There and Back Again

White-headed Bubul
Chiang Dao

Having been visiting Chiang Dao since 2000, it was becoming embarrassing that I had never climbed the mountain, Friday was the day this changed. Three of us set of at 6am and returned at 4pm, taking 6 hours to reach the summit and four back down, with lots of birding breaks along the way. The higher areas of Chiang Dao are seldom visited by western birders and having spoken to a birder who had done the trip the previous day there was obviously plenty of birds up there.

The first part of the trail was very steep and slippery, birds along this section included two Wedge-tailed Green Pigeon, three Grey-headed Parakeet, 30 Striated Yuhina, Oriental turtle Dove, Grey Treepie, a flock of 30 Long-tailed Minivet and a male Large Niltava.

The rest of the trail passed through a mixture of forest and open scrubby grass covered slopes. Black Bulbuls were very common in fruiting trees with around 300 present along with smaller numbers of Mountain Bulbul, two Maroon Orioles, several Orange-bellied Leafbirds and many Spangled Drongo. Higher along the trail relatively few Black Bulbuls were seen, instead higher altitudes bulbuls dominated with Crested Finchbills seemingly everywhere with at least 100 noted, also present were half a dozen Brown-breasted Bulbuls, several Straited and near the summit at least 60 White-headed Bulbuls all of which were flycatching from treetops. Seven White-bellied Redstarts were either seen or heard, Hill Prinias were abundant in tall grass along with four Abberant Bush Warblers, several Grey Bushchats, two Spot-throated Babbler, three Chestnut Buntings, up to a dozen Buff-throated Warblers and seven Grey-crowned Warbler. In the same habitat there was also three species of scimiters babblers, with many White-browed, four Rusty-cheeked and two Red-billed seen along with 15 Spectacled Barwings and several Silver-eared Laughingthrush.

Where the trail passed through patches of forest, several large feeding flocks were encounted with Rufous-winged and Grey-cheeked Fulvetta being common and one large flock included 20 Silver-eared Mesia, four Yellow-cheeked Tit, a Yellow-browed Tit, several Buff-barred Warblers and a Pallas's Warbler. Also recorded in these forest patches were two Pygmy Wren Babblers, a Slaty-bellied Tesia, Rufous-bellied Niltava, Little Pied Flycatcher and a Slaty Blue Flycatcher. Gould's Sunbirds were everywhere especially near the summit, where many Straited Swallows fed overhead along with a few Cook's Swifts and hundreds of Himalyan Swiflets.

Others species seen along the trail included two Mountain Bamboo Partridge, several Bay and Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker, Great and Golden-throated Barbet, Collared Owlet, a Slender-billed Oriole, White-throated Fantail,Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, several Hume's Warblers, three Mountain Tailorbirds, hundreds of White-eyes with those seen well all appearing to be Japanese and both Rufous-fronted and Grey-throated Babblers.  

Open-billed Stork

Yesterday had various things to do in Chiang Mai, but before leaving Chiang Mai did have an adult male Amur Falcon over the garden again and a Crested Goshawk. I was surprised to see a flock of 50 Open-billed Storks over paddies on the edge of Chiang Mai the first time I have seen this species in the north. Open-bills are increasing in Thailand but are generally scarce if not rare in the north but this year has seen many more than usual around Chiang Mai, with up to 600 recorded one day in October. Also Common Buzzard in the same area and a male Eastern Marsh Harrier across the road near Chiang Dao.

Hume's Pheasant and Giant Nuthatch

Puff-throated Babbler
Chiang Dao
by Michael Rooney

Tuesday made the pre-dawn pilgrimage up to the DYK sub station at Chiang Dao, the first bird of the morning was a Blue-whisting Thrush which called from alongside the track. Just before the substation after the last of the switchback bends, a stunning male Hume's Pheasant walked down the track in front of the truck. We were then joined by three other birders who were delighted when within a few minutes I pointed out two Giant Nuthatch on a dead pine tree and it was still not even 630, we would later go onto see a total of four Giant Nuthatch and hear at least another four. One of the birders whom had joined use was from Turkey and he thought it likely that he was the first Turkish birder ever to see Giant Nuthatch!!.

We then spent the next hour and a half birding the rest of the track into the sub station, it was fairly busy, best birds four Grey-headed Parakeet, two Slender-billed Orioles, Maroon Oriole, three Greater Yellownape, Striped-breasted Woodpecker, 2 Chestnut-vented Nuthatch, three Blyth's Shrike Babbler, 2 Large Cuckooshrike, Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo, Grey-chinned and Long-tailed Minivet and we also heard Bay Woodpecker and Long-tailed Broadbill. We had a quick breakfast and wander around the sub station grounds where there was a Dark-sided flycatcher, three Burmese Shrikes, several Mountain Imperial Pigeon, Orinetal Turtle  Dove, Great Tit, Grey-backed Shrike, Gould's and Black-throated Sunbird and a flock of 15 Striated Yuhina. Large numbers of Fork-tailed Swift were noted overhead including at least a dozen of the distinct Cook's Swift. A skulking flycatcher in scrub was probably Slaty Blue but failed to show well enough to clinch id.

