Ayutthaya again

Decisions, decisions. It was always our intention to return to Cambodia after our Gift Of Happiness week but with the pandemic gathering pace we thought it best to weigh up our options. And, with a direct (if rather long and mosquitos ridden) train from Udon Thani, where better to stop and take stock than Ayutthaya. 

We stayed again at the Atthitara by the Chao Phraya river in the SE of the historical park area. For an account of our previous stay see here. Once again it proved a great base for exploring some of the wilder parts of the park. Although a similar range of species seen this time there were some significant differences.

A Brown-backed Needletail on the first day was a first for me in Thailand; I've only previous seen them a few years ago in Cambodia. Possibly overlooked but this very large swift has quite a patchy distribution across the region and is pretty dramatic. Cinnamon Bittern and Bronze-winged Jacana were also additions. I was surprised not to see any Ashy Drongos but made up for it with Hair-crested Drongo.

Hair-crested Drongo Dicrurus hottentottus

Kingfishers were once again well represented, although I failed to find any Black-capped this year. Stork-billed looks to be reliable in the western part of the park and Pied Kingfishers active on the main river again. Ayutthaya also remains the only place I've come across Small Minivet.

Stork-billed Kingfisher Pelargopsis capensis

Regular winter visitors included Thick-billed, Dusky & Yellow-browed Warblers, Taiga Flycatcher, and Asian Brown Flycatcher.

Little Cormorant Microcarbo niger

Red-wattled Lapwing Vanellus indicus

Asian Water Monitor Varanus salvator

While here we decided we would travel to Chiang Mai and extend our Thai visas to cover the rest of our stay, then move to Pai; we'd never been here but had it recommended a number of times. So after a few days we took the sleeper north. It's fairly new, smart berths were pretty comfortable. While waiting for the train we watched a few Lyle's Flying Foxes flying around a large tree close by, illuminated by the station lights.

60 species in total

Shikra

Hair-crested Drongo

Black-naped Monarch

Green-billed Malkoha

Grey Heron

Common Kingfisher

Pied Kingfisher

Blue-tailed Bee-eater

Small Minivet

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Brown-throated Sunbird

Rock Dove

Red Collared Dove

Spotted Dove

Zebra Dove

Greater Coucal

Asian Koel

Plaintive Cuckoo

Brown-backed Needletail

Germain's Swiftlet

Asian Palm-Swift

White-breasted Waterhen

Red-wattled Lapwing

Bronze-winged Jacana

Asian Openbill

Little Cormorant

Indian Cormorant

Yellow Bittern

Cinnamon Bittern

Great White Egret

Little Egret

Cattle Egret

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Eurasian Hoopoe

Stork-billed Kingfisher

White-throated Kingfisher

Indochinese Roller

Coppersmith Barbet

Lineated Barbet

Black-naped Oriole

Common Iora

Malaysian Pied-Fantail

Black Drongo

Brown Shrike

Large-billed Crow

Common Tailorbird

Plain Prinia

Thick-billed Warbler

Barn Swallow

Streak-eared Bulbul

Yellow-browed Warbler

Dusky Warbler

Common Myna

Great Myna

Oriental Magpie-Robin

Taiga Flycatcher

Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker

Olive-backed Sunbird

Scaly-breasted Munia

Plain-backed Sparrow

Udon Thani & Ban Chiang

Suan Luang

Nam Tok had been brilliant and it was a wrench to leave, especially when I got a photo of Grey-headed Parakeets that had arrived the day after we left, sent by our neighbours who had stayed on for a few more days! But we had to go as we were due to meet up with our friends at the Gift Of Happiness charity in Bangkok. First we spent a night in the Suan Luang district of Bangkok. Just another suburb but there's everything you need in places like this, we got an excellent a/c room for £14 and ate well for under a fiver for two. I took a walk to a nearby mall to change back some Vietnamese Dong and the route took me along a concrete walkway along one of the many klongs (canals). Even in this unremarkable part of the city I saw Plaintive Cuckoo, Little Cormorant, Common Kingfisher, Brown Shrike, Plain Prinia, Black-browed Reed Warbler and more.

Udon Thani

Common Tuft Bearing Longhorn Aristobia approximator

The following day we travelled with the charity to the provincial town of Udon Thani in the northeast of the country near the Lao border to put on a few shows and distribute donations at rural schools in the area. See here for a full report on this roadtrip.

