Bird watching trip report


Introduction

Whale Watching season in Thailand and I decided to go whale and bird watching and I called Wild Encounter Thailand to see if there was space for one more passenger on the 21 September 2019. It will be a full day DAY TRIP from Bangkok and it will be nice to leave my room after a week sitting in.

Had a small fire in my room, no damages, but the sprinkler soaked my wood floor and we are now busy renovating my room. So no work during weekends and I will treat myself with some excitements.


Guide

I have used Wild Encounter Thailand before so I knew what I was in for. I liked their service previous times when I have gone whale watching with them so this should be a winner. They leave with a van from Bangkok early morning and we are back in Bangkok early evening.

They use 2 different boats, if there are many passengers they depart from the pier at Moo Baan Pramong in Samut Sakhon, this pier is closer to Bangkok. They also use a small boat departing from Bang Tabun in Phetchaburi.

Check out Wild Encounter Thailand´s web page: www.wildencounterthailand.com

Wild Encounter Thailand

Daily Timetable

• 06:00 ; Meet at Wild Encounter Thailand Meeting Point in Sukhumvit 105
• 06:30 ; Van will be leaving from our meeting point to the pier.
• 08.00 ; Arrive at the pier and board our whale watching boat.
(All customer that travel by themselves will meet at the pier by this time)
• 08.30 - 15.00 ; Spend all day looking for Bryde's whale in the Upper Gulf of Thailand.
* Lunch and dessert will be served on board
• 15:30 ; Heading back to the pier.
• 17:00 ; Arrive back at the pier and transfer back to picking up point.


Bangkok Meeting Point
7-11 SHOP, SUKHUMVIT 105

Price: 2300 Baht - Returning passengers 2100 Baht


Land transportation

1) TAXI, my choice of transportation. Early morning and it took me about 15 minutes to get there and it will cost about 100 Baht, about 3 US Dollars from the Asoke intersection. Say Sukhumvit Soi 105 or Baering BTS Station. Thai script for the taxi driver:

Sukhumvit Soi 105: สุขุมวิท ซอย ๑๐๕

Baering: สถานีรถไฟฟ้าแบริ่ง

2) SKY TRAIN Sukhumvit line (Green line) will take you to Baering #E14 station and from there it is a 3 minutes walk. I will go by taxi. But the meeting point at Sukhumvit Soi 105 is just next to the sky train station Baering. Get off the train and look for EXIT #1. Leave at EXIT #1 and just walk for 2 minutes towards north and you have the 7 Eleven on your right hand side.

สถานีรถไฟฟ้าแบริ่ง - Wild Encounter Thailand

สถานีรถไฟฟ้าแบริ่ง - Wild Encounter Thailand

สถานีรถไฟฟ้าแบริ่ง - Wild Encounter Thailand
Click HERE for full size map


Accommodations

I stay at my home sleeping in my own bed so no need for any hotel.


Equipment

Canon 5D Mk. III + Canon 5D Mk. IV
Canon EF 28-300/3,5-5,6 L IS USM
Canon EF 70-200/2,8L IS II USM
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens
Canon Speedlite 600EXII-RT flash
Canon PowerShot G7X Mark II
Panasonic HC-W585 video camera

Sound recorder
ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder


Weather / climate

Weather, I don´t know if Bangkok is the hottest capital in the world. But this is what they say and I have no reason to doubt this information because it is darn hot. Whale watching season and it is the rainy season so we can expect strong winds and heavy rain anytime.

Bangkok, Thailand - Climate & Temperature
Pictures from www.climatemps.com

Bangkok, Thailand - Climate & Temperature - Click picture for full size
Pictures from www.climatemps.com



References/Resources

Thai National Parks - About the National Parks in Thailand A very good web page - Do you know that there are still wild tigers, elephants, leopards, tapirs, gaurs, bears and many monkey species in many tropical rainforests across Thailand? Do you also know that around 10% of all marine species in the world can be found in Thailand? And the fact that Thailand is the best bird-watching destination in mainland Asia?

National parks are protected areas of land because they have unspoilt landscapes and a diverse number of native plants and animals. There are 127 national parks in Thailand, of them 22 marine national parks. These parks offers a diverse range of flora and fauna, home to important population of endangered species.
So now it will be easy to find out if there are any National Park close to you.

Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST) - The Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST) is one of the oldest Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST)organisations conserving birds and nature in Thailand and is the country partner of BirdLife International. BCST's role to the local community is to spread awareness about urban birds and reconnect people back to nature.

The Logo
Dated back to 1986 when BCST was then a loosely-formed “Bangkok Birdwatching Club”, the Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis), or “Nok Gang Ken Baan” in Thai, has been chosen to represent the organisation.

