So, off to The Lighthouse hotel on the coast at Galle in the south west corner of the island. A hotel I had heard lots of good things about and we certainly were not disappointed. I managed wanders most mornings, just along the beach, checking palm groves and streams as well as the river that ran to the sea not 400 yards from the hotel entrance.
Plenty of terns passing by as we sat at the bar: all gull billed tern apart from a couple of caspian and some littles. In the hotel grounds were the ubiquitous Indian pond heron and white throated kingfisher. Checks out to sea from both the veranda and room balcony gave views of a few Heuglin's gull but no hoped for shearwaters or tropic birds. However, good local and common birds were in the hotel grounds, such as new ones for the trip, Asian Koel and greater coucal
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| asian koel |
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| cattle egret from the bar |
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| greater coucal from balcony |
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| white throated kingfisher on steps to pool |
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| kingfisher from the lounger |
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| kingfisher with lunch |
As shown here, the local white throated kingfisher was very confiding, posing for many photos. Anyway, I had organsied an afternoon trip to Kottawa rainforest with the local naturalist from the hotel. We hopped into a tuk tuk for the 40 minute journey to a fantastic habitat. As with all rain forests, birds are easy to hear but nigh on impossible to see. To begin with we heard and then saw brief flights of the endemic Layard's parakeet before these were drowned out by a load of Alexandrine parakeets at a nest hole. Photographing through dense vegetation is not easy, with low light making the problem doubly difficult. We checked the hirundines above and in amongst the palm swifts were ones noticably larger; red rumped swallows. Back at the hotel I also recorded indian swiftlet over in small numbers. Here a few shots of the rainforest and some record shots of the Alexandrines.
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| Alexandrine parrot |
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| map of the few areas of access |
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| at the nest hole; Alexandrine parrot |
Other birds noted whilst we wandered were black headed munia, brown capped babbler, asian paradise flycatcher and black naped monarch. Also, a giant millipede and an endemic green shelled snail, whilst we were caught up in a cacophony made by the local cicadas and a few frogs.
Other inhabitants of the rainforest made themselves known; more macaque monkeys.
Back into the tuk tuk for the drive home. Following morning I was up at first light and on to the beach, before crossing over to the river and wandering past a Buddhist temple. Good birds along the wires, including purple rumped sunbird, white bellied drongo, bee eaters galore, rose ringed parakeets.
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| blue tailed bee eater |
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| white bellied drongo |
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| black headed oriole |
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| asian oriental robin |
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| purple rumped sunbird |
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| rose ringed parakeet |
On another morning I headed north along the beach. Here, a small stream gave great views of a striated heron (1st year bird) and another common sandpiper. High in the coconut palms was a lesser goldenback woodpecker. I waited for a while to see if it would reappear from the top of the palm, but to no avail. Out at sea a masked booby was halfway to the horizon, another new bird. Upon returning to my regular perch, a huge sea eagle appeared overhead and out to sea. By the time I had the camera on it, it was a far way off, but the black and white plumage told me it was a white bellied sea eagle.
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| white bellied sea eagle |
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| common sandpiper |
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| striated heron |
From the bar, veranda and lawn, I continued to sea watch, but just managed photos of passing gull billed terns.
The reptiles around the grounds were also worth photographing, along with several that we encountered along the walls of Galle fort, overlooking the cricket ground. A selection here, yet to be identified to species.
There were plenty of very spectacular butterflies about but very few alighted for me to photograph. This one in the hotel grounds also awaits identification.
Before we knew it, our 6 days were up and after a final days wander where we spent time talking with the monk at the local temple, it was time for the drive back to Colombo airport. En route I added marsh harrier and indian darter to the list , along with a few large birds of prey that remained unknown as we headed north up the southern expressway.
All in all, a fantastic time, with the whole holiday being put together by Simon Gemmell at Designer Travel at
www.designertravel.co.uk and also Neil Dobbs of the Travel Gallery
www.travel-gallery.co.uk Both worked hard so our trip went without a hitch. If keen to visit this wonderful island, I would certainly highly recommend contacting Simon, who knows who to get in touch with to make your trip ideal.
List so far;
Updated list:
barred buttonquail, sri lankan junglefowl, peacock, lesser whistling duck, painted stork, asian openbill, black necked stork, black headed ibis, lesser adjutant, eurasian spoonbill, (10 sp) indian pond heron, grey heron, purple heron, cattle egret, great egret, intermediate egret, little egret, spot billed pelican, little cormorant, indian cormorant, (20 sp)brahminy kite, black eagle, changeable hawk eagle, white breasted waterhen, pheasant tailed jacana, great thick knee, yellow wattled lapwing, red wattled lapwing, pacific golden plover, kentish plover, (30 sp) lesser sandplover, black tailed godwit, common redshank, common greenshank, marsh sandpiper, common sandpiper, curlew sandpiper, gull billed tern, whiskered tern, little tern,(40 sp) common tern, spotted dove, orange breasted green pigeon, sri lankan green pigeon, green imperial pigeon, rose ringed parakeet, chestnut winged cuckoo, asian palm swift, crested treeswift, house swift, (50 sp) indian roller,blue tailed bee eater, green bee eater, chestnut headed bee eater, white throated kingfisher, indian hoopoe, crimson fronted barbet, sri lankan grey hornbill, malabar hornbill, brown shrike, (60 sp) black headed oriole,house crow, large billed crow, barn swallow, white bellied drongo, richards pipit, paddyfield pipit, Blyth's pipit, red vented bulbul, white browed bulbul ,(70 sp) common tailorbird, white browed fantail, yellow billed babbler, common myna, brahminy starling, oriental magpie robin, indian robin, brown breasted flycatcher, purple rumped sunbird, lotens sunbird,(80 sp) house sparrow, scaley breasted munia, Jerdon's bushlark, little stint
Added at and around Galle.
striated heron, masked booby, white bellied sea eagle, marsh harrier, common moorhen, purple swamphen, (90 sp) sanderling, heuglin's gull, caspian tern, Alexandrine parakeet, Layard's parakeet, asian koel, greater coucal, indian swiftlet, lesser goldenback, red rumped swallow, (100 sp) forest bulbul, black naped monarch, asian paradise flycatcher, brown capped babbler, black headed munia.
In total, with some distant photos of blurry stuff still to be identified, total of 105 species, for a non birding trip is fine by me!
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