Central Thailand - November 2025 - Day 2 - Kaeng Krachan National Park - Upper Elevations

Breakfast at Baan Maka starts in the dark. This is the mark of a quality birding establishment. Accordingly Mick and I were up what felt like punishingly early in order to be ready to leave the lodge at 6ish with Mr Piak and head up to the National Park. Mr Piak is one of several guides that has a tie-in with Baan Maka, and was one of the reasons I booked to stay - simply far less hassle than trying to organise my own guide. Each of the guides has a different day rate, with Mr Piak being somewhere in the middle, partly I suspect because he does not speak a great deal of english. However it needs to be said that his english is a whole let better than my thai, and that he does know all of the bird names - that's the important bit. We were able to communicate reasonably easily despite the language barrier and we saw a whole heap of birds. I think the cost was 3800 THB for the entire day, about £90,which split between two for a 10-11 hour day with transport is emminently reasonable.

Mr Piak was also extremely punctual, and so after a quick breakfast and some coffee we got into his 4x4 and headed out. The Park entrance is perhaps 20 minutes from Baan Maka. You need cash to pay for the entrance fee of 300 THB, about £7. We stopped for the first time relatively soon after the entrance at an eBird pin called "tree tunnel", because Mr Piak spotted a pair of Greater Yellownape (a Woodpecker) in the trees here. Also present were two Green-eared Barbet, a Hair-crested Drongo, and two Hill Myna. A short distance further, at "km 9" we stopped underneath a large tree where some other birders were also stopped - a family party of Great Hornbill were feasting on the fruit - what amazing birds. The tree was also full of Thick-billed Green Pigeon, an Oriental Pied Hornbill flew in, and a Blue Whistling-Thrush was also feeding.

I hadn't appreciated how far it was to the top of the park. I kept thinking we were going to stop but we kept on driving. I mean we saw birds along the way, but we never stopped for longer than a few minutes and it all became a bit frustrating, especially as we couldn't really communicate with Mr Piak in any meaningful way. At one stage our progress was hindered by a large fallen tree, this was only resolved when one of the vehicles did an about turn and drove all or some of the way back to the entrance to summon a ranger with a chainsaw. Another half hour gone. But although slow going we did nonetheless see a lot of good birds on the way up, with top honours going to Crested Treeswift, Vernal Hanging-Parrot, Orange-breasted Trogon and Asian Fairy-bluebird. Along the way we also had to drive through two really quite deep streams, and the dirt road was in places very poor. You are not getting up without a serious 4x4.

Grey-headed Canary-Flycatcher

Banded Kingfisher

Blue-throated Barbet

Mountain Bulbul. What do you mean you can't tell?

We eventually made it to the top for exactly 9am, in otherwords a three hour trip from Baan Maka. I reckon you could probably do it in two hours without stopping, but bear this in mind. Finally out of the car it felt like the day had now begun. Our first stop was the viewpoint at Panoen Thung. Here you can look and see nothing but green hills, as far as the eye can see. There are no roads, only forest. It's fabulous. Crested Honey-buzzard flew over, as did a pair of Wreathed Hornbill, and I was amazed to hear Yellow-browed Warbler calling from a tree. This turned out to be a very common species along with Two-barred Warbler, Arctic Warbler and Taiga Flycatcher. Shetland anyone? The full list from this two hour wander is here, and it was truly excellent. We jammed Bamboo Woodpecker, and Mr Piak heard and then found a Banded Kingfisher - really hard work but what a bird. Blue-eared and Blue-throated Barbet were around, and Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike looked as good in real life as it did in the book.

Sunbear

Yellow-throated Marten

We continued to bird around the upper elevations for until lunch, which was available at the main building for very little. Of note was Black Eagle overhead, a (I guess) habituated Sunbear that came to feed on the slope below, a Yellow-throated Marten, and a very toxic green Pope's Pit Viper that blended into the foliage was also found at about knee height, ideal for the unwary. It was perhaps around this time that I noticed that my trousers had a large splodge of red around the knee. Closer inspection revealed a leg covered in blood from a leech wound. Of the leech there was no sign, but it had made its mark and no matter what I did I just continued to bleed, as is of course typical. Bloody wildlife! That said, better the leech than the snake. Or the bear probably.

