully the army and police seemed to have moved on.

Taffon paddyfields

Mae Sa Waterfalls

Peter and Steve watching forktails

Black-backed Forktail

29 December.  We were up at dawn wandering around the summit at Doi Pui but with no success until Peter and Steve saw another White’s Thrush.  Andrew and I were most gripped and headed down after it, spending a couple of hours crashing through impenetrable unworkable habitat and nearly being charged by a large unseen beast.  Dejectedly we walked back up to the summit and flushed a/the White’s Thrush on the way!  Amazing.  I sat down by the plantation to wait for the others and had a brief view of what I thought was a male Red-flanked Bluetail but despite spending the rest of the day in the area we failed to get further views of either it or the thrush.  We returned to Chang Mai at dusk and to Ban Dan Kaeo to camp after we’d had a meal.

 

Fire-breasted Flowerpecker

30 December.  We woke at Ban Dan Kaeo at dawn to find we were surrounded by most of the villagers who were looking on with amazement as we packed up the tents.  We had a friendly chat with the local policeman telling him of the birds we had seen although this probably further convinced him that we were mad foreigners.  We saw little around the campsite and headed back up to Doi Poi to give the bluetail another try.  It failed to show causing a bit of self doubt to creep – had my views really ruled out a niltava?  We drove back down to Doi Suthep and spent an hour at the temple which was most impressive, if somewhat busy.  We finished the day walking down the trail which we had to ourselves.  Here I saw 8 new birds including Greater and Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrushes, Red-billed Scimitar Babbler, White-hooded Shrike-Babbler and Small Minivet.  Again we returned to Chang Mai to eat and then drove to Doi Inthanon.

Moon hand, spider and prey

31 December.  We reached the top of Doi Inthanon thanks to Dr Boonsong’s cards which helped us get past three checkposts on the way.  Habitat was patchy with much of the forest cleared in places.  Peter found an Ashy-throated Leaf Warbler around the edge of the summit marsh and caused some excitement - I actually stayed ahead of Andrew racing along the boardwalk to get there although it had disappeared when we got to Pete.  Fortunately it or another reappeared 20 minutes later giving excellent views and I went on to see 8 around the summit as well as Brown-throated Treecreeper and Green-tailed Sunbird.  We took all day driving back down the road stopping regularly and saw Red-headed Trogon,  White-browed Shortwing and Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush although I missed a Maroon Oriole.  Peter and Steve dropped Andrew and myself off at our ‘hotel’ outside the park, an apparently disused Banana planters hut, while they drove back into Chang Mai to celebrate the New Year.

 

view from Doi Inthanon 

 

1 January.  Peter and Steve returned at dawn just as Andrew and I were getting up, having had little or no sleep between them.  Black-collared Starling was the first bird of the year.  Andrew drove us back up the mountain where we spent the day at different altitudes.  Peter and Steve crashed out and missed our first sortie which produced an immature Red-flanked Bluetail (no issues at all with this one) and a Black-breasted Thrush feeding on the ground along a quiet forested track although the day's highlight was an amazing Chestnut-crowned Warbler.  A very enjoyable day.  We returned to our ‘hotel’ after a not particularly informative talk with one of the wardens  - he did not know where we could go to see Brown Dipper.

Inthanon Hotel

2 January.  Our third and unfortunately final day on Doi Inthanon and I still saw 11 new birds.  This rather suggested there was a lot more to see here and that we were moving on too soon.  My new birds included two I’d previously missed – a male Chestnut Bunting which we saw around some paddyfields half way up and a small party of Red-headed Laughingthrushes from the summit car park.  Vivid and Large Niltavas were most impressive as were 2 more Chestnut-crowned Warblers.  On the way back down we checked some low scrub hoping to find wintering Radde’s Warbler but with no success.  We drove back to Chaing Mai at dusk and after eating returned to Ban Dan Kaeo to kip.

3 January.  We spent the whole day on Doi Suthep.  We parked at the waterfall near the bottom and, after a wait of 30 seconds, caught a taxi up to the temple.  We walked quickly to the reserve and then slowly down the trail taking arbitrary decisions as to which way to go when faced with a choice.  Amazingly we hit the main road at the car.  I saw 7 new birds which was a bit disappointing as there were a lot of others we could have seen.  I was learning that forest birding in the tropics takes time.  However they did include a Radde’s Warbler at the top of the trail and a mind blowing view of a Mountain Hawk Eagle perched in the forest and being mobbed by Green Magpies and drongos before flying off.  Despite us being together I was the only one to see this spectacle – it must have happened much quicker than I remembered and my directions must have been pretty poor for none of the others to get onto it.  We all saw 2 immaculate Sulphur-breasted Warblers on the trail down and I had untickable views of a female Red Jungle Fowl (my initials bird), a species all the others had seen earlier in the trip.  We finished the day below the temple seeing little except Emerald Doves.

4 January.  A disappointing day.  We tried to take a road northwest of Chang Mai to Pi which Dr Boonsong had told us could be very good but we were not sure if we were in the right area or even on the right road and could not find any decent habitat.  My few photos from this day along with several others I recall having from the trip seem to have been lost or inadvertently thrown away.  In hindsight an attempt to get up Doi Chang Dao would have been more productive.  Plain Flowerpecker was my only new bird although I was pleased to see Oriental Hobby, Orange-bellied Leafbird and Ashy Drongo again.  We gave up after a few hours and, uncertain what to do, ended up at Mae Sa where we spent twice as long as on our previous visit seeing the same (or fewer in my case) species.  I saw my second Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher, another male.  We drove south overnight to Boraphet Reservoir.  Arriving in the early hours we camped by a road and were somewhat surprised how many people were about at 3 am!