Again wildlife took a back seat but I did get a distant photo of this huge insect from the hotel balcony; the Common Tuft Bearing Longhorn. Also from the balcony, watched evening roost flights of Black Drongos and mid-sized bats passing at dusk. Asian Barred Owlet sang during the day and other birds seen here included Ashy Minivets, 1 Thick-billed Warbler, 1 Yellow-browed Warbler, Black-naped Monarch, Verditer Flycatcher and Brown-throated Sunbird. Swiftlets were a challenge here with some birds showing characteristics of Himalayan Swiftlet but most looked like Germain's Swiftlet.

One afternoon we visited the Ho Chi Minh Historical Park 12km west of the town. This curious shrine to the Vietnamese revolutionary leader's 3 month sojourn here in the late 1920s includes a small museum and some reconstructed houses in the style of the time. Surprisingly interesting and interpreted by an enthusiastic guide.

Ban Chaing

Being so close to a world heritage site proved too much of a temptation so when work with the charity was over we moved to a small resort in the SE of the city for a couple of nights and hired a car and driver to take us the 50km east to the site.

UNESCO World Heritage site number 76 for me is a museum centred on an extensive area of archaeological discoveries (mainly pottery) documenting evidence of early civilizations dating back around 4,000 years. There is also a preserved dig site a short way from the museum. A fairly underwhelming and low key place with few visitors and even less wildlife during our visit.

Back in Udon Thani I headed to the station to get the tickets for the train to Ayutthaya, passing a Buddhist temple procession and, at the Chinese-Thai Cultural Centre, some dragon dancing. The message of solidarity with Wuhan, where the pandemic had so far hit hardest, was a poignant symbol of what was still to come globally.

Nam Tok

With our Vietnamese visa running out it was decision time. We weren't due back in Thailand for another two weeks and had intended to return overland via Cambodia. However due to Chinese New Year and Tết (the week long Vietnamese equivalent) trains back to Saigon were fully booked and with the virus gaining pace we felt it was best to fly back to Thailand and spend the time within reach of Bangkok before we were due to meet up with the Gift Of Happiness charity.

So we managed to get a daytime sleeper train back to Da Nang where we spent a very pleasant evening and enjoyed the fire, water and music display from the dragon bridge. The following morning we took a ridiculously cheap flight to Bangkok's Don Muang airport and a old train costing a few pence into the centre of town. I'm really going to miss these wonderful third class trains rattling through the scruffy suburbs and pulling into the atmospheric Hualamphong terminus when services migrate to the new hub at Bang Sue Grand Station. The smiles, the small acts of kindness and the food made us realise how much we'd missed Thailand.

We'd decided a trip up to the national parks beyond Kanchanaburi would be a great way to spend the time before we had to be back in Bangkok, so we stayed at a slightly weird Air BnB not far from Thonburi station and (by the skin of our teeth) caught the early train to Nam Tok in the morning. This train is a great experience on many levels; the old third class rolling stock, food and drink sellers, the bridges and cuttings built on the bodies of prisoners of war and, perhaps surprisingly, the wildlife.

I kept a list of birds seen from this journey, which takes almost 5 hours to do the 100 or so miles, and clocked up 50 species. Among the highlights were a Ruddy-breasted Crake flushed by the train, Lesser Coucal, Purple Heron, Black Baza, Black-Winged Kite, Crested Serpent Eagle, Bronze-winged Jacana and a Greenshank as well as the usual White-throated Kingfisher, Indochinese Roller, Green, Blue-tailed and Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters.

We'd been to Nam Tok the year before but we only took a day trip beyond Kanchanaburi so we were looking forward to exploring a bit more. In the end we liked the location so much we stayed put for the whole 11 days. Comfortable, affordable place to stay, excellent wildlife right outside the door with walks into good habitat, a cheap place to eat nearby with outstanding food and shops selling fresh fruit and veg near enough. The friendly owners kept showering us with gifts of fruit from the garden as well.

While here we visited the nearby waterfalls, hired a scooter and paid homage to the nightmare of the Death Railway at 'Hellfire Pass' and had an exciting, unguided walk through some very dark caves. If you are in this area the Hellfire Pass memorial is breath-taking and very moving. Well worth the visit.

