Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) Tourist Guide


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A Birding Trip for Newbies

Text : Tachyon and Terryl
Image : Tachyo

We got up early in the morning. The winter sun was not shining yet, and the weather was a bit cold. A very good season for bird watching!

The road to Wat Umong provided an easy ride to our destination, which was the Mae Hia Ranch. Although bike riders love this road because it is shady with a lot of trees on both sides of the road, I was in a friend's car, for it was a bit too cold this early in the morning. Perfect for bird-lovers, since the trees provide the perfect habitat for all sorts of birds.

It took no more than fifteen minutes to get to the Ranch. This large compound belongs to the Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University - a great place for beginner-level bird watchers like me. The large reservoir, the grassy field and the small undulations at the foot of the mountain offer different habitats that attract different species of birds here, some of them migrating from colder places - the Chinese Pond Heron among them.

Khun Joy, one of the experts on this trip, told us newbies to start by watching water birds. They are easy to locate since they tend to be in big flocks, and to hang around together in one location for quite a time, so once you've zero'd in, you get lots of viewing pleasure.

It was a pity I had only a low-power zoom on my camera, so that for me the birds looked small and colourless. But then - what do you know - seen close up through Joy's powerful binoculars, they still looked colourless, but at least I could see them clearly - preening, singing, flying, playing around: a pleasing experience.

The difficulty for me though - and the other tyros - was identifying the birds, so that it was lucky were with experienced watchers with detailed knowledge of different species. Still, it was encouraging to see that even they had to consult books from time to time.

For a first-time outing, we saw quite a lot of birds: White Vented Myna, Spotted Dove, Paddyfield Pipit, Common Moorhen, Wagtail, Pied Bushchat, Scaly Munia, Common Kingfisher, Red-wattled Lapwing, Plaintive Cuckoo, Green-billed Malkoha, Lesser Coucal, Greater Coucal, and the Asian Barred Owlet.

Not bad for a beginner, I thought, and how easy it was to make that start, coming to a place as close as the Mae Hia Ranch. I was told though that if we had more time, I should try to stay overnight in the mountains, then we would definitely find a greater variety of birds. The most favored spot for an overnight trip is Doi Inthanon and bird-watchers of the more professional kind are often found there.

All the more pity that I work for a magazine and don't have a lot of free time. Nevertheless, this first outing was just great - not too many tourists around, so that we saw new birds all the time. No need then to go to Inthanon right off. Come to a place like this with a picnic basket and breakfast there in the heart of nature!

I was told to try to record what I saw in a notebook. It seemed an easy task but it turned out not to be, as my notebook provides evidence. I tried getting down the beak of a Myna and it looked nearly identical to that of a Munia.

We stayed at the Mae Hia Ranch about an hour, but it seemed only half that long when it was time to go. This was when the sun was shining more brightly and the air was much warmer. The birds were starting to hide away in the trees all round. Time for us to be leaving too. But it was a good trip, and I'm sure I'll be back again soon - with a pair of high-power binoculars.