Leaving Heathrow on Wednesday 20th Feb on the overnight flight to Colombo, we arrived midday Thursday and headed for a hotel in the city. A few birds were evident: Indian swiflets and Asian palm swifts shot around outside the hotel, too fast to capture on the camera. House crows everywhere along with Common mynahs. On the Friday morning we had breakfast and then sat outside waiting for the taxi to take us on the 2.5 hour journey to Galle in the south west. As we sat there, a large white bird in the far distance. A white bellied sea eagle, I thought before reaching for the binoculars and discovering it to be a spot billed pelican. A good spot for a city.
Upon arrival at Galle we met with staff whom we know from previous visits to the Jetwing Lighthouse hotel, unpacked and off for a much needed beer. We met up with good friend Anoma, the hotel naturalist and planned a meal out with him and his wife Anusha. I checked the usual birds within the hotel grounds.
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| Modern Colombo, a place much changed since my first visit in 1993 |
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| Hotel grounds, a birding hotspot!! |
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| Indian pond heron, Galle |
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| Beautiful place to stay, very peaceful |
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| The rocks outside the Lighthouse Hotel |
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| Cattle egret |
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| Red wattled lapwing |
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| Green skimmer dragonfly |
Over the weekend we just pottered about, visiting Hikkaduwa by bus and tuk tuk. The road was closed so the tuk tuk driver took us on a country route alongside plenty of paddyfields. Here, more egrets, brahminy kites and, over one field, plenty of Sri Lankan swallows showing their red breasts and rumps. A good bird to see, only my 2nd sighting.
We spent time around the pool and I took time to wander to an area over the road that the locals of Mahamodora call "The Jungle." Here, a peacock called, white breasted waterhens darted for cover and along the wires, red vented bulbuls, spotted doves, brown headed barbets whilst in the trees, plenty of black hooded orioles called.
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| blue tailed bee eater |
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| Sri Lankan drongo |
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| Black monkey, first sighting here |
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| Black hooded oriole |
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| 6 foot monitor lizard |
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| same reptile |
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| familiar Galle scene on the main Colombo road. Cow causing traffic jams |
On the Monday we had to be at the MindGarden Centre, a learning centre that I have been involved in for a while now. Here, I met students that I worked with in November of last year and we awarded them their stage 1 certificates. Most pleasing was to hear of two students that had been offered jobs, with their CV containing details of their achievements at MindGarden being stated as a deciding factor in them being offered the jobs. Absolutely brilliant to hear.
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| Some of the successful students. They were very proud to receive the certificates |
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| Anoma on the right, the driving force of MindGarden |
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| Praneeth receiving his certificate from one of our student volunteers. |
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| Wendy with the two girls who have gained employment through their association with MindGarden. |
That evening, Wendy, Anusha, Anoma and I headed off for a wonderful evening of good food and chat before heading back to the Lighthouse for a nightcap of local Arrak and what was planned to be an early start for a whale watching sailing trip. However, due to poor weather conditions this was cancelled so another day pottering around, snapping local nature and enjoying an occasional bottle of Lion beer.
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| The four of us after dinner |
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| Wonderful time: thanks for the meal Anoma and Anusha |
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| A shikra on the hotel roof, taken from our balcony |
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| crab species |
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| whimbrel |
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| same bird on the rocks in front of the hotel |
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| another Indian pond heron |
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| monitor lizard that enjoyed the swimming pool, here in the overflow drain |
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| gull billed tern |
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| yet another lizard on the beach |
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| Pied parasol dragonfly |
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| Blue percher dragonfly |
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| very common Spotted dove |
On the Wednesday afternoon, Anoma collected me as we were off to the rainforest at Kottawa. As I got in the car he handed me a plastic bottle containing a wolf snake and on the back seat, a Sri Lankan polecat confined in a red plastic box. It promptly relieved itself over the back seat!! Upon arrival at the rainforest we found places to release these two creatures. The wolf snake didn't seem too impressed with being messed about and anytime we went near, the tiny chap reared up like a mini cobra. They are very aggressive, hence the name wolf snake. The polecat trundled off into the undergrowth and we then parked at the entrance to the forest. I paid my £2.00 entry and photographed the "meet and greet" macaque monkeys that hang around the entrance. This is a magnificent place, rarely visited by tourists and typical rainforest birding ensued. Plenty of calls but few sightings as the vegetation is so dense. Layard's parakeets called and flew overhead, black capped bulbuls, purple sunbirds, Sri Lankan grey hornbills high in the canopy, a possible Asian brown flycatcher, kangaroo lizards, Sri Lankan green snails and several fungi species were all noted, as were leeches crawling up my legs. These were peeled off except for one that got into my shoe undetected. By the time I returned to the hotel the shoe and my foot were smeared in blood.
A great visit. Last time I was here was 2017 when I helped plant native rainforest canopy trees in areas where the original rainforest had been removed to make way for a tea plantation. This in turn failed and so some bright spark thought it would be a good idea to plant Scot's pine! These are now being removed and the new canopy trees can grow over the next few hundred years in what will become a restored rainforest. Great to be involved.
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| dense vegetation makes bird watching tricky. Bird listening is the order of the day |
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| One confined polecat, caught in the hotel air conditioning ducts and released in a much better habitat. |
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| Off into his new territory |
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| Aggressive wolf snake |
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| Into his new habitat, too. Found in the hotel garden |
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| Distant and silhouetted Layard's parakeets |
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| Medus brown butterfly |
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| Meet and greet macaque |
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| good portrait |
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| Kangaroo lizard |
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| This concrete path is a new addition since my last visit. |
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| Sri Lankan grey hornbill |
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| Anoma checking some man made tree holes that contain rainwater and are placed to attract tree frogs. |
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| Sri Lankan green snail |
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| Interesting rainforest fungi species. |
The last few days were spent relaxing. I popped over to Mahmodara to see some villagers we have got to know over the years. I stopped off at Raja's house and we chatted over a bunch of bananas, lemon puff biscuits and pepsi. Also caught up with his brother Nilantha and neighbour Wasantha. Great to see them all again.
On Thursday we had planned to take the train to Colombo for our last night, but a derailed train meant a taxi journey instead. Anoma organised this and we were on our way back to The Stueart hotel in Hospital Lane, near to Galle Face Green, our original hotel upon arrival. A taxi the following morning to the airport and we were back in the house in Little Hadham by10.15pm, UK time, 3.45am SL time!! A long day. My last few hours at Galle were taken up photographing birds out to sea. Not too many, mainly gull billed terns with a few Indian cormorants, little egrets and little/saunders tern. The latter are impossible to separate in their winter plumage.
A fantastic time, as always and so good to see Anoma and Anusha again, thanks for the lovely meal and the wonderful gift which now sits on our mantlepiece.
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| Good to see Raja and his family again. The building behind is the village shop. |
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| What a place to sit and birdwatch! |
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| Posing crab |
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| Gull billed tern coming into summer/breeding plumage |
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| Gull billed tern in winter/non breeding plumage |
Bird List from a non birding holiday!
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