Crested Honey Buzzard Pernis ptilorhynchus

So what about the wildlife? The gardens of the Baanrai Saiyoknoi resort and the adjacent palm plantation and wooded hills were a rich source of bird life and I found 69 species at the resort during our stay. Often heard Banded Bay Cuckoo, Large-tailed Nightjar and Red-wattled Lapwing but didn't see them at all. Raptors were pretty good with Crested Honey Buzzard, Grey-faced Buzzard, Crested Goshawk and Shikra all regular.

An Asian Barred Owlet sang a lot of the time and I eventually located it one day in a large tree close to our bungalow. The way the whole of its body shudders as it sings is amazing and the little tail wiggle at the end adorable.

 Asian barred owlet Glaucidium cuculoides

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater Merops leschenaulti

Blue-bearded Bee-eater Nyctyornis athertoni

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater was expected but seeing Blue-bearded Bee-eater was great. My first in Thailand. Coppersmith, Lineated and Green-eared Barbets were all vocal but rarely seen. Among the expected smaller birds were Thick-billed Warbler, Two-barred Warbler, Puff-throated Babblers, Verditer, Indochinese and Hill Blue Flycatchers. Nice to see Ruby-cheeked Sunbird but the stars were the White-browed Scimitar-babblers, which showed very well at times but were more often heard and a small number of Pin-tailed Parrotfinches.

Pin-tailed Parrotfinch Erythrura prasina

White-browed Scimitar-babbler Pomatorhinus schisticeps

Yellow-bellied Warbler Abroscopus superciliaris

White-browed Scimitar-babblers were also at Hellfire Pass along with Puff-throated Babbler, Variable Limestone Babbler, Two-barred and Yellow-bellied Warblers, Grey-headed Canary-flycatcher, Racket-tailed Treepie, Striated Swallow, Crested Treeswift and (still only heard) Banded Bay Cuckoo.

We also visited the LAWA Caves on the west side of the Khwae Noi river; a 'self-guided', unlit system that was surprisingly impressive. Very glad we remembered to carry a torch. Had excellent views of a Blue Whistling Thrush here as well as Variable Limestone Babbler and Puff-throated Babbler.

There are only two trains a day back to Bangkok. The first is a very early departure and the second arrives a bit later than we'd like so we caught the later train back to Kanchanaburi and stayed the night there. We then took the early train from there the next day giving ourselves another two hours in bed. Love Kanchanaburi but didn't encounter any new birds during our short stay close to the famed bridge.

The train back to Bangkok was once again entertaining with Grey-headed Swamphen, Whiskered Tern and Chestnut-tailed Starling all seen on the way.

