Tuesday 10 December 2013

Whale watching from Marissa - 25th November

We woke early to a stunning sunrise and mirror calm sea - this would make whale spotting from the boat much easier. We were taking a whale-watching trip with other Baurs clients on a boat from the Paradise Beach Club in Mirissa, and hoping to see any whale, but particularly the world's largest creature, the blue whale. This is one of the better places in the world to see this species, but it can often take several trips before you get lucky. We had one shot at this.

Sunrise at Paradise Beach Club
We left the crowded harbour on our boat and dodged our way out to sea past fishing boats. they are essentially large hollowed out tree-trunks with a stabilising float and no space to sit down.

Fishing boat off Mirissa

And another one
 It took less than an hour to reach the shelf break and ours and another couple of boats started to look around for signs of any whales or other marine mammals. We passed a green turtle, and a group of unidentified dolphins that none of us could get any ID features on. Then one of the boats peeled off to two smallish whales in the distance. As we approached, we could see a tall fin and lots of 'blowing' surely not, but they were killer whales. Not exactly top of the list of what I expected to see. 

Male killer whale - note how rounded the tip of the dorsal fin is
Male and female killer whales
They seemed to be feeding on something, was it a square of blubber floating in the sea? I have since seen a photo showing the male with what looks like part of a green turtle's shell beside it floating in the water. I was a bit disturbed by how many boats had gathered around these orcas - there were seven whale-watching boats clustered around these two animals. If they tried to move away, a boat always seemed to be in the way. Thankfully, we eventually moved away, as did a couple of others, to at least give these animals a bit of peace.

Great views for the punters



We soon spotted a group of blue whales, and among them a Bryde's whale. It was obviously a big whale, had a distinct, upright, slightly decurved dorsal fin and a prominent blow-hole, but like a minke whale, didn't appear to blow. It lacked the obvious white jaw of a fin whale. It seemed not to have the powerful rolling action of fin whales I have seen, instead having a much flatter surfacing action showing the dorsal at the same time as the blowhole. I can't say I could see the three ridges on the snout, but there is a hint of this on one of my photos.

Bryde's whale with blowhole showing at the same time as the dorsal fin

Bryde's whale - is that three ridges showing on the snout (just behind the blowholes in this photo)?
We spent a bit of time with the Bryde's, but we knew there were blue whales around and we wanted to get a bit closer to them. There must have been a three, or more likely four. They were clearly very large, with a tall bushy blow and light bluey-grey skin colour. I got the sense of the size of these animals not so much looking at the back, but mostly from the thickness of the tail stock which it showed as it went through an elaborate fluking display before a deep dive. We spent a bit of time with a lone animal and an enormous mother and her calf. In the photos, there are clear signs of remoras (suckerfish) hanging off the tail flukes of two of the animals we saw.

Blue whale fluking and remora just visible in the middle of the rear edge
Huge female at back with calf in front
Adult female blue whale - with these white markings on the tail flukes, this individual should be identifiable

A huge chunk of tail missing - again a feature for individual recognition
 We had done amazingly well on this trip, and to add to the trip, we passed a small group of spinner dolphins on our way home. They weren't up to much, although I since been told that they spin to dislodge remoras.

After a lunch back at the hotel and a rest, Pradeep and Kalinga kindly took us to Galle which has an old colonial fort next to the historic cricket ground. There was lots to see here, with ancient buildings, possibly the most attractive lighthouses I have ever seen. And boys playing cricket on every patch of ground.

Galle lighthouse

"Anyone for cricket?"










Sunday 24 November 2013

March of the Leech Zombies - 24th November

We woke early to try our luck again in a slightly different spot for the especially tricky Green-billed Coucals near to where we had seen the Serendip Scops Owl. My  trousers hadn't dried out from yesterday's deluge so I decided to wear shorts. After all, we weren't going to go off track.