There are two sites covering Thailand and I have used them many times. These two web pages are actually everything you need for your birding adventures in Thailand. All the information you need about all the birding spots. Click on the map and then select your spot and you will have maps and everything you need to know about the areas. They have put a lot of jobs in to their web pages, North Thailand Birding and thaibirding.com A must to visit before you go bird watching in Thailand.

www.norththailandbirding.com - A one stop only for all your birding in Thailand

thaibirding.com - Nick Upton's one stop only for all your birding in Thailand.

Use both www.thaibirding.com and www.norththailandbirding.com and you have a winner. Some of the maps on www.norththailandbirding.com are way better than Nick Upton´s, while some of Nick's maps are much more detailed. So I have found that if I use both the web pages for information, well, nothing else needed.

PBase/Peter Ericson - Peter Ericson, a guy I thought was from USA because of his family name. I met him at Lat Krabang Paddies in May 2020 and turned out that he was Swedish. Anyway, I have used his excellent page PBase since 2016 as help to ID birds by the help from his beautiful bird pictures.

Here you can also find information about birding tours.

He is also having a Blog - Thaibirds and more with interesting information.

Bangkok City Birding - A lot of interesting birding stories and information on this bird watching blog by David Gandy. Bangkok-based patch-worker in Suan Rot Fai, a large park close to the city's famous weekend market. He have recorded 150 species on his patch since 2008. As one of the only big green spaces in the city, “SRF” acts as a real magnet for migrants during spring and autumn, and holds a healthy selection of "sibes" during the winter months.


ebird - Find birding hotspots with bird checklists from all over the world

Avibase - is an extensive database information system about all birds of the world, containing over 25 million records about 10,000 species and 22,000 subspecies of birds, including distribution information for 12,000 regions, taxonomy, synonyms in several languages


www.oiseaux.net This web page is also excellent for identifying birds. There is information and range maps for many many birds from all over the world. This page is almost guaranteed to give you any answer you have about any bird in the world.

Cloudbirders - Read birding trip reports from all over the world

Fatbirder - Linking birders worldwide... Wildlife Travellers see their sister site: WAND


Fatbirder is a fantastic web page with information from, I think every country in the world. My first stop when I plan for my bird watching trips. There is information about locations and guides, well, pretty much everything you need to know. Sometimes this is the only place I need to visit to plan my trip.

BirdingPal - find a birding Guide around the world

BirdingPal


And the web page you cannot live without. I have been around the world looking for birds. I usually have a Guide, but sometimes it is not possible to find a Guide. So, well, I have lost count on how many times I have had help to ID birds at BirdForum. Joining this forum have been very very good for my bird watching experience.

www.birdforum.net

ClimaTemps.com is the place to learn about the worlds climates with more than 4000 locations documented. Each aspect of the climate is represented using colour enhanced tables and professional graphs so that data can easily be compared by switching between locations in different tabs in your browser.

“A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson”


A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson

A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson. New edition updated with 76 species since previous edition “A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig” Nick Upton at www.thaibirding.com wrote “This quite excellent book is packed full of quality illustrations and written information on 1251 species recorded in Southeast Asia”

I bought this book for bird watching in Thailand, but it goes for all over SE Asia


Places to visit


Whale watching on the Upper Gulf of Thailand. So I expect to see both birds and whales.


Bird checklist


Full Thai list updated to the taxonomy, nomenclature and sequence of the IOU/IOC World Bird List. The complete checklist, including Thai names and synonyms, can be downloaded in Excel format - Thailand Bird Checklist. - Version 8.2 (2018) - found at www.norththailandbirding.com

Check lists can come in handy to find out the local name of the bird etc. And Avibase have a list with pictures and sounds, excellent!

So I will post bird checklists here and if my Guides provide me with checklists I will also post them here.

Cloudbirders


Avibase - Bird Checklists of the World

Samut Sakhon bird checklist from Avibase, click HERE - eBird version 2019 taxonomy - When going with the big boat

Phetchaburi bird checklist from Avibase, click HERE - eBird version 2019 taxonomy - When going with the small boat


Avibase is providing you with bird checklists from all over the world. And I´m impressed by their web page. Select country and area and you get the bird checklist. Like the PDF files I got from Avibase on the links above. You also get the checklist with pictures and sounds.

The best part is that you get the local names of the birds and the online checklist gives the names in English plus the language you have selected. But it seems like the PDF cannot handle some alphabet.

For example the Japanese language so it is blank in the PDF checklist. But it worked excellent with Swedish. But you get them in the local language on the online version.


Bird list

I only list birds I have got on picture on my list of OBSERVED BIRDS. But since I started using eBird I have changed a bit. I list all the birds on the eBird checklist. See the DAY TO DAY report in the itinerary below.

