Situated in Fang meant the above site was only half an hour away. We arrived at the army camp at first light where a big crowd of local tourists were up to watch the sunrise over the spectacular mountain range that borders Burma. However the sunrise was destroyed by the fog and so everyone left, leaving Ian and I to do some birding. Initially the area appeared quiet but a walk around the area brought in some good species, with by far the highlight being a very showy flock of 11 Spot-winged Grosbeaks.
The Chinese cemetery was next and it was just worth a walk round the place. Quite surreal looking at the spot where bodies are cremated whilst a crowd watches on from the stands. Anyway birding here was relatively quiet, though a good number of Blyth’s Leaf Warblers were present singing away, and a Daurian Redstart was found.
To get to the farmland trail we had to drive through a small hillside village, with Saturdays obviously being a street cleaning day and everyone it seemed was sweeping the roads. I thought it looked like something out of The Walking Dead (the other half watches this rubbish, I just get forced to watch it) whilst Ian said it reminded him of a game of skittles. Either or, no one was hurt!! As we arrived at the start of the trail, so did a sewage disposal lorry and dumped the waste down through an orchard. Despite this being pretty grim, I knew a few birds would be associated with this, and on our return a Black-breasted Thrush and male White-tailed Robin were present. We decided to not try the fruit today. The trail itself was pretty good and again we notched up a few species.
We hoped to find some hides or feeding stations in the Kings Project but found nothing (just as well we found the B-b Thrush earlier) and therefore decided to walk a trail, this being the Mae Phur Valley Trail, that is advertised as being quiet, but today was completely opposite, with constant activity all the way down the trail. The flocks mainly held Leaf Warblers, with finally our first Pallas’s Warbler being found, as well as Blue-winged Minlas and a Stripe-breasted Woodpecker.
Afterwards we quickly nipped back to the army camp, and just as well as we found a superb Grey-winged Blackbird, the only one of the trip and a scarce species this winter in Northern Thailand.
Time was on our side and the next trail was superb, what is known as the firebreak trail at km 21, was more of a jungle that we had to plough through (with Ian falling arse over to prove this very fact) and this eventually led onto a forested ridge that opened up every now and then to show some brilliant views. Some really good birds were seen along here, with the undoubted highlight being an incredibly skulky Lesser Shortwing that showed twice for me, but Ian couldn’t get onto it as is hopped about in the dark and dense undergrowth. Two groups of White-browed Laughingthrush were also lovely, but as usual there is one that gets away, and yet again it was a Giant Nuthatch, with one calling, but just being out of our view.
Still a really good day was had until I ran over a dog on our drive back. It’s not a sad ending though, the dog was thankfully asleep in the middle of my lane, and to me it looked like a plastic bag or sheet, so I drove up to it only realising at the last second it was in fact a dog, but due to the good ground clearance I didn’t even scrape it, and I looked back and the dog casually got up and walked off.
Highlights from a productive day are as follows, this lifers showing (L) next to the species.
Oriental Honey Buzzard - 1
Green-billed Malkoha - 1
Hoopoe - 1
Stripe-breasted Woodpecker (L) - 3
Rufous Treepie - 1
Bronzed Drongo - 1
Orange-bellied Leafbird - 3
Long-tailed Shrike - 5
Grey-backed Shrike - 2
White’s Thrush - 1
Black-breasted Thrush (L) - 1
Grey-winged Blackbird (L) - 1
Lesser Shortwing (L) - 1
White-tailed Robin - 1
Daurian Redstart - 1
Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher - 1
Large Niltava - 2
Rufous-bellied Niltava - 2
Striated Bulbul (L) - 3
Mountain Tailorbird (L) - 1
Pallas’s Leaf Warbler - 2
Grey-crowned Warbler - 1
Marten’s Warbler - 2
Blyth’s Leaf Warbler (L) - 10
White-browed Laughingthrush - 6
Silver-Eared Laughingthrush - 10
Scarlet-faced Liocichla (L) - 7
Spectacled Barwing (L) - 10
Blue-winged Minla (L) - 2
Rufous-backed Sibia (L) - 1
Dark-backed Sibia (L) - 2
Spot-winged Grosbeak (L) - 11
Ashy Bulbul - 10
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| Spot-winged Grosbeaks at Doi Ang Khang |
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| Long-tailed Shrike at Doi Ang Khang |
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Daurian Redstart at The Chinese Cemetary,
Doi Ang Khang
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| Spectacled Barwing at Doi Ang Khang |
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| Black-breasted Thrush at Doi Ang Khang |
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| Scarlet-faced Liocichla at Doi Ang Khang |
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| Stripe-breasted Woodpecker at Doi Ang Khang |
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Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher at Doi Ang Khang -
I was banking on seeing this at Doi Lang, so
very pleased with this find.
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| A horrendous pic of a White-browed Laughingthrush |
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| The army campsite emerging from the mist |
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| One of many shrines at the Chinese cemetary |
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| The cremation area with stands for on-lookers |
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| Ian's idea of skittles |
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This was the main trail....
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| but with stunning views towards the end. |
