April 21 Bundala and Yala

After breakfast leave for Yala Village, Yala for two nights. En route visit Bundala National Park in safari jeeps. Bundala is a fascinating wetland home for 150 species of winter migrant and resident birds. The park is accessed in safari jeeps. The highlight would be large flocks of Greater Flamingos, which could number up to a few hundred. Bundala is a ‘Ramsar’ wetland of Sri Lanka. Among the larger water birds you could also see Lesser Adjutant, Painted Stork, Asian Openbill, Eurasian Spoonbill, Black-headed Ibis and Woolly-necked Stork. Waders that can be seen at Bundala include Pacific Golden, Lesser Sand and Greater Sand, Little Ringed, Kentish and Little Ringed Plovers, Little Stint, Marsh, Common, Wood and Green Sandpipers. You could also see the two odd-looking Eurasian Thick-knee and Great Thick-knee in addition to Eurasian Curlew, Black tailed Godwit, Common Snipe, Red-necked Phalarope, Pintail Snipe and Ruddy Turnstone.

Over this day and the next there were a couple of references to the tsunami of 2004. These have been gathered together in a special page.

As a result of the soggy bit of 20 April and the forecast for the following day Hettie suggested that we slightly change the plan for Bundala and have an early start, visit the Park and then go on to Yala in the afternoon. We agreed quickly and were up and about at 5am.

This meant we left in the dark which made Hettie's headlights and alertness the things which avoided a very large tree which had fallen across the road. He also avoided all the dogs which were gathering in the middle of the road for a convivial sniff round. They seemed to be in larger numbers than usual and also much more alert.

In past blogs I have commented on aspects of technology which have passed some countries by. In the case of Sri Lanka it seems to be the dip switch, particularly on trucks. Tuk-tuks were around early with intersting lighting effects on occasion. Most of them are imported knocked down from India and assembled in Empipitlya while the Piaggio Ape models are imported fully assembled, but from India rather than Italy.

The area around Bundala is the least prosperous in the country and as a result the Government has been doing development projects. These include:

• an International airport (fair enough as there are nice beaches and Parks to attract punters);
• an International port (fair enough as there is a lot of passing shipping); and
• an International Convention Centre (never justified anywhere for any purpose).

There were also a lot of signs around covered with marketing spin and BS about “Empowering Youth” and similar meaningless phrases.

We met our driver and transferred to his jeep for the tour of Bundala NP - a RAMSAR Wetland of International importance site - getting into the Park just after daybreak. This was a brilliant idea as the light was crystal clear and there were lots and lots of birds around, as well as some other animals. Getting the others out of the way first:

• Grey Langurs – not Langers, Alfie hasn't aged than much;
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

   Black-necked Hares;
• Spotted deer; and
• Mugger Crocodiles.

The latter were in large numbers and some were large in size. A particularly active specimen had gone to sleep in the road, woke as we arrived on an elevated track through the salt fields and dived into the pan alongside.  Here is a shot of it before it climbed on to the road.

Rob got a better image of the beast

 The waterbirds were evident before we got to the Park itself - where no-one seemed to be on duty – but we wandered in and were soon seeing many birds. Grey-headed Fish-eagle was an initial highlight and then several grassland species were seen closely followed by a large colony of terns, with a few waders. Quite a few of the images are in the 'Birds' page but some tasters follow.

Purple Sunbird

 Reflected Pheasant-tailed jacana

 Greater Thick-knee

We dodged around on tracks that were partly submerged - thanks Rob

and came out on to some salt pans. These had a lot of water in them – rotten rain – which had reduced the number and variety of waders and water birds (for example we saw no gulls). After seeing a large crocodile inspecting a pipe between two lagoons (see mage above) we came across small flocks of Red-necked Phalarope ( which I hadn't seen since Ottawa 1991) and Small Pratincole (a lifer). At the end of this we had to return as we didn't have permission to use the private roads in the salt works.

I think we totalled up to 65 species in the park: a really good haul. The clear light certainly helped.

There was then a short drive to Yala, including a stop to look at the Pagoda on a site 2300 years old (the pagoda is more recent) on which the tooth relic was stored during part of its life. The wall around the site was decorated with elephant designs.
We stopped in this village to fill up with diesel and I took the opportunity to snap some of the locals filling up the fuel containers for their tractors etc.  We were quite intrigued as to how they rode the motor bikes wearing sarongs.

