Thailand Birding - KRUNG CHING

It's Day 4 of our trip and today, we would be embarking a long journey down to Krung Ching, a place in the province of Nakhon Si Thammarat, southern Thailand. We checked-out of KKC Lake Hill Resort at 5am half-awaked, and had breakfast on-the-go due to time constraint, ie. 7-11. After travelling for about 2 plus hours and eating along the way, we had arrived at Hat Wanakorn National Park for owls photoshoot. It was also time for a toilet break after food. After alighting from the vehicle, most of us wanted to chiong for the toilet but the Spotted Owlet was already perching there, looking straight at us, delaying our toilet session 😁

It was quite an owlicious shooting this morning as they were all in pairs. We gotten the Spotted Owlets, the Asian Barred Owlets and the Brown Boobooks. These fellos were pretty active under a sunny day, despite being owls. The Indian Roller also came by for a photoshoot.

We left the park at 9am and continued our journey down South. At last, after about 6-7 hours on the road, we finally arrived at our accommodation for the night, a place called Happy Home, in Krung Ching. We arrived around 5pm plus, checked-in and freshened up, waiting for dinner to be served at 6:30pm. The guys together with our Guide Paan, were watching their FA Cup in the late evening, Man U vs Man City, and their screams could be heard miles away.

The next morning, we fall in at 6am, had local porridge for breakfast, checked-out, and proceeded to Khao Luang National Park for our 2nd leg of the trip. "Want this, do this, follow me!!" We followed our Guide along the waterfall trail then went off the beaten trail and arrived at Hide 1. The stars of this Hide: both male and female of the Rufous-collared Kingfishers, and the Malayan Banded Pittas.

After spending about 2 plus 3 hours in this Hide, we moved on to another Hide which was located along the same Waterfall trail, but further inside. This Hide 2 was created on uneven ground therefore it was not comfortable to stay there for long. We were here for the Pin-tailed Parrotfinch, the star bird for this Hide 2. Because of the infrequency of the Parrotfinch, we parked ourselves here early and had lunch in the Hide, staying here to shoot till 4pm, spending almost 5 hours plus here.

We left the Park and headed to our new accommodation place. Along the way, we had a stop along the road to look for the Green Broadbill. Guide managed to get the little fello out but it was heavily blocked. We could hear the Broadbill calling from among the foliage, not far. We were all pointing here and there as the call came closer. Guide said: "No need to point! No need to tell your friend! You see, you shoot! " Quite true 😂 "When you point and tell, bird already gone." The Raffles's Malkohas were foraging among the trees nearby when we were hunting for the Broadbill.

The Broadbill decided not to give face at all. I did managed one shot but was pretty far away. We would have better ones later. We proceed to check-in to our next accommodation for the next 2 nights at Krung Ching Homestay & Resort, and had dinner at the resort restaurant. Then we went for a night shooting, to look for the Blyth's Frogmouth.

The first hunting site that we went was having some military medical training, and was told that we were not allowed to stay around, so we went to another area which was along the road near the earlier Green Broadbill hunting site. We were asked to stay near the vehicle while Guide Paan went to call his "friend" (Blyth's frogmouth). He finally managed to get his frogmouth friend to show face after quite awhile, then signalled us with his light pointer to make our way over to him. We were quite excited because it's a lifer for all. We walked speedily towards him, following in our loud footsteps, and before anyone could shoot, the frogmouth flew away. Guide got frustrated with us and raised his voice: "Why you walk so loud?? Why must tump tump tump so loud?? You can walk without noise!! You try!! Walk like me!! You see, you can do it!! I'm sorry I need to scold you!" 🤣 In the end we didn't managed to get the frogmouth, but gotten a slow loris instead. Better than nothing!

We fall in at 6am the next morning for breakfast and moved out after that. It's a walking morning around Khao Luang National Park, near the park bungalows and along the waterfall trail, and the findings were not too bad. We stopped along the way to try for the Green Broadbill again, and finally, it did give us some face.

It was here in Krung Ching that we got the shots of the beautiful Lantern Bug during our walk along the waterfall trail.

After the morning walk, we proceeded straight to another Hide 3 to shoot the Rufous-morph Paradise Flycatcher. It was a really hot and humid afternoon at this Hide and due to time limitations, we had our lunch in the Hide. Luckily, the birds started to drop by only after we finished our lunch.

A very huge Huntsman Spider attracted our attention when we were happily shooting the birds. It was so huge that it got most of our attention off the birds for quite awhile. I shall make-do, and shot it with my tele lens as my macro lens was not with me at that time.