Soon after our arrival we heard the first calls from the forest. Straining up into the canopy I managed to get part views of one of the coucals, then a whole view of the bird in flight. I found myself standing at the edge of the road, and realised that my trainers were crawling with leeches. So I had to try and brush them off quickly before they got into my shoes or started crawling onto my legs. As you do this, they latch onto your hand, so you have to pinch them off with your finger nails, roll them into a ball and flick them into the verge like an unpleasant bogey. As you get rid of them, more emerge from the verge towards you like a bad zombie film and you have to deal with these the best you can, meanwhile checking your legs all the time in case any have managed to hide and then started to crawl up toward your shorts where they would sink their jaws into you and start sucking up blood. You aren't supposed to be able to feel it, but that isn't true because you sense a slight nip at the first bite. One made it through and got a bit of a blood meal before I managed to prize it off and flick it away. Paul was in a similar predicament to me and decided against leech socks. Three leeches got into his shoes undetected and he discovered that his socks were soaked in blood. And because they inject an anti-coagulant, the wounds carry on bleeding!

Anyway, in spite of this drama, we eventually all got quite a good look at these normally very secretive birds. Three of them were sparring and calling, and it is perhaps the sound of them that I will remember for longest.

After breakfast, we checked out and took the long drive to the coast. The road is under re-construction with thousands of people along its stretch engaged in this massive civil engineering project. I wondered how the country could afford to do this. Then noticed a couple of Chinese supervising in places, and it soon became apparent that, as in many developing countries, China is investing heavily in their infrastructure. When we got to the lowlands, we were able to take the brand new motorway that runs between Colombo and Galle in the south. No doubt this was financed by PR China as well.

It was a completely different world at our hotel in Welligama near Marissa - the whole coastal strip is highly developed with lots of new buildings to replace those battered by the 2005 tsunami, and lots of repaired older buildings that clearly survived the tidal waves. All very different and more frenetic than the peace we enjoyed in the interior.
Fishing boats in Welligama

Beautiful bay adjacent to the hotel
One of many fish markets along the coast

Sinharaja Deluge - 23rd November

We woke and breakfasted earlier than usual so we could grab an extra half hour when the bird activity is at its peak. Robert ducked out of the day - he has been struggling with a cold and felt that another hard day in the field would make things worse.

First we looked at an area near the Blue Magpie Lodge to try and find a Green-billed Coucal. We had no luck here, but had better views of a few species we had struggled with yesterday, such as Sri Lanka Myna and Black-capped Bulbul, and finally caught up with a Crimson-backed Flameback (a type of woodpecker, though you wouldn't know it from the name).

Sri Lanka Myna

We picked up our park guide and walked up the track we were driven up in the jeep the previous day, and arrived probably just as quickly and picked up a Brown-capped Babbler on the way which is a common and wide-spread species that had eluded us so far. We walked from the park gates up to the research station again and searched in vain for a Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush, although we heard one very clearly from its hiding place in the undergrowth. We also heard White-faced Starling, Green-billed Coucal and a Serendip Scops Owl, all plain to the ear, but not to be seen. The coucal, in particular, has a fantasticly exotic sound. We did catch up with a nice pair of Sri Lanka Scimitar Babblers, which responded well to playback.

A brown-capped babbler looking very brown in the depths of the forest
Sri Lanka Junglefowl posing for a photo