Black-hooded Oriole Oriolus xanthornus

Brown Shrike Lanius cristatus

Hair-crested Drongo Dicrurus hottentottus

Hill Blue Flycatcher Cyornis whitei

Eurasian Hoopoe Upupa epops

Indochinese Blue Flycatcher Cyornis sumatrensis

Thick-billed Warbler Arundinax aedon

Zebra Dove Geopelia striata

110 species in total including those seen from the train journeys 

Red Junglefowl

Rock Dove

Red Collared Dove

Spotted Dove

Zebra Dove

Greater Coucal

Lesser Coucal

Green-billed Malkoha

Asian Koel

Banded Bay Cuckoo

Large-tailed Nightjar

Germain's Swiftlet

Asian Palm-Swift

Crested Treeswift

Grey-headed Swamphen

White-breasted Waterhen

Ruddy-breasted Crake

Black-winged Stilt

Red-wattled Lapwing

Bronze-winged Jacana

Common Greenshank

Whiskered Tern

Asian Openbill

Little Cormorant

Purple Heron

Great White Egret

Intermediate Egret

Little Egret

Cattle Egret

Striated Heron

Black-winged Kite

Crested Honey-buzzard

Black Baza

Crested Serpent-Eagle

Grey-faced Buzzard

Crested Goshawk

Shikra

Asian Barred Owlet

Eurasian Hoopoe

White-throated Kingfisher

Blue-bearded Bee-eater

Green Bee-eater

Blue-tailed Bee-eater

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater

Indochinese Roller

Coppersmith Barbet

Green-eared Barbet

Lineated Barbet

Black-naped Oriole

Black-hooded Oriole

Ashy Woodswallow

Common Iora

Great Iora

Malaysian Pied-Fantail

Black Drongo

Ashy Drongo

Bronzed Drongo

Hair-crested Drongo

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo

Black-naped Monarch

Brown Shrike

Racket-tailed Treepie

Large-billed Crow

Grey-headed Canary-Flycatcher

Common Tailorbird

Dark-necked Tailorbird

Thick-billed Warbler

Barn Swallow

Striated Swallow

Black-crested Bulbul

Red-whiskered Bulbul

Sooty-headed Bulbul

Stripe-throated Bulbul

Yellow-vented Bulbul

Streak-eared Bulbul

Yellow-browed Warbler

Dusky Warbler

Two-barred Warbler

Yellow-bellied Warbler

Pin-striped Tit-Babbler

White-browed Scimitar-Babbler

Puff-throated Babbler

Variable Limestone Babbler

Black-collared Starling

Asian Pied Starling

Chestnut-tailed Starling

Common Myna

Great Myna

Asian Brown Flycatcher

Oriental Magpie-Robin

White-rumped Shama

Hill Blue Flycatcher

Indochinese Blue Flycatcher

Verditer Flycatcher

Blue Whistling-Thrush

Taiga Flycatcher

Blue Rock Thrush

Amur Stonechat

Thick-billed Flowerpecker

Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker

Ruby-cheeked Sunbird

Purple Sunbird

Olive-backed Sunbird

Blue-winged Leafbird

Scaly-breasted Munia

White-rumped Munia

Pin-tailed Parrotfinch

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Grey Wagtail

Paddyfield Pipit

Huế

Took the journey to Huế from Hoi An by train via Da Nang; a comfortable, scenic 3 hour ride in pretty poor weather and the only birds to show were not identifiable from the train. Greeted on arrival at Huế station by cartel taxis wanting ₫200,000 (about £7 for less than 2km along a dead straight road) so we walked the 25 minutes in increasing rain and arrived at the hotel like drowned rats. Perhaps that's why the staff were a bit miserable but it was more likely because the boss wasn't around and they are just like that. Took a while to persuade them to a) clean the room and b) provide us with more than a single duvet! Welcome to Huế!

Otherwise the room was cheap, very comfortable and high up with a superb view across the Perfume River to the Imperial City on the other side. Met up once again with Phil & Carol who had travelled ahead of us and were leaving to push further north the following day. Ate at an excellent Indian restaurant and the following evening at the Indonesian next door to it. Both were a massive improvement on the rather unimaginative Vietnamese food we'd had most of the time so far.

Daurian Redstart Phoenicurus auroreus

Main attraction here was UNESCO World Heritage site number 75 for me, the extensive Imperial City, much of which had miraculously survived the worst ravages of the war. Well worth the ₫200,000 entry fee and, with large gardens, excellent for wildlife. I found Chinese Blackbird and Daurian Redstart here, both lifers, my American counterpart who visited a day later also found Japanese Thrush and I had an Orange-headed Thrush here so it's well worth digging around in the more unkempt margins of the complex looking for birds. The NE corner with its large Black-crowned Night Heron colony and the gardens just south of that were the best.

Chinese Blackbird Turdus mandarinus

Other birds included Common and White-throated Kingfishers, White-breasted Waterhen, Dusky and Yellow-browed Warblers, Brown Shrike, Red-breasted Parakeets (12 about), Plaintive Cuckoo, Swinhoe's White-eye, Asian Brown Flycatcher, Stejneger's Stonechat and Grey Wagtail. Just outside the city walls found a male philippensis Blue Rock Thrush.

Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax

Common Kingfisher Alcedo atthis

White-throated Kingfisher Halcyon smyrnensis

The Imperial City

Just 37 species seen in a couple of days in the city but 2 lifers.

Rock Dove
Zebra Dove
Greater Coucal
Plaintive Cuckoo
Germain's Swiftlet
Common Moorhen
White-breasted Waterhen
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Common Kingfisher
White-throated Kingfisher
Lineated Barbet
Peregrine Falcon
Red-breasted Parakeet
Common Iora
Brown Shrike
Large-billed Crow
Common Tailorbird
Barn Swallow
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Yellow-browed Warbler
Dusky Warbler
Swinhoe's White-eye
Great Myna
Orange-headed Thrush
Chinese Blackbird
Asian Brown Flycatcher
Oriental Magpie-Robin
Taiga Flycatcher
Daurian Redstart
Blue Rock Thrush
Siberian Stonechat
Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
Grey Wagtail
Pied Wagtail/White Wagtail
Paddyfield Pipit
Olive-backed Pipit