Overview
Dates: |
4 - 7 May 2020. |
With Steve Tibbett. A trip for butterflies, birds and anything else natural and native. Due to the Covid 19 virus, and the consequent travel restrictions imposed by Thai authorities since late March, this was our first opportunity to venture away from Chiang Mai city in seven weeks. As inter-provincial travel was still not permitted, and all national parks and recreation areas still closed, Omkoi was a decent option, given its accessible habitats. During our previous visits here, in Nov 2017, Jun 2019 and Nov 2019, we'd always found a good selection of butterflies and birds. However, with early May being the very end of the dry season we had half thought it might not be as good, given how dry the forest was likely to be. Indeed, this proved to be very much the case, massively exacerbated by the terrible forest burning that had taken place in early 2020, being much more extensive than recent years. During our four days travel we estimated that something like 95 - 98% of the forest understorey had been destroyed by forest burning. This lack of habitat made finding butterflies difficult, so it was necessary to seek out pockets of unburnt vegetation, which were few and far between.
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4 May. We drove from Chiang Mai to Omkoi, passing through only one Covid 19 checkpoint, about 25 kilometres before Omkoi, where our temperatures were checked. During the morning we worked several areas of forest before Omkoi, but found the dry and burnt conditions held almost nothing. One small, unburnt area proved good for several plushblue species including Spangled Plushblue, Aberrant Plushblue and Bifid Plushblue. During the afternoon we checked forest on the southern side of town, with much the same result. Birds few and far between, with the best species recorded being Black Baza, Barred Buttonquail, Greater Yellownape, Pacific Swift and Crested Serpent Eagle. Eating options, as usual in Omkoi, rather limited, but at least our usual restaurant had just been permitted to reopen, though of course beer not currently permitted at restaurants throughout the country. However, a quick 7-Eleven stop at least enabled us to take a beer on our accommodation veranda which, combined with the excellent, cool evenings, could have been a lot worse! 5 May. We started the day with a drive south, over the viewpoint at 1,400 metres, and onto the lower slopes of Doi Mon Chong. Given the higher elevation than yesterday we were hoping for some intact habitat, but alas all these slopes had too been torched, so we really struggled to find anything of interest. A small damp patch in lower forest held Siam Babul Blue and Large Fourline Blue. Montane bird species included Asian Emerald Cuckoo, Mountain Imperial Pigeon, Mountain Hawk-Eagle, Collared Owlet, Blue-bearded Bee-eater, Great Barbet, Silver-breasted Broadbill, Large Woodshrike, Black-winged Cuckooshrike, Blyth's Paradise Flycatcher, Ashy Bulbul and Black Bulbul. Cutting time here short, we headed back toward Omkoi trying other forest en route, with a few species of interest including Black-headed Woodpecker. At 15:30 rain started, curtailing our birding for the day. 6 May. Deciding to try lower elevations today we headed southward as far as the wildlife sanctuary headquarters area, where at least a small amount of water was still flowing in the stream. Good numbers of Indian Oakblue were flying around, as well as Large Oakblue and Common Oakblue. However, despite the relative abundance of butterflies, no real variety and certainly no larger species were about. The hillsides were still dry and barren. A couple of Grey-headed Parakeet were nearby, and an excellent male Blue-throated Blue Flycatcher was found in a darker gully. During the afternoon we worked our way slowly uphill, trying a few spots we'd not previously stopped at, with some limited success in locating Hampson's Hedge Blue and Forest Pierrot. We drove through heavy rain, that started at 15:15, almost all the way back to Omkoi, which was completely dry. An evening power cut from 17:00 - 21:00. |
7 May. The morning spent working the forests south of town and the afternoon on the northern side. A couple of late migrants encountered - a Thick-billed Warbler and an Arctic / Kamchatka Leaf Warbler that unfortunately did not vocalise. A small surprise was Common Butterfly Lizard - a species we'd not encountered at Omkoi before. A mid afternoon return to Chiang Mai.
Species List
| Omkoi | Count | Count | |||
| Red Junglefowl | 1 | Greater Yellownape | 1 | ||
| Pacific Swift | 4 | Black-headed Woodpecker | 2 | ||
| Greater Coucal | 2 | Greater Flameback | 2 | ||
| Green-billed Malkoha | 1 | Grey-headed Parakeet | 2 | ||
| Asian Koel | 1 | Silver-breasted Broadbill | 2 | ||
| Asian Emerald Cuckoo | 1 | Large Woodshrike | 2 | ||
| Plaintive Cuckoo | 3 | Black-winged Cuckooshrike | 1 | ||
| Large Hawk-Cuckoo | 2 | Greater Racket-tailed Drongo | 1 | ||
| Mountain Imperial Pigeon | 1 | Black-naped Monarch | 3 | ||
| Barred Buttonquail | 1 | Blyth's Paradise Flycatcher | 1 | ||
| Red-wattled Lapwing | 2 | Eastern Jungle Crow | 8 | ||
| Chinese Pond Heron | 2 | Black-crested Bulbul | 1 | ||
| Little Egret | 2 | Sooty-headed Bulbul | 2 | ||
| Black Baza | 2 | Grey-eyed Bulbul | 2 | ||
| Crested Serpent Eagle | 2 | Ashy Bulbul | 2 | ||
| Mountain Hawk-Eagle | 2 | Black Bulbul | 3 | ||
| Shikra | 2 | Yellow-bellied Warbler | 2 | ||
| Collared Scops Owl | 1 | Thick-billed Warbler | 1 | ||
| Collared Owlet | 1 | Common Tailorbird | 2 | ||
| Asian Barred Owlet | 3 | Pin-striped Tit-Babbler | 4 | ||
| Indochinese Roller | 2 | Puff-throated Babbler | 4 | ||
| White-throated Kingfisher | 1 | Great Myna | 4 | ||
| Blue-bearded Bee-eater | 1 | Common Myna | 2 | ||
| Great Barbet | 2 | Blue-throated Blue Flycatcher | 1 | ||
| Lineated Barbet | 2 | Golden-fronted Leafbird | 1 | ||
| Blue-throated Barbet | 1 | Ruby-cheeked Sunbird | 1 | ||
| Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker | 5 | Streaked Spiderhunter | 3 |