Sri Lanka scimitar babbler
Lower down, near to the park entrance, we caught up with a group from Naturetrek, who were scanning through an energetic feeding flock of birds. It appears to be a feature of these rain forests that your birding success can depend on finding the mixed species feeding flocks, which can contain most of the important bird species. Ours consisted of Orange-billed Babblers, Ashy-headed Laughingthrush, Red-faced Malkoha and Sri Lanka Crested Drongo. We wanted to wait and see if anything else joined the flock, but it started to get dark and the first spots of rain were falling. This rapidly turned to a deluge. I had to put the camera and all other items that could be damaged into my rucksack while I got absolutely soaked, the ran for cover with all the others to the shelter of the park entrance. We waited for about half an hour for the rain to show some sign of easing. Sod it, we covered our bags with all our valuables inside and walked down the track to where our van was parked. I'm sure that what was only a 1km walk up this morning turned into a 2km walk down this afternoon. it didn't take long before the rain penetrated into my socks and my trainers. The track had turned into a stream in places as the rainwater tried to escape into the bulging torrents that were streams this morning. Eventually, we squelched into the shelter of the ticket office, where we enjoyed some rice flour muffins and bottles of 7-up and coke. I have learned one thing - Leica optics are waterproof (and so they should be for the price you have to pay) and so is the pull-over rain protector for my rucksack.

Some impressive stats about Sinharaja

We got back to the hotel to try and dry our clothes and have a late lunch. Eventually, rain stopped play for the afternoon.

Sinharaja Rain Forest - 22nd November

We had an early breakfast and drive to the park ticket office. We transferred our stuff to a Jeep and were driven at snails pace up a rough track to the entrance proper to the park. The park has had a checkered past; it was formerly a royal hunting park, taken over by the British when they took over the islands. Then following independence for Sri Lanka, the authorities decided to allow mahogany planting and logging. There was uproar, because of the site's incredible list of endemic plant, insect, amphibian, mammal and bird list. It was decided to instead turn this into a National Park, and the site later gained World Heritage Status for its wildlife. So thanks to the strength of many people who were determined to protect this site, we were privileged to walk through this fantastic rain forest. Perhaps my concern about this park is the number of invasive plant species that appear to be taking a foot hold here (even more of a problem in Udawalawe).

Mist-laden valley below our hotel
 The forest was fairly quiet, and we struggled to see new species. We started off with a site for Sri Lanka Spurfowl, and got lucky fairly quickly with a female showing about 20m back into the forest. Unfortunately, we had to walk through a pretty bad area for leeches. I suffered one bite, but managed to pick it off before it started to draw blood. Others were less lucky, and Mike seemed to be the flavour of the month.

Layard's parakeet

I had particularly wanted to see Sri Lanka Blue Magpie, but was disappointed to see a group hanging around a shelter, eyeing up the several bags of packed lunches being guarded on behalf of a group of students. They are beautiful birds, but a more natural discovery would have been nice.

Sri Lanka blue magpie wondering where its next cheese sandwich is going to come from

As we descended, we managed to find a couple of flocks of babblers and other species, and finding these appears to be the key to seeing many of the special bird species in the forest.

Leaving the reserve, we stopped and met with local guide Ranjee, who specialises in showing the rarest species to visiting birders. First on the itinerary was a Sri Lanka Frogmouth which was sitting in a cluster of trees near to where we parked the Jeep. We needed to be quick, because the rains were starting to come in and he could not guarantee that our next prize would stay put once the inevitable downpour came. We drove a few km away to an area of bamboo thicket and tried to climb quickly and quietly up the steep slope over slippery mud and rocks. We, in our designer clothing and high tech footwear were stumbing, slipping, occasionally crawling through the mud and undergrowth, while the Sri Lankans in their flip flops and shorts skipped and danced up the slope like mountain goats. Then there it was, exactly where Ranjee had left it earlier in the day, a Serendip Scops Owl, squinting at us from beneath its canopy of dead bamboo leaves. It is a small fawn-coloured owl about the size of a starling with raised ear tufts. It was too dark for us to take photos, but we satisfied ourselves with the unforgettable memory of that climb up the slope and then the incredible view of this highly prized rare bird.
Sri Lanka frogmouth - not an endemic in spite of its name


Grand Elephant Safari - 21st November

Up early to bird around the garden, where we managed to call up a cracking Indian Pitta, a  hearty breakfast of string hoppers and coconut milk curry and much more. Then we drove off to join a safari in Udawalawe National Park. We were required to use a specially modified Jeep and use one of the park drivers and trackers. The tracker had phenomenal eyesight, picking out small birds and identifying the correctly. The more we got into the birds and other wildlife, the more they got into it. We saw countless other Jeeps with disinterested tourists with equally disinterested guides. It must be a pleasure for them to get customers who share their passion, instead of just looking for different ways to spend their money.

