Doi Angkang: 12-14 Aug 2010 I

So here's the full trip report for my visit to Doi Angkang during 12-14 August 2010. Alhough the weather was pretty much awful during the week before the trip, we occasionally had good periods of sunlight throughout the trip. We started off as we left Chiang Mai in the afternoon of the 12th and arrived safely at Doi Angkang around 4pm. We made the first stop at the viewpoint near the military base and saw a nice scenery of Fang town with a faint rainbow.

(From left to right) 1. Doi Luang Chiang Dao from the Chiang Dao city bypass 2. Birding in the pouring rain at Doi Angkang 3-4. Several pairs of Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-Babbler (Pomatorhinus erythrogenys) were found along the way especially around Ban Luang village.

We stayed the night in a small A-Frame house in Ang Kang health station's area. The next morning we found a flock of about 6 Striated Swallows (Hirundo striolata) perching on electrical wires in front of the station. We later found many these throughout the trip. Other birds that were seen around the station include Red-whiskered Bulbuls, Sooty-headed Bulbuls, Oriental Magpie-Robins and Spotted Doves.

We then moved to Ban Luang area for birding and luckily came across this young Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) perching on the roadside. The bird has reddish underparts with black cheeks indicating that it's a subspecies F.p.peregrinator. The bird later flew out and caught a couple of high flying butterflies, presumably Birdwing species (Troides spp.), but constantly dropped them off while eating in midair.

On the roadside near Ban Luang village, there was a fruiting tree which attracted many different species of birds, mainly bulbuls and this Dark-backed Sibia (Heterophasia melanoleuca). The bird has a remarkable thrilling call which can be heard easily throughout Doi Angkang. Other birds that came to feed were Crested Finchbill, Flavescent Bulbul, Sooty-headed Bulbul and Silver-eared(Chestnut-crowned) Laughingthrush.

We went for lunch at a small restaurant in Nor Lae village, which is pretty well known among birders in Chiang Mai. The restaurant's called Tama-Taté. After lunch, we did a small walk around an orchard inside the military camp nearby and found many small birds including the above 2 species of sunbirds. The bird in the big picture is an eclipse male Olive-backed Sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis), while the other in the two smaller pics below is an eclipse male Purple Sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus). Though looking almost identical in eclipse plumage, you can see that the Olive-backed Sunbird has much yellower underparts, while the Purple's is dull greyish. The second pic of the bird also shows purplish-blue glossy feathers on its rump and tail indicating that it's a Purple not Olive-backed Sunbird.

Later we were chased by the rain and finally ended up chilling at the luxurious Royal Project's restaurant. From the restaurant, we saw many Red-whiskered Bulbuls which were posted earlier in this entry. Not only there were bulbuls, this beautiful male Black-throated Sunbird (Aethopyga saturata) was also flicking around as well. Unfortunately, due to very low light thus low speed shutter and the rapid movement of the bird, the above shot was the only shot that is acceptable.

Small Birds

This post is going to be the last one for this week since I'm going to Doi Angkang tomorrow morning and will be back on Sunday. Yesterday as I was walking around in my garden, I heard a loud voice of the Olive-backed Sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis), a usual visitor of my house, calling from a tree nearby. I later found a male perching in a bael tree singing his sweet metallic song. It is a very small bird with long curved beak adapted for nectar sucking. The name sunbird comes from the male bird's glossy feathers. For the Olive-backed Sunbird, male bird has bluish-glossed feathers on its throat and upper breast with maroon breast band and bright yellow belly. Female has glossy black throat replaced by plain yellow feathers. It is one of the few sunbirds in Thailand that can be found in gardens and cities.

Olive-backed Sunbird

Another small bird for this post is the Common Tailorbird (Orthotomus sutorius), a member of warbler family, which can be commonly seen in parks and gardens. Male bird has elongated central pair of tail feathers during this season of the year, but unfortunately I could only photographed the female, which has much a shorter tail. This bird also has loud high-pitched voice which can be recognised easily. Although very common, it is truly a difficult target to photograph.

Chumphon Trip

This was from March 2008, before I came to Japan. Me and my family, we went on a trip before I said goodbye to my motherland. Chumphon is a province located on the east side of Thai peninsula. It is famous for its beautiful beaches and islands, and is also one of the best places to watch migrating raptors! We stayed at our favorite resort, the 'Chumphon Cabana', which located in the area of Thung Wua Lan beach, one of the most famous beaches in Chumphon. Though this doesn't sound like there's gonna be any good birds, but actually it does. I have seen Malaysian Plover (Charadrius peronii), an uncommon resident plover of southern Thailand, almost everytime I come here. And of course, this time with the DSLR, I could finally get some nice shots of them! :))

This time I luckily came across with some interesting species within the small area of the resort's garden. I found that lots of small birds came to bath at a small stream beneath the dark shades along the path to the buildings. The most interesting one was the Olive-winged Bulbul (Pycnonotus plumosus) which is quite an uncommon species of southern Thailand. I didn't expect to see this species here, since I didn't know that they also come up to the northern part of the peninsula, so I was happily surprised. Other species included a Lineated Barbet (Megalaima lineata) that came to eat palm fruits, Olive-backed and Brown-throated Sunbirds, Stripe-throated Bulbul, surprisingly common, Streak-eared and Sooty-headed Bulbul, Vinous-breasted Starling (Acridotheres burmannicus leucocephalus), Common Myna, an Oriental Magpie-Robin family, Zabra and Spotted Doves and a Greater Coucal.

A male Olive-backed Sunbird taking bath on waterdrops left on the leaves

A Common Myna

An Olive-winged Bulbul's twin, the Streak-eared Bulbul

A juvenile male Oriental Magpie-Robin

A usually shy Lineated Barbet

The other day we went out in the sea to go snorkeling. Though it was not my first time, but the underwater world still seemed to surprise me all the time. I spent like 5 minutes just floating still in the water watching the Anemonefish, I'm soo in love with them! Not to mention other extremely colorful and sometimes, strange, species which are all looked alien to me, since I do not know any specific name for them, I was so enjoyed with the trip. When we got on the boat, I caught some birds along the way back. Pacific Reef-Egret (Egretta sacra) was so common, all in dark phase. An adult Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) subspecies japonensis also seen flying by. The next day we left Chumphon, then headed back to Bangkok. And that was my last time seeing my family before going to Japan in that Spring of 2008.

A dark morph Pacific Reef-Egret