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Thailand: the Peninsular and Gurney's Pitta Friday 2 March to Tuesday 13 March 2012 with Jon Dunn and Yotin Meekaeo as leaders.
Cost: £2880 plus about £870 for flights (2012) Please click here for details and an explanation of the price breakdown Maximum group size: 10 with 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 Chu Chi, 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 stand a decent chance of seeing this stunningly beautiful species. We’ll also spend parts of two days at Khung Ching 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 two or perhaps three species of frigatebird, including Christmas Island, come to roost late in the day. Our final boat trip takes us to another 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. We'll also check an excellent wader location near our accommodation at Khao Luk, which also offers excellent protected forest nearby. This tour can be taken in conjunction with our tour to Thailand: The North, with Spoon-billed Sandpiper extension Day 1: The tour begins with an evening flight from London. Day 2: On arrival in Bangkok we'll transfer to our hotel for an introductory meeting before dinner. Night in Bangkok. Day 3: This morning we'll fly to Krabi, where we’ll be met by our local guide and proceed to the Khao Nor Chuchi area for an afternoon’s birdwatching. We may stop near Khlong Thom along the way to search for Jungle Myna. Night at the Morakot Resort. Day 4: 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 specialities 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; nocturnal species might include the migratory subspecies (stictonotus) of Oriental Scops Owl, Spotted and Brown Wood-Owls, Javan Frogmouth, and with very good luck, Gould's Frogmouth, White-fronted Scops Owl, or Barred Eagle Owl. Night at the Morakot Resort. Day 5: We’ll spend this morning looking for any missed target species at Khao Nor Chi Chi, especially Gurney’s Pitta if we haven't already 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 the striking Rufous-collared Kingfisher. Babblers are more numerous and more visible. We should see Gray-headed, and possibly Fluffy-backed Tit Babbler, and we have a decent chance of seeing the very striking Rail-Babbler. We also have a good chance of seeing the rare Wallace's Hawk-Eagle, and may see Wreathed or White-crested Hornbill. We'll linger one evening around the headquarters to search for Brown Wood and Buffy Fish Owls. Night at Loy Chalet, about an hour from Krung Ching Waterfall. Day 6: We’ll spend the entire day birding the Khung Ching Waterfall area. Night near Loy Chalet. Day 7: Depending on ornithological needs, we'll bird another morning at Khung Ching Waterfall or visit Laem Talumphuk, a good location for many waterbirds, and where we might see Pied Triller. After lunch we'll head back across the peninsula to Khao Luk, where we'll spend the next two nights. Day 8: We’ll take a boat about an hour and forty-five minutes to the Similan Islands. On Miang Island, we’ll disembark and search for 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 and early spring migrant passerines. After our return, depending on the tides, we may search a nearby wetland for wintering waders. In addition, there is at least a remote chance of seeing the rare Beach Thick-knee, which has been recorded here recently. Night in Khao Luk. Day 9: Not far from Khao Luk is some good forest where we’ll search for southern species we may have missed earlier. There are still even a few Helmeted Hornbills here. At a nearby water crossing we might see River Lapwing, and sometimes a few Gray-headed Lapwings winter here. Later we’ll drive on to our hotel in Krabi. Night in Krabi. Day 10: 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 11: This morning we’ll take a boat through mangroves and to the mouth of the river. In the mangroves and around the limestone cliffs, we’ll search 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 waders 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 return to Bangkok. We'll transfer to a nearby hotel for dinner before returning to the airport for our very late night flight back to London where the tour concludes on Day 12.
The ground arrangements for this tour are organised by our American associates WINGS.
E-mail or phone +44 (0)1767 262522 for availability.
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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 |
