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9 - 14 May 2017.
Hot and humid with variable cloud cover and showers, some heavy.
Bang Lang National Park, Betong, and Iyenweng viewpoint.

9 May . Flew Thai Airways from Chiang Mai to Narathiwat via Bangkok, arriving mid afternoon, where met up with Ian. From here, a near four hour drive through tortuously winding roads to Betong, where we checked into the Modern Thai Villa hotel in the centre of town. The town itself was still fairly active at 21:00 when we strolled out to find a restaurant. We were surprised, at this time of year, to find a large roost of several hundred Barn Swallow at the noisy central intersection of town. On entering Yala province, finally ticked off the last of the 76 Thai provinces.

10 May. With conditions damp, overcast and low cloud, the weather looked decidedly unfavourable for butterflies. Consequently, we thought remaining at lower altitudes would be more profitable, so headed to forest areas of Bang Lang National Park, where we spent more than five hours in good forest, with an excellent selection of both butterflies and birds, including Great Argus heard, Violet Cuckoo, Little Bronze Cuckoo, Rusty-breasted Cuckoo, Rhinoceros Hornbill, Yellow-crowned Barbet, Crimson-winged Woodpecker, Bamboo Woodpecker, Buff-rumped Woodpecker, Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot, Banded Broadbill, Black-and-yellow Broadbill, Large Woodshrike, Rufous-winged Philentoma, Ferruginous Babbler, Pale Blue Flycatcher, Grey-chested Jungle Flycatcher and Plain Sunbird. Around 14:30 rain commenced, so returned to Betong to rack our brains over difficult to identify butterflies.

Black-and-yellow Broadbill

Grey Tinsel

Spotted Spark

Iyenweng viewpoint

A slow, but steady day, mainly concentrating on the highest section of road, as walking lower the habitat turned to grass and roadside plantations, poor for both birds and butterflies. The biggest surprise, given the habitat and altitude, was three Rail-babbler calling near the roadside. For the rest, rather poor, with only Plume-toed Swiftlet, Pacific Swallow, Yellow-crowned Barbet, Green Iora, Pale Blue Flycatcher and Southern White-crowned Forktail of any note. Rain late afternoon continuing into the night. With tomorrow being a holiday hotels in town were full, so transferred to the River Rock Palm Resort just outside town, that was pleasant and quieter.

12 May. Drove to the Iyenweng viewpoint about an hour from town. Although the view from the top is impressive it only takes a while to realise that it's actually 95% rubber plantation, with forest remaining only on a few inaccessible hill tops. A sunny and warm morning, but with surprisingly little of note. In the forest edge we found Crimson-winged Woodpecker, Raffles's Malkoha, Grey-bellied Bulbul, Cream-vented Bulbul, Hume's White-eye and Yellow-breasted Flowerpecker. Many Pacific Swift were migrating over. Having covered the top kilometre of road thoroughly, by midday we returned to Bang Lang, where we were caught out in afternoon rain, but walked deeper into the forest by dusk, returning after dark looking for reptiles and amphibians.

Wallace's Tree Frog

Quite some success, with Malayan Horned Frog, Wallace's Tree Frog and Indo-malayan Pencil-tailed Tree Mouse - a species with a name longer than the mammal itself.

Indomalayan Pencil-tailed Tree Mouse

13 May. Hopefully, for a total change of habitat we decided to check the lowland forest at Than To waterfall, about a two hour drive away, along our route home. Having discovered favourable access and seemingly good forest we visited the park office to enquire about a room. This really gave the office staff something to talk about. Foreign tourists are rare here, but foreigners wanting to stay in the park pretty unheard of. Still, an hour later we'd secured a 600 Baht bungalow and had our selfies taken with the staff - we had rock star status here.

Than To Waterfall

Peters's Bent-toed Gecko

Chalcorana eschatia

White Dragontail

Tree Flitter

14 May. For the first time on the trip, some excellent weather to start the day, with bright sun and clear skies. This produced an excellent morning for butterflies, with a good number of species active, especially skippers early morning. By 11:00 with the crowds starting to gather we headed north, through some heavy rain at Trang, as far as Krabi, overnighting there.

15 May. A short drive to Phuket and after a couple of days working on photo processing and identification, return flight to Chiang Mai.