Introduction
Whale Watching season in Thailand and september/ October is the best months. My second whale watching this year and as we didn't spot any whales last time I hope to get some whale experience this time.
Guide
I have used Wild Encounter Thailand before so I knew what I was in for. I liked their service previous times when I have gone whale watching with them so this should be a winner. They leave with a van from Bangkok early morning and we are back in Bangkok early evening.
They use 2 different boats, if there are many passengers they depart from the pier at Moo Baan Pramong in Samut Sakhon, this pier is closer to Bangkok. They also use a small boat departing from Bang Tabun in Phetchaburi.
Check out Wild Encounter Thailand´s web page: www.wildencounterthailand.com
Daily Timetable
• 06:00 ; Meet at Wild Encounter Thailand Meeting Point in Sukhumvit 105
• 06:30 ; Van will be leaving from our meeting point to the pier.
• 08.00 ; Arrive at the pier and board our whale watching boat.
(All customer that travel by themselves will meet at the pier by this time)
• 08.30 - 15.00 ; Spend all day looking for Bryde's whale in the Upper Gulf of Thailand.
* Lunch and dessert will be served on board
• 15:30 ; Heading back to the pier.
• 17:00 ; Arrive back at the pier and transfer back to picking up point.
• 06:00 ; Meet at Wild Encounter Thailand Meeting Point in Sukhumvit 105
• 06:30 ; Van will be leaving from our meeting point to the pier.
• 08.00 ; Arrive at the pier and board our whale watching boat.
(All customer that travel by themselves will meet at the pier by this time)
• 08.30 - 15.00 ; Spend all day looking for Bryde's whale in the Upper Gulf of Thailand.
* Lunch and dessert will be served on board
• 15:30 ; Heading back to the pier.
• 17:00 ; Arrive back at the pier and transfer back to picking up point.
Bangkok Meeting Point
7-11 SHOP, SUKHUMVIT 105
Price: 2300 Baht - Returning passengers 2100 Baht
Land transportation
1) TAXI, my choice of transportation. Early morning and it took me about 15 minutes to get there and it will cost about 100 Baht, about 3 US Dollars from the Asoke intersection. Say Sukhumvit Soi 105 or Baering BTS Station. Thai script for the taxi driver:
Sukhumvit Soi 105: สุขุมวิท ซอย ๑๐๕
Baering: สถานีรถไฟฟ้าแบริ่ง
2) SKY TRAINSukhumvit line (Green line) will take you to Baering #E14 station and from there it is a 3 minutes walk. I will go by taxi. But the meeting point at Sukhumvit Soi 105 is just next to the sky train station Baering. Get off the train and look for EXIT #1. Leave at EXIT #1 and just walk for 2 minutes towards north and you have the 7 Eleven on your right hand side.
Accommodations
I stay at my home sleeping in my own bed so no need for any hotel.
Equipment
Canon 5D Mk. III + Canon 5D Mk. IV
Canon EF 28-300/3,5-5,6 L IS USM
Canon EF 70-200/2,8L IS II USM
Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens
Canon Speedlite 600EXII-RT flash
Canon PowerShot G7X Mark II
Panasonic HC-W585 video camera
Sound recorder
ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder
Weather / climate
Weather, I don´t know if Bangkok is the hottest capital in the world. But this is what they say and I have no reason to doubt this information because it is darn hot. Whale watching season and it is the rainy season so we can expect strong winds and heavy rain anytime.
Bangkok, Thailand - Climate & Temperature
Pictures from www.climatemps.com
Bangkok, Thailand - Climate & Temperature - Click picture for full size
Pictures from www.climatemps.com
References/Resources
Thai National Parks - About the National Parks in Thailand A very good web page - Do you know that there are still wild tigers, elephants, leopards, tapirs, gaurs, bears and many monkey species in many tropical rainforests across Thailand? Do you also know that around 10% of all marine species in the world can be found in Thailand? And the fact that Thailand is the best bird-watching destination in mainland Asia?
National parks are protected areas of land because they have unspoilt landscapes and a diverse number of native plants and animals. There are 127 national parks in Thailand, of them 22 marine national parks. These parks offers a diverse range of flora and fauna, home to important population of endangered species. So now it will be easy to find out if there are any National Park close to you.
Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST) - The Bird Conservation Society of Thailand (BCST) is one of the oldest
organisations conserving birds and nature in Thailand and is the country partner of BirdLife International. BCST's role to the local community is to spread awareness about urban birds and reconnect people back to nature.The Logo
Dated back to 1986 when BCST was then a loosely-formed “Bangkok Birdwatching Club”, the Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis), or “Nok Gang Ken Baan” in Thai, has been chosen to represent the organisation.
