Dates:
Weather:

Localities:

22 - 28 Jun 2024.
Variable. Heavy cloud cover at start, with sun and rain later in the week. Temperatures ranged from 24°C to 32°C.
Ton Nga Chang Wildlife Sanctuary. Thaleban National Park, Khao Nam Khang National Park and Khao Kho Hong.

Spotted Litter Frog

Pretty much the first species on arrival were a family of Brown-streaked Flycatcher, Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot and Violet Cuckoo. The rooms here are a couple of years old, so comfortable and still in good condition, though at 1,000 Baht per night are typically overpriced, without towels, drinking water, kettle or hot shower. Aircon was surprisingly available, though as the weather was cool, overcast and damp, this was not really required. A late afternoon stroll along the river trail for butterflies was basically unsuccessful, though a night walk there turned up a few amphibians - Spotted Litter Frog, White-lipped Frog and Four-lined Tree Frog.

24 Jun. Dry all night, until 05:30 with some early showers. As still overcast and cool, we decided to move westward to try our luck at Thaleban. Rooms here are quite old, though with a mid-week price reduction to 420 Baht, were adequate. No hot shower, aircon or kettle, but at least towels provided this time. As the weather was unchanged, insect activity was still low. An afternoon by the lake, along the road, and the 600 meter nature trail produced Blue Posy and Dark Posy. As the park no longer operates a restaurant, we drove the short distance to a new local establishment offering rooms and a restaurant, which turned out to be very good. A night walk was productive with Rough-sided Frog and Two-eyed Rock Gecko.

25 Jun. Rain showers early on, then dry all day. Some interesting moths had been attracted to lights around the accommodation. We started the day with a visit to Boriphat Waterfall, which we'd passed en route yesterday and looked worthy of a stop. Some nice habitat here and a pleasant waterfall, which can attract a fair numbers of local visitors later in the day. A couple of hours produced Chestnut-naped Forktail, and Kumpol's Rock Gecko, plus a few butterflies including Southern Nawab. Mid afternoon we returned to Thaleban, walking the entrance road and the leech infested trail, but little found. Unfortunately the restaurant we'd found yesterday was closed, so we ate at a small place nearby, which was just about passable.

26 Jun. White-crowned Hornbill calling at dawn. As still overcast we decided to leave Thaleban and try Khao Banthat. Checking-out prior to the park opening time of 08:00 gave us a runaround to retrieve our key deposit, with a Blue-winged Pitta feeding by the checkpoint, a worthy distraction. At Khao Banthat, Blyth's Hawk-Eagle was circling overhead when we arrived. We spent about five hours along the trail here, finding Omar's Day Gecko, Diard's Trogon, Malayan Batwing, Horsfield's Blue Baron, Yellow Archduke and Dark Jungleglory. We then headed to Hat Yai through some late afternoon rain.

Dark Posy

Omar's Day Gecko

Blue-winged Pitta

Hose's Rock Frog

Birds encountered included Yellow-crowned Barbet and Streaked Bulbul. Best butterfly was the rare Restricted Catseye. At 13:30 the heaven's opened effectively ending our day in the field, so we returned to Hat Yai through some heavy rain.

Restricted Catseye

Gerosis tristis

28 Jun. With Antonio having to take care of some documentation elsewhere, we rented a vehicle from the airport and chose, somewhat randomly, two localities near Hat Yai to investigate. First up, we drove to the Wang Pha Ranger Station within Ton Nga Chang. This proved to be very good for butterflies, and with two trails to explore we racked up a reasonable list. This included Gerosis tristis, a virtually unknown taxa with no Thai records this century. With clouds gathering by lunchtime we decided to try the low hill at Khao Kho Hong on the other side of Hat Yai. This was good for about 20 minutes, but then rain stopped play again, so we retreated through heavy rain back to the airport. This seemed to be a promising site requiring more time. Evening flights home.