Birding with Malcolm and Duan

Malcolm McDonald is a Brit working in Kazakhstan (yes, Borat featured in our discussions!), and from 20-24 Jan., he did a 5-day bird watching trip with me focussing on the endemics and subcontinental specials. We were joined by Duan Biggs, (no relative of Jason Biggs; no special liking for baked goods!), a South African bird tour leader currently based in Australia. Duan arrived a day later than originally planned due to an airline issue in India where he had led a bird trip before visiting Sri Lanka.

After meeting Malcolm at 4.30 a.m., I took him to the lush lowlands of Kithulgala, and we arrived in our accommoation in time for some quality early birding in the hotel gardens at first light. Being an airline engineer, Malcolm had visited Sri Lanka many times since the 70s. But had not been on a guided bird tour. So this was a first. And he had not just one, but two bird tour guides to find him birds!

Staying with a former work colleague, who resides in Kandy, Malcolm had seen a few commoner endemics during his previous visits to Sri Lanka. So everything was new. Anyway, oOur first tick of the day turned out to be Sri Lanka Junglefowl. Which had mysteriously eluded Malcolm on his past trips! We had a pair of these game birds (national bird of Sri Lanka) in close quarters. An Indian Pitta was feeding literally under his room (build on an elevated wooden platform), and after first revealing its silhouette, it popped out to the open to give him good views. A flash of red and yellow whizzed pass uttering a familiar sharp call. It turned out to be the ornately plumaged Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher (aka. Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher), which sat long enough to give decent scope views, albeit in poor light. (Later on I was shown a nest site of it nearby.)

Still very early in the day, we had a small but highly vocal mixed-species bird flock in the hotel gardens. This comprised of the White-bellied Drongo, Orange-billed Babbler, Yellow-billed Babbler, Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Black-naped Monarch, and Lesser Yellownape. A Brown-breasted Flycatcher was also doing its thing low in the under growth. No calls of the Green-billed Coucal, strangely. Metallic calls of the Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher betrayed its presence in the low undergrowth and it was seen well more than once.



Still on our pre-breakfast walk, we had fine views of a juvenile Crested Hawk Eagle, across the river, basking in the early morning sun. Next came Green Imperial Pigeon, Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill, Yellow-fronted Barbet, Brown-headed Barbet, Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot, Orange Minivet and Square-tailed Black Bulbul, all in quick order. And we also had a Black Eagle soaring.

After enjoying a fine breakfast, we explored the surroundings briefly getting improved views of some of the birds we have already seen; plus bagging a few new ones in the form of Common Iora, Shikra, and Black-capped Bulbul.

Having started at an unearthly hour to pick Malcolm up from the airport, I had not had any overnight sleep, and forty winks were all what I could get in the brief rest we had before lunch. This was because I was rudely woken up by a mobbing party of birds outside my room. I couldn’t see any bird of prey in close vicinity, so I suspected it may have been over some arboreal snake lying in ambush somewhere. Shortly afterwards, I had another sightings of a Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher near my room. Quite a gem of a bird.



After enjoying a superb Sri Lankan rice and curry lunch, we tuktuked a short distance to the ferry point to cross the Kelani River in a Dug-out canoe to reach the Kithulgala Forest Reserve for our afternoon birding birding session. New birds added to our list on this foray were Sri Lanka Green Pigeon, a female Indian Blue Robin, Black-hooded Oriole, Yellow-browed Bulbul, Sri Lanka Crested Drongo, Layard’s Parakeet and Lesser Hill Myna. A pair of Green-billed Councals across the river responded to a booming call imitated by yours truly, but it didn’t cooperate. (Perhaps we weren't patient enough.) Dinner and checklist marked the end of a slightly tiring yet rewarding day.

