Krabi and Khao Nor Chuchi: good and bad birding

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Right. The bus from Bangkok to Krabi ended its voyage not at the Krabi bus station but at a tourist place, as I suspected it might do, but that wasn't actually so bad because they had all the information on all the guesthouses in town. I picked a cheap one at random like I usually do. It was called Hollywood Guesthouse. It turned out to be about five minutes walk from where the boats leave to do trips into the mangroves, and was just round the corner from Krabi's famous restaurant 'May & Mark' (and also one called 'Scandinavian Restaurant' which appeared to be more a bar than a restaurant), so it was a good choice. That evening I went for a wander down to the river. I had been going to walk to the Meritime Hotel, about 4km up the road, because apparently they have a jetty running out into the mangroves which is good for birds, but I was intercepted by a boatman and, well why not, ended up going into the forest with him instead. Didn't see too many birds but among them were several brown-winged kingfishers which were new for me. The main reason birders go into the Krabi mangroves is after the masked finfoot, a totally awesome bird but one which I believe I was too early for (again!).

The next morning I met the boatman again for a trip out to the mudflats downriver. These flats are the other reason birders come to Krabi, for a chance to see the rare Chinese egret and Nordmann's greenshank. Apparently they start arriving in October, but I wasn't exactly overconfident. In fact I hadn't really even been going to bother, but decided I'd better. The first bird seen, apart for the ever-present swallows, was a Chinese egret! When we reached the mudflats the boatman pulled into the shallows, I jumped overboard and waded over to the flats to sneak up on the waders. They must be used to the locals wandering about after shellfish because they pretty much ignored me. As I've said before, I don't much like waders but because I don't go after them often it means that when I do I usually get a few new species. Here there were Asian dowitchers with their extraordinarily long bills, a few grey plovers, a cute wee red-necked phalarope spinning in circles in the shallows, and, yes, a Nordmann's greenshank looking like he'd seen a ghost in among some common greenshanks. All in all, a pretty good undertaking. However, sacriligious as it may be to say so, more interesting to me than the birds (they were waders after all) were the stingray feeding-holes dotting the flats and the occasional dead horseshoe crab lying upside-down on the mud. The boatman was VERY pleased with himself for taking me out there. He seemed to think that nobody else would have been able to find them (hint: they're at the end of the river!)

After the mudflats were taken care of, I set off on my way to Khao Nor Chuchi. Possibly birders wouldn't even bother with Krabi at all if KNC wasn't nearby. This little patch of forest was the last known remaining home of the fabled Gurney's pitta. There are maybe 15 pairs living there. It was one of the rarest birds on Earth. A couple of years ago it was rediscovered in Burma where there may be several hundred birds, but KNC remains the most accessible place for birders to see it. The Gurney's is the pitta that most engenders 'pitta fever'. Some people spend weeks, even months, trying to see it. At its most extreme, one chap got pitta fever so bad he determined to see every species of pitta in the world; he spent a month in a tent on the side of a mountain trying to get a giant pitta. Poor fellow.

There is a regular songthaew that goes from Krabi direct to Morakot (aka Emerald Pool), which is where KNC is. I went in search of it. After a few false starts I eventually found where it left from. In one of those bits of good luck that occasionally strike travellers, there was a lady from Bangkok who spoke perfect English waiting for the same songthaew. Then, in one of those bits of bad luck that occasionally strike travellers, it turned out that because it was Sunday the songthaew wasn't 100 Baht like normal but 1000 Baht because it had to be specially chartered. After some discussion and phone calls, my Bangkokian companions and I caught a songthaew halfway to Khlong Thom instead for 25 Baht, then met their friends and drove the rest of the way in their car. On the way out of Krabi in the songthaew we passed a sign for a mangrove walkway about fifteen minutes from where the boatman had nabbed me the previous day. Nuts! The place where all the birders stay at KNC is called the Morakot Resort. Truthfully I don't think there are too many other options. The rooms are 400 Baht and they wouldn't come down even though it was the off-season and there was literally no-one else there. Also they didn't have 150 Baht tents like I'd been informed (and even though their sign outside has a tent on it). Still, its a nice place and the owners are nice.

