Birding Srinagarind Dam, Kanchanaburi, Thailand
When: March 2019 Weather: Hot 30C
Nikon P900, Leica M10P. 35mm Summilux. 15mm Voigtlander
In Bangkok for a few days and we managed a visit to the plant section of the famed Chatuchak market on a hot steamy wednesday afternoon…at least there weren’t the crowds of the weekend market…and the plant section was fascinating with lots of plants and garden accessories….well worth a visit if you can tolerate the 35C heat…
the beautiful water lilies that line Chatuchak market’s plant section
We left Bangkok on a Friday afternoon at 430pm (Don’t if you have a choice!) ….it took us 2 hrs to get out of the terrible traffic before we got on the road to our destination, the Srinagarind Dam in Kanchanaburi province about 220km away…..we’d been invited there by our host who owned a houseboat on the lake…. 6 hours after we started, we finally rolled into the Raya Buri Resort at 11pm…
Not having seen anything of the resort at night I got up at 6am to witness the sunrise over the lake…the purple hues were stunning
changing colours of the dawn
sunrise over lake Srinagarind
The Raya Buri resort with its over water rooms….the scenery is beautiful and its peaceful…
A floating restaurant in a nearby corner
and I started birding at the end of this row of rooms as the sun rose…
First bird of the trip was the magpie robin singing away merrily with the dawn
and in the dim sunlight the distinctive colours of the greater coucal
Mr and Mrs magpie robin with the greater coucal
Chinese Pong herons were common
and after breakfast, our host arrived at the the jetty of the resort to pick us up for our day exploring the lake and its various attractions….
Our first stop after an hour on the boat was Snake Valley where the river wended its way sinuously amongst the hills….there was nary a soul in sight and it’s pretty cool to explore a river where few have ever been….
Many Chinese pond herons were present and flying actively about….an owl zipped past as well but I missed the shot
an osprey watched over us
and off the osprey went
green bee eater
we then headed back towards the dam itself and saw the first of many houseboats being tugged to its desired location….the lake was full of them!
the Srinagarind Dam
The dam with the river Kwai below it…
after lunch we took a short drive to the famous multitiered Maekamin Waterfall
beautiful multilayered waterfall
waterfall
just beautiful
and this beautiful raacquet tailed drongo posed for us
racquet tailed drongo
we ended the day at our host’s houseboat moored next to his private island
just a beautifully landscaped houseboat moored in an idyllic location…
red wattled lapwings were nearby
red wattled lapwing in flight
watchful cormorants
wind blown baya weaver nests
and as the sun set over the lake, we had a swim in the fresh water without another soul in sight…doesn’t get much better than this…comparable indeed to swimming in a remote lake in the Brazilian Amazonia in a previous post…
the next morning I was up with the sun at 630am and had a little ramble around the resort…
Our host then picked us up for a 30 min boat ride to another birding location…
unspoilt vistas
heron in flight
it’s actually difficult birding from a boat…
pond heron
Birding in the early morning light
red wattled lapwing with white breasted waterhen
birding location
striated heron
white throated kingfisher
fishermen
greater coucal
Heading back to the resort just before checking out, we did a spot of lat minute birding at the resort…here a streak eared bulbul
streak eared bulbul
streak eared bulbul
unidentified raptor
grey treepie
sooty headed bulbul
black crested bulbul
Departing the resort at 11am, we decided to stop and have a look at the Bridge on the River Kwai on the way back to Bangkok….about an hour from our resort…
the Bridge on the river Kwai…made famous by the David Lean movie..
arriving at the bridge at mid-day, we could appreciate how tough it would have been for the POWs toiling to build the death railway in the mid-day sun…
the bridge is now flanked by restaurants and tourist boats etc….
the railway bridge
and there was even an ashy wood swallow watching over the bridge
This was a pretty long journey to the Srinagarind Dam and the Bridge on the River Kwai…but it was a fascinating place and ultimately worth the effort getting there.
Thanks to Bob Kaufman for help in identifying birds.
The Natural Traveller 