YALA NATIONAL PARK ALL MORNING – DEMBAWAWA TANKS AND VILLAGE
WEATHER; hot and sunny all day with a strong breeze.
One of the main highlights of any birding or wildlife trip to Sri Lanka is a visit to Yala National Park. It has the potential to produce a huge bird list and lots of mammals, as well as butterflies, amphibians and reptiles. Today Yala did not disappoint we had a terrific visit and saw just under 80 species of birds.
one of the first pools we came to in Yala National Park
It would take me a couple of hours to list the sequence of our sightings so I will deliver just the bare minimum to give you an idea of just how good this place is. It was a little disheartening at first when we joined a queue to get in, there must have been over 100 landrover-type passenger vans in front of us. But, as soon as we got into the park we turned off the main track and found virtual solitude on smaller side tracks, it was amazing.
Asian Openbill Stork
Several pools appeared on both sides of the track, we found many species of waders and soon built a nice list of them. In one pool we watched four sandpipers feeding together, there was: Common, Green. Wood and Marsh Sandpipers with a single Redshank and a Lesser Sandplover.
Marsh and Green Sandpipers
Grey-headed Fish Eagle was nearby as was dozens of Spotted Deer, Water Buffalo, a single Golden Jackel, Mugger Crocodiles and Land Monitors. Other pools held many species, everywhere was teaming with wildlife, no matter which way you looked you could see or hear birds and mammals.
Common Jjezebel by Phil Naylor
Bee-eaters were the most common bird species see, but egrets, herons, ibis, spoonbills and storks came a close second. sightings in the scrub ranged from the tiny Pale-billed Flowerpecker to the huge Peafowl. Some special endemic species were found by Dammi our guide. The Sri lanka Wood Shrike was nice to see, so was the uncommon White-rumped Shama. We had brief glimpses of the Blue-faced Malkoha and enjoyed our first views of Jerdon's Bushlark, Coppersmith Barbet, White-browed Bubul and Jungle Prinia.
White-browed Bulbul taken by Phil Naylor
We toured those bumpy tracks for a couple of hours before pulling over to a rest area where we could climb down from the jeep. We ate our packed breafast before setting off again for more birding. We saw Elephants (not many) also Grey Langur Monkeys, a Grey Mongoose, Sambur Deer and several lovely butterflies.
a very impressive stag Spotted Deer
Painted Stork overseeing a gang of Black-headed Ibis
Another two hours flashed by, we added more birds at the pools, Gull-billed, Whiskered and Common Terns, Great Thick-knee, Yellow Wattled Lapwing, Hanuman Plover (formerly called Kentish Plover but now split), Little Ringed Plover and Pin-tailed Snipe.
Red Wattled Lapwing
A Euraisian Hoopoe sighting was very pleasing for Rick our American group memeber, it was seen with a Crested Treeswift and a White-browed Fantail. At one area with high rock formations we found Peregrine Falocn, Common Kestrel, Brahminy Kite and a Booted Eagle. Nearly every stop we made we encountered the Indian Black Robin, Little Green bee-eater and the Orange-breasted Green Pigeon. The bush areas kept on producing new birds for our list which was growing rapidly. Brown Shrike, Jerdon's leafbird, Small Minivet, Sri Lanka Swallow and Little Swift all went onto the list.
the beautiful White-rumped Shama
Before we knew it it was 11am, five hours has passed oh so quickly, it was time to make our way ut of the park and head for the hotel, it was now getting very warm.
Water Buffalo with Spotted Deer behind
Back at the hotel we ate luch at 1pm and met up again at 3:300pm for an owl-outing. or the owls we searched the Dembarawawa area, especially the wooded area near a river. A Local lad hepled us find a few species, he led us to a garden where we could see a Jungle Owlet sitting looking down at us. As we walked away we found one of our must see species, the White-naped Flameback, wowza what a beauty.
Tthe next Owl target was the Brown Hawk-owl, but unfortunately it did not show, so we went onto another site where we found a apir of Brown Fish Owls. They performed beautifully, showing very well es pecially as they are anocturnal species.
We had time to kill before moving onto tour last target owl, so we re-visited the Tank at Dembarawawa, we spent 45 minutes there and added a couple of species. Common Moorhen and Clamerous Reed Warbler went onto the list but many other species were recorded.
At 6pm we drove to main Tank just outside of Tissamaharama where a huge Fruit Bat roost was located. We waited until dark to watch the bats leave there roost as egrets, ibis, herons, pelicans, cormorants and spoonbills came into roost in the same area. We added Balck-crowned Night Heron to the list. It was a wonderful experience to witness the dispersal of circa 10,000 large bats, many people had turned up to watch it. The bats did not leave the roost simultaneously, they crept away in a constant stream, noentheless it was spectacular.
On the way home we stopped at another site nearby to look for a Barn Owl. there was a regular nesting site where up to two birds could be seen as they emerged from their nest-hole. It was 6:45 when one of the Barn owls appeared!
We got back to the hotel at 7pm, it had been a very long and hard day, starting at 5am and finishing at 7pm. I am surpised that at 9:30pm I am awake wrinting this blog, so I wish you all a very good night.