Doi Inthanon - Second Gate Km38

Throughout my 4 days stayed at Doi Inthanon, the Second Gate at km38 was the first visiting location on my daily travel itinerary. We usually arrive at the gate at 6.30 am. After a fast breakfast, I set up my gears and got ready for some actions. Birds were active at the gate, many species of birds come here regularly looking for insects and residual foods near the gate.

Grey-cheeked Fulvetta. 

Rufous-bellied Niltava (Female).

Small Niltava (female). 

White-headed Bulbul at a leafless tree.

White-browed Shortwing (Female)

White-gorgetted Flycatcher

Yellow-cheeked Tit.

Thanks for viewing.

Singapore Botanical Garden - Hooded Pitta

December 29 2010. I am currently having the Christmas Holiday with my family in Singapore. Yesterday I received news from some bird photographers that a Hooded Pitta is spotted at Singapore Botanical Garden.  I was invited to join them to photograph the Hooded Pitta together. Chris and Wong are very kind to lent me their gears since I only bought my Sony NEX 3 to Singapore. 

I am really surprise to see the Pitta at the Ginger Garden. The subject is very tame and not shy to human activities. Here are some photos shot with Chris equipment :

Here is a panoramic view of the shooting site, click the image for larger view:

Thanks for reading.

Doi Inthanon-Day 1

I was at Northern Thailand again on 20th Dec to 23rd Dec for a 4 days birding trip. I was mainly concentrating at Doi Inthanon, the highest mountain (2500 meter) in Thailand. I also engaged bird guide service from Mr Panuwat, the same guide that guided my last month trip to Doi Ang Khang and Doi Lang. The flight landed at Chiang Mai on time. The flight service from Thai Airway was very smooth. TG opted to use bigger aircraft such as 777 and 747 for the Bangkok to Chiang Mai sector is really brilliant. The flights were very comfortable and gave "value for money" service.

Upon stepping into the arrival hall, I was welcome by my guide, Par. We headed straight to Doi Inthanon in his Hilux. It was a 2 hours travel. At 10 am, we arrived at the first gate at the foothill.

At the Main Gate

After the gate, we headed to the Wachirathan Waterfall (at km 21). Our target at the waterfall are the Plumbeous Redstart and Slaty-backed Forktail. The view of the Wachirathan Waterfall is splendid.

Wachirathan Waterfall
Sony NEX-3

I spent a short moment at the waterfall. After that, we headed downstream to look for our target birds. I found a pair of Plumbeous Redstart, both male and female, not too far away from the waterfall.

Male Plumbeous Redstart took bath at the stream

Female Plumbeous Redstart

While I was photographing the Redstart, I heard a high pitch sound of "clik, clik, clik.......". Oh ! A Slaty-backed Forktail landed on rock not far from me. A dream come true.

Slaty-backed Forktail
Canon EOS 1 D mkIV EF 800 IS + 1.4 TC

After breaking for lunch at Mr Daeng's Restaurant, we headed to the camp site to look for the Black-tailed Crake. This species is quite shy and skittish, thus I had to use blind to "camo" myself and some worm to "seduce" the bird from the bush to the open area.

Black-tailed Crake

At about 5 pm, we went up to the view point near the summit for some landscape photography. I bought along my new Sony NEX-3 with the 16mm lens. I wanted to test the sweep panoramic capability of the camera.  Click the photos for larger view :

Panoramic View from the Summit
Sony NEX-3
Sweep Panoramic

Panoramic View from the Summit
Sony NEX-3
Sweep Panoramic

At the summit, I came across a pair of very tame Grey Bushchat.

Female Grey Bushchat

Male Grey Bushchat

Thanks for reading. Your comments are welcome.

Doi Lang - Part 5

December 11 2010. 26th of November was the last day of my 5 days Northern Thailand Trip, I had till 10 am to do a last round of shooting at the foothill of Doi Lang before heading to the airport. I went back to the Pink Cassia Tree which was discovered by some Thai Photographers on the previous day.

At 7 am I saw some species of Sunbirds, White-eye and Leafbirds came to the tree. I was very excited to see the birds coming. The birds came to feed on the flower nectar. Unfortunately It was windy and foggy. The bad weather condition caused most of my shots blur.

Foggy and windy condition

At 8.30 am, the fog started to clear and the wind slowed down. The golden morning sunlight created a perfect shooting condition.

My first lifer of the day is the colorful Gould's Sunbirds.

The Black-throated Sunbird was also attracted to the pink Cassia tree.

I got 2 species of White-eye from the same tree. There were Chestnut-flanked and Oriental White-eye.

A pair of Orange-bellied Leafbird :

Female

Male

An un-expected visitor also came to the tree, a Female Daurian Redstart :

Female Daurian Redstart

It was a very productive morning. I got 4 species of lifers at the pink Cassia Tree.

Overall my 5 days at Northern Thailand were full of excitement. I enjoyed the beautiful landscape of Northern Thailand and food. I managed to photographed over 30 species of birds. I would like to thank my bird guide, Mr Panuwat Sasirat (whoever interested on his bird guide tour, click the link here: wildbirdeco), who has worked very hard to find many species of birds and also his hospitality during my trip at Chiang Mai.

Thanks for reading.