MAKANDAWA - KELANI GANGA RIVER AREA - MIRISWALATHANNA ROAD AREA
WEATHER: hot and humid all day. Top temp 30C
We made a pre-breakfast walk around the grounds at 6:30am and despite doing a very similar walk twice already we still found a lot more birds for our trip total. We finally connected with the Layard's Parakeet which had eluded us so far, a pair of them showed well as they devoured the palm nuts with Alexandrine Parakeets and a single Hanging Parrot.
My first bird of the day, a perfectly tickable Peafowl, these birds are very common, native species, found all over Sri Lanka, this is a young male (Peacock) without its spendid tail.
Dammi, our guide, then found us a Grey Hornbill and whilst watching the Hornbill enjoying a breakfast of Papaya fruIt we found a Common Coucal.
High up in the Kaypoc Trees we found another endemic species, the Sri Lankan Green Pigeon, what a beautiful bird! We also located and identified our first Green Warbler and Big Phil found a Bar-winged Flycatcher-Shrike. A compliment of locally common birds lit up the trees with their colour and splendour, what A treat for us and all before breakfast in beautiful sunshine and a lovely temperature, Oh to back in England..........not!!!!
White-bellied Sea-Eagle a young bird - taken by Little Phil Naylor at the hotel.
The Orange Minivet, Oriental Magpie-Robin, Common Iora, Hill Myna, Green Imperial Pigeon, Black-hooded Oriole, Tailorbird (the species that stitches leaves together to form its nest), Brown-breasted Flycatcher, Purple-rumped Sunbird, White-browed Fantail, Asian Paradise Flycatcher (female), Oriental White-eye, White-throated Kingfisher and all the usual Bulbuls. We did then see our first Yellow-browed Bulbul and a juvenile White-bellied Sea Eagle dropped into a tree above the hotel, phew! That was a busy morning.
a Leyard's Parakeet
Sri Lankan Grey Hornbill an endemic
Greater Coucal
From the breakfast room we had views of the river and in a bush on the far bank we found our first Golden-fronted Leafbird, we also saw Indian Swiftlets skimming the water and an Indian Cormorant flew upriver.
Hill Myna with an Imperial Green Pigeon (which is predominantly grey in colour)
a better picture of the Imperial Green Pigeon showing off its green wings
After breakfast we baorded to the bus for a short drive to the edge of the town were we could walk across a bridge over the Kelani Ganga River into the region of forest that lies next to the Makandawa Nature Reserve (which, apparently is closed right now?). We walked across the wobbly bridge, 3 at a time and crossed safely.
Birding was much slower now, we had to work for our sightings. We tracked down an Indian Pitta and got fairly good short bursts of it in view. At first it was walking along a side track where the first few people in our group had excellent views of it.
We saw many of the 'common' species as walked 'up hill and down dale' in search of new findings. Dammi called out a small group of Brown-capped Babblers,it took some time but they eventually showed. For a dull brown bird I thought it was very beautiful, what do you think?
Brown-capped Babblers - both pics taken by Little Phil Naylor
After climbing a long steep hill we walked a flat track gazing uphill to our right and a steep slope to our left. We searched in hope of a Green-billed Coucal, the endemic speciality of the area. We did find a Brown Shrike and a small groups of Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters. Another new bird for the trip list was found a little earlier, it was the White-rumped Munia.
the Brown Shrike, a distant record shot
Common Lascar Butterfly taken by Little Phil Naylor
Our afternoon session began at 3:30pm we drove to the same area as yesterday near the Police Station at the eastern end of town. We walked down towards the river and found many of the same species as we did before, we had superb views of the Sri Lankan Green Pigeon and the Grey Hornbill. until we bumped into a star Woodpecker.
Dammi heard the woodpecker calling and it was Sue who found it perched high up in a tree, we got it in the scope just before it flew over the top of us and disappeared behind some tall woodland. It was the tiny Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker, just 13cm in length. We never relocated it and had to make do with the brief glimpse we had.
Next we found a Bar-winged (now called a Pied) Flycatcher-Shrike, which showed much better than the one seen this morning, Little Phil got a fabulous picture of it. Whilst searching for a Pygmy Kingfisher we heard a Banded Bay Cuckoo calling. Dammi called it in and had brief views of it in flight but we never saw it perched. Whilst searching for the Cuckoo we found a Sri Lankan Hill Myna, another tick for the group and an addition to our trip list.
Pied Flycatcher-Shrike superbly ytaken by Little Phil Naylor
The walk back up the hill was punctuated with stops to look at several species but did not add any more species to the list. As we were baording the bus Dammi found another Black-rumped Woodpecker. This bird has had sveral name changes in the last few years, we have been, erroniously, calling it Red-backed Flameback for the last few days!
a pair of Sri Lanka Grey Hornbills taken by Little Phil Naylor
The wobbly Bridge over the River Kalani Ganga at Kithulgala
The White-rumped Munia taken by Phil Naylor this afternoon
We got to the hotel at 6pm and enjoyed a cooling shower before dinner and the bird-log which began at 7pm. This was our last night in Kithulgala, we are moving on tomorrow, to higher ground with cooler weather we hope.