There are two sites covering Thailand and I have used them many times. These two web pages are actually everything you need for your birding adventures in Thailand. All the information you need about all the birding spots. Click on the map and then select your spot and you will have maps and everything you need to know about the areas. They have put a lot of jobs in to their web pages, North Thailand Birding and thaibirding.com A must to visit before you go bird watching in Thailand.
www.norththailandbirding.com - A one stop only for all your birding in Thailand
thaibirding.com - Nick Upton's one stop only for all your birding in Thailand.
Use both www.thaibirding.com and www.norththailandbirding.com and you have a winner. Some of the maps on www.norththailandbirding.com are way better than Nick Upton´s, while some of Nick's maps are much more detailed. So I have found that if I use both the web pages for information, well, nothing else needed.
PBase/Peter Ericson - Peter Ericson, a guy I thought was from USA because of his family name. I met him at Lat Krabang Paddies in May 2020 and turned out that he was Swedish. Anyway, I have used his excellent page PBase since 2016 as help to ID birds by the help from his beautiful bird pictures.
Here you can also find information about birding tours.
He is also having a Blog - Thaibirds and more with interesting information.
Bangkok City Birding - A lot of interesting birding stories and information on this bird watching blog by David Gandy. Bangkok-based patch-worker in Suan Rot Fai, a large park close to the city's famous weekend market. He have recorded 150 species on his patch since 2008. As one of the only big green spaces in the city, “SRF” acts as a real magnet for migrants during spring and autumn, and holds a healthy selection of "sibes" during the winter months.
ebird - Find birding hotspots with bird checklists from all over the world
Avibase - is an extensive database information system about all birds of the world, containing over 25 million records about 10,000 species and 22,000 subspecies of birds, including distribution information for 12,000 regions, taxonomy, synonyms in several languages
www.oiseaux.net This web page is also excellent for identifying birds. There is information and range maps for many many birds from all over the world. This page is almost guaranteed to give you any answer you have about any bird in the world.
Cloudbirders - Read birding trip reports from all over the world
Fatbirder - Linking birders worldwide... Wildlife Travellers see their sister site: WAND
Fatbirder is a fantastic web page with information from, I think every country in the world. My first stop when I plan for my bird watching trips. There is information about locations and guides, well, pretty much everything you need to know. Sometimes this is the only place I need to visit to plan my trip.
BirdingPal - find a birding Guide around the world
And the web page you cannot live without. I have been around the world looking for birds. I usually have a Guide, but sometimes it is not possible to find a Guide. So, well, I have lost count on how many times I have had help to ID birds at BirdForum. Joining this forum have been very very good for my bird watching experience.
www.birdforum.net
ClimaTemps.com is the place to learn about the worlds climates with more than 4000 locations documented. Each aspect of the climate is represented using colour enhanced tables and professional graphs so that data can easily be compared by switching between locations in different tabs in your browser.
“A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson”
A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig Robson. New edition updated with 76 species since previous edition “A Field Guide to the Birds of Thailand and South East Asia by Craig” Nick Upton at www.thaibirding.com wrote “This quite excellent book is packed full of quality illustrations and written information on 1251 species recorded in Southeast Asia”
I bought this book for bird watching in Thailand, but it goes for all over SE Asia
Places to visit
Whale watching on the Upper Gulf of Thailand. So I expect to see both birds and whales.
Bird checklist
Full Thai list updated to the taxonomy, nomenclature and sequence of the IOU/IOC World Bird List. The complete checklist, including Thai names and synonyms, can be downloaded in Excel format - Thailand Bird Checklist. - Version 8.2 (2018) - found at www.norththailandbirding.com
Check lists can come in handy to find out the local name of the bird etc. And Avibase have a list with pictures and sounds, excellent!
So I will post bird checklists here and if my Guides provide me with checklists I will also post them here.
Samut Sakhon bird checklist from Avibase, click HERE - eBird version 2019 taxonomy- When going with the big boat
Phetchaburi bird checklist from Avibase, click HERE - eBird version 2019 taxonomy- When going with the small boat
Avibase is providing you with bird checklists from all over the world. And I´m impressed by their web page. Select country and area and you get the bird checklist. Like the PDF files I got from Avibase on the links above. You also get the checklist with pictures and sounds.
The best part is that you get the local names of the birds and the online checklist gives the names in English plus the language you have selected. But it seems like the PDF cannot handle some alphabet.
