TRANSFER FROM TAMARIND TREE RESORT TO KITHULGALA – REST HOUSE GARDENS WITH A STOP AT AROPOLA MARSHES – LOCAL BIRDING NEAR THE RIVER KOILLONI
WEATHER: quite cloudy but very hot and humid for most the day.
The official Tour started today at 8am after the group's arrival early, yesterday morning. We all met for breakfast at 7am, we were all packed and ready to board the bus at 8am. A few birds had been noted in the grounds before breakfast, such as White-bellied Drongo, Yellow-billed Babbler, Common Myna, Spotted Dove, House Crow, a Black-headed Ibis flew over just as we entered the breakfast room. Little Phil Naylor had photographed a Taylor Bird that no-one else had seen yet.
Before we started our journey to Kithulgala we drove 1km down the main road and pulled into the car park of the Euro Star Hotel. In the car park Dammi, our guide, showed us a roosting Collared Scops Owl, wowza! What great bird to kick our tour with!
Collared Scops Owl - you can just make out the brown collar
Phil Naylors picture of the Collared Scops Owl
It took about 3 hours to get to Kithulgala, but we made one birding stop near a town called Uropola, a huge area of marsh and rice fields spread out in front of us.
Intermediate Egret
Blue-tailed Bee-eater
a shot of the Brahminy Kite by Phil Naylor
Plain Prinias were seen, also Red-wattled Lapwing, Chinese Pond Heron, Pintail Snipe, Great, Cattle and Intermediate Egrets, Purple Heron, Black-headed Ibis, Openbill Stork, Blue-tailed Bee-eater, Sri Lankan Swallow, Little Cormorant, Brahminy Kite, Crested Serpent Eagle and several more.
Plain Prinia
A Shikra flew across the road in front of the bus, we had two or three sightings of Crested Serpent Eagles as we drove on, and during a stop to buy cocoanuts we saw a juvenile Black-winged Kite perched on top of a roadside tree.
It was nearly 11:30 when we arrived at our new hotel, where we will be staying for the next two nights, we explored the grounds a little bit before our 12:30 lunch.
The river from the terraced gardens at the Rest House Hotel
the stunning male Orange Minivet
We added a few species to the list in the front gardens, a party of Orange Minivets was nice to see, so was a pair of Hanging Parrots, the Yellow-fronted Barbet outshone those. John then found a Common Iora and we had glimpses of an Oriental White-eye. The Oriental Magpie Robin was nesting in the hotel outbuildings and Palm Swifts flew high above us.
Oriental Magpie-Robin
We spent some of our time admiring the view of the River Koilloni (where part of the film “The Bridge over the River Kwai” was filmed) from the terraced gardens, we added no new birds from their.
a couple of Haanging Parrots taken in the hotel garden
Alexandrine Parakeet
Our afternoon birding excursion was to a track near the Local Police Station, it began good, then it got better and we ended up having a great birding session. As we steep from the bus we heard a lot of noise coming from the nearest bushes, two groups of Orange-billed Babblers were squabbling over territory and access to s supply of food. A little further we found a Lesser yellow-naped Woodpecker, Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Black-naped Blue Monarch and few other species.
Phils shot of the Orange-billed babbler (now called the Sri Lanka Rufous Babbler
Tickell's Blue Flycatcher
the group before we descended to slope down towards the river this afternoon - we all have our leech on
New birds kept on coming as we made our way towards the River. Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher was nice to see, we found this bird as we searched for our most wanted bird, the Endemic Chestnut-backed Owlet. It was John, once again who found our bird of the day, the Owlet.
Lesser Yellownape taken by Phil Naylor
We heard an Indian Pitta calling as we made our way back up the hill to the bus, we never had a glimpse of it or the Pygmy Kingfisher which was another of our target birds.
one of the several Crested Serpent Eagles seen today, taken by Phil Taylor
The group was very happy with our sightings today, we had logged over 60 species and before we ended for the day we found a Stork-billed Kingfisher sitting on a wire over the river. Several Alexandrine Parakeets flew over us and a second Strok-billed Kingfisher landed in a tree.