An Unsuccessful Twitch

Coppersmith Barbet

Kaeng Krachan 23.10.11

With a huge amount of pressure on my time right now I decided to try to twitch the reported Spot-billed Starlings on Sunday afternoon, my free time this week. These birds have been seen in the Kaeng Krachan National Park area and I opted to go look for them as opposed to eagles, vultures and shorebirds. I am sorry to report that I dipped on them. I am pretty sure I didn't miss them as I got to the location at about 4:30 pm and had a good scout around. A fair few Bronzed Drongos and a few Coppersmith Barbets but not much else. Fortunately a mere 240 km round trip which I am sure hardly registers on the Richter scale of unsuccessful twitches! My reward was a lovely drive up into the mountains and a real sense of how beautiful Thailand is and how lucky I am to live here. I should mention that in the day's embers I watched a flock of 50-60 Pied Hornbills flying across the sky. How lucky I am indeed! I must explore Kaeng Krachan more: I don't because it gets very busy at weekends and dodging traffic is not my idea of birding. I am completely tied up this weekend on a course but fortunately that will be the end of it and the summer holidays are in sight!