For example the Japanese language so it is blank in the PDF checklist. But it worked excellent with Swedish. But you get them in the local language on the online version.
Bird list
I only list birds I have got on picture on my list of OBSERVED BIRDS. But since I started using eBird I have changed a bit. I list all the birds on the eBird checklist. See the DAY TO DAY report in the itinerary below.
And you can visit my list of “ Birds I have seen in Thailand ” ONLY BIRDS I HAVE ON PICTURE.
eBird Report
Moo Ban Pramong - Whale watching with Wild Encounter Thailand, Samut Sakhon, TH Oct 14, 2019 07:25 - 17:11
Protocol: Traveling
99.86 kilometer(s)
Comments: Whale watching
15 species (+1 other taxa)
Feral Pigeon X
Zebra Dove 1
Whiskered Tern X
Common Tern X Many
Little Cormorant X Many
Great White Egret X Many
Little Egret X Many
pond heron sp. X
Striated Heron 1
Brahminy Kite 4
Malaysian Pied-Fantail 1
Large-billed Crow 1
Black-collared Starling 3
Great Myna X Many
Oriental Magpie-Robin 4
Eurasian Tree Sparrow X Many
View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S60606234
Trip Report
Monday 14 th of October 2019 and I reached 7 Eleven at Soi 105 quarter past 6 o'clock. I bought a bottle of water and a few bottles of orange juice. (I have given up MAX) I took my seat in the van, today they are using 3 vans so many people going whale watching today. We were soon leaving 7 Eleven behind bound for Moo Ban Pramong.
Today we will use the same boat we used on my very first whale watching in Thailand. And we will depart from the very same restaurant. Arriving at 07:05 and I spent some time walking around looking for birds while waiting for the departure. I spotted several Great Mynas, Pond Herons and Eurasian Tree sparrows. I few singing male Oriental Magpie Robins.
Oriental Magpie Robin / นกกางเขนบ้าน
Our boat ready for boarding
Our boat ready for boarding
Boarding
Boarding
Boarding
Little Egret
I boarded the boat and I went forward to have a look at the river. Sitting up front and I saw plenty birds and there were Egrets and Cormorants along the river. The other passengers started to board the boat and we were soon full. We left the jetty steaming out towards the open sea.
I was sitting up front while the other passengers was at the safety / information meeting in the lounge. I have been here before so I already know the safety equipment on the boat. And I already know the area so no need to listen to this and I could sit up front looking for birds.
I spot one Bhraminy Kite sitting on a bamboo stick and I move out to the boat side to get a few pictures. I look in to the lounge and I see two other getting out on the side for pictures. They came out to me and introducing themselves. Two bird watchers and we were the only three on board that have spotted the kite.
Little Egret
Brahminy kite - เหยี่ยวแดง
It started to rain
It started to rain
We take cover in the lounge
Heavy rain
We were up front talking about bird watching when we could feel the first drop falling. We had seen the sky over Bangkok turning black so it was no surprise when we could feel the first drop. I stayed up front but I was soon giving up and I went in to the lounge. I decided to try to get out after an hour and it was soon dry.
Still gloom and grey for long as I could see so there was not much light for any photography. But I could see the light over Bangkok so we will
hopefully have good light when the whales show up. We spot a whale and the passengers are excited, but I have seen, well, many swimming whales so I didn't bothered.We continue steaming to the south and we didn't see many birds on the way. We changed course to go to an area where they are looking at two whales. All the whale watching boats have radio so they report sightings.
My new bird watching friends looking for birds
We have found a whale
Tern taking a rest
Tern taking a rest
Another boat looking at whales
Another boat looking at whales
Two Bryde's Whales swimming and again, I have plenty pictures of Bryde's Whales so I never took any pictures. We were soon turning around steaming in the opposite direction. A feeding whale had been reported and we left with full speed. Passing one or two whales on the way. But we never bothered to stop continuing with full speed.
I kept my fingers crossed, spending so many days whale watching in Thailand but never seen the feeding Bryde's Whale with the mouth open above the surface. So yes, I was excited.
The first sign of activity was all the birds, maybe the reason for the lack of seabirds on the way coming here. There was a cloud of birds and I could see the whale sticking up the head with open mouth.
I'm up front while making full speed towards the whale
I can see the whale far away
I can see the whale far away and I can't wait to come closer
Approaching and we can see how big the mouth is next to the boat
I was at least to say impatient watching the whale at the horizon. Isn't it possible to be any faster? Approaching and I could see the whale eating but too far away for any pictures. I really could not wait to get closer to the whale before it disappeared.
