Keang Krachan with Ramesh & Chalinda 2-3 March 2018

Another trip with Ramesh and his good friend Chalinda to Kaeng Krachan was on the books for the weekend.  We met up at Samarn Birdcamp at 6am on the Saturday morning and headed straight into the park. I opted to begin our morning along the access road at around the 8-9km mark. The first bird of the morning was a Common Flameback Woodpecker which is always a good omen for Ramesh. He has always told me, seeing a woodpecker as his first bird is his sign of great things to come….

We immediately latched on to great sightings of a male Banded Kingfisher along with a Black-Thighed Falconet. A little further along the road an Asian Emerald, Violet and Drongo-Cuckoo all showed well in the same tree.

Banded Kingfisher

Fork-tailed Drongo Cuckoo

Great Slaty Woodpecker

Before reaching Bang Kran campsite we had already notched up a great number of birds including 5 lifers for Ramesh. As it was Chalinda’s first birding trip to Thailand, many more were lifers for him. Other highlights along the road included Black and Red Broadbills, Black and Yellow Broadbills, Banded Broadbills, Great-Slaty Woodpeckers, Asian-Fairy Bluebird, Black-Capped Kingfisher and the majestic Great Hornbill amongst many others.

Great Hornbill.

After lunch we headed up to Panoen Thung where Long-tailed Broadbills were busy constructing their nests. At the top at the ranger station and viewpoint, things were pretty quiet given the amount of traffic as it was a weekend..   

Sunday morning we headed back into the park for a few hours and managed to notch up a fair few more birds, including; Velvet-Fronted Nuthatch, Ashy & Swinhoes Minivets, Tickell’s Brown Hornbill, Black-Naped Monarchs, Rufous-fronted Babblers and Silver-Breasted Broadbills.

Black-Naped Monarch

Silver-Breasted Broadbill

On the way out of the park one last great sighting was a Grey-Faced Buzzard perched on a post as a Crested-Serpent Eagle soared overhead

Grey-Faced Buzzard

As always a great couple of days birding with great friends, Ramesh and Shalinda… Two great guys I wish to bird with again sometime soon..