A Bird Photo Hide in Thailand (part 1)

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by DaleForbes on August 29, 2011 · 8 comments

in Birding Asia, Digiscoping & Bird Photography

Thailand offers a rich splendour of wildlife and birding opportunities and Kaeng Krachan National Park (แก่งกระจาน) is one of its absolute greatest. Bird photographer and ex-bird guide Alex Vargas very kindly offered to take us out to Kaeng Krachan when we were recently in Thailand and instead of running around searching for birds, he took us out to a bird photography hide on the border of the park. Evidently, the hide is in a dry area with no permanent water, except for one little pool located conveniently right in front of the permanent hides. It is then just a waiting game to see what comes by.

Blow dry. Red-legged Crake (Rallina fasciata)

 

So we set ourselves up for a day of inactivity but yet hopefully tons of activity. The first bird that blew my mind was a gorgeous Red-legged Crake (Rallina fasciata). I really had not expected to come across a beautiful, boldly coloured forest rail and for it to show off just a few meters in front of us was wonderful. During the day, we had Red-legged Crakes come by for baths 3 times. Let’s pretend they were 3 different birds so I can tell all my friends I saw tons of them.

Have you seen this chicken?

I also got surprisingly excited about the Red Junglefowl – the ancestor of our farm chicken. So much like the hens I know, but yet still subtly different in so many ways. Really cool birds.

Crab-eating Mongoose (Herpestes urva)

When we first got to the hide, a tiny Lesser Mouse-deer (aka Kanchil, Tragulus kanchil) scampered off in to the forest. The mouse-deer is evidently the smallest hoofed animal alive and the way it disappeared in the jungle reminded me very much of the tiny Blue Duiker (Philantomba monticola) I loved so much as a youngster. But after a few hours of sitting motionless, a strange creature appeared out of the forest. And we had no idea what it was. It looked like a giant mongoose. And that is kind of what it was: a Crab-eating Mongoose, a long way away from its normal aquatic habitat.

Puff-throated Babbler (Pellorneum ruficeps)

All the photos I took that day were with my straight scope – a Swarovski STM80 HD – and a Canon 5D mark II. A great combination with 800mm of focal length.

Black-crested Bulbul (Pycnonotus melanicterus)

During the day, we had four bulbul species come by, including the beautiful Black-crested Bulbul. How great is this bird?

Tomorrow I will post a second post on A Bird Blind in Thailand on 10,000 Birds.

 

Happy digiscoping,

Dale Forbes

 

 

 

 

 

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Tagged as: digiscoping, Thailand

Article by Dale Forbes

I have always felt at home in nature. She has always been there for me. I started birdwatching as a young kid. Then got in to ornithology. Then more conservation biology. I grew as a birder, loving it more with every day. I now work for Swarovski Optik making awesome toys for birders (product/marketing manager) and am an obsessed digiscoper. My inability to look at birds as a collection of specific ID features, seems to be a downfall which means I will never be a great birder. But I really do love it. Dale also writes a regular post at 10,000 Birds every second Tuesday.

Dale has written 64 awesome articles for us.

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