And when we finally came closer we ended up behind another boat. It was the very same boat I had been on when we left Bang Tabun before I went to Copenhagen. They were very close to the whale and I was worried that the whale would disappear before I could get any pictures. But there was plenty fish and the whale stayed with us for a very long time
Here the whale comes again
We had a very good time with the whale, we spotted one on the way back so in total 7 whales. But I only count the one feeding. The other sights I have seen many times already. We said BYE BYE and we started to go back to Moo Ban Pramong. Me new friends, the bird watchers was up front taking pictures of terns flying by us.
The return trip is very tedious, well, at least today when we had have the display of the whale feeding. I really didn't showed any interest for any more whales. Well, of course. I need to see a breaching Bryde's whale. Maybe tomorrow when I will go whale watching with my friend. We were approaching Moo Ban Pramong and I started to look out for birds along the river on our way in to the jetty.
I spotted the Bhraminy Kite coming back to Moo Ban Pramong sitting on one of the bamboo sticks and when I checked the picture I discovered that the bird had a fish.
On the way back to Moo Ban Pramong
We can see the bridges in Bangkok
Brahminy kite / เหยี่ยวแดง with dinner
Great Egret / Great White Heron / นกยางโทนใหญ่ balancing on a swinging bamboo rod looking for food
Great Egret / Great White Heron / นกยางโทนใหญ่ balancing on a swinging bamboo rod looking for food
Great Egret / Great White Heron / นกยางโทนใหญ่ balancing on a swinging bamboo rod looking for food
Great Egret / Great White Heron / นกยางโทนใหญ่
Little Egret at the jetty
Little Egret at the jetty
Little Egret at the jetty
There were several egrets on the way to the jetty. Coming ashore and we were soon in the van going back to 7 Eleven at Soi 105 in Bangkok. I was very happy with the day with the feeding whale. And I hope for the same luck tomorrow when I go whale watching with my friend.
He will come to pick me up at 05:30 and we will drive to Leam Pak Bia. Click HERE to find out if I see any whales and birds.
OK, it has come to my knowledge that we have senior citizens visiting my web page. How hard can it 
be? So it's not very easy for them to see the blue coloured links to the next page.
noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.
So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.
So I put a “Next” button here and I hope that there isn't any problem to understand how to use that one. So just CLICK the “Next” button on your left hand side and you will be on the next page in a jiff!
Marunong ka mag-tagalog? Walang problema! Magpunta sa kabilang pahina pindutin ang “NEXT” button sa itaas
Faites vous parlez le français? Pas de problème! Pour arriver à la page suivante faites s'il vous plaît un déclic le bouton “Next” ci-dessus!
Haga usted dice el español? No hay problema! Ver la siguiente página sólo hacer clic el botón “Next” encima!
Farla parla l'italiano? Non problemi! Per vedere la prossima pagina lo scatto per favore giusto Il bottone “Next” sopra
Sprechen sie Deutsch! Kein problem! Wenn Sie die folgende Seite sehen wollen gerade klicken der Knopf “Next” oben!
คุณพูดภาษาไทยได้ไหม ไม่มีปัญหา ถ้าคุณต้องการไปหน้าถัดไป ให้กดปุ่ม “Next”
ข้างบนนี้
Вы говорите по-русски? Просто нажмите синюю кнопку "Next" с левой стороны и Вы моментально переместитесь на следующую страницу!
E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.
Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.
be? So it's not very easy for them to see the blue coloured links to the next page. Jiffy (also jiff)
noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.
So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.
Marunong ka mag-tagalog? Walang problema! Magpunta sa kabilang pahina pindutin ang “NEXT” button sa itaasFaites vous parlez le français? Pas de problème! Pour arriver à la page suivante faites s'il vous plaît un déclic le bouton “Next” ci-dessus!Haga usted dice el español? No hay problema! Ver la siguiente página sólo hacer clic el botón “Next” encima!Farla parla l'italiano? Non problemi! Per vedere la prossima pagina lo scatto per favore giusto Il bottone “Next” sopraSprechen sie Deutsch! Kein problem! Wenn Sie die folgende Seite sehen wollen gerade klicken der Knopf “Next” oben! คุณพูดภาษาไทยได้ไหม ไม่มีปัญหา ถ้าคุณต้องการไปหน้าถัดไป ให้กดปุ่ม “Next”
ข้างบนนี้
Вы говорите по-русски? Просто нажмите синюю кнопку "Next" с левой стороны и Вы моментально переместитесь на следующую страницу!
E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.
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