Indian pitta in the grounds of the hotel

A zitting cisticola scratching its zits?

The reserve is famous for its 500 or so Indian Elephants, which were interesting, and not bothered by these strange vehicles with humans in their territory. Things would change if we were to be on foot. Of course, we saw lots of birds, but we were hoping to see a Jaguar here. No such luck though - we really needed to go to Yala National Park if we wanted to score with them. However, we had good sightings of a couple of Jungle Cats. No different in size to a domestic cat, this one appeared to be a pregnant female looking for herby medicinal plants. Another Jeep stopped briefly to look for a few seconds and continued on its cargo's disinterested way.

Indian elephant blocking its calf from approaching our jeep

Jungle cat

Green bee-eater

Indian roller

Malabar pied hornbill

Blue-tailed bee-eater

Black-shouldered kite

Lesser adjutant

We decided to drive straight on to Sinharaja National Park after we packed and checked out. We stopped at a great restaurant on the way. A local place for local people, but offering great cheap food. Pradeep and Kalinga wanted to teach us how to eat with our hands, which the locals all do as a tradition. It was messier than it should have been, but entertaining none-the-less. I would have done better to use more rice and less curry to make the mixture in my hands less sloppy.

We arrived at the Rock View Motel, which is about 10km from the park entrance and has a view over a tea plantation and some trees in the valley bottom, but definitely no views of any rocks that we could make out. A dinner of, you guessed it, curry and rice. Marvellous.

A leisurely drive to Udawallawe - 20th November

The next day, we had breakfast, then started our journey to the dry lowlands. Our first stop was at the Surrey Estate Bird Sanctuary, where Pradeep managed to pick out a Brown Wood Owl roosting among one of thousands of trees. It's a rare skill that these bird guides have for finding birds like these. We stopped at the Ella Falls Grand Hotel for a very pleasant lunch. The hotel garden looks south down a valley towards the coastal plain and proved a great place for birding.

A Brown Wood Owl at Surrey Estate
The team at Ella Falls: me, Mike, Paul, Rob, Pradeep and Kalinga
Yellow-eyed babbler
We stopped off at the lake beside Buduruwagalla, where the pace hotted up with lots of new species for the trip; Malabar Pied Hornbill being one of the more memorable sightings.
Stork-billed kingfisher at Buduruwagalla
A peakcock giving it laldy to the curious peahen
  On we continued until we reached the luxury of the Grand Ullawalawe Safari Lodge. Two oversized cricket bats adorned the reception area, signed by the New Zealand touring cricket team and their Sri Lankan opposition. Mike and I took a swim in the hotel pool to freshen up.

When we went for our evening meal, we got a sense of how busy this hotel was, with large numbers of safari-goers enjoying the wide selection of eastern and western food  in the buffet.

Cleaning up in the highlands - 19th November

A bad start to the day. I am room sharing with Mike Pollard. In the night, I thought I heard the door click, but dismissed it as someone moving around in the corridoor. As a precaution in the morning, I checked there was nothing valuable missing, and suggested to Mike to do the same. I was fine, but Mike's debit card was missing. He got his partner to cancel that for him. Note to selves, lock the room door at night, however safe you think the hotel is. Hopefully, he will have managed to cancel the card in time before anyone gets the chance to do any damage.

We got up for an early breakfast and set off toward the Horton Plains National Park. We drove through scenery somewhat reminiscent of parts of Devon or Wales, with fields of cattle. Except that there were also flocks of Cattle Egrets next to the cows. As we climbed higher, we entered damp forests of tree ferns and dwarf rhodendron.