I gave a wake up call to Malcolm early on the following morning with a scope set in front of his room in focus of a Chestnut-backed Owlet that I managed to spot in the dark undergrowth. It was a good enough view despite the low light. Soon after, another bird was spotted high up in a tree when the light improved, which gave more than decent views. Our next top highlight was the endemic Spot-winged Thrush, which was out in the open feeding alongside a few Babblers. This was also heard singing. No Green-billed Coucal yet though.
After enjoying a birding breakfast; a breakfast interrupted continuously by sightings of two Crested Hawk Eagles and a Stork-billed Kingfisher, we drove to Sinharaja rain forest via Ratnapura. A 4-wd jeep was awaiting our arrival at the ticket office to take us up to our overnight accommodation for two nights; Martin’s Simple Lodge. Before that I paused in a roadside patch to show Malcolm a nest of a Spot-winged Thrush with a brooding adult bird. This was built high up in a branch that was hanging over the road used by vehicles regularly by the visitors and locals.Martin’s was teeming with humanity when we arrived there during the midday. There was a big Taiwanese bird watching group equipped with all the latest cameras and optics and a school group of over 30 girls (a mixed species bird flock) - which was part of a regular educational workshop conducted by the FOGSL headed by Prof. Kotagama and Rahula Perera with the generous sponsorship of Sri Lanka Telecom as part of their CSR.
Undaunted by the imminent convectional rain, we set off on our first walk in Sinharaja rain forest, soon after lunch. As expected, it rained and rained heavily but that didn’t hamper us from making quick ground towards the bird rich interior hoping for some respite. I was playing my cards close to the chest and this hurried approach amidst inclement weather was especially in anticipation of a particular pre-identified target based on some real-time ground intelligence. We arrived at the said site and within no time Malcolm was enjoying scope views of his first Frogmouths; that of Sri Lanka Frogmouth – a male and a female perched in a Kekiri-wara (Schumacheria castaneifolia) tree in a day roost facing opposite directions at almost eye-level!When we finally had some respite from the rain, I scouted inside the virgin section of the forest with Malcolm to whistle in a Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush for frame-filling scope-views amply rewarding Malcolm for braving the rain and having faith in my judgement. A Green-billed Coucal offered poor views for Malcolm with only myself picking up the diagnostic green bill before it mysteriously melted away into the chaos of rain forest vegetation. A mixed species bird flock observed amidst rain didn’t produce anything new and we returned to Martin’s for checklist, dinner and overnight stay.
Duan Biggs was arriving at midnight today (he was to arrive at midnight yesterday) and I had a transfer arranged to take him directly to Sinharaja with my best driver for night driving whom I have been using for my shenanigans from time immemorial. When I reached down in a 4wd jeep to pick him up at 4.00 a.m. my man had already delivered him safely fifteen minutes ago! Apparently they had only left the airport area at 1.30 a.m.! I had already told Duan that the driver is a ‘Schumacher of sorts’ and to be cool with his ‘style’. Duan had swallowed a sleeping pill soon at the start of the drive and had slept all the way up to Sinharaja! By the way, this driver is one lucky dude; a few months ago he won the first prize of a local TV quiz (Sirasa TV Ran-depeya) and became the proud owner of a fully furnished 2-storey luxury house worth over 10.2 million Sri Lankan rupees (US $ 94,445) with 24 hour security & free family memberships for a pool and a gym!!!
After briefly exploring a nearby patch for night birds, we arrived at Martin’s in time for the arrival of Sri Lanka Blue Magpies. This early foray didn’t produce anything but provided a clear demonstration of dizzying effects of sleeping pills following short sleep spells! Part of the Taiwanese bird contingent had already arrived and laid claim to some prime vantage points at Martin’s balcony in anticipation of the Sri Lanka Blue Magpies. Ironically, they had arrived from an accommodation named after this bird!! Soon, we enjoyed early tea with 4 Sri Lanka Blue Magpies, which were all around us making an early snack of the insect prey found under lamps; giving a field day for the giddy Taiwanese photographers.
