Dates:
Weather:
Locality:

27-30 September 2011.
Some rain, generally overcast and warm.
Mae Ping National Park.

By late afternoon we had worked our way to the Thung Kik campsite, only to find the road to the nature trail closed, presumably due to flooding and track conditions. Made do with birding around the campsite where we added Collared Falconet and Eurasian Hoopoe. In the late afternoon retraced our steps back as far as the Mae Ping HQ, but saw little, mainly due to the damp, overcast and cool conditions. Overnight in Li town.

28 Sept. Overnight rain eased, but light rain continued all morning making birding slow. Initially we tried the Thung Kik road, but with increasing rain decided to head lower to the Ko Luang Waterfall area to check lowland forest there. Unfortunately little change with regard to the weather and in the rain there was little bird activity, but we did find Hainan Blue Flycatcher and Yellow-bellied Warbler. During the morning truck loads of local hill tribes entered the forest to perform their daily rape of the park resources. After lunch headed back uphill and tried walking a couple of the access tracks into dipterocarp forest branching off the main road. Little seen, probably due to the intermittent rain. Later afternoon we returned to the Thung Kik road and with ceasing rain had some good views of Yellow-footed Pigeon plus a number of rarer species including Common Hill Myna, Forest Wagtail and Great Barbet. Overnight again in Li where we discovered a local fish restaurant with, surprisingly, a menu in English.

29 Sept. Little overnight rain and a beautiful blue sky and dry conditions to start the day. First stop was a walk along a forest track off the main road, at the lower end of the forest before Kor, but surprisingly little was seen. Tried a long walk on a similar track further back toward the HQ which produced the same result. All in all quite an unproductive session, so headed to the Ko Luang Waterfall forest and a further couple of hours here produced almost no birds. In the afternoon we walked the track to the Padam-Padeang ranger station off the Thung Kik road, first opening the checkpoint barrier ourselves as the guard was asleep. This was a lot better with a good selection of expected species plus the addition of Common Woodshrike to the trip list. Late afternoon along the further end of the Thung Kik road but little of note. A pleasant, dry, day, but no species of note. Overnight in Li.

Great Nawab

Eurasian Hoopoe

Unidentified caterpillar