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 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 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