Thereafter, we went on a pre-breakfast bird walk to get nice scope views of Green Imperial Pigeon, Sri Lanka Crested Drongo, Legge's Flowerpecker, Purple-rumped Sunbird, Yellow-fronted Barbet, Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot, Orange Minivet, Layard’s Parakeet, Square-tailed Black Bulbul, Asian Brown Flycatcher & Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill in beautiful morning light. Early in our post breakfast walk, we saw a fairly large raptor flying overhead and perching atop a shorter tree in a patch of tea adjoining the forest. I scoped it through the vegetation to just reveal its identity; a Mountain Hawk Eagle -a rare species in Sri Lanka and my only second sighting in Sinharaja. By the way, my Mountain Hawk Eagle photograph got published in the current issue – Number 8 of BirdingAsia – the bulletin of the Oriental Bird Club.
Soon, a small bird flock we had contained Large-billed Leaf Warbler, Greenish Warbler, Black-capped Bulbul, Dark-fronted Babbler & more Sri Lanka Grey Hornbills, which were observed in close quarters. A fairly good mixed species bird flock was encountered soon after entering the forest proper and we were able to detect a Red-faced Malkoha, which rested in an overhead branch revealing a prolonged ventral view instead of the diagnostic red face and greenish beak we wanted. So, doesn’t count yet. Although it was motionless for considerable time, I anticipated the bird to go up and alerted about this and positioned ourselves strategically a bit away, awaiting the bird to move the way we desired. This worked marvellously as we all had a brilliant scope views in early morning light. As Duan put it so eloquently; it was an orgasmic sighting!!
Walking up to the research camp, Duan picked up a Spot-winged Thrush near the track. We also observed the Black-naped Monarch’s nest that I observed on my previous visit with a brooding adult bird and a newly fledged juvenile. The Sri Lanka Frogmouths were found in the day roost today as well and Duan got good views of them this time perched facing the same direction.
Scouting inside the virgin forest, we had a chance sighting of a Green-billed Coucal flying straight into a thicket with a medium sized Green Wine Snake in the beak. It provided brilliant views for all of us when it ascended up the thicket before going into it. Although I couldn’t detect externally, I suspected that it may be nesting inside this thicket from the manner it flew in so purposefully into the ticket and the way it moved about having done that. Moments later a Green-billed Coucal; probably the same bird observed earlier appeared out and flew back in the same direction the bird we saw first came from. We left the site immediately not to cause any disturbance.
After spending some time around the Research camp seeing more Sri Lanka Junglefowls and Sri Lanka Blue Magpies, we started searching seriously for Malabar Trogon, which was proving tough for no apparent reason. Finally my efforts paid off and I found a pair of females with one spotted quite low down.The school group was ready to depart by the time we arrived for our late lunch. Malcolm decided to take the afternoon easy to enjoy some arm-chair birding from the comforts of Martin’s balcony. So, I walked with Duan in search of more endemics. Early in this afternoon foray I found him a flock of four Brown-capped Babblers quite close to the track. No Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush despite looking for it but a consolation came, when I decided to backtrack picking some distant calls when we had several Sri Lanka Mynas feeding low together with a mixed species bird flock which contained among other things; Ashy-headed Babblers and more Red-faced Malkohas. Returning to Martin's we heard the somewhat disturbing news that the Black-naped Moarch's fledgling had been predated by a marauding Sri Lanka Blue Magpie. Dinner, checklist and overnight stay at Martin’s.
Early on the following morning calls of Sri Lanka Spurfowl filled the air while we were enjoying our tea at Martin’s. Soon, a pair of them were seen moving nervously, which were picked up only by myself and Duan. White-faced Starling was still pending and as a last resort I visited a patch that has proven fruitful for me over the years and soon I picked up a call of one perched in a dead tree, which was soon joined by 4 others to give us excellent views in good light. Pleasing! Gold-fronted Leafbird, Common Iora, Sri Lanka Swallow and more Barbets & Bulbuls also graced our morning.After saying good-bye to Martin we headed off to our next location, which was originally going to be Udawalawe National Park. As this national park was closed temporarily due to some local considerations, I decided to move up to the cooler hills of Nuwara Eliya in the central highlands, where more endemics awaited us! Duan who missed out on Kithulgala had a brief look at this birding site, pausing at the Kithulgala Resthouse for some sandwich lunch. In our long drive up to the highlands, we had great fun listening to the some 12th Man - BONED by the Aussie comedian Billy Birmingham, which neither Malcolm nor Duan had even heard of before, the latter despite hailing from cricket crazy South Africa and living in cricket mad Australia. Would you believe ?
