Bang Ban Ayutaya

 Pieds...

A trip out with Jasmin yesterday to find Pied Kingfishers turned out pretty successful... Along with spotting 10+ Pieds we also saw quite a few Black Shouldered Kites, Grey Herons, a Brahminy Kite ,an Oriental Honey Buzzard, Stonechats, Drongoes and Malkohas. It was a great day out for her and her photography is improving all the time whereas mine seems to be getting worse.......

My first Pied

And another.... (how many hooks did that fisherman need??)

Not bad for a nine year old!!

Khao Yoi...Cha-Am..Khao Yoi

Khao Yoi

With the school hols here again a trip out to please all was needed. So on Monday a drive down to Kao Yoi with some pointers from Gerry Brett produced some nice pics.. Got a bit lost at first but soon found most of the recommended places to check out. We were really surprised with the amount of kingfishers , Collared, Black Capped and White Throated seemed to be around every turn we took. But no Stork Billed..Plenty of Green and Blue Tailed Bee-Eaters and Raptors everywhere too. Not really sure where we were but some nice Purple Herons and Painted Storks were about in the ponds. Think my highlight of the morning had to be the Brahminy Kite right above me....

Black Kite

Brahminy Kite

Black Shouldered Kite

Green Bee-Eater

Purple Heron

Painted stork

Cha-Am

 

Well we arrived after a six hour drive (usually takes one and half), checked into the usual place ...Bom and Dia's Field and First.. I would recommend this place to any one, especially those with a family... nice rooms , clean , swimming pool, WIFI and cheap (700bt). The staff are really helpful and friendly but sadly no food, but that doesn't bother me !! Jas loved the pool as usual and the afternoon and evening turned up a few more pics for me ... An Asian Paradise Flycatcher spend most of the afternoon outside my room but I still didn't seem to get a pic I was happy with... Think the wife got better ones!!!! In the evenings there were plenty of other weird creatures about (discounting the Beach Road!!).. Tuesday at the Kings Palace gardens were  weird fish and crabs to be seen!!!!

Fun Time!!!!

Asian Paradise Flycatcher

Slimy

Stick!!

Weird

Weirder!!!!

Orange Crab

Blue Crab

Pink Crab

 Khao Yoi Again !!

Wednesday morning....... Bucketing down with rain..  Was hoping to drive home via Huay Mai Teng Reservoir in Ratchaburi to hopefully get a Pied KF. Opted to take the trip back through the fields to Rama 2. Plenty of rain but still plenty of kingfishers everywhere... Collared , Common, Black Capped and two Stork Bills although they looked pretty shabby in the rain.. Managed to get one shot of a distant Grey Heron and a few terns (of which I am unsure of) before reaching Rama 2 and off home.... Oh and one lucky shot of FIVE in a bush  (what's that saying??)...Ayuattaya tomorrow...still got to get the Pied!!!!!!!!

Black Capped Kingfisher

Collared Kingfisher

Stork Billed Kingfisher

Common Kingfisher

Common Tern

Unsure Tern

Grey Heron

LUCKY!!!!!!!

 Thanks again to Gerry!!!!!!!!!!

Kingfisher Lane

Another little jaunt out today produced great king action.... Just a few kms from home turned up Common, White Throated , Black Capped and finally Stork Billed Kingfishers all inside an hour!!!!! Not much more I can say..... Plus one Pied Harrier ..but the shot a bit too distant. Well... I'm happy!!!

Local

Not having much time to get out recently, I just had a little drive around the lanes the other day. Migration is upon us again... Plenty of Blue Tailed Bee Eaters and Kingfishers about.. Not seeing any Raptors around here. A 40 minute drive along my favourite little canal yesterday  turned up 8 different Common Kingfishers, a single Black Capped and a single White Throated,  loads of Brown Shrikes,  Pond Herons and a few Brown Throated Sunbirds. Going to check it out again this afternoon, Still looking for my first Stork Bill of the year (Help!!!!)  Holidays begin soon so hoping to get up to Mae Wong, so any advise on the place would be appreciated.....