We then headed back down the track and arranged for the driver to meet us several hours later, by now birding was very quiet, which was not helped by low cloud occasionally drifting in. We did manage to see large numbers of phylloscopus warblers, including good numbers of Davidson's, half a dozen Claudia's and at least one Hume's. Amongst one flock of warblers we had good views of a Sulphur-breasted Warbler and during the morning we saw at least 5 Marten's and three Grey-crowned Warblers. With the sun eventually burning the cloud away the birding became even slower and our attention shifted to the good selection of butterflies present, more of these in later posts. We still encounted occasional birds including a female Chestnut-bellied Rock Thrush, several Little Pied flycatcher, Eurasian Jay, Orange-bellied Leafbirds, four Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker, two Maroon orioles, Black-winged Cuckooshrike, Great Barbet, Flavescent and Black Bulbul, numerous Fire-breasted Flowerpecker, Gould's Sunbird, Rufous-fronted and Puff-throated Babbler and heard Bar-backed Partridge calling loudly from several places and up to six Collared Owlets.

Lower down the track a stop near one of the villages produced a Blue-bearded Bee-eater, Japanese White-eye, White-crowed forktail, Ashy Bulbul, a dozen Bar-winged Flycatcher Shrike, White and Grey Wagtail. We returned to Malee's by 5pm having seen around 80 species, it was here just before dusk that a huge Spot-bellied Eagle Owl flew into tall trees just above the garden.

Amur Falcon

Doi Chiang Dao

Sunday and Monday I was busy doing mostly non birding things around Chiang Dao, however my bins were never very far away and I did manage to see a number of species either in the garden or over it. On Monday a male Amur Falcon headed high north over the garden, followed a little later by a Peregrine. A pair of Blue-bearded Bee-eater were present in trees by the entrance road into the resort and in scrub at the opposite end of the resort there was a splendid adult male Siberian Blue Robin. Monday morning a flock of a dozen Thick-billed Green Pigeon zipped over and in the evening Spot-billed Eagle Owl, Collared and Mountain Scops Owl were heard. 

Black-backed Forktail

Orange-breasted Trogon
Chiang Dao

This morning walked the first eight kilometers of the Muang Khong Road or Checkpoint Road, the birding was hard going at times, but on the stream which passes under the road several times there were two pairs of White-crowned Forktail and surprisingly a pair of the much scarcer Black-backed Forktail, a Little Heron was also flushed from the same stream. All the way along the road numerous blue and orange flycatchers were seen or heard singing, those seen well all appeared to be Hill Blue Flycatcher with a total of around 20 along the 8km stretch. A party of three Orange-breasted Trogons showed well and a Collared Falconet was another local scarcity. Plenty of birds were heard singing or calling along from the side of the road including three Drongo Cuckoo, two Banded Bay Cuckoo and Scaly-breasted Partridge from at least four different localities. There was plenty of birds by the checkpoint and beyond including a Bay Woodpecker, ten Thick-billed Green Pigeon, 13 Mountain Imperial Pigeon, Great Barbet, three Oriental Pied Hornbill, 20 Spangled Drongo, Grey-backed Shrikes, 8 Asian Fairy Bluebirds, numerous Blue-winged Leafbirds, four Blyth's Leaf Warblers, 3 Omei Warbler, a Grey-crowned Warbler and various other common species.

Blue Rock Thrush
Chiang Dao

Back at Malee's an Arctic Warbler, Blue Rock Thrush and two Puff-throated Babblers were present in the garden.    

Moths night of Nov 1st

Ran the moth light last night at Chiang Dao, numbers were disappointing. Frustratingly only managed to identify very few to species level.

Ambulyx canescens

Creatonotos transiens

Episparis costistriga

Nyctemera coleta

Actornis sp

Barsine sp

Leucomini sp

Spilosoma sp

Some of the unidentified moths from last night

Dark-sided Flycatcher

Green-billed Malkoha
Chiang Dao

Spent most of the morning looking skywards from the old rooftop restaurant at Malee's in hope of catching some late raptor passage.Star bird though was a Dark-sided Flycatcher feeding from a dead snag for over an hour, a species I have only seen a handful of times at Chiang Dao. Raptor passage was disappointing, the only things definitely moving south were three Black Baza, local raptors including at least three displaying Crested Goshawk and single Oriental Honey Buzzard, Kestrel and Crested Serpant Eagle. A few passerines appeared to be on the move 9 White-shouldered Starling and 40 Ashy Minivet all heading south. Also noted were several calling Oriental Pied Hornbill, pair of Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker, singing Banded Bay and Drongo Cuckoo, male Violet Cuckoo, 20 Brown Needletail, Emerald Ground Dove, 8 Blue-winged Leafbird, Grey-backed Shrike, Blue Rock Thrush, 4 Grey-crowned Warblers in Bamboo, 3 Puff-throated Babbler and several Thick-billed and Yellow-vented Flowerpecker.