Tissamarahama and Bundala NP

Tissa is a lovely area with a beautiful man made reservoir teaming with Water Hyacinth and birds whilst Bundala is a vast area covered in waders - we could have had a week in this area alone.

Cotton Pygmy Goose

Lesser Whistling duck

Purple Heron

Small Pratincole

Great Thick knee

Whilst in Bundala NP our guide had a call from the Park HQ to say they had found a bird on the beach and could we identify it - we were amazed to find this Brown Skua in a dusbin completely oiled up.  A lifer for our guide and Park Rangers although I doubt if it survived.

Black Bittern

Yellow Bittern

Indian Pond Heron

Darter

Pheasant Tailed JacanaPacific Golden Plover

Yellow Wattled Lapwing

At first glance a Painted Stork but..

look a little closer and ?

Reptiles

We saw ten species of reptile including the following - not sure what species the frogs are but both were found in rain forest.

Green Garden Lizard

Water Monitor

Land Monitor

Soft-shelled Terrapin

Kangaroo Lizard

Indian Rock Python

Green Vine Snake

Bee-eaters and Kingfishers

 

White-breasted Kingfisher

Blue-tailed Bee-eater

Common Kingfisher

Little Green Bee-eater

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater

Owls of Sri Lanka

Never before have we had so many views of day time roosts of Owls and all of course all thanks to Chaminda’s local knowledge -  in total we saw 6 species of Owl and the Sri Lanka Frogmouth.

Serendib Scops Owl

Chestnut-backed Owlet

Indian Scops Owl

Jungle Owlet

Brown Wood-owl

Brown Fish-owl

Ceylon Frogmouths

Ceylon Frogmouth on nest.

Scaly Thrush Video

Poor quality but a true skulker of the forest floor and too close really for digiscoping.

Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush

Sri Lankan Endemics

Well the title gives it away, we have been to Sri Lanka with an aim of seeing all 33 endemic bird species and happily we did see them all and even managed to photograph a few of them….  thanks go to our guide Chaminda Dilruk without whom we wouldn’t have stood a chance.  We made all our arrangements through  A. Baur & Co but Chaminda can be contacted direct at prcdilruk@sitnet.lk or prcdilruk@yahoo.com we can’t recommend him too highly - expert birder and all round organiser.  So here’s all the endemics we managed to photograph;

1. Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill

2. Serendib Scops Owl

3. Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush

4. Yellow-fronted Barbet

5. Chestnut-backed Owlet

6. Crimson-backed Woodpecker

7. Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot

8. Sri Lanka Blue Magpie

9. Layard’s Parakeet

10. Sri Lanka Crested Drongo

11. Sri Lanka Green Pigeon

12. Sri Lanka Jungle Fowl (chicken!)

13. Sri Lanka Small Barbet

14. White-faced Starling

15. Green-billed Coucal

Another clue…

as to where we have been whilst I continue to sort through images - Since the Serendib Scops Owl Otus thilohoffmanni was discovered in 2001 it has been observed in the rainforests of ? by many people. Now nearly every birdwatcher living in, visiting or planning to visit the island looks forward somehow to seeing this attractive little creature. Endemic to ?, the species is so secretive that it eluded all avifaunal surveys of the country, begun by the Dutch more than 200 years ago. How many ornithologists and other birdwatchers must have explored the island’s rainforests across the decades unaware that a spectacular bird unknown to science was perched not far from them!

Just back ....

Just returned from a fabulous two weeks birding trip where we picked up all 33 endemic birds and the odd cat -  many photos to follow shortly!