I tried looking for birds for about three hours along one of the trails and found nothing. I've never been in a forest so utterly devoid of bird sound. It made New Zealand forest seem positively raucous in comparison. On the walk back along the road to the resort I saw two birds, both stupid brown ones. A stupid brown flycatcher and a stupid brown bulbul. If a bird wants to be a flycatcher or a bulbul that's fine by me, its their life, but the least they could do is be a paradise flycatcher or a red-whiskered bulbul, something that says "look at me, I'm identifiable." Stupid birds. And to crown the perfect day, a dog tried to bite me. There are dogs everywhere in Thailand, and they all bark ferociously at anyone who dares to approach to within a distance of several miles, but they're all harmless. This one was running along the road with a motorbike, ran past without a sound, then doubled back and ran up behind me and tried to sink its teeth into my leg. Fortunately for snake-bite trousers its teeth merely met through the material and not in my flesh. Now I'm a bit nervous about the dogs in this place.

The next day I tried the trails again. In the first four hours I got one new bird. Wait, let me rephrase that: in the first four hours I got one bird, and it was new. That's right -- four hours, one bird. It wasn't even a rare bird, just a yellow-breasted flowerpecker, common all over the south (I just hadn't got it yet). There were actually birds all over the place that day, I could hear them all around. I could even see where some of them were at, but the undergrowth was so thick that I couldn't get my binoculars on any of them with all the leaves and branches in the way. I only managed to identify four more birds in the next three hours, then it started to pour down so I headed back to Morakot. Khao Nor Chuchi was really not looking good for me.

Next day was even worse. I got three birds for the whole day. One was new (dark-throated oriole), one wasn't new but was still an excellent bird (chestnut-breasted malkoha -- I love malkohas!) and the third was a paradise flycatcher. On the other hand, the forest was full of other interesting bits and pieces. LOTS of tiny wee froglets; various little agamas and skinks; even a baby rat-snake. There were columns of termites wending their way across the trails, flanked by giant-headed soldiers that fanned out blindly in defence should a foot come down too close to the line. I came across a fantastic little stilt-legged fly with tiny body and wings, that perched on a tree-trunk and vibrated itself so fast that it literally became invisible except for the white ends to its legs, the first and last pairs gripping the bark while the middle pair twirled in the air like a pair of rowing oars. I have no idea what it was doing. I even managed to identify two different species of flying dragons from their distinctive throat fans, the black-bearded flying dragon and the five-banded flying dragon. Makes a change from just 'Draco sp.'

The next morning I returned to Krabi. Counting five species of birds I saw in the garden of the Morakot Resort, I got just 13 species in two and a half days at Khao Nor Chuchi. Compare that with the 39 from Doi Inthanon or 79 from Doi Chiang Dao. Sad. And of course, no Gurney's pitta. I knew going in that I had little chance of seeing that particular bird. You'd think with five different species of pitta at KNC that I'd see at least one, but no. Pittas and I have an understanding: I look for them, they hide. If I want Gurney's I'll go to Burma, and leave the KNC ones to their doomed existance. Poor wee things.

Back at Krabi I went for a walk along the mangrove walkway. I don't know how long it is but it seemed quite long; I was on there for an hour. I didn't see anything new but it was fantastic being able to walk through a mangrove forest at my own pace instead of going through in a boat. I was hoping for mangrove pitta but of course I didn't get that. It didn't help that trying to listen out for any sounds of foraging pittas was foiled by the constant popping and cracking of fiddler crabs and mudskippers, bless their little souls. Right at the start of the walk is a little nursery for mangroves, with rows of baby mangroves in their teeny pots, growing up to be transplanted. Unlike most parts of the world, Krabi actually seems to realise the importance of preserving mangrove forest!

Tomorrow I board a bus (or rather a series of buses) for Penang in Malaysia, then southwards, back, I fear, to the bilious roach-infested scum-water Kuala Lumpur (apologies to any Kuala Lumpurians reading this) ...

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Photos

young ranid frog from Khao Nor Chuchi.
I'm not sure what species this is, possibly Doria's frog (Limnonectes doriae)? That's a bottle cap it's sitting in.

Comments

[Peter Ericsson]

warning
Ha! I believe I warned you about KNCC didn't I? Still, every time I go there I want to go right back in. You have to get the birds by call and then pursue. Once you start using a scope and seriously look at waders you will get the 'itch'. They are my favorite group of birds. Yours Peter

[Patrick ODonnell]

similar experience
Your experience at that site sounds very familiar. I saw more birds than you did but not as many as I had hoped for (and no pittas either). Like Peter, though, I would love to go back and spend a week hanging out in the forest. Thats really the way to see all those shy birds and animals in rain forest.