It is always difficult arriving late as you do not get any perspective but although it was 2am before we got to bed I was up at 6.30 for my first mornings birding. I spent an hour and half every morning birding and has one afternoon too.
The first thing that struck me was that the hotel was in lush and established grounds and backs on to Na Yang beach. The beach is one of three consecutive beaches that make up the Sirinath National Park. Basically, this was created to protect the breeding turtles that nest here every year. There were two entrances to the park within a 10 minute walk of the hotel.
Easily the most common bird was the Common Myna which was literally everywhere, It has a fantastic array of calls which made it difficult for using calls as a form of ID. On at least a dozen occasions I heard a new call and searched high and low for the bird only to find it was a Common Myna!
The main lawn outside our room held a massive tree and this was full of birds most mornings.
Most were Yellow Vented Bulbuls and Spotted Dove but a juvenile Black Naped Oriole and male Koel were regularly seen too.
On the ground a pair of Peaceful Doves visited most mornings and an Indian Roller had a regular perch near the roof of the nearby bar..
Other than the hotel grounds I devoted my first three mornings to walking along the beach road towards the North and the main entrance to the National Park.
It was a great setting and even Jen walked with me once as it passed local shops!
Scrub land just before the park entrance gave me my first Brown Shrike and Large Billed Crow.
At the entrance to the Park there was a small stream which provided two Kingfishers - Common and White Throated.
Three other species were seen here but not photographed. Ashy Minivet, Pied Fantail and a sadly fast moving White Fronted Waterhen.
Flying above were two types of Swift - House and Asian Palm.
The only raptor regularly seen was Brahiminy Kite.
After 3 days I was seeing the same birds every time so decided to walk south of the hotel. This was surprisingly good in that there is a substation of the National Park (not mentioned in any of the bird blogs and information I read before I visited.
It was prettier and less busy and the beach was empty. A larger stream wound its way through and emptied out on the beach. Opposite the river there was a large area of scrub though frustratingly, you could not get to it so all birding was done looking across from the river.
My first morning gave two new birds - the first was straightforward to ID and gave great views - Black Capped Kingfisher.
The second flitted about near the trees and wagged its tail up and down. I was pleased but not surprised to find that this was a Forest Wagtail!
The only wader seen on the whole of my Thailand jaunt was Common Sandpiper.
I enjoyed looking across the scrub though all birds were too far away to get great views with just binos.
I did manage to get record shots of Tiger Shrike, Streak Eared Bulbul and the pretty bright yellow of the Common Iora.
Nearby wires allowed me brief views of both Barn Swallow and Pacific Swallow which is similar but does not have the black ring around the neck.
High above I also noticed a strange hirundine which had no tail!
This turned out to be a Brown Backed Needletail but was just too fast for me and, as you will realise by now, catching birds in flight is not one of my photographic strengths!
The river was an excellent source of Egret with Cattle, Little, Great, Intermediate and Pacific Reef all seen.
Little Herons were another addition and a flying Yellow Bittern was super - easily identified by its striking black bordered wings.
On our second to last day I hired a taxi to visit the other end of the National Park. I left at 2pm and the 30 minute journey only cost £12 return including the driver waiting there for 2.5 hours while I birded!
I was not expecting to add many birds to my list but did get Black Drongo in a matter of seconds.
Nearby but in terrible light was a much greyer version which turned out to be Ashy Drongo.
The scenery was similar to the southern end of the park but there was a lovely walk on a small path through woods. Traversing this wood was large pylons and wires and two new birds were perching high above on these. They were so high that photos were difficult but I did manage to get the locally known Dollarbird or Broad Billed Roller and Chestnut Headed Bee-Eater.
Magpie Robins were everywhere by the visitor hut and Greater Coucal were hidden in the trees.
A number of additions but without photos were added with Ruby Cheeked and Brown Throated Sunbird, Rufous Fronted Babbler, Oriental White Eye, Red Junglefowl and Yellow Bellied Prinia.
A brief glimpse and quickly taken snap of Common Tailorbird was soon added too.
Perhaps the best bird in terms of rarity though was yet another Bulbul in Red Eyed.
Naturally, the name gives away the big ID feature but these Bulbuls are only found in this area of Thailand and are rarely seen so I was pleased to get two half decent photos.
Overall I think I got a decent list of 51 species though in retrospect I would have visited a couple of other places had i realised how cheap the taxi were.
Back to Hong Kong!
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