Black-Capped Kingfisher and Brown-Winged Kingfisher

Binturong?

This is a digiscoped image taken at a distance of several kilometres and cropped so in other words not good however we believe it to be a Binturong and again would appreciate any comments - the photo was taken from the watch tower in Khao Yai NP.

Painted Storks, Mynas and Drongo

Javan Frogmouth - Khao Nor Chu Chi NP

Chinese Egret

A couple of shots of an egret which we believe to be Chinese Egret seen at Laem Pak Bia but we would be interested in any comments.

Nordmann's Greenshank

At least 26 Nordmann's Greenshank seen in the Pak Thale area.
 

White-handed Gibbons - Khao Yai NP

Always heard - rarely seen!

Orange-Bellied Flowerpecker

These fabulous little birds were on the banana feeders in the grounds of the Morakot Resort which always makes photography a whole lot easier!

Christmas Greetings

A short break from Thailand now while I send Christmas Greetings to any visitors to this site.  We have been having very festive weather here in Normanby over the last week and this is a scene from our village - I wish everyone a very safe and happy Christmas.

Phang Nga Bay and "James Bond Island"

Can you believe it, I've had a request for more Islands and less pigeons! so............. we had three hours to get to Krabi airport for our flight back to Bangkok so we decided to drop in on the way to Phang Nga NP for a quick visit to the mangrove boardwalk to hopefully see Mangrove Pitta - a bird that had given us the run around.  However when we got to the boardwalk it had been dismantled and a  new one was being constructed so no Mangrove Pitta! On the way back to the car we were hi-jacked by a young man desperate to sell us a ticket for a boat trip to James Bond Island(made famous in the Man with the Golden Gun) - we explained we had very little time as we had a plane to catch but he was persistent and we were weak so with a time guarantee we were soon sat in a Long-tail boat with a frail little old man at the helm.  We soon motored through the mangroves and out to sea when wouldn't you know it we broke down - not once but twice, I could now write pages on the scenario but to cut a long story short we got to the airport with minutes to spare but the scenery is superb..........................

Nicobar Pigeon and the Similan Islands

We gave it serious thought before booking the boat to the Similans for the Nicobar Pigeon, we really wanted to see them but we had heard lots of reports saying that you had to stay on the island overnight and be up at the crack of dawn to stand any chance of seeing them and even then there was only a slim chance - but we thought this would probably be the one and only chance so we joined the 20  snorkellers on the boat who just couldn't understand what the devil we were doing and just why we didn't want to hire snorkel gear and as you can see we saw the Nicobars and they were probably the easiest bird of the trip - they were wandering around the restaurant from 10.00 to 1.00 but always in deep shade.  They were far too close for digiscoping so this was one of the rare occasions when the 100-400mm came out.

Broadbills - Black and Yellow and Green

Broadbills had to be my favourite family of birds in Thailand - below we have Black and Yellow Broadbills and Green Broadbills - unfortunately the real stars were the Long-Tailed Broadbills but they were always just too high and flighty to get any decent photos.

Rufous-backed Kingfisher

I absolutely loved this little Kingfisher and gave him "star bird of the holiday" - he is tiny and we only managed to see him when I flushed him on one of the forest trails.  Luckily he didn't go too far and stayed perched for a good five minutes right in front of us.  We even managed to video him but have yet to master the art of uploading video to the blog - one day....

The Grand Palace - Bangkok

I suggested to Wayne that the new little Nikon might take pictures of something other than birds down the end of a telescope and wouldn't you know it, it could.  It had a hard time though battling against tricky exposures but a new revelation to us was how much easier it was to use the camera attached to a Gorillapod - wouldn't go anywhere without it now.
 Don't worry though lots more birds to come.