Red Junglefowl - Our Original Chicken Ancestor

This is video of some wild male and female Red Junglefowl coming in from the forest at Baan Song Nok in Thailand. The males are absolutely stunning with fantastic colours!
All I can say is they look great and thanks for the eggs!

Christmas Birding in Thailand - Chiang Mai

After some full on birding in southern Thailand, it was time for a couple of days relaxing at Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. A visit to a few of the temples is a must when visiting the area.

Chiang Mai is a very colourful city in many ways!

A visit to the Wat Phra Singh temple complex is a must do. Interesting scaffold work, but I don't think it would pass the health and safety rules back in Australia!

Wonderful colours and carvings.

Very fine art inside.

Tree Sparrows chase each other over the ancient roofs.

When we came in, we thought this monk was real....

But no, just a wonderful wax statue of a famous monk. Excellent work!

Most of the city's temples are very colourful relaxing places.

Small bells on the temple roofs ring in the slightest breeze.





I was a very naughty boy growing up, always in trouble. I remember my poor mom often looking like this! Sorry mum.

Lots of gold at Wat Phra Doi Suthep on the mountain above Chiang Mai.

The temple complexes often have lush gardens, which are home to these nice black and white Variable Squirrels.

Relaxed and ready for birding in the northern mountains. Some fried cockroaches and worms for lunch! Well, not really, just a nice bean and sago dessert.

Burmese Striped Squirrel

This is video taken at Baan Song Nok, south of Bangkok, of a Burmese Striped Squirrel feeding on some bananas. I came across this guy feeding near the small carpark. Normally you only see these guys moving very quickly among the dense forest trees, but this one was used to people and just wanted his morning feed of banana!









Here's some info about these nice little squirrels.

The Himalayan, or Burmese, Striped Squirrel is largely a species of montane, forested areas usually above 700 metres elevation. It's almost exclusively arboreal in habits, preferring tall forests, fruit trees and coconut palms.

The species is small in size and it can easily be overlooked as it frantically moves from tree to tree searching for their food source - mainly insects. The striped pattern serves as an effective camouflage on fissured tree trunks.

The thickness and length of the alternating cream and dark brown dorsal stripes is the key identifying feature, and is diagnostic in distinguishing it from other, larger striped squirrels.

The species ranges from the Himalayas through northern Burma and southern China to Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia.

Christmas Birding in Thailand - Kaeng Krachan

After birding in at Laem Pak Bia the next stop was a few days at Kaeng Krachen National Park, a forested mountain area to the west. The park is the largest in Thailand with 2915 square kilometres of area.

Heading up the mountain in the morning at this time of year, you often encounter what is called the 'Sea of Cloud'.

Liz is very happy, as we have seen Rusty-Cheeked (Brown) Hornbill, Orange-breasted Trogon, Red-headed Trogon and her number one target bird an Asian Fairy-Bluebird. A beautiful bird I had seen a number of times over our travels in Borneo, but she had always dipped out on! 

The animal diversity in the park is amazing, with tigers, leopards, tapirs and elephants present in the area. The plant diversity is incredible as well.

The area has this huge reservoir, but few waterbirds. We did see two Ospreys hunting over the water.

One of the frogs living in a bathroom, possibly a Common Tree-Frog (Polypedates sp?).

We have seen this wonderful huge-leafed plant before in Borneo. Just grab a leaf if it starts raining!

Amazing how such a huge leaf can be rolled up to about the size of a baseball bat before it opens.

One of our nice finds, an Asian Barred Owlet.

Liz was happy to see this Mountain Imperial Pigeon as she had dipped on it at Mount Kinabalu.

Looks like some kind of nuclear reactor, but it's actually a massive hotel for swiftlets! There are a number of these big hotels near the coast just south of Bangkok, all used in the commercial harvesting of swiftlet nests for food.

Kalij Pheasant

This beautiful Kalij Pheasant male was filmed at Baan Song Nok, near Kaeng Krachan National Park south of Bangkok. A nice little place to stay with cabins and a bird hide, and run by a little old lady who puts food out for the local forest birds. 

The orange-coloured seeded spike the pheasant feeds on, is not a made seed post, but a weird plant that springs up in the forest.

Christmas Birding in Thailand

We have just returned from a fantastic 11 day birding holiday in Thailand with 318 species seen, of which 148 were lifers for me and 141 for Liz.

The first birding day was spent at the salt pans of Laem Pak Bia in the Petchaburi province, south of Bangkok.

Lots of waders, including our main targets, Spoon-billed Sandpipers and Nordmann's Greenshanks.

Lots of good waterbirds at the Environmental Research Project ponds, including this Common Kingfisher. We also got Grey-headed Lapwings and Painted Storks nearby.

Heading out to the Laem Pak Bia sand spit.

Liz and our guide Peter looking for our main target, the White-faced Plover, but alas no luck. We did get excellent views of good numbers of Malaysian Plovers

We returned to the salt pans in the afternoon for another look at Spoon-billed Sandpipers, as these guys may become extinct in the coming years.

Back to the ponds in the evening to see Ruddy-breasted Crakes and Indian Nightjars. Good views of both!

So ends a wonderful first day.

Marbled Gecko Video

This is a short video of the beautiful Marbled Gecko (Christinus marmoratus) that lives among the rocks in our garden. I often find them when I'm working in the garden or running along the walls after dusk. Typical of geckos, they have wonderful eyes.