Mike photographing a tree fern
 
A sea of dwarf rhododendron and flowering balsam


After passing the entrance, we realised that a large number of other minibuses were also there at this time, full of western and far eastern tourists. They weren't birders, so why did they need to be there so early. We drove about 1km to a small pool on the right side of the road. As soon as we got out of the van, we could here Sri Lanka Whistling Thrushes calling and singing. This is a tough species to see, but with a bit of help from Craig Robson's recording, we managed to persuade a female to show herself a couple of times, and a male flew past. Result! That was easy. Thanks Craig.

The rear end of a female Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush

We walked a bit further down the road listening and watching for more of the highland specialities. I heard a familiar 'tuk tuk' sound. I had been listening to recordings of Sri Lankan birds on my car stereo during the weeks before departing, and if I wasn't mistaken, this bird sounded like a Sri Lanka Bush-warbler. I played a recording of the species posted on the web site Xeno Canto by Dave Farrow, and not one, but two of these tricky skulking species hopped clearly into view, showing their rich buff throat. Another result! Thanks Dave. We drove around the amazing upland grasslands then went down, stopping again at the Whistling Thrush pool, where an otter swam and hunted brazenly in front of us. It started to rain. And it rained, and rained, and rained. The monsoon was supposed to have petered out in October, but was going on much longer than usual.

The grasslands on Horton Plains (formerly potato fields apparently)
A short-clawed otter (same species as ours) checking where we are
A black eagle drifted over

After a good curry lunch at the Grand Indian, we spent a bit of time at the hotel before some of us headed out in the continuing rain to Victoria Park in the middle of Nuwara Eliya. Through the rain we saw a cracking male Kashmir Flycatcher and an Indian Pitta.

Pied bushchat in the pouring rain

Wednesday 20 November 2013

Beautiful forest in Kitulgala - 18th November

After an interesting breakfast consisting of spicy fish, string hoppers, coconut milk curry (with extra chillis if required), we crossed the river Kelani by canoe ferry and walked into the Mekandawa Rain Forest. The jungle is well preserved and was rich in sounds, including the constant singing of Large-billed Leaf Warbler. Our target here was the newly discovered Serendip Scops Owl, which often inhabits eye-level tangles of dead bamboo leaves by day. In spite of tireless searching, especially by Pradeep and Kalinga our driver and trainee guide), we left the forest empty handed, but did see a Spot-winged Thrush and a Malabar Trogon, so all was not lost. Some of us picked up some other visitors too. This part of the forest was thick with leeches. Although most of us wore leech socks, some still managed to attach themselves to us from the foliage - Robert and Mike both got bites.

The ferry across the Kelani to Mekandawa Rain Forest


A leech getting ready to feed on Rob

So back across the ferry for lunch, then move on to our next destination in the highlands of Nuwara Eliya aka Little England. Although only about 80km away, it took us over 3 hours to reach there. The roads aren't bad, but the slow traffic is unavoidable. I would feel reasonably comfortable driving here - there is order and sanity among the road users, lacking the anarchy of India for example.

Sri Lanka hanging parrot outside the hotel

Once in Nuwara Eliya, we stopped to buy a few things. This included a stroll around an indoor food market, which is one of my favourite occupations when in another country. This was a blaze of colour and strange smells, as the stalls overflowed with fruit and vegetables, interesting jars of spices, and slabs of fresh and dried fish.

A fantastic selection of vegetables in Nuwara Eliya

"If you eat these chillis you will fly - without wings"

We arrived at the Tea Bush hotel in Nuwara Eliya, complete with country house hotel decor and a European dinner menu, which is raising the blood levels in the curry that circulates through my veins. Bad news, my compact camera has gone kaputt, which will mean taking scenic shots on my mobile phone. Not ideal, but not a disaster.