The Tale of Two Pittas (KK Revisited)

Well, I had been seeing so many Blue and Hooded Pittas posted on Facebook forums in the last couple of weeks, I really had to get some snaps myself.. Chatting to a few old (and some new) friends I got good pointers on the location of both birds.. I must admit I was pretty put off by the fact people were waiting 7 or 8 hours to get a shot!!!!  Let me explain, As much as I like birds and photography, there ain't no way on this planet I'm waiting more than an hour for a picture...  8hours!!!! that seriously eats into beer time.....  So we arrived at about 10 after leaving Jas over at a friends house (cheers Leon) to find the park full... And I mean FULL !!  birders, photographers,families and even cyclists. First point was to be the Blue Pitta, but no chance there.. There were 9 hides in that little clearing !!! So up to km18 for the Hooded. When we got there, there were 4 or 5 hides and one of the guys said the Pitta hadn't shown all morning!!  I'm  thinking 8 hrs.....no way!!... We must have set up the gear and sat for no more than ten minutes when out of the undergrowth hopped the little green Pitta to the whispered calls of "ma laew - ma laew"... Well, we got some great shots and were just about to leave when he came back for more! A real result , 2 showings in 20 - 25 mins... got the pics and back in the truck..

Hooded Pitta

Hooded Pitta

Hooded Pitta

Hooded Pitta

 The Blue

 After getting the Hooded, we looked back at the site of the Blue.. Still Packed!!  So back to Bang Krang to pitch the tent and a spot of lunch.. I think It was about 2 pm when we arrived back at the Blue site, sadly to find it still full of the same people..Seriously, I'm not knocking anyone, but guys, How many shots do you need????? I could see one had left so I thought I have to crash the scene... Again no more than 20 mins

had passed before the first Blue hopped into view... Got my shots, moved the hide a little to the left and waited for the next show.. Within 15 mins I was back in the truck again looking for the wife who had wandered off in search of the Black Backed Kingfisher... She had seen it, so we set up the hide for a while, but sadly no show.

Blue Pitta

Blue Pitta

Blue Pitta

Blue Pitta

 Well, with mission complete it was back to the tent, only to find it surrounded by 3 or 4 families that had all pitched together...  A  quick look at the time... hmmmm 3;10    Quick smart the tent was down, truck packed, coffee downed, doors slammed and off home.... Kinda reminded of the last scene from "Snatch"....
We saw the Asian Golden Jackals on the way back down too ...The only problem was they were going in the same direction as us!!

Asian Golden Jackal

Back home by 7.. an Indian, a few beers and off to kip..........A great day all round

Kaeng Krachan for the last time???

Last week's trip down to KK could well be our last for this year... Back to work next week and no more holidays til October, when the park is closed anyway. So maybe the odd weekend if it's possible to pick one that's not busy!!!  Well the trip as always was a welcome getaway and I got some of my best pics to date.

Day 1.  It was nice to see the Scop's Owls back at their roost ( Did they ever really leave it? ) but the Banded Broadbills nesting on the camp entrance road seemed super shy this time,only putting in a few appearances the whole day!! ( a friend informed me he had waited 4 hours the previous week with no results!!). A least they should be feeding chicks pretty soon. The Orange Breasted Trogon on the nest between stream 2 - 3 seemed largely un-bothered by the many photographers she is attracting, so some nice shots there.

Orange Breasted Trogon

Orange Breasted Trogon

 Day 2. The usual trip up to Panoen Tung seemed very quiet with not a lot showing. At the top view point a pair of Grey Treepies are just beginning to make a nest. Back down in the afternoon Silver Breasted and Black and Red Broadbills were about in abundance. Walking around for the rest of the day turned up Green Eared Barbets, Blue Bearded Bee-Eaters and a Blue Winged Pitta at the back of the campsite.

Grey Treepie

Silver Breasted Broadbill

Black and Red Broadbill

  
 Day 3. Down to the stream for the Black Backed Kingfisher and Blue Bearded Bee-Eater this morning . Some nice shots of the Kingfisher were got but the Bee Eater wasn't playing ball...
 

Blue Backed Kingfisher

Blue Backed Kingfisher