It was not uncommon the see someone topping up the fuel in a tuk-tuk from a 1.5l soda bottle.  One of the benefits of no power must be good economy!
We also met up with another bike race, but in more rural surroundings and with a clear leader so not so thrilling as the previous example. It was amusing to see the leader get a bucket of water heaved over him! (The lines in this image ae the heating elements in the rear window of the van.)

The road to the Yala Resort was ungood, taking about 45 minutes to cover about 12 kms. The Resort is excellent being only about 12 years old. Somehow it was not damaged by the tsunami although almost on the beach. I went for a short run around the resort (4 laps at 500m per lap) followed by a swim and a medicinal beer. There were not a huge number of flowers about - I suspect that happens during and after the monsoon - but these yellow blossoms were quite common.

 Note that we were not allowed to go beyond the boundary due to the risk of dangerous animals such as leopards and elephants (and possibly crocodiles which were quite visible in the lagoon next to the pool). A herd of wild boar -about 20 of all sizes – ran past our chalet just before we went to dinner.  The next evening Hettie's brother, also a Jetwing guide, saw a leopard from the Hotel.
 However we were allowed to go onto the beach.  This guy was fishing well out to sea with a very heavy swell running.  I would not have been out there in that boat in those conditions

This shot shows the length of the beach: the fishing boats enter at the far end.

Proving that the waves were quite strong ....

We couldn't resist this shot of a brain-like rock with shadows.

To justify the early start a large thunderstorm started just as dusk fell.

Dinner was buffet style and quite good, once we found the Sri Lankan curry section. A mild annoyance was the wine wallah almost demanding that we had wine rather than the beer which we ordered. We ignored him.

Bird of the Day: Chestnut-headed Bee-eater

Other vertebrate of the Day: Mugger crocodile

Pattern of the day: Elephant design at pagoda

Bad taste of the day: An embarrassment of choice in the attire of our fellow guests.

Read on  

April 23: Nuwara Eliya

After breakfast leave for St.Andrew’s Hotel, Nuwara Eliya for two nights. Afternoon, visit Victoria Garden for Himalayan migrants Kashmir Flycatcher, Pied Thrush Indian Pitta and Indian Blue Robin. Other highlights include Yellow-eared Bulbul, Sri Lanka Hill White-eye and Dull blue Flycatcher.

Today was a relatively relaxed start as we didn't have to leave until about 8;30. As Frances and I strolled across to the breakfast facility we were greatly amused by the antics of a bunch of Grey langurs (ie monkeys) playing around in the bushes and then leaping – with loud thuds – onto the rooves of chalets.

As it was still before opening time we went up to the observation deck to look out over the lagoon. That was a nice view, but what really caught our attention was the sunbirds feedng in the trees below us. Due to the hour and their position they were catching the sun beautifully and really stunning us with their looks. The purple rumps stood out like neon signs – which presumably is the intention!

Once esconced for breakfast we were most amused by a squirrel invading the next table - fortunately unoccupied - and stealing the packets of sugar.

Heading off down the road there was a minor kerfuffle amongst the local dogs and accompanied by a larger kerfuffle in the local Muscovy Duck population. It was later apparent that the cause of this was the need for the assembled stock to remove a fairly large Rat Snake from the area.
There was some excitement when some birds were spotted on the roadside these were Brahminy Starlings (a lifer) and Rose Starlings (added, in a poor sighting, to my life list the previous day after many years of wanting to see one of these birds).  Even on this occasion the image of the Rose Starling was not worth reproducing, but the Brahminy was more obliging.

Our progress was temporarily interrupted by a herd of cattle.  They were a pretty ratty bunch of beasts but did show the 'hot wire brands' rather well.

 The next interesting sight, some kms down the road was a large colony of fruit bats circling their roost tree. (NB: we had seen horseshoe bats flying through the eating area at Martins Simple Lodge.)

As we drove along there was some confusion about distances. It then emerged that the modern, authoritative distance markers were in kilometres, but there were some old Colonial era, markers still showing the distances in miles. Sri Lanka adopted metric measures in 1975 (about the same time as Australia).

Every village seems to have a vendor of clay pots for buffalo curd. They keep them piled up, which caused some small confusion for a while. Buffalo also crossed our path – fortunately, with one exception, not literally by being dead beside the road. A rather more significant road hazard than a dead 'roo. As an aside it is a miracle - due to the concern of the local drivers - that the whole country is not covered with dead dogs: their preferred spot for a sleep is about 60cm out in the road, but thus far we have seen none flattened. (That continued throughout the trip.)

