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13 - 17 Jan 2020.
Dry, with variable cloud cover. Temperatures ranged from 18°C to 32°C.
Thung Salaeng Luang National Park, Sri Dit Waterfall, Tat Mok National Park, Phu Khieo Wildlife Sanctuary and Si Satchanalai National Park.

Common Butterfly Lizard

Chinese Francolin

Purplish-grey Darter

Nonsuch Palmer

Green-eared Barbet

13 Jan. We left Chiang Mai at 07:00 for the five hour drive to Thung Salaeng Luang, first stopping at Kaeng Sopha Waterfall. As we'd thought, conditions were seriously dry, so almost nothing found during our hour here other than a flyby Red-breasted Parakeet and a single Common Butterfly Lizard at the car park. Next, we moved to the main entrance of the park, spending time by the river near the campsite, finding Slaty-backed Forktail, Thick-billed Green Pigeon and Orange-breasted Trogon, plus Pallid Nawab, Lurcher and Three-spot Grass Yellow. In a fit of madness we decided to try the 1.5 kilometre Nature Trail near the headquaters. As usual in Thai national parks, a lack of trail maintenance meant the treefalls, bamboo and vegetation invading the trails, that made the going difficult and time-consuming - though with aid of the GPS we made it to the end. Late afternoon we drove to Lomsak, which we used as a base for our first three nights.

14 Jan. We started with the relatively short, one hour, drive to the eastern side of Thung Salaeng Luang. Although the entrance road, headquarters and campsite areas are accessible without paying an entrance fee, access to the interesting grasslands costs an eye-watering 500 Baht. So, like most foreign visitors we rarely enter, though today we decided to investigate, as the habitat here is quite unique. Initially, this proved spectacularly sucessful with a pair of Chinese Francolin feeding at grassland edge, close enough for good photos. Several kilometres inside, the road passed through some good looking forest, where we spent time walking but found little. Eventually, after about six kilometres, the track ended at a river, where in the wet season a section of rapids must be quite impressive. Today however, we easily walked over the rocks, to where a number of butterflies were puddling. Best birds of the day were eight Common Hill Myna, Thick-billed Green Pigeon, Orange-breasted Trogon, Blue-bearded Bee-eater, Great Iora and Rosy Minivet. On the return journey to Lom Sak we dropped by Sri Dit Waterfall, but in cooling conditions found activity totally lacking.

15 Jan. Deciding that we needed to be near water for any chance of decent butterflies we paid a visit to Tat Mok. As usual the staff at the entrance were very welcoming, and we had the park pretty much to ourselves. All day was spent along the river near the waterfall and along the first 500 - 600 metres of the Nature Tail; one day we'll walk the two kilometres to the end! A decent haul of birds included Violet Cuckoo, Collared Owlet, Red-headed Trogon, Mountain Imperial Pigeon, Bay Woodpecker, Vernal Hanging Parrot, Radde's Warbler, Slaty-backed Forktail and a small troupe of Assamese Macaque. Much better than Thung Saleang Luang for butterflies, including the rare Purplish-grey Darter, Pallid Nawab, Jewelled Nawab and Common Yeoman. Overnight again at Lom Sak.

16 Jan. A two hour drive to Phu Khieo. The whole forest was extremely dry and we only managed to locate one decent puddling spot toward the headquarter end of the entrance road. Best find of the day, and butterfly of the trip, was Nonsuch Palmer a long sought after species. Birds of note included Bar-backed Partridge, Oriental Pied Hornbill, Green-eared Barbet, Greater Flameback, Bay Woodpecker, Common Kestrel, Hainan Blue Flycatcher, Burmese Shrike and Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo. We left at 14:00 for a four hour drive west to Phitsanulok where we randomly checked into one of the many hotels along the highway through town.