And you can visit my list of “Birds I have seen in Thailand” ONLY BIRDS I HAVE ON PICTURE.

eBird

eBird Report

Bang Tabun - Whale Watching with Wild Encounter Thailand, Phetchaburi, TH Sep 21, 2019 08:41 - 16:12
Protocol: Traveling
102.37 kilometer(s)
Comments: Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand. Error when trying to upload the report from my phone so I have to do it manualy
11 species

Feral Pigeon X
House Swift 10 Nest building or feeding young under the bridge
Whiskered Tern X Following the boat close to the shore line
Common Tern X
Great Crested Tern 2 Sitting on garbage in the Gulf of Thailand
Little Cormorant X
Great Cormorant 2 Sitting together with one Little Cormorant
Great White Egret 8
Little Egret 1
Brahminy Kite 1 Soaring over the sea looking for food
Eurasian Tree Sparrow 1

View this checklist online at ebird.org/view/checklist/S60041492



Trip Report

Saturday 21st of September 2019 and my alarm went off at 4 o´clock. But by then I had been awake for one hour and I was reading in my bed. Breakfast and I left my room at 5 thirty and I was lucky with the taxi. I was in a taxi after 2 minutes and I arrived to the meeting point 10 minutes before 6 o´clock.

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
In a taxi early morning on Sukhumvit Road

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Reaching 7

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
We can see that Baering Sky Train Station is very close to 7

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Leaving Bangkok behind

There was a girl outside 7 and she was the only one looking like she was going on a tour. So I asked if she was waiting for Wild Encounter Thailand and it turned out that she was. I bought water and some MAX to have on the boat and the van arrived a few minutes later. We will be 6 passengers on the boat and we will be 5 in the van.

3 Japanese tourists, one Thai girl and me. We were leaving without 2 of the Japanese tourists when they called form the tour company. The 2 Japanese tourists were lost in the sky train station. So it was almost 20 minutes late when we finally left Bangkok. 2 hours later and we parked at the pier in Bang Tabun, just next to the bridge across the Phetchaburi River.

And it had taken a long time to get to the boat and I discovered why, we were at another pier and we were going in a small boat today as we were only 6 whale watchers today. We got on board and we left the pier at Bang Tabun behind.

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Parked at the pier in Bang Tabun

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
The boat is waiting for us

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Steaming towards the open sea

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Leaving Bang Tabun and สะพานเฉลิมพระเกียรติ behind

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Steaming towards the open sea

We passing fishing gear and structures on the way out to the open sea and I spot many Great Egrets and Little Cormorants. I was lucky to see 2 Great Cormorant, according to my Guide they are only here. In Moo Ban Pramong, Samut Sakhon, where they have the big boat it is only the Little Cormorants.

Whiskered terns following the boat when we´re close to the shore line. Further out the Whiskered terns were changed for Common terns. I spotted a Brahminy kite on the way out. The bird was soaring over the water looking for food. I took a few pictures but it was too far away.

Little Cormorant / นกกาน้ำเล็ก - Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Little Cormorant / นกกาน้ำเล็ก

Little Cormorant / นกกาน้ำเล็ก - Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Little Cormorant / นกกาน้ำเล็ก

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Steaming towards the open sea

Great Egret, นกยางโทนใหญ่ - Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Great Egret, นกยางโทนใหญ่"

Little Cormorant / นกกาน้ำเล็ก - Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Little Cormorant / นกกาน้ำเล็ก

Great Egret, นกยางโทนใหญ่ - Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Great Egret, นกยางโทนใหญ่"

Little Cormorant / นกกาน้ำเล็ก - Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Little Cormorant / นกกาน้ำเล็ก

Brahminy kite, เหยี่ยวแดง - Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง

Little Cormorant / นกกาน้ำเล็ก - Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Little Cormorant / นกกาน้ำเล็ก

Little Cormorant / นกกาน้ำเล็ก - Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Little Cormorant / นกกาน้ำเล็ก

Great Cormorant / นกกาน้ำใหญ่ - Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Great Cormorant / นกกาน้ำใหญ่

Great Cormorant / นกกาน้ำใหญ่ - Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Great Cormorant / นกกาน้ำใหญ่

We left the river mouth and the shore line behind together with all fishing structures etc. From now on it was mostly terns to see. We had Wiskered Terns following the boat looking for fish in the wake of the small boat. We had been on the way for about 3 hours and my fellow passengers were either sleeping or playing with their phones.

So it was only me and the crew looking for whales and it was kind of boring as there wasn´t much to see. Every now and then there was a tern flying by. And there was terns sitting in the floating debris. But no sign of any whales.