Pope' s Pit Viper

There is a one-way system in place on the road up, and so at 1pm or so we started a partial descent. At Km 27 we found a pair of enormous and very noisy Red-bearded Bee-eaters, a Black-winged Cuckooshrike, Blue-winged Leafbird, and a female Red-headed Trogon. Further down, at the Upper Campsite, we came across Brown Shrike, Olive Bulbul and Dark-sided Flycatcher amongst other things. The rest of the afternoon was spent coming down without  many stops and without adding any more birds. You probably need to have exited the Park by a certain time, and in any event Mr Piak had worked a full 12 hours by the time we returned to Baan Maka which is a long shift in anyone's book. It had been a good day, but also a day with a lot of driving. There is simply no getting away from the fact that the top of the Park is a long and slow journey, but if you want to see the birds that are up there this is what you have to do.

So at the end of Day 3 the trip was up to 193 species - very very decent indeed. We had a celebratory beer whilst I cleaned my leg up and worked on my various lists, and with another early start the following day went to bed pretty early.

A tale of dipping woe

A quick tale of woe for you before I carry on with Thailand as I know the readership like these. So, having written in my end of year summary that I had zero interest in UK rarities naturally I jumped in the car at the very start of 2026 and went off to try and see one. And I dipped. I suspect this will do little to encourage me to do more of this. That's not to say it wasn't an enjoyable day, but you know...

There has been a Black-winged Kite in the Norfolk Broads for a while. Or had been, as it buggered off slightly before I got there. It might be back, I have no idea, I am not looking. Anyway, last Sunday morning it was still there, but being the big coward I am I waited on news rather than just chancing it. It came out of roost as normal so into the car I jumped and off I went. Everything went pretty smoothly until I got to about the A11 when the semi-expected "no sign since 8am" message popped up. I ploughed on regardless, it seemed a lovely day, and this was in any event the pattern. It wakes up and has a bit of a fly about, then it disappears, then it is seen again later. Easy.

Right.

In summary I spent the rest of the day walking up and down a snowy river bank getting progressively colder and hungrier whilst not seeing any rare raptors. Yes, snow. Essentially I screwed up, not realising - nor checking! - that there had been snow up in Norfolk. I first hit it just outside of Norwich and as I went further east there was just more and more of it. It is a well known fact that Black-winged Kites absolutely love snow. Adore it, can't get enough of it....

So yes, a big dip. I didn't dip a single bird last year, not one. An amazingly successful statistic. On the other hand I also did not twitch a single bird last year. These two things are highly (fully) correlated and go a long way to explaining why I don't bother twitching any more. What possessed me? Idiot. This is not what I do and this shows why.

In truth it was not a bad day out at all. It was really cold but it was also extremely beautiful, with clear blue skies and sunshine, and a really rather good supporting cast despite the lead protagonist not showing up. I saw Cranes, Bearded Tits, White-fronted Geese, Pink-footed Geese, Bewick's Swans, Whooper Swans, Marsh Harriers, Jack Snipe, Woodcock, Cattle Egrets, Great White Egret, Golden Plovers and a lot more besides. Fieldfares were common, I've not seen any in Wanstead for months, and more generally there were loads of nice birds everywhere. Dozens of Snipe for instance, Red Kites, Buzzards, Water Rails, Kingfishers, the list of decent birds goes on and on. Just no Black-winged Kites. The bird was allegedly seen again, once, late afternoon, and everyone expected that it would soon reappear as it went to roost in the regular spot but of course it didn't and was never seen again. Meanwhile my toes turned to ice as I stuck it out until the very end before heading back, tickless, to London. Such is life. Hopefully I don't do it again for a while. Honestly what was I thinking?

What struck me was that most people there seemed to not mind dipping at all. All part and parcel of twitching. Well yes, but.... Really? I think I need to reexamine how I feel about it as they were far more sanguine than I. Maybe they chase something week in week out and thus this is a regular occurence. They are simply used to and it works out as a fairly low percentage overall, whereas for me it was a 100% failure rate. Pleasingly my long-time absence from the twitching scene meant I barely recognised anyone - I think this used to upset me a bit, that I would see the same people all the time and was thus worried I was one of them! And I was! But equally I was embarrassed to be one of them, especially given some of the quite unseemly behaviour that would sometimes occur. Standing back watching grown adults jostle and shove, shout and moan, charge across cemeteries.....Anyway once a little part of my life but no longer. Of the few people I did recognise one was Phil S who I think took my spot on my once regular Shetland autumn weeks with Bradders and Co, so I had a nice chat with him for a while. About dipping, helpful snow, constant westerlies on Shetland, lots of positive things like that. In fact it might be him in the final photo. 

