A word of warning for the rare visitor from the south: roads are still in a state of flux if using the 3301 which should run directly north to the road that goes both to the HQ and the access road. Again, even using a Sat Nav, it was tricky: here's some detail...skip this if you want to get straight to the birds.
Still dark and making good time, despite the ridiculous occasional blips that Sat Navs always seem to do! Trolling along the 3301 within twenty miles of my goal and noticed the car wasn't actually on any road on the map on the Nav!
This was due to a new reservoir and a re-routing of the road which had me path-finding last time across a huge bulldozed sea of mud, but that's another story! So it came as not a complete surprise that, without warning, the road suddenly ended and became a narrow track of dirt down steeply to who knows where!
I turned around and took a left fork I'd noticed a few miles earlier, following for a time the east shore of this reservoir. But this quickly deteriorated to a track - and this wasn't on the Nav's map either!
Anyway, long story shorter: eventually this took me, very slowly, to the roads I needed and I found the park HQ, just before dawn still. Light broke on the beautiful area and, while waiting for the HQ office to open, I began to bird that part.
A few birds were calling, and within a few minutes I got onto a bird wave. Many Greater and Lesser necklaced laughingthrushes were foraging on and around the chalets in the wooded park-like habitat. Abbott's and Puff-throated babblers foraged silently, when a woodpecker's movement caught my eye.
This turned out to be my first KK tick: great views of a male Grey-headed woodpecker. Bar-winged flycatcher shrike, Grey-headed canary fly, Ruby-cheeked sunbirds, an Eastern crowned warbler, Two-barred greenish and White-tailed warbler added to the small birds, Ashy drongo and a Shama were also present. Forest wagtails swivveled on branches and called from the floor, a Lesser racket-tailed drongo sang. Three Large woodshrikes flew into roadside trees.
And so I got my tickets at office opening at eight and drove to the park's main access road, entering this world top-class site.
I'd decided to stop frequently all along the road, looking and listening for activity as I drove. Racket-tailed treepies, Paradise flycatchers, Great ioras were first up, Thick-billed green pigeons getting up from verges now and then. Next a noisy Greater flameback and a Blue-eared barbet and Black-crested and Stripe-throated bulbuls.
White-bellied yuhina and Black-winged cuckoo-shrike with Sultan tits (gorgeous birds, always impressive) and Blue-winged leafbirds, Scarlet minivets and a possible poor-view Little bronze cuckoo were in the next lot, with Ashy minivets.
Later Red junglefowls crossed the road, Hill blue and Blue-throated flycatchers, White-browed fantails showed. Grey-eyed and Ochraceous bulbuls and a Grey wagtail called a warning as a Crested serpent eagle flew by. Dusky warblers by the ground and Pale blue Fly up top, Green-billed malkoha and a Maroon woodpecker tried to hide.
Next hornbills: Oriental pieds and Greats. Black-headed bulbuls and a Greater yellownape - when a Civet - I think a Masked palm civet - crossed the road, found a dead bird and ate the magotty remains while moaning in delight!
Movements high up turned out to be Velvet-fronted nuthatches and a Lineated barbet while a Racket-tailed teeepie flew in. A Greater-racket-tailed drongo added to the wave.
The day was quickly done: wading through streams and creeping through suitable habitat had failed to show rarer barbets, no broadbills, no pheasants or partridges, no trogons, and no other ticks.
Up to the campground and dusk was approaching. A chevron of hornbills going to roost: right overhead four Wreathed and a single Plain-pouched in noisy-winged formation, the latter species a tick.
No nightjars flew the dusk sky. A stake-out at the White-fronted scops owl site produced nothing, though the fireflies, while pretty, had my heart pounding as they resembled eyes moving in the dark!
Next morning before light I drove to the top, very slowly, hoping for Leopard: no luck again, though another new mammal, a Malayan porcupine, showed well.
Dawn at the top - cold and grey! Golden and Rufous-fronted babblers began the day, then a Little cuckoo dove showed well as a Black baza flew by. A Grey treepie and a Grey-breasted spiderhunter next. Mountain imperial pigeons sang. Another pigeon showed: White-bellied green! A bit of a mega. Flavescent bulbuls and Lesser cuckoo-shrikes, Blue-winged leafbirds, Blue-throated barbets foraging, then White-browed shrike-babblers (always welcome) before the next tick: Black-throated sunbirds. An Asian fairy bluebird and an Asian emerald cuckoo (tick!) showed. Brown-cheeked fulvettas were quiet, as was a Plain-tailed warbler.
Next parrots: Blue-rumped walking along branches and Vernal hanging parrots flying noisily. Many Spectacled spiderhunters in a fruiting tree. Then a flock of about forty Asian fairy bluebirds! And a flock of minivets - Ashy probably. Many Spangled drongos flocking too. Two Silver-rumped needletails flew high overhead.
But the best bird wave began next: White-browed scimitar babblers began it, White-hooded babblers (superb) next, a leucothorax Black bulbul and two Lesser yellownapes came by, a Green-billed malkoha, a Crested jay, a Chestnut-winged cuckoo, a Drongo cuckoo, Buff-breasted babblers, and Short-billed minivets! A real wow wave!
But no Ratchet-tails gave themselves up for me.
Down by the lower streams things again quiet. Eventually my continual creeping turned up my final tick: down to one metre an Eye-browed wren babbler crept by! A Large hawk-cuckoo showed well too.
Driving out in the afternoon, stopping frequently at supposed falconet sites, I had to make do with Green magpies and supporting cast.
At the Evason hotel (Pran Buri) during my stay I found an Orange-headed groundthrush, a flock of three Red-breasted parakeets (difficult and a tick!) and a Blue whistling thrush. Two Asian house martins came past. Nearby an Eastern curlew, an out-of-range Sooty-headed bulbul, my second Jerdon's baza, and a Peregrine enlivened my holiday.
A dazzling read - and so much quality there - its just jumped a few spots on my wish list!
Cheers
Mike
Thanks, Mike. And that was in a quiet spell!