After my solo Panama trip (which was rather rough - with me getting 2 diseases and missing the main target bird by a shave), it was a nice change to have hired a private guide to organize everything for us and do all the driving, and to sleep in actual hotels without risking exposure to parasitic diseases, etc. Ramata found us a great outfit called "walk with Jith" and superstar guide Thilina Karunanayaka for this laid back yet somewhat hardcore birding and cultural tour.
After a long 7 months and a 2 day journey (sleeping in 2 airports), I reunited with my better half. We set off on a Tuesday morning in Colombo. First we headed to another hotel to meet Jith, the company owner, who had a surprise waiting for us in the garden:
We headed toward Kitulgala, an area of hills known for its night birding. We bagged some beautiful endemics along the way.
Sri Lanka has 34 endemic bird species, making it an attractive choice for a 2-week holiday (just enough time to see all of them with a day to spare). The first main trip target was the
, that one documented in 2005 which is shocking. Thili's strategy for this one was to meticulously inspect all known roosting areas during the day - which are usually low which is convenient. We participated in the search with full effort but to be honest we did little to help - I've heard it is quite common for clients who are less 'nimble' to wait by the trail while the guide goes into the bush, finds the owl, then brings the clients to the spot. It was inevitably Thili who took all due credit when he spotted 2 juvenile owls and an adult roosting nearby. We could have been chillin' on lawn chairs on the path sipping coconut cocktails and had the same chances of success but that's just not our style I guess!
I think we could have gotten better pics but chose to maintain a respectful distance so as not to spook these highly endangered owls - unlike many (most?) photographers who are absolute ANIMALS). Crawling on my belly I was able to achieve a pretty satisfactory shot of the adult, but at a sacrifice...exposing my body to the ravenous land leeches of southern Asia. One can be seen on my throat in the pic below, while another successfully finished a feed in my armpit, the aftermath of which I discovered the following morning when my bedsheets were dotted with blood stains. The leeches' saliva contains anesthetic to reduce likelihood of being detected, and anticoagulant to allow them to ingest the blood rapidly. Ingenious.
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Too late for this one
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| Thili accidently happened upon this green pit viper (E) while searching for the owls |
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The green pit viper was an amazing bonus as were more endemics:
Red-faced Malkhoa,
Green-billed Coucal, etc. Thili had seen Bay Owls roosting on this hillside as well, but that would require much more luck! A Sri Lanka Spurfowl cackled from the nearby bushes but seeing it was another matter.
We tried our luck at a nearby nest site for endemic
Chestnut-backed Owlets, but quickly had to dash for cover under a rickety wood shack to avoid a sudden tropical downpour. We came back later that afternoon and snagged a beautiful owlet high up in the tree, looking very angry at us for disturbing it!
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| Chestnut-backed Owlet (E) |
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| Another lovely Zoothera species, the Spot-winged Thrush |
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| Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill |
A long scenic hike in tea country got us our sole encounter with white-faced starling at Thili's special spot. The man was constantly scheming on how to secure the next endemic with his very strategic mind. "I like the way you think" I told him.
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| White-faced Starling (E) |
We returned to the earlier trail at night, in an attempt to listen for the enigmatic Sri Lanka Bay Owl and the more ubiquitous Sri Lanka Frogmouth. It required us to take a small ferry service across the river like we were escaping the Shire from some black riders to get the the
Inn of the Green Dragon.
The owls were silent but something landed on the tree: not a bird but an
Indian Giant Flying Squirrel, not rare but seldom seen!
The owls remained silent but we heard quite a number of frogmouths. We tried pretty hard for them but with no success. Having resigned and en route back, a frogmouth suddenly blasted from right beside the trail. A quick spotlight revealed a male
Sri Lanka Frogmouth, gray in colour, followed by a nearby female. We admired these strange, wide-mouthed and long-whiskered birds resembling an unholy union between a nightjar and an owl.
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| Sri Lanka Frogmouth (male) |
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| Sri Lanka Frogmouth (female) |
Next order of business was to locate the Indian Pitta and
Asian Dwarf Kingfisher at a nearby garden (Sisira's River Lounge I think). The Pitta called from the shrubs but eluded a glance, while the kingfisher put required patience but eventually showed up with with a lizard, revealing a nest hole behind the bathrooms. It reminded me of the African Dwarf Kingfisher, minus the little black forehead.
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| Asian Dwarf Kingfisher |
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| Giant Squirrels were common |
Crossing over a walking bridge, the biggest lizard I've ever seen in my life swam under us - an Asian Water Monitor. It was nearly 3m long!
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| Asian Water Monitor |
Then we had a cultural tour of the 'temple of the tooth' in Kandy, a magnificent palace purported to house one of the Buddha's teeth preserved for a couple thousand years. It was a very busy temple with locals coming to pray as well as tourists.
We had to remove our sandals to enter, but the pavement was BBQ hot so they had poured water over the tiles to avoid people burning their feet - quite literally. We finished off the day with a beautiful performance by the famous Kandyan dancers and a display of fire-walking.
