Thailand: Doi San Ju

 Doi San Ju

Our next mountain expedition departed from the city of Fang in northern Thailand. We stayed at the very nice Tangerine Ville hotel, which has a restaurant with -- you guessed it -- great Thai food. Mr. Chalee packed us up before dawn and headed into the mountains. 

But for a quick stop in town. This was a "7-11" morning. One of the challenges on birding trips is arranging for coffee and breakfast at early hours, before the hotel restaurant staff is willing to get started, particularly when the hotel is only lightly booked. In some South American countries, the early rising birders are just plain out of luck, and must endure a caffeine-free day, as painful as it is. In Thailand, the solution to this problem is 7-11. The American-originated chain of convenience stores has thoroughly permeated the Thai landscape. In the cities and towns, it is difficult to find a half-mile stretch of road that does not house a 7-11 store. Outwardly, these outfits look much like the American variety, but I was amused to see the goods on the shelves covering just about everything from toothbrushes to candy bars to instant microwave dinners to quarts of motor oil to $30 bottles of wine. (Hmmm: a bit like a Vermont country store, eh?) The instant coffee became our go-to morning liquid on several days of the trip, my "coffee-snob" tendencies notwithstanding. Instant coffee, a banana, and a hostess twinkie: check. Ready to rock and roll.

Thus fueled, we motored up the mountainside. Once again, as soon as the van door opened, we were seeing birds moving all around us. We got close looks at a White-bellied Redstart, which is closer to the size of a robin than a warbler.

White-bellied Redstart

A pair of Rusty-cheeked Scimitar-babblers (try saying that three times fast) made a noisy entrance. A Silver-eared Laughingthrush joined the party.

Rusty-cheeked Scimitar Babbler

Silver-eared Laughingthrush

Now I should include a bit of explanatory information here, to explain the images. The ridgeline at the top of Doi San Ju is a place where bird photographers go and cast out mealworms to draw the birds in closer. This is admittedly a somewhat artificial birding experience, but it's hard to argue with success. Photographers have been doing this for years. These birds are not tame, but their behavior is certainly altered by the human feeding regimen. The consistency of individual birds at individual meal-worm spots along the road suggests that territories have been set up over time, and the birds drop in almost as if they were being cued. I don't particularly like modifying the behavior of wildlife, but on the other hand I will say that since the feeding stations are alongside the road, it prevents large birding groups from trampling through the woods to flush the desired birds into view.

So the morning experience continued with Rufous-bellied Niltava, Hill Blue Flycatcher, and Golden Babbler. 

Rufous-bellied Niltava

Hill Blue Flycatcher

Golden Babbler

Golden-throated Barbet, in one of the few trees in leafless stage

In the meantime, another collection of species not dependent on the mealworm handout appeared in the branches above the road. Golden-throated Barbet was nice, and the hit bird of the morning was Himalayan Cutia. This bird is beautifully patterned like a pitta. My photo, backlit by the sky, does not do it justice. Many long camera lenses were pointed in this bird's direction.

Himalayan Cutia

The show continued with Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher and Yunnan Fulvetta.

Rufous-gorgeted Flycatcher

Yunnan Fulvetta

As we slowly walked along the road, we listened to the tooting of a Collared Owlet. This bird is almost a constant companion in the mountains in the Chiang Mai region. It very consistently sings, "toot. Toot-toot. Toot". But it is maddeningly hard to see, being a midget-sized owl that keeps still and blends in with the tree trunks. This one was particularly loud, so we put in some extra effort and eventually found it high up in the sub-canopy layer of a large tree. It seems about the size of our pygmy-owls, and it was being scolded by small birds in much the same way that happens in North America. This one was actually a bit active, and it hopped between branches of this large tree as we watched.

Collared Owlet

Turning back to passerines, our attention was brought to a pair of spectacularly gleaming Scarlet Minivets, chasing insects among the green leaves. A photograph cannot convey how startling it is to see these flaming red creatures decorating the leafy branches. A pair of similarly stunning Short-billed Minivets was not far away.

Scarlet Minivet

We tracked down another colorful flycatcher with the suave name of Ultramarine Flycatcher.

Ultramarine Flycatcher

And a pair of Black-throated Tits seemed to be working on a nest somewhere in the needles of a long-leaf pine. This was a nice find, because their normal range just barely gets down into northern Thailand.

Black-throated Tit

A curious sight along the road was a sign recalling past hostilities with the neighbors. We were close to the border with Myanmar here, and the sign warned of land mines. Our guide reassured us that the warning could be safely ignored. (Of course, we did not venture more than a few footsteps off the road anyway.)

Ominous sign for landmines at Doi San Ju

So it was another magical day in the mountains of Thailand. The drive back was a roller-coaster ride seemingly straight down the steep slopes. I found myself wondering if Mr. Ped had recently looked at his brake fluid levels. I was glad, though, that he was driving, and it wasn't us in our own rental car hoping for the best.

Back to the city of Fang for dinner and a round of award-winning (!) Chang beers (they must surely draw their inspiration from Bud Extra Lite in the US). There is only one negative about the region around Fang. We were constantly aware of smoke in the air. Apparently, 'tis the season for agricultural burning in preparation for planting the new crops. It felt like we were sitting beside the campfire for the whole two days of our visit. I felt very bad indeed for the people who must live there, knowing that they will almost certainly experience respiratory disease in their old age. Alas, the world is still desperately in need of advances in agricultural technology to prevent short life spans among farmworkers and other residents in this region.

Our next stop was Doi Ang Khang.