After a couple of hours we turned on to the road up to Nurawa Eliya.  Up was definitely the word as we then climbed steadily for the next two hoirs . We stopped for a look at a large waterfall, linked to the story of a local king stealing a bride from Southern India.  This is not a Bollywood yarn but a very old legend. Most picturesque with specular green-winged dragonflies decorating the rock at the bottom.

 

The best snap of a sari was this one of a lady at the falls.

We ascended the road somewhat further and called in at a tea house (elevation 1014m), where we were sponsored, not by the letter T but the letter P.  This image shows the roads weaving up and across the steep hillsides.

On on towards Nuwara Eliya. Sights seen along the road included:

• Ganesh sitting on a oil drum outside a Hindu Temple; and
• Buddha sitting in the back of a truck.

There were temples of both Hindu

 and Buddhist persuasions all over the place as well as the occasional Christian edifice.  This roundabout, seem dimly through the customary rain, was an attractive part of a rather crummy town.

In an agricultural sense there were many many acres of terraced hillsides covered with tea plants or, particularly as we neared Nuwara Eliya, vegetable fields. As we had left the low lands some of the rice paddies had been flooded – whether by intent or just as a result of the rain was not clear – and the water was cascading down through openings in the walls.

After reaching NE and checking in to the St Andrews Hotel we headed off to look at some grand buildings (see the Buildings post) Victoria Park to check for Himalayan migrants. They seem to have migrated already as despite an hour or more searching we failed to find any. There were a number of interesting signs observed by Rob, Carol and Frances who decided that looking at the garden was more interesting to them than scouting a polluted creek.

• Refrain from playing in the park;
• Refrain from plucking the flowers;
• Refrain from removing the plants;
• Behave decently.

Surprisingly there were no jobsworths around to enforce these rules.

There are a couple of images of the gardens taken by Frances.

and one by Rob (which also says something about the weather)

 We went back to another spot near the Grand Hotel where Hettie thought the migrants might be lurking. They weren't but we did spend a little time watching a Velvet Nuthatch, which is a cute little bird.

I then decided to give battle in the Bale Bazaar (sort of collection of factory outlet shacks for Sri Lankan clothing factories) to see if I could get a more waterproof jacket. Many stalls from which the boys were keen to sell me their stuff. All was said to be waterproof and all was Gore-Tex. None of the labels mentioned that trademark but instead said things like 100% nylon on the label. Rob commented that it was very easy to sew in a label, but I reckoned it was even easier to just say something. The final insult was when one of the boys said his offering was 9000Rs (about $A75) and didn't even counter offer to my suggestion that I only had 4000Rs!

Back at the hotel - where this view of the town was taken

 and dinner happened. A waiter tried to serve us two entrees but having eaten one I was keen to move on my “Asian Spacial” featuring vegetable biriyani and grilled paneer. Very tasty it was too.

As a point of interest, at Yala there were several honeymoon couples. At Nuwara Eliya a couple celebrated their 29^th wedding anniversary.

Bird of the Day: Brahminy Starling

Other vertebrate of the day: Squirrel stealing sugar;

Pattern of the day: Sari

Bad taste of the day: the spiky hair style at the next table.

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

April 26: Back to the High country

Morning birding at Kelani Valley Forest Reserve. which is a lowland tropical rainforest rich in endemic fauna and flora. The Kelani Valley Forest Reserve is ideal for any missed lowland endemics such as Sri Lanka Myna, Green-billed Coucal, Spot-winged Thrush, Sri Lanka Blue Magpie, Sri Lanka Spurfowl, Brown-capped Babbler and Red-faced Malkoha. Afternoon, leave for Chaaya Citadel, Kandy for two nights. 

We revised our schedule a bit so that we revisited the place near the nick again.  Before departing on that we got excellent views of a flock of Sri Lankan Grey Hornbills around the Guest House.  On getting to the police station area we again failed to find the Owlet. 

So back to the Guest House to try for the Serendib Scops Owl in the rain forest fragment on the opposite side of the river.  This involved a ride in a dugout Canoe,

 in which Hettie – like most Sri Lankans that we saw – stood up while I at least squatted down to get better balance and Rob took photos.  We then did a very brisk walk, pausing only to look at another Green Forest lizard

and some Mimosa flowers (plus play a little with their sensitive leaves)

then on up through a picturesque village

and into the rain forest.

