Doi Angkang: 12-14 Aug 2010 II

The real highlight of the second day came when a large flock of more than 20 Long-tailed Broadbills (Psarisomus dalhousiae) appeared in a large tree on the different side of the hill. The bird is incredibly beautiful with its comical black, yellow, green and blue pattern. Too bad the birds were all too far for my lens, but we all had a good time watching them from a telescope. There were many juvenile birds in the group as well and they look so different from the adults. It was the first time for me to see a juvenile of this bird. If you want to see how pretty the bird actually is, you can simply click here.

Long-tailed Broadbills (Psarisomus dalhousiae)

(From left to right) 1. This worn male Hill Blue Flycatcher (Cyornis banyumas) was also sticking around under the thick vegetation at the Royal Project's restaurant. 2. This young female seems to be the fledgling of him. 3. An immature Long-tailed Shrike (Lanius schach) in a garden near the restaurant 4. Blue-winged Siva (Siva cyanouroptera)

This shy Green-billed Malkoha (Phaenicophaeus tristis) was feeding along a thick dense bush in the garden near the Royal Project's restaurant. Although being a subfamily of the cuckoos, malkohas build nests and raise their own chicks unlike true cuckoos. The Green-billed Malkoha is a common bird throughout the country, but undoubtedly a difficult bird to get a decent pic of. It is very shy and almost always stay inside thick bushes.

On the last day, we luckily spotted 3 adult Crocodile Salamanders (Tylototriton shanjing) sitting still at the bottom of a small pond inside the garden near the restaurant. They had an interesting habit of swimming up from the bottom of the pond to catch insects on the surface of water. We later picked two of them up to the bank shortly for taking photos before letting them crawled back to the pond.

I spotted a large flock of Bar-winged Flycatcher-Shrikes (Hemipus picatus) staying on the top of a very tall tree in the garden since the early morning. I could only hope for the birds to come down to the lower trees, so I could be able to take some photos of them. Finally, before leaving the place, some of the birds came down to the lower trees and gave me a chance to photograph them. One immature bird even perched in front of me in a very close range calling for food from its parent. Since it's a species which I haven't successfully got a decent photo of, I was quite happy with the result.

Rain and Old Friends

Just got back from Doi Angkang few days ago, a wonderful time with wonderful old friends and familiar location. We couldn't bird so much since it rained all day, so what we did most during the time staying there was eating and sleeping. Though birding was difficult, we got few interesting species just from our house's balcony. Many migrants were already seen here like a lone Forest Wagtail (Dendronanthus indicus), a flock of Red-rumped Swallow (Hirundo daurica), not to mention about the Grey Wagtails and Barn Swallows which were relatively common, and a surprisingly group of unidentified buntings flying over head with their distinct zick call. Birds seem to migrate faster this year, we should all be ready for surprises!

This young Crocodile Salamander (Tylototriton shanjing) appeared just in front of our house. It is almost certain to find one during rainy season here at Doi Angkang, where this species seems to be more common than other mountains in northern Thailand. Sometimes after the rain, one might find a group of these strange-looking creatures crawling slowly across the road. This time we only saw one actively walking through the muddy ground. It's been quite nostalgic to see all these things happen again and again, years after years, birds migrate again and again, rain falls at the same time of year again and old friends whom I am familiar with, both human and animals. Anyway, it helped complete my peaceful vacation in my very own mother land.