Doi Inthanon - Friday 23rd March

Our first day on Doi Inthanon started with us heading to the summit for dawn.  On our way up we chanced upon three Mountain Bamboo Partridge in the parking lot (!) just above the Chedi. The first bird I picked up at the summit, as we got out of the car, was a Buff-barred Warbler. Given that both of these birds were lifers for me I was very happy!

We did two circuits of the summit boardwalk, the first picking up at least three White-browed Shortwings at point-blank range, a pair of Snowy-browed Flycatchers, several Ashy-throated Warblers and a Yellow-bellied Fantail.

The second lap produced more quality with excellent views of a pair of Pygmy Wren-babblers circumnavigating a tree trunk, a skulking Himalayan Bluetail, and a pair of Dark-sided Thrushes in the gloom at close range.

We birded various points lower down the road, including the KM 37 trail, but as the day got hotter the activity dropped off markedly and as such a long and lazy lunch at Mr Daeng's was in order!  We did a bit more birding along the road, which gave me brief views of a male Slaty-backed Flycatcher, and after this we headed on to clean up on a couple of my other "Doi Intahnon tart's ticks" - Black-tailed Crake at the Campsite (scored within ten minutes) and Black-backed Forktail at KM 13 (seen on arrival, looking upstream from the bridge).  Not a bad first day...

Dark sided Thrush