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| I've spotted these iconic post boxes in a few former British colonies |
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| Famous Kandyan dancers - a definite trip highlight |
After Kandy, we proceeded up in elevation, spending a morning at Udawatta Kelle Forest. It was not overly impressive, although there was a huge amount of suspense while circumnavigating the pond for Brown Fish Owl. We did not find it, although we saw another Chestnut-backed Owlet and a couple of Indian Muntjack deer while running around chasing Sri Lanka Scimitar Babblers!
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| A Crested Serpent-eagle warmed up by the pond |
En route we got to see a parade for a buddhist celebration which takes place every full moon. They were proper decked out and even had 2 very smartly-dressed elephants!
Our peaceful hotel in Nuwara Elia packed us full of rice and curry with countless vegetable varieties. According to Ramata every hotel in Sri Lanka was "determined to make us fat."
While not my first idea of a birding spot, Thili took us to Victoria Park, which seemed too well-groomed to contain good birds. However, Thili is known for thinking outside the box. All the good birds were in a little wooded ravine full of garbage, sludge and rats. We sat in silence while a mixed flock surrounded us:
Pied Thrushes,
Kashmir Flycatcher,
Blyth's Reed Warbler and
Indian Blue Robin all joined the party and
Velvet-fronted Nuthatch was snagged nearby.
Thili had arranged a special performance that evening. Not more famous dancers of Kandy but a rare and elusive endemic bird of course - the highly crepuscular Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush. The bird only reveals itself at the brink of darkness in the vicinity of heavily vegetated steep ravines. True to Thili's prediction, right at dusk we had a gorgeous male land in a tree, announce its presence with a high-pitched whistle, then fly over to the path and hop around for a good while.The headlamp revealed its difficult to see metallic blue shoulder patch. By the time we were done observing it, it was pitch dark! Of course Thili acted all like we might not see it and then got super excited when we did, later admitting that he pretty much knew it was gonna be in the bag...what a gangsta.
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| getting bored during the stake-out |
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| Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush, male (E)...well worth the wait! |
Next was off to Horton Plains, not a very Sri Lankan-sounding name at all, presumably after some colonizer. This beautiful and rugged forest was once home to pygmy forest elephants, but they were shot by British colonial hunters, we were told. Still remaining was a sort of island of highland moist forest interspersed with plains and moors, strikingly similar to the Albertine Rift in East Africa I thought! It then made sense that a species of
Bradypterus warbler lives up here - with most of its genus found in East African highlands! The resemblance of
Sri Lanka Bush Warbler to cinnamon bracken warbler or evergreen forest warbler in Uganda/Rwanda was uncanny. One of my favourite genera of warblers as they are so hard yet so satisfying to see!
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| Sri Lanka Bush Warbler (E) |
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| Dull-blue Flycatcher (E) |
Horton Plains (~2,500m) actually does have plains in the center of park, and epic views of the tallest mountains including Adam's peak - a famous hike to a temple. We didn't really have time to go there.
It took a good deal of hunting to get a good view of Sri Lankan Wood Pigeon, but eventually we got it at on of Thili's 'secret spots.' It was very peaceful away from the massive load of vans and cars conglomerating around presumably the one and only popular trekking trail around. I'd never seen anything like that, except at Yellowstone and Yosemite!
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| Trekkers at Horton Plains |
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Sri Lankan Wood Pigeon (E)
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| A trip to the tea factory |
Descending from the Horton Plains, we took a long and windy alternative through an area of rubber cultivation which didn't seem like much for habitat but was in fact one of Thili's 'secret spots.' The little ravines had enough native vegetation to support
Scaly Thrushes. After loads of walking, listening for their thin, wispy whistle and being patient, we finally heard one at the limit of human hearing. Two of them were walking along a little stream. We needed to stalk them very carefully to get good views. It reminded me of of my first year floor-mate Dinuka Gunaratna telling me a story about seeing his first scaly thrush as a teenager, back when we were only 18. I figured I would like to make it to Sri Lanka one day, so Dinuka if you are reading this - I did it!
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| Can you spot the Scaly Thrush? |
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| Scaly Thrush (E) |
It was later one evening that we had one of our most special wildlife encounters. It was one of those times when we had some free time and nothing really else to do so might as well go for an evening walk - there is always a chance we could see something, and we hadn't seen
Gray-headed Canary-flycatcher so that provided an excuse. The flycatcher was easy, and we were entertained by a troupe of Toque's Macaques who had a tiny baby that seemed to be having some difficulty and none of the older monkeys were helping him!
A little further down, we were stopped in our tracks by a menacing
Legge's Hawk-eagle resting at eye level! We watched it for a long time, hoping desperately for it to go for the baby monkey. It eventually did, causing pandemonium, but unfortunately it missed its target and flew off.
On the way to Tissamaharama, we stopped at the strangely named Surrey Bird Sanctuary which is sort of an outdoor meditation retreat that has owls. A beautiful
Brown Wood Owl took a little effort to find while a
Besra snagged a
Purple-headed Sunbird.
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| Brown Wood Owl |
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| Besra |
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| Sri Lanka Scimitar Babbler (E) |
After a 5 hour drive, I thought the rest of the day would be mostly a write-off but I was wrong. Thili had been scheming again, calling some local 'village boys' who were working behind the scenes to get us some owls...
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