THREE WEEKS IN THAILAND 4. KAEN KRACHANG NP
The last days of our VENT trip we spent in Kaen Krachang NP, a large forested
area with only 2 roads and also quite few tracks. We stayed at a
countryclub-like place outside the park, where our rooms were so far from the
reception and restaurant, that we had to be transported by golf carts.
Interesting rooms, as they contained a small zoo, it turned out: in my room
there were three frogs of two different species, a very large flat spider, the
usual small gekkos, and their predator, the tokeh, who announced his presence
now and then with a loud 'gekko' (or 'tokeh'). In a loudspeaker in he
restaurant a Hoopoe nested and had two small, but already crested young, and
close to our room a nightjar sat on its eggs (?); more thorough studies showed
that it was not the Large-tailed Nightjar that we heard a lot around here, but
an Indian Nightjar.
Also outside the park proper is Ban Nok San, a place where a retired
school-teacher has created a bird paradise by constructing a few pools and
feeding regularly. There is a lee-screen from behind which one can observe the
birds. Easy birding, this: one sits on a stool and peers through the holes, and
lots of birds come and show themselves. There were Greater and Lesser Necklaced
Laughing Thrushes, Siberian Blue Robin, Tickell's Blue Flycatcher, Abbott's
Babbler, Buff-brested Babbler, and both Large and White-browed Scimitar
Babbler. Red Jungle Fowl was a common visitor, and even the otherwise so shy
Bar-backed Partridge could here be watched at leisure. There were also mammals
here, Indochinese Ground Squirrel and Northern Tree Shrew, all clearly
habituated to this place.
The park itself was a wonderful and wild place, full of colourful butterflies.
One had to leave own transport at the gate, and we were within the park
transported in open 'bakkies', a bit of a problem now and then, as we had
several thunderstorms; fortunately things dry out quite quickly in these
temperatures. We entered the first day through the one road, and found two bull
elephants. Otherwise also here there were various squirrels, and the constant
gibbon song, but this park also had two species of leaf monkeys, the common
Dusky and the rarer Banded, and we watched both in their very hazardous-looking
'long jumps' from tree to tree. A very large fruit tree that we had found the
first afternoon, and which we hoped would be full of fruit-eating birds the
next morning, was instead full of monkeys. There still were many leafbirds,
fairy bluebirds and barbets, but the hornbills were clearly not willing to land
there, as long as there were so many monkeys, and there were also fewer pigeons
than usual, although we did find the uncommon Yellow-vented Pigeon (besides the
often common Thick-billed Pigeon), and had close ups of a calling Mountain
Imperial Pigeon.
Kaen Krachang was also the area for the broadbills for us this time. Earlier we
had had several chances to admire the Long-tailed Broadbill, but here we found
first the exquisite Silver-breasted Broadbill, and the next day the chunky
Dusky Broadbill, almost a caricature of a bird. On the last day we chased also
the Black-and-Yellow Broadbill for a long time, but although we heard its very
characteristic 'boiling kettle' call all around us, we never got to see the
birds themselves. But we did succeed in seeing the Green Magpie (A bird I
missed so often during an earlier trip to Buthan, that I started doubting that
it really existed), as well as the very uncommon-looking Ratchet-tailed Magpie,
living here in an isolated local population. And of course also here we had a
new flycatcher and a few more bulbuls, as well as the nice Spot-necked Babbler
and lour first Orange-bellied Leafbird.
All in all this has been a wonderful trip, and I have seen many more birds than
I ever could have found by myself. Many thanks Dion and Mike, and also Jane,
Linda, Pamela, Sharon, David, Jim and Mike, who all showed me birds I had not
found by myself and who also were such good company!
Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum
9037 Tromsø, Norway
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