Randomly we decided to go to Nakorn Nayok for few hours of planning last September 25, 2016. We just have had to wake up early and drive for one hour to get there are formulate some strategies as we get to see the place. So we woke up at 4:00 am, cooked some food, shower, got our gears ready and we were on the road at 5:30 in morning. It was some kind of a cloudy day and we just relied on a GPS coordinates posted on Thai Bird Spot, owned by Brian Hewitt, a real adventurer of a birder. We entered the coordinates, fueled, and we followed the directions given by my mobile app. We know were to go, we have been in Nakorn Nayok many times and during the flood in Thailand, I used this route many times over.
NAKORN NAYOK
Going to Nakorn Nayok was easy, the traffic was very light and we went fast as we wanted to be early and explore the place. There is a dam that supplies water to farmers, an army base, the air-force, and a wide rice-fields covered the province. There is also a national park there. Nakorn Nayok is a famous weekend retreat place of people from Bangkok who wants to get away fast and can comeback right away after a day or two. Well, it is also a famous birding area in which different kinds of birds can be spotted according to seasons.
PAK PHLI
I have heard about Pak Phli and I never seriously considered going there for birds, my wife and I never had a clue about the abundance of wildlife especially the birds. Trusting the GPS, we followed it without any clue if we were going the wrong way or the right way after the GPS led us to go through dirt and small roads. When we realized that we were in Pak Phli, it was cloudy and we thought it was going to rain. There were dirt roads elevated high from the water level of the rice-fields and the place is marshy. There was just so much water. We decided not to turn off the device and explored on our own since the birds were already appearing around us. We got stuck at a muddy area and I was so scared that nobody would be about to rescue us since I never had a recovery equipment except for a towing strap and rope. We got out of the mud and we were safe.
NEW FRIENDS
Meeting people when birding is one of the greatest joys. Here are two people who are so happy to meet and share with us their knowledge and resources about the birds in Pak Phli. From the left is Khun Sithichai who promised to help us next time and offered us free lodging and all, then myself, a government official who took photographs of the Black-eared Kites with his mobile phone, then Arpha. Right behind us are trees in which more than five-hundred Black-eared Kites and some other big birds perch for the night.
BIRDING IN PAK PHLI
It was actually fun, I mean driving off-road and playing with the truck around, we just had to drive around and spot the birds, slowed down, turned the engine off, rested our cameras on open car windows and we just took photographs of them. We used the hide in the afternoon for two hours and then we just had to get out of it it was quite pathetic. We really plan to comeback to Pak Phli this coming weekend again and capture more beauties with our cameras, so long then.
BIRDING DETAILS
Place: Pak Phli, Nakorn Nayok
Transportation: Private Vehicle, Bus, Taxi
Chance: High (there are so many birds right there, you can’t come home with nothing)
Birding Mode: Drive Through, Walking, Hide
Transportation Mode: Easy
Birds Expected: Prinias, Shrikes, Bitterns, Chats, Munias, Avadavats, Bluthroats, Kites, Jacanas, and more…
Birds Found: Prinias, Shrikes, Bitterns, Chats, Munias, Avadavats, Bluthroats, Kites, Jacanas, Grebe, Swifts, Whistling Ducks, Bee-eaters, Weavers, Storks, Cormorants, Herons, Pipits, larks, Sparrows, and more.
EXPENSES
Bangkok to Pak Phli: Diesel Fuel 1,500.00 Baht there will be a lot of going around and around finding the birds and it is a must that you must have a vehicle. You can bring your own food or just go to the town and eat there and come back latter.
