Thailand; Day 3 - Doi Inthanon National Park

   The plan for the day was to spend the morning on the summit of Doi Inthanon, the highest peak in Thailand. To avoid the masses of tourists, we started as early as possible which meant arriving before sunrise. Unfortunately one of the side effects of this early start meant that it was an astonishingly cold four degrees when we arrived. But we had a hot coffee and started birding as soon as the light began to improve, birding the Ang Ka Nature Tail, a boardwalk just down from the summit, known for its many species on offer.

  Although the species total was limited, we enjoyed some fabulous birding along the boardwalk, with the undoubted highlight being a set of three Rufous-throated Partridges feeding right under us and not at all concerned by our presence. Additionally, we managed some excellent target species with Himalayan Shortwing, Dark-sided Thrush and the Doi Inthanon race of the Green-tailed Sunbird. There were also brilliant commoner birds, although the leaf warblers proved extremely problematic, eventually deciding we had seen Ash-throated Leaf Warbler and Davinson Leaf Warbler.

  The boardwalk was short but we did many loops looking for our targets, so we did not finish until late morning. The summit area was extremely busy, so we drove slightly down the mountain to the Kew Mae Pan area of shops and restaurants, as here there was another nature trail we decided to try. However, before we started we found out that a group of photographers were throwing mealworms down behind the toilets for birds, and this brought out several goodies such as Slate-coloured Flycatcher, Large Niltava and Silver-eared Laughingthrush. We enjoyed spending time watching the birds.

  The trail itself was three kilometres long, and for the most part not birdy at all. It obviously didn’t help that it was the worst time of day for birding and that the trail itself was incredibly steep and busy, meaning that we spent very little time actually scanning the canopy, generally focusing on the understorey and keeping ourselves together as we quickly tired. Still, we managed to find a nice Snowy-browed Flycatcher and a female Himalayan Shortwing. At the top of the trail, where it opened out into a stunning vista, there was a singing Hill Prinia.

  Once we got back towards the end of the afternoon, we decided to check out a hide just above the town of Doi Inthanon that we had heard about. Since the actual site restaurant was not open, it took some time to find the hide but once we did there were some excellent birds on offer; Daurian Redstart, female Lesser Shortwing, Plumbeous Water Redstart and a female Hill Blue Flycatcher. But the best bird at this site was a Pygmy Cupwing, a species we had searched for all day without success which Sarah and Kate found in an ornamental area just downstream from the hide. An excellent end to an excellent day, which saw us birding relentlessly from dawn until dusk.

Species List:
Doi Inthanon National Park: Rufous-throated Partridge, Peregrine Falcon, Grey-backed Shrike, Yellow-bellied Fantail, Japanese Tit, Yellow-cheeked Tit, Hill Prinia, Pygmy Cupwing, Mountain Bulbul, Black-crested Bulbul, Ashy-throated Warbler, Davison's Leaf Warbler, Slaty-bellied Tesia, Mountain Tailorbird, Chestnut-flanked White-eye, Rufous-winged Fulvetta, Yunnan Fulvetta, Silver-eared Laughingthrush, Dark-backed Sibia, Bar-throated Minla, Common Myna, Dark-sided Thrush, Oriental Magpie-Robin, Large Niltava, Verditer Flycatcher, Hill Blue Flycatcher, Lesser Shortwing, Himalayan Shortwing, Blue Whistling Thrush, Red-flanked Bluetail, Slaty-blue Flycatcher, Snowy-browed Flycatcher, Plumbeous Water Redstart, Daurian Redstart, Grey Bush Chat, Mrs. Gould's Sunbird, Green-tailed Sunbird, Grey Wagtail,