 After a very pleasant walk we came to a stream which was flowing a lot more strongly than usually encountered, due to the recent rains.  Frances and Carol decided to wait while Hettie Rob and myself got our feet wet.  After a few more metres we came to a paddy field and observed some hawk eagles but nothing else.  Hettie looked under a little farmers shelter into the forest (after checking the shelter for snakes) but no owl,  so along the edge of the field and back into the rainforest on a track.  After about 2 minutes Hettie decided that we should return but he would dive into the forest on a very narrow track to do one more playback.  We were to wait in the shelter.

As he disappeared Rob said “Should we have asked him to leave the car keys?”.  We heard a bit of playback and shortly after Hettie emerged moving reasonably swiftly but not looking overjoyed so we guessed the owl was AWOL.  His first words were “I have been bitten by a snake.”.  The immediate question from us was “Is it poisonous?” to which the unwished-for positive answer, was given.

Hettie was firm that despite Australian practise he would walk back – probably good as he is a big lad and we couldn't carry him - so set off using his mobile phone.  (NOTE to TELSTRA and OPTUS:  the mobile phone got coverage in a bloody jungle some distance from a village, let alone a Provincial capital: why can't you do the same?)  The idea seemed to be to take some analgesics; wash the wound; apply some leaves; and get to hospital asap.  As he was allergic to aspirin it was good that Frances had some paracetamol.  By the time we got across the river his brother had contacted the Guest House and he was met by 8 concerned staff and taken off to hospital. 

The manager assured us that the species was not very venomous and that if your time was managed well “you'll be in Heaven.”  I said something to the effect that Heaven was not where we wanted him to be, and after a pause the manager understood my joke and roared with laughter.  The next step was Hettie calling the manager to say that he would be in the hospital for 4 hours but Jetwing were sending another chauffeur as he might not be able to drive.

We basically hung out in the Guest House.  This was aided by having a beer (surprisingly they still had some) and taking a few images.  Some of them are in the Birds page and here are a few others.

The red stems on some palms were attractive.

 A red stain on my shirt was less so: here is the culprit (one of two)

 A view from further back

This White-throated Kingfisher gave a beetle a thorough hammering on the railings before finally swallowing it.  (By this stage we were feeling a tad hammered ourselves.)

After a few hours Hettie rang again to say he was being kept in for 12 hours, the new driver would be with us in 20 minutes and another guide would join us in the morning.  He hoped to join up before we left the country.

So the new driver Bundulu arrived, we loaded up the kit and took off.  Giving due credit, the staff of the Guest House had been very considerate, both to Hettie and ourselves - although we were hours late checking out they made no fuss and produced a cellphone whenever Hettie rang.

Bundulu was not a slow driver like Hettie (he wasn't paid to look for birds we passed etc, but to get clients from Point A to somewhere else, such as Point B) but didn't do daft things.  As we left Kitulgala I noticed a sign on the road pointing to the site where the Bridge on the River Kwai was filmed, but in the circumstances didn't request a stop!

We dodged some potential points of congestion such as a rainy village market

and our first Sri Lankan accident scene where a ute and a bus appeared to have had a misunderstanding.  As there where a few cops on the scene, and we crossed a few ambulances headed to the scene, it may have been nasty.

Gampola Railway Station was straight out of the Raj and/or Bollywood! We got to Kandy in 90 minutes rather than 150 and checked into the Citadel.  Very, very plush and an excellent view across the river.

The place was well endowed with tour groups, some of whom were very noisy.  When we went down for tea there was music from the bar echoing up and competing with the foul musak in the restaurant.  The food however was good.

Bird of the day:  Grey Hornbill

Other vertebrate of the day:  Palm squirrel (the most obvious candidate was seen by none of us)

Pattern of the day:  Elephant designs

Bad taste of the day:  Quebecois tourists  who let their brats sit on the counter of the food service area.

Big Positive  of the day:  Behaviour of the Guest House staff and Jetwing office folk to get us out of the doo-doo!

Addendum from the future: I was at a COG Meeting in mid-June and chatted with another member who visited Sri Lanka a couple of years ago.  They used the Bird and Wildlife mob and it seemed a very intense trip.  They got all the endemics, including the Serendib Scops Owl  This was at Kithulgala and in the jungle, so only 2 people were allowed in to look at once.  Thus I suspect it was the infamous area behind the small hut. One couple went to look from a different angle and were startled - at least - to find a cobra dangling off a branch about a foot from their faces!

Read on