Doi Ang Khang - Part 2

December 1 2010. I started the second day early.  By 6.30 am my guide and I hit the road to the first location, a patch of pine forest further from the Chinese cemetery. We were looking for the Hume's Pheasant. It was a no show after an hour of waiting. However, I managed to see the Eurasian Jay and photographed the male and female Grey Bushchat.

Male Grey Bushchat

Female Grey Bushchat

After that, I moved on to an open ground near the rubbish dump area. I spotted 3 species of Bulbul at the open ground.

Brown-breasted Bulbul

Brown-breasted Bulbul

Flavescent Bulbul

A small flock of Sooty Headed Bulbul

The excitement of the day was when we saw the Siberian Rubythroat. We decided to play the "tape" trying to lure the fella to a nearer tree. We were excited to see it responded to the call and flew nearer.

Siberian Rubythroat
Easily identified by its red throat

Responded well to our call by perching at tree nearer to our hiding location

Siberian Stonechat

Misty morning.

After lunch, we went to the King Project Garden to check out the Thrush behind the restaurant kitchen. There was very quiet, we realized that our timing was not right, the Thrush would not be here on November, probably some months later.

The natural trail was also very quiet during afternoon. There were no birds sighted except an Brown Shrike.

We decided to head back to the resort to look for the Orange-bellied Niltava. Upon arriving at the car park, we were greeted by a Great Tit.

Great Tit

After an hour of waiting, the Orange-bellied Niltava was no show. We realized that there was a Brown Hawk Owl perched near the stream, that why the Niltava was too afraid to get near to its regular place.

Brown Hawk owl

By 5 pm, we decided to move on to Tha Thorn town. I was a bit disappointed with my trip to Doi Ang Khang. I have seen many beautiful photos of birds by Thai photographers shot here at Doi Ang Khang. All those beautiful photos inspired me to explore here.  Unfortunately I only got a few of the species. Maybe I was here on the wrong timing. For sure I will come back again soon, perhaps after the pink flower bloomed.

On the way to Tha Thorn, a Long-tailed Shrike greeted me "Good Bye"

Trip of Northern Thailand - Doi Ang Khang - Part 1

The scenic view of mountain range of Doi Ang Khang. 

November 29 2010. Last week, I had a 5 days birding trip to Northern Thailand. The first birding site was the scenic mountain range of Doi Ang Khang. It is one of the famous bird watching place in Thailand and located about 2 hours drive toward north from Chiang Mai. DAK consists of  mountain range and peaks, some of the areas have excellent habitat for birds.

Bann Lung Resort

After 2 hours drive on the scenic and winding mountain road, I arrived at Bann Lung Resort. My first target at DAK was to look for the White-capped Redstart at a stream behind the resort. I set-up a blind few meter from the stream. After 5 minutes of waiting, I saw a red and black color bird perched at a rock beside the stream. Photographing this active bird under the shade was not easy, I ended up with many blur pictures. Here are some good one:

White-capped Redstart (Riverchat)
Canon EOS 5D mkII EF 800 mm IS ISO 3200 1/50 F5.6

Canon EOS 1D mkIV EF 800 IS
ISO 2000 1/20 F8

I shot about 200 frames of the fella. At about 5 pm, I proceeded to the open land near the Chinese cemetery. As I was walking on a trail leading to the rubbish dump, I saw 4-5 Scimitar-Babbler perched on the dry twig few meter away. I regretted that I left my gear in the car. As I was trying to get back to the car to grab the gears, the small flock of Scimitar-Babbler get alerted and flew away and disappear into the bushes near by.

Twilight view of the mountain range

By 6 pm the sun has disappeared on the horizon. I decided to head back to the resort for dinner and went for bed early to have a good rest for a long day tomorrow.

Northern Thailand Trip

Birds of Thailand

November 18 2010. Yahoo !! in another 4 days, I will embark on a 7 days birding trip to Northern Thailand. The places that I am going to visit are Doi Inthanon, Doi Lang and Doi Ang Kang. Hopefully, I will be able to photograph as many species of the montane and the sub-montane birds of Northern Thailand.

Here some preview of birds of Thailand:

Khao Yai National Park, March 2010

Bumped into a group of Thai bird photographer.

Male Stonechart, Thailand.

Red-whiskered Bulbul, Thailand

White-crested Laughingthrush

I will post the trip report once it is available.

Some Big Birds

November 10 2010. Grey and Purple Heron are abundant at Batu Kawan mudflats. Here are some photos of the big birds, the photos were captured over the weekend.

Grey Heron
Perching on the top of a tree. This shot is captured using the EOS 1 D mkIV with EF 800 IS plus the 2x TC (Manual focus using the Live-View feature)

Grey Heron.
A pair of Grey Heron perched at the top of tree.
EOS 1 D mkIV with EF 800 IS plus the 2x TC 

Purple Heron.
EOS 1 D mkIV with EF 800 IS plus the 2x TC 

Purple Heron.
Hunting for prey.

Thanks for reading.