Storks in SamKok
Almost forty years ago I once, together with Ton, a regular traveling companion for many years, went to an area about twenty kilometers above Bangkok.
There flows the same river as the one that meanders through Bangkok. There was a small town on that river and for next to nothing you could rent a motorboat that would take you to the other side. You had a forest there and storks nested in the trees of that forest, at least during the breeding season, from January to April. It was a fascinating sight. Hundreds of parent storks flew back and forth with fish for their offspring.
Because I like to go to places that are only vaguely etched in my memory, I find out exactly where that was and with only friends I set off. We first have to go to Pathum Thani province above Bangkok and then to a small town called SamKok. A narrow road leads to the river and, when we get there, it seems like I was there yesterday. The same giant trees and some small restaurants. And on the other side of the river, a little to the left, I see the forest again. Storks fly above. Time has stood still here.
We inform you how much it costs to be taken across. One hundred baht, back and forth. That is more expensive than twenty years ago, but still affordable. We get into the long flat boat and we head to the other side. We get off at a wooden platform and make an appointment with the boatswain that he will pick us up again in an hour. The forest almost smells stuffy due to the amount of stork droppings, but you have to do something for nature. I remember there is a temple at the end of the path and that has not changed either.
Because the area is not flat, on a mountain you can look right into the nests in the top of lower trees. Very quietly I prepare my Nikon with a telephoto lens of four hundred millimeters. It is unbelievable, how well you can follow the activity of the birds. Five, six young in the nest and father and mother fly off and on with food. My motor drive sounds incessantly. These should be beautiful pictures.
One of the temple buildings appears to have a flat roof, which you can get on top of and we don't even need a telephoto lens for that. We can approach the nests a few meters away without disturbing the birds. Unbelievable that these animals have been choosing this place to nest for more than twenty years. I will go back there often.
The hour is over, so we walk back to the river. There we wait a short time for the boat and then return to the other bank, where we have a simple meal in a restaurant. There I suddenly remember that twenty years ago we went a little further up the river and stopped at a temple on this side. The trees around that temple were full of sleeping bats. That sounds like something for next year. We are going back to Pattaya.
Nice article by Dick Kogger, Nice photo, he makes,
I myself regularly travel through Thailand to photograph special birds,
Just about those storks, (they are not storks by the way) they are also called Indian gapers. Or the Asian Openbill, (Anastomus os IRA's) but for me they are just storks,
But you really don't have to go that far to see these birds,
In Jomtien, about 500 m past the chaiyapruek, seen from the right side of Pattaya,
If you are lucky you can see many hundreds, I have regularly taken beautiful pictures there,
Gerbrand Castricum,
Yes Dirk, I live in Samkoke and have a nursery in Bang Sai, 10 km from Samkoke. I also have thousands of storks there, but many nests have disappeared due to the flood. The trees where the nests were located are dead and broken off, they have been 3 meters underwater. The temple with the bats is between Samkoke and my nursery. It stinks incredibly there and if you whistle, they all fly away. Millions hang there and only at that temple.
I am curious whether Joop still has his nursery and if so, whether it can be visited. I am also a big bird lover.
everyone is welcome, there are some storks but no more numbers
call in advance when you come wall there is a large gate locked wall a lot was stolen
and there we don't work for my tel, 0817540176
LS,
Very nice to read. It's the open bill stork. This stork species is widely distributed throughout Thailand in large and smaller colonies. I have never been there. I myself live in the north Phayao.
Here you see in small groups and in small colonies.
greeting
Adri
We live in BKK, Khlong Samwa. There is the Safari World zoo and there are also hundreds of storks and even a kind of pelican, which fly out in the morning to look for food and return to the nest in the evening. Beautiful sight to see as they circle in the air.
Yesterday was on my way from Ban Dung to Udon Thani, through a beautiful wetland nature reserve, saw a large colony of storks from the car eating the now numerous frogs present there, they were the same storks that I still know from the Netherlands from the distant past, I stopped and safely parked on the side of the road, but when they got out they all flew away, unfortunately, at the same time, probably to another place, impressive to see.
To my surprise we also have them in The Isaan this year. On the rice fields. For years only the small beautiful completely white smaller version, but now also the 'stork' AND the gray herons”
Brilliant, KhunBram.
While I'm uploading a video to youtube I look at Thailandblog and see this story. The subject of my video: hundreds of storks who come to spend the night in a tree here every night. We see them here every spring. https://youtu.be/kORTNWFMhlc
Unfortunately, the storks in the photos do not match the story.
The first photo shows Indian Nimmerzats (painted stork – Mycteria leucocephala).
The second photo shows flying African Nimmerzats (yellow billed stork - Mycteria ibis).
These are different stork species than the confused, less colorful Indian gaper (open-billed stork - Anastomus oscitans), which is often seen in Thailand and has already been named by other readers as the correct species of Samkok.
See https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indische_gaper for details and photos.
MarkL
Indeed beautiful to see the large numbers of storks, yes also with us in the rice fields in Huay Sai (23 km from Chiang Mai). Funny when I said to a Thai woman: Yes, these storks bring the children to the Netherlands! She looked at me like, huh? Then I realized that this is typically Dutch and she didn't get it. After I explained to her that this was a story for the kids, she got it…. or not? I always have to think about it when I see the storks again in large numbers during this period.
You also have storks in the south of Thailand (Malaysian side).
Once I came to a village (could be somewhere in Phattalung), where besides Thai, lived dozens of storks.
Were on the roofs of the houses and where not anymore. Sorry can't say which village that was.
Also in the south, a marshland with a road through it and also equipped with a CYCLE PATH !
All kinds of birds can be seen from the roadside, park hams where you can look over the area. The purple swaphen could already be spotted quite close by.
Of course I didn't have my cam with me at the time and it was hard to do with the P10.
I'll have to keep track of where I am at any given moment. Most of the time I randomly cruise around the country with my wife in the car and can't keep track.