Bird watching trip report


Introduction

Back in August 2018 and I found the web page Top Things to Do in Chanthaburi, Thailand And item #12 got my attention: 12. Visit the home of red hawks at Bang Chan Fishing Village

Visit the home of red hawks at Bang Chan Fishing Village

I looked for travel agents in Chanthaburi and I called to book a trip. Since my first visit I discovered that the place I visited was the Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi and not the Bang Chan Fishing Village some 20 to 30 km away from the city of Chanthaburi. The Red Hawk Sea I visited was just at the border of the city of Chanthaburi.

But I liked the Chanthaburi place as there were no tourists and I was alone, so I went back to the city of Chanthaburi. Last time I stayed at a hotel because I did some bird watching around the Chanthaburi area.

It will be a day trip today, they will come to pick me up at 7 o´clock in the morning and they have booked 2 boat trips, lunch between and then back home to Bangkok in the afternoon.


Guide

The boat driver will take you around the area


Land transportation

I used the same company I used last time, Army Van Transport CO. LTD - Phone 095-5284962

The have taken me between Bangkok and Chanthaburi in a comfy car and I have appreciated the service.


Accommodations

No hotel needed as this is a “Day Trip”

I stayed at D Varee Diva Rimnaam Hotel last time (August 2019) and you can read my review below:

D Varee Diva Rimnaam 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, Thailand and I think everyone expect it to be hot, and it is very hot.

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

Chanthaburi, 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.

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


Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi

The Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi is the area where a few rivers come out in the Gulf Of Thailand. There are a big mangrove area so there are many more birds than the Brahminy Kites to look at.

It takes 10 minutes t driwe from downtown to drive to Tho-rat Sports Field. There is a marked at Nong Bua Walking Street on Sundays and the parking area, Tho-rat Sports Field with a soccer field is full of cars. But is should be no trouble to find a place to park your car. The boat will come to pick you up at the concrete stairs down to the water.

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi

If you need to wait for the boat you can walk around looking for birds. The south end of Tho-rat Sports Field is boarding to the mangroves. So there is a few birds to be seen around the Tho-rat Sports Field.

You will climb on bord the boat att he NW corner of the park where there are some out door exercise equipments. I call it the GYM and you walk down to the boat on the concrete ladder there.

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Tho-rat Sports Field - Parking area, and we can see that it have been raining

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Tho-rat Sports Field - Parking area

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Mangroves south of the park

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Mangrove

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Mangrove

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
The Gym area

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
The Gym area where I will board the boat

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
The boat is coming


Bird checklist

I never use any bird lists, but since I try to make it in to Cloudbirders. A very helpful site when planning your birding trips. But they ask for a bird checklist, and if I use their service, of course I want to contribute as well. My two first bird watching trip reports was rejected by Cloudbirders.

So I started to take ideas from the reports I found on Cloudbirders. So I have started to use bird lists, eBird generate one for me and I can post it on Cloudbirders. I will post my birds on eBird and on my different “BIRDS THAT I HAVE OBSERVED” pages.

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

Chanthaburi bird checklist from Avibase, click HERE - eBird version 2018 taxonomy

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.

My eBird check list #1 from Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi 9th of June, click HERE

My eBird check list #2 from Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi 9th of June, click HERE



Trip Report

Leaving Bangkok just after 7 o´clock in the morning and we drove along the Chon Buri Motorway and we turned off before reaching Chon Bury cutting through Thailand towards Chanthaburi. We passed a few interesting signs. Warning for wild life and even though I kept my eyes open but failed to see any wild life.

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Leaving Bangkok behind early morning

Elephant crossing

Deer crossing

But I spotted two “Egret and Heron” trees when we drove along the Chon Buri Motorway. The trees were full of Egrets and Herons breeding and the reason why there is a very few Herons and Egrets around at this time of the year.

This was the only thing I could spot on the way to Chanthaburi. But time passed pretty quickly and we were soon approaching Chanthaburi.

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi

Took us about 3 to 3 and a half hour to reach Chanthaburi. We discovered that there was a lot of people and tourist busses when we drove to Tho-rat Sports Field. My driver told me that they have a marked at Nong Bua Walking Street on Sundays.

Tho-rat Sports Field was like a swamp due to heavy rain. But we found a place and I walked around looking for birds while waiting for the boat to come. I could hear several Collared Kingfishers from the mangrove next to the Tho-rat Sports Field.

The boat arrived and we took off towards south and Gulf of Thailand just after 11 o´clock.

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Let the adventure begin

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Looks to be rain

We left Tho-rat Sports Field and there were several Collared Kingfishes, I had counted to more than 7 just a few minutes after leaving. It had been raining since we arrived to Chanthaburi. But it stopped when we arrived to Tho-rat Sports Field, but it is for sure looking to start rain soon.

I have a small umbrella for my camera that the driver had given me. So I was set for an adventure and I was excited even though I was a little worried about the rain. And of course, gloom and grey so the lightning situation is not that good.