Lots to like, one thing to be quite irritated by. But my main takeaway is that by sticking around my local patch here in London I am doing myself a disservice. I love it, it is balm for the soul, it is massively convenient, cheap, carbon-free, and there are undoubted highlights even if they don't come around very often. But the birding elsewhere seems far better with frankly minimal effort, and by sticking around Wanstead I have missed out on so much and will continue to miss out. So what if I didn't see the rare bird, look what I did see! Imagine seeing that lot in Wanstead! So I shall be going out on the patch this weekend and trying to convince my fellow patch-workers that we should abandon the Flats and go and see some birds somewhere else.

Central Thailand - November 2025 - Day 1 - Pak Thale and around

Day 0

It took an entire day to get to Thailand, mainly as we flew via Qatar. That turned out to be a very good decision as we got to do a bit of birding from Hamad International Airport to get ourselves in the mood, but also because we were fortunate to get an upgrade to Business Class on the Doha to Bangkok leg. I do not usually fly with the Middle-Eastern carriers so this was a real eye-opener - miles better than my usual airline. We were on the upper deck of an Airbus A380 and it had a bar! I knew these existed but I had never seen one. It was just a shame that I was driving at the other end and I couldn't therefore partake in any lovely beverages.

Once in Bangkok we realised that we needed to fill in an online immigration form - this took us half an hour in a queue to find out, at which point we were sent back to the beginning. Luckily there was wifi at the airport that we could get on. One of the questions was about which countries you had travelled to during the previous ten days or thereabouts, and so I carefully put in Latvia, Grenada and Trinidad. I was surprised to then not be able to complete the form. Huh? Well it turns out that Trinidad is viewed as a Yellow Fever risk, and adding this had opened up a new health section. This included requiring me to upload my Yellow Fever vaccination certificate and directing me to a kiosk where I had to get a special form. Yikes! Luckily I am pretty organised and had photographed my Yellow Fever certificate when I had the jab a few years ago, what a relief. But can you imagine if I had not had that? What would have happened? Clearly there would have been at least some risk of being sent back to Qatar which would have been a disaster. The point being I had no idea that this entry requirement  even existed, it had not occured to me in the slightest that where I had been previously could have been a problem. Probably the first time I have been caught out. Did not my research!

Once through we got the hire car easily enough and navigated in heavy rain through the outskirts of Bangkok before finding our route west, the 35. We had pre-booked a hotel very close to the main road about 90 minutes away so that we were only 45 minutes from Pak Thale the following morning. But what should have taken an hour and a half ended up taking closer to three hours due to roadworks. We were continually shunted off the main road onto side streets clogged with traffic due to massive construction work that has apparently been going on for years. Combined with our slow exit from the airport it was probably close to midnight local time when we finally made it to the hotel, exhausted. The lady at reception was asleep and we unforunately had to wake her up to get in.

Day 1

Onwards! Now the holiday could begin. Despite the very short sleep, and for me a massive time difference given I had been in the Caribbean about 48 hours previously, we managed to wake up before dawn and get back on the road. Today was our first chance for the legendary Spoon-billed Sandpiper. The plan had been to arrive at Pak Thale shortly after dawn, but we were of course compelled to stop at the first sign of any birds to get the trip list started. So it was that not even halfway to Pak Thale we found ourselves birding by the side of the road, scoping wonderful habitat full of birds. Primaily this was waders and herons of the largely the same species seen in the UK, but some Asian colour was added by Brahminy Kites, Malaysian Pied-Fantail, Mynas, Ashy Woodswallow, Oriental Darter and Asian Koel.

