Central Thailand - November 2025 - Day 6 - Kaeng Krachan to Bangkok

Today was our final day, we flew in the evening. WIth Bangkok over three hours away and traffic uncertain we needed to be cautious, but we could afford to spent at least some of the morning at Baan Maka. So before we headed away we birded on foot towards the reservoir that we had stopped at just before arriving at Baan Maka on the second evening. This was extremely productive, with Vernal Hanging-Parrot in the garden, several Lineated Barbet in an orchard, Black-naped Oriole, Black-crested Bulbul, Streak-eared Bulbul, Sooty-headed Bulbul, and Yellow-vented Bulbul near the water tower, and Orange-bellied Flowerpecker, Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker, Brown-throated Sunbird and Ornate Sunbird in a single stand of trees by the road.

As before we made a few stops at the various bits of water on the way back down, and arrived mid morning at an area called Khao Ta Chin that had seemed to have eBird promise. As is often the case at the end of a trip we seemed not to be able to find most of the things that were supposed to be here, but made do with Indochinese Bushlark, Red Avadavat and White-rumped Munia. The area looks great but we were on a strict timetable and had just over an hour here.

We spent the heat of the day driving back to Bangkok, encountering none of the traffic woes that had so slowed us down on the way down. This meant we had a decent amount of time at a site just north of the airport called the Thao Yao paddies. I have never seen so many Egrets in one place. The farmers were churning the paddies in a kind of waterborne cross between a pedalo, a bicycle, and a scarifier, and behind them, like Gulls to a plough in the UK, were hundreds and hundreds of birds. Over the course of two hours we amassed perhaps our largest single list to date, adding several new species including White-browed Crake, White-winged Black Tern, Pallas' Grasshopper Warbler, Freckle-breasted Woodpecker, and Yellow-breasted Bunting. Another, Chestnut-tailed Starling, was hanging out right by where we dumped the car, and was the only one we saw.

With the flight at around 8pm we packed up a few hours before and reluctantly made our way back to the airport and the trip home to London via Doha. We had seen exactly 250 species, of which 90 were lifers. The weather had been mostly perfect - a few days before we left the forecast had suggested one long deluge but things had dried up just in time. This time of year, the start of November, is the very end of the rainy season, and apparently one day it just stops. So another successful trip, it just remains for me to put together the trip list and then I can move onto the next one.....