BUNDALA NATIONAL PARK ALL MORNING AND DEBARAWEWA - EVENING NIGHTJAR WALK AT OUR HOTEL
WEATHER: hot,dry, humid and breezy, a perfect birding morning. TEMP 15C - 30C
Bundala is my favourite place in Sri Lanka. The reason why? Waders! Thousands of them congregate in the salt pans and the open marshes and that, couple with, a plethora of other water birds makes it one hell of a place for any birder with a pair of bins and a scope.
We arrived at the entrance track by bus and transferred to our open-top jeeps, we only drove 100 meters or so before we climbed down from our high perches, set up our scopes and started listing. The marshes we absolutely full of birds of all shapes and sizes, they were present in small pools, reedbeds, bushes, grassy banks and the track margins. The sky was dotted with moving lines of Little Cormorants and Whistling Ducks. Whilst egrets, ducks, herons, pigeons, terns and doves dashed about the marsh in a haphazard fashion looking for breakfast. I can imagine that some of my group were totally blown away by the vision in front of them.
the road to Bundala at 7am this morning
One of our most wanted birds was the Watercock, this a was a good place to find one. Sure enough, after just 5 minutes of searching we had one in the bag. Unfortunately, it didn't stay in view for very long and never reappeared whilst we were there. It was a drab brown job anyway, a juvenile or adult female.
Tricoloured Munias
the unusual feeding behaviour of the Painted Stork. They stand side by side absolutely motionless with their beaks open and immersed in the water. When prey swims between their mandibles they snap them shut and catch their breakfast. Photo by Phil Naylor
Glossy Ibis was new for our list, we saw three of them. So was the Eurasian Collared Dove, an invasive species here as it was in Europe 70 years ago.We started seeing small flock of Starlings, not Common Starlings but Rose Coloured Starlings, alas they were in winter plumage, but a new species nevertheless.
Rose Coloured Starling in winter plumage
The most common waders were Wood and Marsh Sandpipers, Redshanks and Greenshanks, we also saw Pin-tailed Snipe, Great Thick-knee, Red-wattled Lapwings and our first Pacific Golden Plovers. Some of the bigger birds fed nearby, Asian Openbills, Painted Storks, Black-headed Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Eurasian Spoonbill, Purple, Indian Pond and Grey Herons, Great, Intermediate, Little and Cattle Egrets. A single Lesser Adjutant was seen in the marsh, ot the best looking species me thinks!
Lesser Adjutant - eating a snake or an eel, I think?
We had great views of a Yellow Bittern and to add a bit of colour to the scene we watched dozens of Little Green and Blue-tailed Bee-eaters, also Tricoloured Munias, White-throated, Pied and Common Kingfishers.
Yellow Bittern
Back on the jeeps we drove a little further where open muddy pools and sandy shores could be found. We scanned the mud where a group of terns were roosting, both Little Tern and Caspain Terns were new birds for the trip and we saw Whiskered, Gull-billed and our first White-winged Terns.
Caspain Tern, one of the largest terns in the world and standing in front of it are a couple of Little Terns, one of the smallest tern in the world!
A few small waders dashed about on the sandy banks, Kentish now called Hanuman Plover, Little Plover and we added Black-tailed Godwits to the list.
Paddyfield Pipits were numerous, we saw sunbirds, bulbuls and babblers, Sri Lanka Green Pigeon, Barn Swallows and a few Yellow Wagtails. The leading jeep stopped to search for a Grey-bellied Cuckoo, it called but did not show, in the meantime our jeep a few meters behind were watching the most beautiful starling you are ever likely to see, the Brahminy Starling. A few of them were mixed in with the Rosy variety.
Phil Naylor's shot of the Brahminy Starling
We ate our picnic breakfast at the visitor's centre and used the facilities before driving on. We hadn't actually entered the National Park at this point. Once in the park we found a flock of Ashy-crowned Finch-larks, lots of Grey Langur Monkeys, we saw Mugger Crocdiles, a Soft-shelled Terrapin, Water Buffalo and a few butterflies.
Pheasant-tailed Jacana by Phil Naylor
The birding got better and better with large numbers of waders in mixed flocks feeding in the pools around the salt pans. We found another Lesser Adjutant Stork in a pool with a big Mugger Crocodile not far away.
you can't go to Sri Lanka and not appreciate the Peacock in full display. Photo by Phil Naylor.
We finally reached the open salt pans area and started to list new wader species, not too many, as most of the 'pan's were flooded. We saw Whimbrel, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Grey Plover, Ruddy Turnstone and hundreds of the more common species. In the distance we could see a huge roost of Terns, we picked out a lot of Caspain Terns and even more Lesser Crested Terns, Little Terns became more prevalent too.
here we have a bunch of Redshanks with a Marsh Sandpiper and a Lesser Sandplover
We spent quite a while searching for Small Pratincole and it was Dammi our guide who picked out the first one, Big Phil found a second. We then found a couple of Red-necked Phalaropes and a few more Pacific Golden Plovers and lots more Grey Plovers.
very distant birds, two Red-necked Phalaropes
I may has missed a few species, but you should get the message, this place is a paradise for wader lovers and general waterfowl. We recorded 101 species, that's nice!
A Grey Langur
One the way back we added a couple more species, we had good views of a Jacobin Cuckoo, we saw a Grey Mongoose, an Indian Elephant fed close to the track, more troupes of Langur Monkeys and we found a couple more Brahminy Starlings. Our driver pointed out a small group of Indian Thick-knees, another first for the trip and a Yellow Wattled Lapwing was only our second of the tour.
Indian Thick-knee
Grey Mongoose or is it a meerkat? taken by Phil Naylor
The Ashy-crowned Finch-lark by Phil Naylor
After changing transport we returned to Tissamaharama but we made one stop in Debarawewa for our second search for the Brown Hawk Owl. This time we were successful, it showed really well, but it was fast alseep most of the time we were there. It was the second day in a row that our last bird was an Owl.
a Brown Hawk-owl, I managed to catch it with its eyes open
I have to correct that last statement because we met at 6pm for a Nightjar walk in the gardens of the hotel. As all the diurnal birds went off to roost the nocturnal fraternity came out to play. We had great views of a Brown Fish Owl (which incidentally landed in a tree just outside my bungalow!). Then the large Flying Fox Bats started appearing along with two other unknown species of bats. Finally we had good views two or three times of a Jerdon's Nightjar, that was our final bird of the day!