Spoonfinder General

We finally made it to Pak Thale about an hour after sunrise. One European birder was already there, clearly looking for the same thing we were. Two guys from the RSPB bowled up shortly after we did, they were mapping water levels as part of a project (tough gig!) and gave us some good info about where they had been seeing the Spoon-billed Sandpiper, and what water levels it preferred. The individual pans change daily, and the water needs to be very shallow with exposed mud, so there was no guarantee that it would still be where they had seen it. We left them to their measuring and joined forces with the other birder, Joakim. He was Swedish and had very recently retired and immediately bought a one-way ticket to Thailand. Arriving a day before we did he had all of yesterday at Pak Thale with an expensive guide and dipped the Sandpiper. Oh dear. Looking around it was easy to see why. Innumerable pans, hundreds upon hundreds of identical looking small waders. We decided to walk towards the shore checking each pool along the way, this was the area the RSPB guys had seen it previously. At the second pool we stopped at Joakim found it. Having set aside two whole days to try and find it we had probably been here for about 20 minutes. Always nice to get the big one out of the way early on but honestly this was ridiculous. Looking at the bird, which was slowly moving further out, only in certain profiles could you actually see the wedge at the base of the bill. Sideways on, or feeding, and it looks like all the other small waders - mostly Red-necked Stints. I grabbed a rushed record shot and then immediately lost it, it had likely gone over the edge of the next bund and was lost to view, but when we later managed to scope that pool it was nowhere to be seen. We never saw it again and neither did Joakim. How jammy is that?

Spoon-billed Sandpiper

We spent most of the morning exploring the site, heading out to the water's edge as well as to the obviously vegetated pools at the north of the site. It is hard to desribe how good it is - there are what we would consider mega-waders everywhere. Greater and Tibetan Sand Plovers, Asian Dowitchers, Terek Sandpipers, Marsh Sandpipers and Broad-billed Sandpipers. Greater and Lesser Crested Terns sat side by side on posts out on the Gulf, and there were also Whiskered Tern, Gull-billed Tern, Little Tern and Caspian Terns on site. In the distance we saw flights of Spot-billed Pelican, and in around the vegetated pools we had three Collared Kingfisher together, two Black-capped Kingfisher, two Common Kingfisher and Racket-tailed Treepies. Eastern Yellow Wagtail were common, and Coucal and Koel both called from the bushes.

Approaching late morning we left to go and explore some nearby eBird pins that held different birds. We started at the Bang Kun Sai wetlands, literally two minutes away, a lovely stretch of habitat along a straight road. Here we picked out our first Garganey, a mere 38 birds. There were untold numbers of Herons and Egrets here, including Purple Heron. Waders included Ruff, Wood Sandpiper, Kentish Plover, lots of Black-winged Stilts and our first Grey-headed Lapwing. A Booted Eagle flew overhead, Eastern Marsh Harrier cruised around, Brown Shrike was in the bushes with an Indochinese Roller. We marvelled at how rich and diverse Thailand was, 85 species and it wasn't even lunchtime.

Painted Stork

Chinese Pond Heron. Or Javan. Take your pick.

Red-necked Stint

Talking of which we stopped in the nearby village as you carried on west down this road and had our first street food. Back in 1998 I caught bacillic dysentry in Thailand which was most unpleasant, and if anything my stomach is more fragile now than it was then. Ever since then I have always had this experience in the back of my mind, and here I was where it had happened. By any UK standard the small outdoor cooking set-up was filthy, and would have failed any basic checks. But at the same time this is how everything is made around here and everyone looks very healthy indeed. How dangerous could it be? Well it was delicious, simple rice and some kind of pork topping with chilli. I never looked back. 

We spent a bit more time driving the narrow roads around here, stopping whenever it looked promising, which was most of the time. We added Asian Openbill, Scaly-breasted Munia, Great Myna, Streak-eared Bulbul, Common Tailorbird and Red-wattled Lapwing just by driving around. We tried a different spot at the coast, the Laem Canal estuary which was again teeming with waders, birded the salt pans near Laem Phak Bia where we finally added Long-toed Stint, and the Thetsaban Alley Wetlands where the flock of Garganey was in excess of 300! Our final stop in this area was at a small reedbed where we found a flock of Golden Weavers, Amur Stonechat, Plain Prinia and a Yellow Bittern.

