April 22: Leopards yes, some other cat-names no.

Morning and afternoon safaris at Yala National Park. The park is also good for dry zone specialties like Indian and Great Thick-knees, Sirkeer and Blue-faced Malkohas and Malabar Pied Hornbill. The park is probably the best place to see the rare Black-necked Stork. A day's birding in the park, during the northern winter, can yield a 100 species. The biggest draws in Yala are Elephants, Leopards and Sloth Bears. A recent study has shown that Yala has one of the highest densities of Leopards in the world.

This day involved another early start as it was important to get into the Park early. Unlike other places we had been there are many jeeps in the park with many coming from Yala Village on the main road. This reflects groming recognition of the high density of leopards in the Park. As Rob and Carol commented, in Africa leopard is the hardest of the Big 5 to nail (in all the visits we have made to Parks in Tanzania and South Africa, the best we did was a bit of spotted rope hanging from a tree).

Our first departure from the resort was marred by a major vicious stoush amongst the dogs that hang around. As Sri Lankan dogs are usually very mellow like this lot at the main entrance to the park

this must be engendered by the behaviour of the tourists.

The first task of the day was to arrive at a collective noun for the jeeps. As they all sped off in a cloud of dust I liked the term “Jeremiad” but now agree that Frances offering of a “Jig of Jeeps” is more appropriate as it gets across the bouncy motion on the rough roads.

One point to note is that all the jeeps in Yala (as with Bundala but not Udawawele) have to have covered backs. This is to stop the leopards jumping in from trees.

We turned off onto a side road to escape the chaos and to see if we could find a leopard on some rocks.  A Ruddy Mongoose was found very quickly.

Suddenly we heard a loud cough, which was identified as a leopard mating call, and the spotty chap was picked up on top of a rock.

 Here it is zoomed a bit!

 He headed off, and us and the other two jeeps in the area headed back to where it was thought likely he would cross the road. Sure enough he did, but unfortunately was spooked by a private (ie not professional) jeep driver and headed into the scrub.

We meandered about a bit, writing down quite a few birds and me failing many times to get a decent photograph of a Little Green Bee-eater.   Frances did a better job with this species.

I did get a few other snaps:

Spotted Deer

 Lesser Adjudant and friends

 We came across a family of elephants notable for:

• the bull being in must; and
  

  
• one of the females (closest in this image) being heavily in calf. It was thought at one point that the baby could be seen to kick.
  

  

A new species of bird - Egretta pachydermis the Elephant Egret - was also present.

 Eventually we stopped for breakfast at the tsunami memorial, along with many other jeeps. The behaviour of many of the tourists was a little ordinary since they seemed to feel it necessary to drape themselves over their guides and drivers for photographs. One couple added to this with clothing that was an assault on most senses.

 No more major excitements during the morning session but I feel these images are worth sharing with you.

 Rocks at the end of the beach

 A huge beetle dining on purple flowers

 A Grey Mongoose (note lack of black in the tail)

 A mass of pretty water lilies

 They also nice when a single flower is reflected!

We returned to the resort for lunch. We noted a buffalo calf – with its mother getting very closely checked over by a croc. The mother was missing a front hoof, suggesting she had already had a battle with a croc.

After lunch – livened up by a family of wild boar coming through past our chalet

– we went to the beach to see if it had changed since the previous day. It hadn't.  Returning to our chalet the dog which had adopted us was in residence.

We then returned to the Park for a second go at leopards. Hetti had received information about a mother and three cubs being seen near the breafkfast spot. So the idea as to head off tothat area.

One of the small lakes we passed was well endowed with waterbirds which occupied us for a while before we got to a “rough road”. A t another lake (really a pond) we got close looks at a Painted Stork, seeing the pink 'flush' on the wings for the first time.

Also well decorated was this butterfly, which from its resemblance to Australian species I decided was a Jezabel.

The rough road was a bit bumpy for a while but didn't seem too tough until we got to a drop off a rock ledge which was very dodgy. It appeared at one point we had got jammed or the car was at such a precarious angle it couldn't move forwards or backwards (sideways rotation was an option). However we got out of it, with possible modifications to the tailpipe.

After getting back to the main road monkeys were giving an alarm call so some minutes were invested in trying to spot the leopard which had disturbed them. We failed and as it was getting towards Park closing time headed for the gate. After a few km we came across a Jam of Jeeps. This is the stationary version of a Jig.

 A leopard was sitting up in a tree about 100m from the road.

(This is the traditional African view of a leopard.)
 Eventually most of the jeeps nicked off and we got some reasonable views. Frances was watching when it stood up and descended. Hetti established that it was coming towards the road and after a couple of minutes it emerged and walked up the road with 3 jeeps following it. It was a young female so definitely a different animal to the full adult male we seen in the morning. (I apologise for invading her privacy.)

Eventually she moved into the bushes and we moved on, but not far, as another leopard was seen in the bushes. It didn't emerge but we did get fleeting looks. Off to the gate - only a few minutes after official closing time. A very satisfactory expedition.

Evening meal was a similar deal to the previous one, even to the extent of getting the same table. The highlight for me was the Cuttlefish black curry which had certainly not been toned down for European tastes.

Bird of the Day: Painted Stork

Other vertebrate of the day: Leopard (hardly a surprise I suggest)

Pattern of the day: Peacock

Bad taste of the day: Daggy couple at the breakfast spot
Read on.