Whiskered Tern, Chlidonias hybrida, Chlidonias hybridus, นกนางนวลแกลบเคราขาว
Whiskered Tern / นกนางนวลแกลบเคราขาว

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Fishing boat

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Tern resting on some debris

Common Tern, นกนางนวลแกลบธรรมดา - Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand

Greater Crested Tern, Crested Tern, Swift Tern, Thalasseus bergii, นกนางนวลแกลบหงอนใหญ่

Greater Crested Tern, Crested Tern, Swift Tern, Thalasseus bergii, นกนางนวลแกลบหงอนใหญ่
Greater Crested Tern /นกนางนวลแกลบหงอนใหญ่

Greater Crested Tern, Crested Tern, Swift Tern, Thalasseus bergii, นกนางนวลแกลบหงอนใหญ่
Greater Crested Tern /นกนางนวลแกลบหงอนใหญ่

Whiskered Tern, Chlidonias hybrida, Chlidonias hybridus, นกนางนวลแกลบเคราขาว

Whiskered Tern, Chlidonias hybrida, Chlidonias hybridus, นกนางนวลแกลบเคราขาว
Whiskered Tern - นกนางนวลแกลบเคราขาว

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Lunch

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Back to sleep

They served lunch and the whale watchers started to get active. Eating the lunch and back to sleep or playing with the phone. I had some of my pick nick bars while looking for whales. The Gulf of Thailand is like a mirror, but no sight of any whales. I spotted something looking like a whale and I alerted the Captain.

Something moving dead a head but it turned out to be debris floating, what a disappointment. But there had been a few minutes of action and all the whale watchers had paid attention wondering what the ruckus was all about. And as we thought it was a whale the spirit was high.

The sky turned black in the horizon and the sea turned from a mirror to a choppy sea. We had spray coming in over the boat and on top of that a heavy shower passed over us and the rain was blowing in over the boat.

They closed a canvas on the side and this helped a little. I put my back pack and camera in the cabin to protect it from water.

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
The horizon turns black

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
The spirit is high

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
We were wishing for better weather

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
The sea is getting rough

It was not a very comfy ride with the water spray. Nothing to see, and never mind, my camera was back in the cabin. And it kept on until we were back at the mouth of Phetchaburi River. We could see the fishing structures again and the weather, well, the rough sea disappeared. We were followed by Whiskered Terns and I went to get my camera.

I took a seat in the back and I tried to get the Whiskered Terns on picture. It was not easy to get them on picture, quick moving and the light was very poor due to the gloom and grey.

I took many pictures and most of them turned out to, well, they were delated.

Whiskered Tern, Chlidonias hybrida, Chlidonias hybridus, นกนางนวลแกลบเคราขาว
Whiskered Tern - นกนางนวลแกลบเคราขาว

Whiskered Tern, Chlidonias hybrida, Chlidonias hybridus, นกนางนวลแกลบเคราขาว
Whiskered Tern - นกนางนวลแกลบเคราขาว

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Back at the bridge in Bang Tabun

Bird / Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand
Back at the pier

We were back at Bang Tabun just after 4 o´clock and it had been a nice trip, well, except for the weather. We were on our way to Bangkok 30 minutes later and we expect it to take 2 hours. There had been heavy rain in Bangkok so the roads were flooded. But I made it back home without any problem. Sunday tomorrow and I will have the day off. Just some boxing exercise in the morning and then rest.

Next week and I will be busy in the apartment before flying to a Maersk Tanker seminar in Copenhagen on Thursday. Click HERE to find out if I make it to Suvarnabhumi International Airport in time.

Bird watching trip report



       
                  
OK, it has come to my knowledge that we have senior citizens visiting my web page. How hard can it be? So it's not very easy for them to see the blue coloured links to the next page.
Jiffy (also jiff)

noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.

ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.

So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.
So I put a “Next” button here and I hope that there isn't any problem to understand how to use that one. So just CLICK the “Next” button on your left hand side and you will be on the next page in a jiff!

Marunong ka mag-tagalog? Walang problema! Magpunta sa kabilang pahina pindutin ang “NEXT” button sa itaas

Faites vous parlez le français? Pas de problème! Pour arriver à la page suivante faites s'il vous plaît un déclic le bouton “Next” ci-dessus!

Haga usted dice el español? No hay problema! Ver la siguiente página sólo hacer clic el botón “Next” encima!

Farla parla l'italiano? Non problemi! Per vedere la prossima pagina lo scatto per favore giusto Il bottone “Next” sopra

Sprechen sie Deutsch! Kein problem! Wenn Sie die folgende Seite sehen wollen gerade klicken der Knopf “Next” oben!

คุณพูดภาษาไทยได้ไหม ไม่มีปัญหา ถ้าคุณต้องการไปหน้าถัดไป ให้กดปุ่ม “Next” ข้างบนนี้

Вы говорите по-русски? Просто нажмите синюю кнопку "Next" с левой стороны и Вы моментально переместитесь на следующую страницу!

E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.

Flag of Skåne / Skånska flaggan Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.


                                       

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