It was now time to start heading towards Kaeng Krachan, we wanted to be able to bird a bit en-route and not arrive after dark. It was not an especially long drive and so were able to take our time and make a few stops. Firstly a large quarry which had lots of Swifts circling it, some of which were Asian Palm Swifts, as well as our first Siamese Pied Starling, and closer to Baan Maka, a final stop at Huai Phak Reservoir added Bronze-winged Jacana, White-breasted Waterhen and a big flock of Asian Green Bee-eaters.

We pulled into Baan Maka at almost exactly 6pm and had a celebratory beer. We had seen 101 species including the number one target, and we had another five days of birding to come! 

Central Thailand - November 2025 - Logistics and Itinerary

Central Thailand, 3rd - 9th November 2025

I spent about three weeks on Koh Samui in 1998 just after finishing university. In those days my chief interests were beer and sunshine and I didn't record a single bird. In later life I found a single slide of a Black-naped Tern, and so for 27 years my Thailand life list stood at one. It was an easy decision to come back. This trip came into existence quite late, a result of changing plans in the summer that had also resulted in the Coast and Castles cycle trip, and to satisfy work requirements I needed to add a week onto a pre-existing holiday that was also a week - the half term trip to Grenada was the only real possibility. Mick was free after this and so into the diary it went. I think I had 24 hours at home between flights in which to repack but everything worked out.

We decided to bird two areas. Firstly the coastal agricultural strip, the chief draw being of course the critically endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper, which all being well would have just returned to the Gulf of Thailand from it's breeding grounds. Secondly, the rich forests in the west of Phetchaburi centred on Kaeng Krachan National Park. We worked out an itinerary which gave us roughly equal time in both, although due to accomodation availability we did coast-forest-coast-forest-coast so there was a bit more driving than there might have been. It did however mean that by the end of our third day of birding we had seen close to 200 species given the different habitats covered. And what brilliant habitat it is. The coastal wetlands and rice paddies contain more birds than you would think possible, the lack of intense agriculture surely a factor. If you like Herons, Egrets and Waders this is the place to come. We saw a single flock of 300 Garganey.... The forests were great too, perhaps not neotropical standards but nonetheless really good, though much harder work than I expected even with a guide within the park itself. We birded from dawn until dusk every day and ended the trip on 250 species. We didn't see quite everything, but you never do do you? In a word, brilliant.

Logistics

• A seven day trip at the start of November with Mick.

• Flights: A combination of British Airways and Qatar Airways from Heathrow to Doha, and then Doha to Bangkok after a short layover (Qatar list: 8). I can't remember why we went this way, it was probably cheaper.  Amazing upgrade to business class on the second leg that I couldn't really take advantage ofas I was driving at the far end. We returned the same way, landing in Doha in the middle of the night and connecting to the London flight which got in early in the morning. A bit of a slog.

• Car Hire: Something small and cheap, I had wanted a 4x4 but they did not have one. It was fine and took us everywhere we wanted to go. The only place it could not go was the upper reaches of Kaeng Krachan NP, but we only did that once and the local guide had a jeep. To hire a car in Thailand you in theory need the "1968" International Driving Permit. I duly got one sorted out and of course they never asked for it.
• Driving: Straightforward though you need your wits about you as there are so many mopeds and a fair amount of funky driving. The roads are generally good, although obviously the further into the hills you go the roads do deteriorate, and we did push our luck a little getting to a hide down some rough tracks. Bangkok has a lot of roadworks going on, some kind of massive decades-long construction project along the Rama II road (35) that runs south of the city and out to the west. This delayed us for ages as we left Bangkok en-route to Pak Thale.
• Weather: There was some rain in the hills, but the forecast washout complete with thunder storms never materialised. We travelled right at the end of the wet season and basically got lucky. It is lovely and warm in November, high 20s to low 30s. Take a hat.
• Insects: Not strictly an insect, but I have now ticked off "being bitten by a leech" from my bucket list. Take plasters with you in case this happens as even though they're harmless the wound bleeds for ages. They are only in the upper reaches of the forest. There are mosquitos in the hills too, but we were not in the Malaria zone and did not need to dose up.
• Health: Thailand requires the Yellow Fever vaccination if you have travelled to any risky areas in the two weeks before you arrive. Make sure you have the proof.

