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| Hooded Pitta |
Our last
visit to Auntie Aek's Baan Song Nok was December before Christmas. It was a relaxing and enjoyable trip so it was an easy decision to go again with Thai Airways offer of $248 return fare to Bangkok. As Kaeng Krachan National Park closes from Aug to Oct for the raining season, we needed to go by end July. A call to Baan Song Nok’s Auntie Aek (Tel. 086 048 6330,
Facebook) confirmed they could accommodate us. We e-mailed Thai Happy Taxi (
thaihappytaxi@gmail.com) to arrange our transport (B4,700 return fare). They will pick us at Suvarnabhumi (3 hour's drive) to Kaeng Krachan and bring us from Baan Sok Nok’s 4 days later to the airport.
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| Black-headed Bulbul |
Our flight on Sunday 27th July was delayed but Thai Happy Taxi's driver was waiting when we walked out of the arrival hall. We bought a Thai SIM card (but signals were poor at Kaeng Krachan) and got into a nice MPV. The driver stopped an hour at one of the highway fuel stops for us to have our lunch at Black Canyon Coffee. When we arrived at Baan Song Nok, Auntie Aek and her daughter “X” welcomed us back. There was activity in their garden as they were in the midst of adding another unit at the former camping ground. We learned later that the workers were from Bangkok and during the 4 days of our stay there was minimal disturbance and this time we met Auntie's husband who supervised the work and he told us he will return to Bangkok in a few days time when the main structure is completed then to come again when the raining season ends to finish the inside of the building.
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| Orange-bellied Flowerpecker |
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| Greater Necklaced Laughingthrush |
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| Pied Fantail |
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| Green-eared Barbet |
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| Puff-throated Babbler |
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| Red-legged Crake |
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| Hill Blue Flycatcher |
We spent the afternoon and the next day at their hide and the usual suspects were there, Auntie showed us her calendar recording the visit of the Green Magpie just the day before and we hoped to see it during our 4 days stay, but it did not show.
We arranged for Mr Biak, the bird guide who had guided us previously for a day to the KK National Park
http://www.westernforest.org/en/areas/kaeng_krachan.htm but he was busy so another guide was recommended.
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| Lesser Necklaced Thrush |
Mr Pia came at 6 am on Tuesday 29th and we went straight to
Panoen Thun Peak. Arriving at 7.15 am it was very misty and it started to rain. We took shelter at the canteen and met Neil and his granddaughter who had camped in a tent the night before and were waiting for the time to go down the mountain. The mist got thicker and at the back of the kitchen Mr Pia alerted us to a Yellow-throated Marten scavenging for food. Whenever the rain stopped we walked around but it was short-lived as the drizzle returned.
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| Tickell's blue flycatcher-Juv |
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| Brown-cheeked Fulvetta |
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| Golden-fronted Leafbird |
Late morning we drove down to Bang Krang the lower camp site and tried to bird around the trees. It was quiet so we had some lunch and drove down. At the 1st stream area we saw 3 vehicles parked. Enquiring from one of the photographers who was in one of the cars, we learned people were near the stream taking photographs of the Hooded Pitta and Black-backed Kingfisher.
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| Large Scimitar Babbler |
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| Scaly-breasted Partridge |
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| Scaly-breasted Munia |
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| Kalij Pheasant-F |
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| Kalij Pheasant |
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| Red Junglefowl-F |
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| Crested Goshawk |
We joined them and were able to get some good shots. We left the group and continued to bird as we drove down. Although the trip up the mountain was dampened by the weather we had some good photos of the Hooded Pitta.
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