For the last weekend I had in Thailand, I rented a 4X4 (you will find why later) and headed to one of the most beautiful places in Thailand. To the vicinity of Kaeng Krachan National Park. This is the largest national park in Thailand just 2-3 hour drive from Bangkok and a World Heritage site. I had my return flight on Monday (11/7/22) so stayed there for two days and two nights, that is a very short time to stay and explore this beautiful place. In my opinion one needs at least a week to get the essence of the place and later visit frequently to see all this beautiful NP has to offer. I choose the nature and eco friendly lodge called Baan Mana Nature Lodge. There are lots of other option to stay here as well and all are reasonably priced at varied levels of comfort. This place is a small nature park in its own right. This is a wonderful and well known birding area in Thailand with more than 450 species of birds sighted here. There are lots of birding hides maintained by local farmers which you can visit for a small fee (3-4$ for the whole day) and can see many forest birds from up close. This way the locals can earn some money from the visiting tourists without destroying/harming the local ecosystem. After I arrived at the by 2 PM, checked in and headed to one of these hides. The lodge has folders with lots of detailed info if you want to bird the surrounding areas on your own and also has some wonderful guides who you can hire as well. This hide on this day was complete bust! Didn't see a single bird after waiting for at least 2h (well that's birding, of course!!), so headed back to the lodge and started exploring the surroundings. As soon as I came back, had the first lifer from this area, a Blue Whistling-Thrush (Myophonus caeruleus) which unfortunately didn't stay for long for me to photograph and was not able to see it again! The next lifer to cross path with me was a Verditer Flycatcher (Eumyias thalassinus), one of the many unbelievable colors that these forest dwellers display! Later on, the lodge had a guided night walk where we saw a roosting Oriental Pied-Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) and an active Collared Scops-Owl (Otus lettia). Would have loved to see the Hornbill in daylight, unfortunately didn't spend enough time here the next day. Other notable night non-bird sightings were White-lipped Pitviper (Trimeresurus albolabris) that was sitting on the canopy 20-30 feet above our heads, a very colorful Tokay Gecko (Gekko gecko) and a huge Asian Common Toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus). Did create a trip report for the ~36h I spent here on eBird if anyone likes to see the details. For more details about birding the area check this blog from Nick Upton and these two by birding info.

The next day (on Saturday), I was up at daybreak, had hearty breakfast (this lodge caters for birders/naturalists quite well, they start their breakfast service at 5:30 AM) and started to drive towards Kaeng Krachan NP. The Park gates opens at 5:30 AM and there is a small fee to enter (there is a fee/person and to the vehicle) and once you enter there is just one road till the top of Phenoen Thung Viewpoint. The last part of this drive (of ~15 km) one needs a 4X4 and the rangers wont allow you beyond a particular point if you don't have one and that drive was one thrilling drive, my first drive in that kind of terrain. You can stop at various points on the road to bird and watch animals. They are marked and also there are some trails that are marked along the route one can hike (of varied difficulties). From the entrance to the view point it is ~30 km and I spent 4-5 in the park stopping here and there. I must say while the drive itself was very satisfactory, the birding was not so much. Of the hundreds of birds the place has to offer, I just had 15 lifers! Initially the activity was very low, a bird here and there, but when heading down, did pick up a lot of those lifers in one place (that's birding of course!). If possible hiring someone as a bird guide would increase your chance of seeing as many birds as possible significantly, if you have the means for it. Some notable lifers from this trip are Grey Wagtail (Motacilla cinerea), Ochraceous Bulbul (Alophoixus ochraceus), Great Hornbill (Buceros bicornis), Dollarbird (Eurystomus orientalis), Ruby-cheeked Sunbird (Chalcoparia singalensis), Hainan Blue Flycatcher (Cyornis hainanus), Orange-breasted Trogon (Harpactes oreskios) and Ashy Woodswallow (Artamus fuscus). My eBird checklist from this drive/trip could be found here.