• Accommodation: Everything was booked up in advance on Booking.com, including the fantastic Baan Maka Nature Lodge where we stayed for four nights out of six. We were forced to spend one night elsewhere as they were full in the middle of our stay, but we turned that into more time by the coast and went out to the sand spit. Everything was very good value.
• Guides: 
• Kaeng Krachan NP: Having come so far, and without a 4x4, we used the services of Mr Piak at Baan Maka in order get to the upper elevations of the park which requires fording two streams. I arranged this via email with Ian (lodge owner) before travelling, and we did a full day and a half day for a total cost of £150 (3800+2700 THB). The Park entrance fee is about £7 (300 THB). Note that the upper sections are closed until the start of November.
• I was also able to book time in one of the many hides nearby so that we could see the Partridges, Pheasants and other shy forest birds that the region is known for and you would not otherwise see. The price for this was minimal - check which hide the birds are being seen from and go to that one. We went to Bird's Hide, although we had originally been booked into a different one and changed plans when we arrived based on recent eBird lists.
• We also went on a boat trip to the Laem Phak Bia sand spit with the well-known Mr Daeng. This is by far the surest way of seeing Malaysian and White-faced Plover. You need to time this with the low tide, so look that up (the tides are rather peculiar, don't assume it is low-high-low) and then go and visit him a few days beforehand and book yourself in. His coordinates are 13.04059, 100.08822 and the price is about £12 per person for about an hour and a half (500 THB). This is also where you get the T-shirt.
• You can also get a guide for Pak Thale salt pans if you so wish, but this seems to be a lot more expensive. The area is open to the public so my suggestion is just to do it yourself, you have just as much chance of finding the bird as anyone as it is very much needle in a haystack territory. When we were there only one bird had come back.

• Food: Really good and really cheap. We ate at the Lodge when we were there, and down on the coast we ate street food and used the omnipresent 711s extensively. Avoid if single-use plastic upsets you.... For our day in a hide we got a picnic from Baan Maka. There is a small food stall at the top of the park if you are doing a full day.
• Money: I found it useful to have cash to pay for things in the middle of nowhere, and also for Mr Piak and Mr Daeng. And the all important T-Shirt.

• Optics: I took my scope and a travel tripod for use at Pak Thale and other wetland sites. Absolutely essential for the waders. You don't need one up in the hills.

• Literature: eBird! Merlin was not very good at the sounds, but worked as a field guide. We also used "Birds of South-East Asia" by Craig Robson.

Itinerary

Day 0: A day of travel. Departed London on Sunday evening, arriving in Doha on Monday morning just after sunrise, with a layover of about three hours, just enough time to tick Pigeon etc. We arrived in Bangkok on Monday evening but there was no time for birding. We then drove about three hours (it should have been under two) west, staying the night at a cheap roadside hotel, marked "Night 1" on the map above. This put us in striking distance of the salt pans at Pak Thale.
Day 1: Pak Thale shortly after dawn. We met Joakim at the hut, a recently-retired Swedish birder on day two of the rest of his life, and who found the single Spoon-billed Sandpiper within about 20 minutes. We then birded around this area for the rest of the day before heading up to Kaeng Krachan NP that evening - it's just over an hours drive. Overnight at Baan Maka Nature Lodge which is just outside the park.

Day 2: Full day spent in the park, guided by Mr Piak, going all the way to the top pin which takes quite a long time. Overnight at Baan Maka again.
Day 3: Morning with Mr Piak in the lower part of the park, and then a slow drive back down towards the coast. Finished the day the Bang Chak paddies at Nong Pla Lai which was so good we decided to come back first thing. Overnight at a random hotel near Pak Thale.

Day 4: Back to Bang Chak for first light, and spent the whole morning here searching for birds we knew to be present. After lunch we met Joakim again at Mr Daeng's for a boat trip out to the Laem Phak Bia sand spit. Mid afternoon at Wat Khomnaram targeting specific birds, and then back to Pak Thale at the end of the day to see if we could find the Spoonie again. We couldn't.. Evening drive back to Baan Maka.

Day 5: All day in Bird's Hide for Partidges and Pheasants. Overnight at Baan Maka

Day 6: Birded around Baan Maka in the morning and then drove up to Bangkok. Two final hours of birding at Thap Yao paddies which was fairly close to the airport, before an early evening flight to Doha, and onwards to London. It was now Monday morning so I went straight to work.