I hadn't actually heard of Kui Buri before. I just googled it, and the photo at the top of this page is awesome! - Kui Buri National Park My view would be to just do Kaeng Krachan because it isn't many days which you have. There are gaur there at night - ask the guide about seeing them. They visit a pool or salt-lick or something by the road in the evening but I'm not sure where (I never have a car). With a guide you should get loads of birds I forgot to put about Pak Thale. I visited there too (in a car with the couple who had seen the Stump-tailed Macaques). If you don't have a scope it is utterly hopeless. None of us did, and we were counting on running into other birders there, it being a Saturday. But no luck. The area is too big, too many thousands of waders, and the Spoon-billed Sandpipers too few in number (we were told there were four there...). I would still say for you to go and try, because you may be in luck and find one near the paths or meet some other birders there, but don't get your hopes up. If you do go, the pools are independant of the tides, but apparently high-tide is best because that's when the birds come to the pools the most; and mornings are apparently the best time (perhaps also when you have the most chance of seeing other birders there too).
I was particularly considering Kui Buri because on the website of TonTanTravel (the tour company recommended by @jwer) there are half-day tours that say a good chance of elephants and gaur and possibly banteng Kui Buri Elephant Safari by Tontan Travel | Half Day though compared to the cost of a full day with a bird guide and car for 2500 baht, they're not cheap. For Pak Thale, I am currently planning a visit, but unfortunately I don't have a scope and it won't be early morning (the plan is to stop for a couple of hours either on the way to or from Kaeng Krachan which will probably mean being there from about 11:00 to 13:00). It will also probably be my only stop at the coast though, so I should see some new stuff even if it's just common sea birds and waders.
there are definitely many waders there! I don't particularly like wader-watching - they are all too far away and too similar (!) - and I was trying to see a particular bird so not paying much attention to identifying anything else, but there were hundreds of godwits (I didn't look to see which species), Eurasian curlews, great knots, grey plovers, and dotterel-style plovers (I didn't focus on them enough to say which there were). Also quite a few terek sandpipers, common redshanks, some curlew sandpipers and ruffs, various terns and gulls (didn't even bother trying to work those ones out!). No doubt a dozen other species as well. For the Spoon-billed Sandpiper you need to be looking amongst the stint-sized waders, and you can't actually see the bill shape unless it is close or you have a scope. They are likely to be alone (i.e. not inside the flocks of stints) but unless you're close enough to see the bill you can't be sure the bird isn't just some other species. If you spent some time there you would get quite a lot of species. It was blazing hot though, even with the sea breeze.
I forgot to put this here before: The couple which I went to Pak Thale with from Kaeng Krachan (in their hire car) had been at Khao Yai beforehand. They stayed inside the park and just used their own vehicle to do night drives. They weren't sure if they were supposed to, but they waited until after the official night-drives had finished, after 10pm I think they said, and then went out and nobody seemed to mind. They went round the old golf course there and saw "loads of stuff". They also met a couple of random travellers who had just seen a clouded leopard during the day.
The funny thing is that I was just thinking that I should ask about the logistics of doing a night drive in your own car in Khao Yai. So by that I take it that it would not be possible to do a night drive in your own car at the same time as the official night drives? Can you go spotlighting on foot at Khao Yai as well? I looked at the website for Tontantravel (the tour company recommended earlier) and they offer a night safari in Khao Yai KHAO YAI NIGHT SAFARI by TONTAN TRAVEL | Day Trips in Khao Yai National Park with Night Safari which seems like it would be at the same time as the official night drives and presumably is in a private vehicle. (the tour is more expensive than I would want to pay and I don't think it's anything that I can't do myself so I'm just looking at the website to copy their ideas and do it myself) However the website notes "especially for these night safaris we strongly recommend to avoid national holidays and weekends" which makes me apprehensive about how busy the place would be at Songkran when I would be visiting but I suppose that's unavoidable in most places.
the park's night drive trucks have a set route. I think it would be best to wait until they have finished, but at the same time if you're not on their route then it shouldn't matter. You can go spotlighting on foot but there are lots of elephants there. Funny thing with elephants, they are so big that they are difficult to see at night. They have very small eyes (red in the torchlight) and otherwise they are just a big wall of grey. Often they are in bushes and you think the eye-shine must be from a civet or something up in the tree. Round the HQ should be fine - animals like porcupines get attracted to the restaurant area - but otherwise be careful.
So I'm wondering if anyone can help me with getting field guides. I ordered the field guides I would need from NHBS for Christmas ages ago and ordered A Field Guide to the Reptiles of Thailand, Birds of Thailand (Robson), and A Guide to the Large Mammals of Thailand (Parr). I looked extensively at the time, and I'm pretty sure these are the best options (hopefully these were the best books to get). The Reptile book arrived on time, the birds was undergoing a reprint but I got it in January, and I expected to have no issues with mammals but at the beginning of February, I found that NHBS could no longer get the book from the supplier and that it was no longer available. On Amazon it was now over $100 dollars for the book used and $400 new, and I found it on Subbuteo Books, but it turns out that they can't get it either and don't know when it will be available. So basically I'm wondering if anyone knows somewhere where I can buy the book for a reasonable price (not hundreds of dollars like on Amazon) or, as a last resort, somewhere where I can download a PDF of the book (I don't want to do this, and I will still buy the book when it is available, but I don't think there's any other option).
just buy it in Bangkok. It will be much cheaper there as well. I haven't seen the Parr book, but I'd recommend instead Charles Francis' A Field Guide to the Mammals of South-East Asia which covers the whole region and is thus going to be more useful for you in the future. It will be heavier than Parr's book but you're going to be in a car so that's no issue.
I'll try the Francis book, thanks. Though I don't think it will be the best idea to leave it until I get to Bangkok because I will have very little time in Bangkok at the start before going to Kaeng Krachan (where I will probably need the book) and when I do stay in Bangkok, I'm planning to spend as much time as possible doing zoos and birding rather than shopping (because the trip is really quite short and I want to make the most of it).
My trip to Thailand starts next weekend, everything should be planned and prepared for it. Would anyone be interested in me doing a trip thread? However unlike my previous trip threads (Australia, Kenya, etc.) I will not be able to write very long and very detailed posts with embedded pictures and in-depth reviews because of lack of time (I only have one day after getting back from Thailand before starting school again and I leave on the very first day of the holiday, and I will not have much time at all to write about the trip once school starts) and there is a significant possibility that I will start the thread and never finish it if I don't have time. So basically do you think it is worth doing a thread with fairly short posts that I possibly will never finish, or would that just be annoying and I'd be better off sticking to uploading some pictures and posting bird lists in the big year thread?
A thread would be great. It's difficult to keep track of things in the 'big year' thread for those of us who aren't participating.
Ok then, I'll do a thread and see how far I get with it. I leave Warsaw on Saturday morning, so not long to go now!