All the NPs in Thailand are know for their mammals, be it elephants or monkeys or giant squirrels or gibbons. But the only mammal I saw within the NP were the Grey-bellied Squirrels (Callosciurus caniceps), Indochinese Ground Squirrel (Menetes berdmorei) and the ever present Northern Treeshrews (Tupaia belangeri) though I did hear lots of gibbons vocalizing in various parts of the deep forest.

This NP in particular is know for its massive butterfly population throughout the year. While I didn't see that many, but surely did see a good number of them flittering around. Unfortunately, my long tele it not an appropriate lens to photograph those. Below are a few individuals that were generous to sit for a while for me to photograph.

I returned back to the lodge by lunch time and was just talking with the people there and was complaining I didn't see as much birds as I expected etc...and thinking about going to a hide, they suggested, instead why not walk around the property and check it out? I am glad I took their advice. The hike produced many more birds, but only 3 lifers. I was only able to photograph Dark-sided Flycatcher (Muscicapa sibirica) and Ashy Minivet (Pericrocotus divaricatus). I also saw a Black-hooded Oriole (Oriolus xanthornus), but it took off before I was able to photograph it. I did see other birds as well, but no more lifers for the day.

That night, I finally got my macro lens on and went out looking for some bugs to photograph. I had noticed a few of them hanging around the property lights on the previous day. Did manage to see a few moths (not able to ID all of them yet), some spiders (couldn't locate the tarantula seen the previous day) and one large and beautiful Giant Golden Orbweaver (Nephila pilipes), one of the biggest orbweavers that I have ever seen. Did turned in a bit early for the night as I was planning to head out for another hide on my way back to Bangkok the next day.    

For my last day in the KKC area, I decided to check a hide and see if my luck has changed for good. So, early in the morning had my breakfast, checked out, got directions to the hide and headed towards it with great anticipation. As I was heading out these three Greater Coucals (Centropus sinensis) greeted me at the gate and I had a good feeling about the day. Not having a reliable internet connection and not downloading the maps makes it a challenge to locate these places that are not advertised very well, though got lost for a bit, managed to find the place just in time and got settled in the hide and I was the only person there until I left. It was an amazing experience, even though I didn't see as many species like these places have reported earlier it didn't disappoint me. In total I saw 17 species of birds and nine were lifers and I had to be satisfied with that till the next time.

Some notable birds seen there are Abbott's Babbler (Malacocincla abbotti), Black-headed Bulbul (Brachypodius melanocephalos), Large Scimitar-Babbler (Erythrogenys hypoleucos), a vocal group of Lesser Necklaced Laughingthrush (Garrulax monileger), a very friendly Puff-throated Babbler (Pellorneum ruficeps), very colorful and chicken ancestor Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus), extremely shy Scaly-breasted Partridge (Tropicoperdix chloropus), a brilliantly colored Siberian Blue Robin (Larvivora cyane) and almost florescent looking Stripe-throated Bulbul (Pycnonotus finlaysoni).

Photography from these hides was quite challenging as these weren't built keeping photographers in mind and when you are inside a thing rain forest, I don't think you want to disturb the ecosystem too much to accommodate photographers as the main subjects here are the wild birds and other animals and their well being. So I had to shoot these images at quite high an unimaginable settings in normal conditions (for ex almost all the images on the right hand slideshow were shot at ISO 10000), but thanks to modern cameras and noise reduction technologies, it worked out just fine.

After three hours I had to leave and in retrospect I am glad I did as it turned out returning the car was quite a circus and it requires a page of its own and I won't bore you here with it. So, I packed everything and happily walked back towards my car in anticipation of copying these bird photographs and working on them to share with all other bird and photography enthusiasts. Took a small brunch break on the way and reached my hotel room and started to prepare for next days early morning departure back home. If anyone is interested I did create a trip report for this leg of my birding and it could be accessed here.

Thanks for reading through this and looking through my photographs if you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me via the "say hi to Keshav" link above or through one of my social channels.

Thanks,

Keshava Mysore