Off again for another awesome adventure!! The Team landed in Suvarnabhumi Airport at 7:35am, cleared immigration, and all ready to be picked up. We were famished and had breakfast at a local food stall along the way before starting our long journey to Kaeng Krachan (KKC) for the night. Our Guide, Mr Paan, brought us to our first shooting location, Red Lotus Floating Market, where we could catch a glimpse of the Pheasant-tailed Jacana and the Bronze-winged Jacana.
The late morning sun was out with a vengeance, roasting us all as we did our shooting on a sampan, with the local boatman paddling us around the lotus pond. It was crazy under that scorching sun, but rewarding as all of us had managed to get our shots. Chop! Chop! And we continued our way down to KKC. We had a short stop along the road to see the Greater Painted Snipe couple, which were hidden among the long grasses and also a view of the migratory Glossy Ibis, because Guide said: "This one must shoot!!"
We then proceed on to our next destination to look for the Spotted Owlet at Kasetsart University. Surprisingly, our Guide spotted the Hoopoes first and found that they were nesting in the trees along the road. We then parked ourselves in the middle of nowhere, staring and aiming at the trees, and waited. There were actually two nestings going on. 
The late morning sun was out with a vengeance, roasting us all as we did our shooting on a sampan, with the local boatman paddling us around the lotus pond. It was crazy under that scorching sun, but rewarding as all of us had managed to get our shots. Chop! Chop! And we continued our way down to KKC. We had a short stop along the road to see the Greater Painted Snipe couple, which were hidden among the long grasses and also a view of the migratory Glossy Ibis, because Guide said: "This one must shoot!!"
We then proceed on to our next destination to look for the Spotted Owlet at Kasetsart University. Surprisingly, our Guide spotted the Hoopoes first and found that they were nesting in the trees along the road. We then parked ourselves in the middle of nowhere, staring and aiming at the trees, and waited. There were actually two nestings going on. 
We had lunch nearby after shooting the Hoopoes and returned back to hunt for the Owlets. We found them, all feeling happy and satisfied!! We then proceed on with our journey down South....
After two hour plus of travelling, we had arrived at a temple quite secludedly located. It was drizzling and light was not very welcoming. We came here to photograph the Asian Barred Owlet, and our Guide managed to "Whatsapp" the little fello to at least show some face. 
After two hour plus of travelling, we had arrived at a temple quite secludedly located. It was drizzling and light was not very welcoming. We came here to photograph the Asian Barred Owlet, and our Guide managed to "Whatsapp" the little fello to at least show some face. 
Though not a good shot, we still managed to get some "still can see" shots despite the heavily blocked foliage and the terrible overexposed lighting. We then continued our journey and arrived at Nong Ya Plong district, somewhere in northwestern Phetchaburi, a place that had a view resembling some African savannah - barren grassland with small reservoirs. We were here to shoot the Small Pratincole, another lifer for us.
We had quite a pretty rewarding harvest of birds on the journey down to KKC before calling it a day at KKC Lake Hill Resort.
Day 1 in KKC - Fall in at 6am, had our breakfast and moved out to Hide 1, must get star birds - Yellownape Woodpeckers and the Partridges. There were also other birds seen at this Hide.
When the Partridges finally made an appearance, one of our Teammate said Chicken!! Guide responded to that chicken comment: "Listen to me! There are 2 types of Partridges here, one is Scaly-breasted and one is Bar-backed. Shoot!!! Shoot!!! Shoot!!! Must get the Bar-backed!!" The Bar-backed Partridge came out briefly and disappeared into the vegetation while the Scaly-breasted were happily eating away.
After spending about 2 rewarding plus hours in this Hide, we moved onto another Hide. Halfway, Guide received information that the Ferruginous Partridge was nearby, so we went to the Ferruginous Hide instead to catch this rare bird. This bird was like thunder and lightning, made so much noise before appearing. Then flew in the Woodpecker, that diverted our attention instead of focusing on the Partridge. Guide whacked us: "We are here for the Partridge! Why you shooting the Woodpecker? You already got it! Focus on the Partridge!!" We all stopped and obediently focus on waiting for the star to make an appearance. And this fella only scurried by from right to left, left to right, not making any stop for us. 
We had lunch nearby and rain started to pour. When the rain lightened abit, we decided to go into KKC National Park to shoot the nesting of the Black-and-red Broadbill. Waited quite awhile before it made an appearance.
We were supposed to do Broadbill hunting this afternoon as per planned but one of our teammate requested to hunt for the Banded Kingfisher instead. So after getting only one Broadbill, Guide brought us to the campsite near the park restaurant, and started communicating with the Kingfisher.
We waited for awhile and finally both male and female came by to gave us some face. At the same time while chasing for the ten storeys high birds, a Green-eared Barbet was busy constructing it's nest on a nearby tree.
We were exhausted and settled in for an early dinner. After that, we went for owl hunting. We were waiting and feeding mosquitoes before the Oriental Scops Owl dropped by, ending our Day happily.
Day 2 at KKC - Fall in at 6am, had breakfast and headed straight into the National Park. Early morning our Guide brought us go climb mountain and that woke everyone up! We had to climb up a pretty steep slope to catch a glimpse of the White-fronted Scops Owl. It's our lifer, so die die must shoot 😂
It's a walking day today at KKC, so we would be on foot all day long, bashing through dense vegetation and crossing rivers and streams in our water boots. Looking for the Green Magpie took up most of our time in the morning. It was flying around high up among the trees, not allowing us to have a shot of it. But we managed to photograph some others.
Shooting the Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher was no easy job. We went back and forth to shoot because there were an adult and a juvenile, both not at the same location. We then had simple lunch in the park restaurant and continued chasing more birds after that.
We initially ended our day without any bee-eaters. As when we were travelling out of the park, one of our teammate spotted a bird, got green and got blue colours. Immediately we looked out of our vehicle, it's the Blue-bearded Bee-eater!! Finally and at last!! We fall out of the vehicle to photograph it and surprisingly there were two of them. We ended our day well at KKC smiling ear to ear 😁
The Team: 
Next: Krung Ching
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