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Thailand: the Peninsular and Gurney's Pitta Friday 4 March to Tuesday 15 March 2011 with Jon Dunn and Yotin Meekaeo as leaders. Cost: £2740 plus about £870 for flights (2011) Please click here for details and an explanation of the price breakdown Maximum group size: 10 participants and 2 leaders.
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Our new tour to peninsular Thailand offers the opportunity to see some of 750 or more species restricted to peninsular Malaysia and the Greater Sundas. We’ll be spending most of our time in lowland forest, secondary growth, and cultivated lands at Khao Nor Chuchi, where our primary aim will be to see the critically endangered Gurney’s Pitta. Thanks to the expertise and careful arrangements of our local guides, we have a decent chance of seeing this stunningly beautiful species. We’ll also spend parts of two days at Khung Chin Waterfall in Khao Laung National Park, and we’ll take three boat trips: one to Similan Island, home to the strikingly distinctive and terrestrial Nicobar Pigeon, and another to Pida Island in the Pi Pi Island group, where three species of frigatebird, including Christmas Island, come to roost late in the day. Our final boat trip takes us to other birding location at Krabi Bay on the west coast of the peninsula, where we’ll explore mangrove forest, open mud, and sandflats amid delightful limestone karst scenery. This tour can be taken in conjunction with our tours to Thailand:The Coast to the Highlands Day 1: The tour begins in London with an overnight flight to Bangkok. Day 2: After arrival in Bangkok we’ll connect with a domestic flight to Krabi, where we’ll be met by our local guide and proceed directly to the Khao Nor Chuchi area for an afternoon’s birdwatching. Night at the Morakot Resort. Day 3: We’ll spend the first of two mornings in the Khao Nor Chuchi area in search of the superb Gurney’s Pitta. Afterwards we’ll search for specialties such as Red-crowned and Red-throated Barbets, Red-bearded Bee-eater, Black-thighed Falconet, Banded Pitta, Banded, Black-and-Yellow, and Green Broadbills, Dark-throated Oriole, Rufous-winged Philentoma, Fulvous-chested Flycatcher, and Ferruginous and Large Wren Babblers, among others. Wintering species from eastern Asia may include Crow-billed Drongo, Orange-headed Thrush, Asian Brown and Chinese Blue Flycatchers, Siberian Blue Robin, and Arctic and Eastern Crowned Warblers. The rare Green-backed Flycatcher is also a possibility. We’ll bird on at least one of our evenings here , and have a good chance of seeing the localized, distinctive-sounding, and rare White-fronted Scops-Owl. Other nocturnal species might include the migratory subspecies (stictonotus) of Oriental Scops Owl, Spotted and Brown Wood-Owls, and with very good luck, a Javan or even a Gould’s Frogmouth. Night at the Morakot Resort. Day 4: We’ll spend this morning looking for any missed target species at Khao Nor Chi Chi, especially Gurney’s Pitta should we not have seen it, or we’ll depart very early for Khung Chin Waterfall in Khao Laung National Park. The forest here is in better condition overall, and species diversity and abundance reflect that fact. Visibility along the broad trail is also better. Here we should see many new southern species, including some of the southern trogon species, especially Scarlet-rumped, and babblers are more numerous and more visible. We should see Gray-headed, and have a decent chance of seeing the very striking Malaysian Rail-Babbler. Night near Khao Laung National Park. Day 5: We’ll spend the entire day birding the Khung Chin Waterfall area. Night near Khao Laung National Park. Day 6: After a final morning of birding at the Khung Chin Waterfall area, we’ll depart from Krabi, possibly stopping near Khlong Thom to look for Jungle Myna. Depending on the time, we might bird late in the afternoon at Ban Nai Chong, an area of forest about 10 miles north of Krabi. Here spiderhunters, including Spectacled, are fairly numerous, and we may add further species such as Blyth’s Hawk Eagle and Lesser Green Leafbird. Day 7: This morning we’ll drive south about two hours and take a boat about an hour and forty-five minutes to Similan Island. This is the home of the terrestrial Nicobar Pigeon. We stand a good chance of seeing that incredibly distinctive species, and may also see both Green Imperial and Pied Imperial Pigeons, and a scattering of wintering passerines. Day 8: This morning we’ll do some local birding around Krabi, possibly to the forest at Ban Nai Chong if we haven’t birded it yet. We’ll visit the splendid forested trails of Khao Nor Chuchi, which will give us a chance to look for Gurney’s Pitta again if we haven’t already seen it, or bird areas north of Krabi. In the afternoon we’ll return to Krabi and take a boat to Pida Island, a small islet in the Pipi group, where three species of frigatebirds (Great, Lesser, and the geographically more restricted Christmas Island) come in to roost late in the day. Night in Krabi. Day 9: This morning we’ll do some local birding around Krabi, possibly in the forest at Ban Nai Chong if we haven’t birded it yet, or to Ao Phong National Park where we’ll search for Mangrove Pitta and have a chance at seeing Chestnut-bellied Malkoha. We can always visit Khao Nor Chu Chi again if we’ve missed Gurney’s Pitta on our earlier attempts. In the afternoon we’ll return to Krabi and take a boat to Ko Pi Da, a small islet in the Phi Phi group, where two species of frigatebird (Lesser and the geographically more restricted Christmas Island) come in to roost late in the day. We should see hundreds of Lessers and a dozen or more Christmas Island, and we stand a chance of seeing a third species, the Great Frigatebird. Along the way we might encounter some terns. Night in Krabi. Day 10: This morning we’ll take a boat through mangroves and to the mouth of the river. In the mangroves we’ll be searching carefully for Brown-winged Kingfisher, Streak-breasted Woodpecker, Mangrove Pitta, and Ashy Tailorbird, among other species. In addition to the hoped-for Chinese Egret and Nordmann’s Greenshank, other shorebirds may include Great Knot and Terek Sandpiper, and we might also see Great and Lesser Crested Terns. Brahminy Kites and White-bellied Sea Eagles soar overhead; Dusky Crag Martins are resident, bright orange Striated Swallows of the race badia skirt the cliff-faces, and in some years Oriental Hobby nests here. Pacific Swallows are common as they fly up and down the river. Later in the day we’ll take a flight back to Bangkok and then connect with an overnight flight back to London where the tour ends on Day 11. The ground arrangements for this tour are organised by our American associates WINGS. E-mail or phone +44 (0)1767 262522 for availability.
Updated June 2010
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The rare Gurney's Pitta will be the focus of our tour.
But other species we'll encounter include Banded Kingfisher |