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
First boat trip

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Little Cormorant

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Striated Heron - นกยางเขียว

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Brahminy kite - เหยี่ยวแดง

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Great Egret

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Great Egret
Great Egret in breeding uniform

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Brahminy kite - เหยี่ยวแดง
Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Brahminy kite - เหยี่ยวแดง
Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Striated Heron - นกยางเขียว
Striated Heron / นกยางเขียว on the mudflats and we can see that it is raining

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Striated Heron - นกยางเขียว
Fishers coming down the river

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi

We had to experience rain, heave rain a couple of times during the boat trip. The umbrella for my camera came in to very good use. Zero visibility rain and no pictures. A little set back but I enjoyed every minute. I had more or less stopped to keep count of the Collared Kingfishers after 22 birds. Same with the Little, Intermediate and Great Egrets.

There were not so many Brahminy Kites around, maybe because of the rain.

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Great Egret and Intermediate Egret
Great Egret and Intermediate Egret

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Great Egret
Great Egret

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Black-winged Stilt, นกตีนเทียน

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Collared Kingfisher, Todiramphus chloris, นกกินเปี้ยว, White-collared Kingfisher, Mangrove Kingfisher

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi -Collared Kingfisher, Todiramphus chloris, นกกินเปี้ยว, White-collared Kingfisher, Mangrove Kingfisher
Collared Kingfisher / นกกินเปี้ยว

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Collared Kingfisher, Todiramphus chloris, นกกินเปี้ยว, White-collared Kingfisher, Mangrove Kingfisher
Collared Kingfisher / นกกินเปี้ยว

Collared Kingfisher, Todiramphus chloris, นกกินเปี้ยว, White-collared Kingfisher, Mangrove Kingfisher
Collared Kingfisher / นกกินเปี้ยว

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Pacific swallow

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Brahminy kite - เหยี่ยวแดง
Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง

Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง
Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Brahminy kite - เหยี่ยวแดง
Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Brahminy kite - เหยี่ยวแดง
Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi - Brahminy kite - เหยี่ยวแดง
Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Heavy rain again

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Zero visibility

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
We pass a few fishers going back for lunch

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
We pass a few fishers going back for lunch

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
We pass a few fishers going back for lunch

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
We pass a few fishers going back for lunch

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
We pass a few fishers going back for lunch

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
We pass a few fishers going back for lunch

Last time in Chanthaburi and we had lunch at a Japanese Restaurant at Robinson, for sure nothing impressive. My Guide brought me to DANA Restaurant. Looking, like, well, a place I would have skipped. But we went in and I was super pleasantly surprised when the food came on the table.

And it tasted very good and I could hardly walk when we left the restaurant going back to Tho-rat Sports Field for the second boat tour.

DANA Restaurant - Japanese food in Chanthaburi
Excellent lunch!

DANA Restaurant - Japanese food in Chanthaburi
Excellent lunch!

DANA Restaurant - Japanese food in Chanthaburi
Excellent lunch!

DANA Restaurant - Japanese food in Chanthaburi
Excellent lunch!

DANA Restaurant - Japanese food in Chanthaburi

I had planned to go north this time. Up the river to check out the area and I asked the Captain if it was possible. And it was no problem, I had been worried because we had touched bottom several times during the first trip. But there should be enough water up river.

We started by crossing the river as Captain had seen a Collared Kingfisher sitting on a sign there. He had sleeping in the boat during the lunch break and the kingfisher had been sitting there all time. So we went to see if I could get a picture.

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Second boat trip

Collared Kingfisher, Todiramphus chloris, นกกินเปี้ยว, White-collared Kingfisher, Mangrove Kingfisher
Collared Kingfisher / นกกินเปี้ยว

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater
Chestnut-headed Bee-eater

we left the kingfisher and I was soon asking Captain to come close to the shore line. A bird I had never seen before, coming closer and I see that it is a Chestnut-headed Bee-eater. But the colours had faded away, maybe from digging the nest in the sand. I will ask birdforum.net for advise.

Passing two Red-wattled Lapwings on the river bank, a few crows and I counted to 6 or 7 Brahminy Kites along the river.

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Looking for birds

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Looking for birds

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Looking for birds

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Looking for birds

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Looking for birds

Red-wattled Lapwing - นกกระแตแต้แว้ด

Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง
Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง

Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง
Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง

Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง
Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง

Little Egret - นกยางเปีย

Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง
Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง

Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง
Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Looking for food

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Looking for food

Bird watching at Red Hawk Sea in Chanthaburi
Looking for food

We stopped at Tops Market on Robinson so I could buy fruit and we left Chanthaburi at 16 thirty and I was back in my room in Bangkok at 20 thirty happy with my day trip to Chanthaburi for bird watching. I will be off to Benjakiti Park tomorrow and you can read the Trip Report from Benjakiti Park if you click HERE

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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