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.

April 24: Hortons Plains

Morning visit Horton Plains National Park to see Cloud Forests and rare montane fauna, which include the endemic Rhino-horned Lizard, which was featured in Charles Darwin's monumental work on evolution, Bear Monkey, Giant Squirrel and Sambhur. Walk though the grasslands and Cloud Forests to a popular viewpoint know as World's end, which is an escapement with a 870 m drop. We also look for endemic birds Yellow-eared Bulbul and Sri Lanka Hill White-eye and Dull blue Flycatcher. Afternoon visit Hakgala Botanical Gardens. Here we look for the highland races of Purple-faced Leaf Monkey and Toque Macaque. The Toques brim with self-confidence and may approach the visitors!

A very early start to get into Hortons Plains NP. Hettie and I were to do birding, while the others would go a little further in the van and then do a walk (9km round trip) to the World's End look down and some Falls. The road up was rather steep and twisty (and rough, so we didn't use the Jetwing van but a rented one).

The first wildlife spotted by Hettie and myself was a Giant Squirrel (these are big suckers: about the size of a Brush-tailed Possum not little cuties like the Palm and Dusky species).. The walkers also saw one some kms further on.

On the subject of Dusky Squirrels they were also plentiful:

 The key bird was the Sri Lanks Whistling Thrush. After about 30 minutes a fine male flew across the road in front of us, landed, and hammered a snail. Absolutely perfect views, lasting until 0.1 picoseconds before I had my camera set up!  After hanging about for a while longer trying for various other species (and scoring several including Crimson-backed Flameback and Yellow-eared Bulbul) we headed off to meet up with the van. The vegetation at this point was rather dense and rainforest like (possibly because it was rainforest albeit approaching the elfin forest in the higher parts of Peru).  Many epiphytes were available.!

When we got out into the plains proper there were many Pied Bushchats

around and fans of Sean Dooley will be pleased to know that the Zitting Cisticola was common.  In this area the only interruptions to the grass were occasional Rhodedendrons, with the first flowers starting to emerge.

At times the Plains are home to many Sambur deer.  We saw one cross the road and then came across this one sat beside the road.  It is a rather sad case who has earnt that it is easier too bum unhealthy food off visitors than to forage for itself.

We got to the van before the walkers returned so I wandered out to meet them. They had had some good views of "Worlds End" itself (these images by Frances)

 and on the track to Bakers Falls

as well as excitements including seeing a leopard pawprint followed by hearing a close coughing roar. It is interesting that in Yala the jeeps have to have a roof because of leopards but here people walk around!   Another sighting - of a Slow Worm pictured by Rob -

  has entered official mythology! There are of course a few signs around.

On the drive down I thought the Sri Lankan design of crash barrier was worth presenting.  In case you are wondering the drop on the other side is not sheer: no more than a 60% slope, possibly less than 100m vertical drop and no really big vehicles could use the road.

In the afternoon We went to some Botanic Gardens - rather more like an English municipal park than the ANBG – to have a final squizz for migrants (none) Bear-monkeys (we saw a large troupe of this race of the Purple-faced Leaf Monkey) and the Rhinoceros-lizard (2 were seen).

An unusual sight was what appeared to be dark concrete pipes enncasing some tree fern stems.  The whole thing may have been concrete: we never found out.

 As we entered we had noticed that some local youth were playing cricket, with the pitch running across the main road into town!   They had finished by the time left allowing me to concentrate on the more traditional, but probably less interesting, vegetable terraces

and surrounding mountains.

On the subject of mountains Nuwara Eliya is at about 2,000m and on the way out to Hortons Plains we passed the highest railway station with a sign citing 2,200m: the road went up considerably after that!  (As an aside, on the climb up to Nuwara Eliya I  had noticed a sign for one village quoting its elevation to the nearest millimetre.  This really baffled me, until Carol suggested that its height had probably been originally taken in feet and then converted, using a detailed factor, to metres: having got the answer to 3 decimal places why not use it?)

Our evening meal was a buffet and rated as best so far. The trifle was excellent and took me back to Sunday tea in my childhood! Equally the bread and butter pudding was fully authentic taking me back to one of the few diishes that was cooked to be edible at my school. Some dishes were done to order, including banana fritters (possibly not too healthy due to them being deep fried as you wait).

Bird of the day: Orange minivet

Other vertebrate of the Day: Giant squirrel (the Committee agreed – a little reluctantly that as all had seen the species – albeit different beasts – it was eligible).

Pattern of the day: a concrete design in the Gardens that encased some swirly things.

Bad taste of the day: Muzak in the Hotel bar.

 

Read on