Our driver Sameera did a superb job in taking us in time to squeeze in 40 minutes of precious birding time. This yielded Duan’s first Indian Pitta. No luck with Kashmir Flycatcher, but I found Malcolm a male Indian Blue Robin flitting inside the undergrowth, while Duan was seeking improved views of the Pitta. Following some calls from tree tops, I was able to offer neck-twisting views of a male perched straight up in a thick foliaged tree, in an awkward 'unscopable' angle. Nice! Duan suggested we went for the Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush after I told that I have a reliable site, which had worked for me at dusk. We drove 10 minutes to reach the site and just two minutes after arriving at the site, Malcolm picked up a male Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush, of which the bright blue lesser wing covert patch was clearly visible in my 10 x 42 Leica Trinovid binoculars even though in diminishing light. What good timing once again by Sameera! Good call by Duan to go for it & great spotting by Malcolm! What’s more after it disappeared briefly following our first looks, it was Malcolm who spotted it again for the second time! Talk about team work!
Our overnight accommodation was Alpine Hotel in Nuwara Eliya. We went out for dinner tonight to celebrate the Pied Thrush and Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush with a 5-course fine style dinner at the St Andrew’s Hotel, Nuwara Eliya. Nice!After an early breakfast, we explored Victoria Park at first light in search of the missing Kashmir Flycatcher and to seek improved views of the Pied Thrush. We failed in our first mission despite a lot of hard work and checking out spots diligently where I had two sightings last month but was successful with the latter in scoping first a male followed by a female below eye level; a complete a contrast to the initial sighting! We had two montane endemics in the form of Sri Lanka White-eye and Yellow-eared Bulbul. These were followed by more sightings of Indian Pitta in addition to Forest Wagtail, Grey Wagtail & Blyth’s Reed Warbler. Thereafter, we headed to Bomuru-ella Forest Reserve, where a small mixed species bird flock contained Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher and Bar-winged Flycatcher-shrike among other things. Soon, I spotted a Sri Lanka Wood Pigeon at eye-level, which gave good scope views. No luck with Dull-blue Flycatcher and Sri Lanka Bush Warbler in a second bird wave encountered. We had good looks at the mountain sub-species of Toque Macaque and Purple-faced Leaf Monkey, the latter which is colloquially named as ‘Bear Monkey’ due to its thick coat of fur.
After enjoying a fine buffet lunch, we briefly explored the wetland site in Nuwara Eliya getting a pair of Pied Bushchats and several Paddyfield Pipits. Thereafter, we commenced our descent to Kandy, making a traditional stop en route at the Glenloch Tea Factory for Hill Swallows nesting inside the factory and to get a brief guided tour to see the production process of the fabled Ceylon Tea. And to enjoy a fine cuppa. Malcolms and Duan were dropped off in Kandy to finish a smoothly-run birding tour and I reached home by 10.30 p.m.

Birding with Yong Ding Li & friends

Yong Ding Li, 23, a Singaporean birder, had seen 1,217 species of birds in Asia by the time he visited Sri Lanka for a birding trip. Ding Li was determined to break the record of Ben King—who has seen the most number of birds in Asia. He was referred to me by Enoka Kudawidanage who is doing a PhD studies at NUS (National University of Singapore), where Ding Li is a student. Although Ding Li first wanted to do a very low budget backpacking style trip, inviting me to join him at a few key birding sites such as Sinharaja rain forest, I was able to lure him to accepting a more structured itinerary. It was good a group tour—to keep costs low.

Chestnut-backed Owlet photographed at point blank range at Kithulgala

The result was a birding trip done between 10-19 Dec 2007 with 5 other Singaporean birders joining in. They included Ding Li’s birding buddy: Albert Low, 21, who had seen 1,107 bird species in Asia and 1,500 species in the world by the time he came to Sri Lanka.

The group from left to right: Willie Foo, Ding Li, Albert Low, Alfred Chia, Pah Liang, and Alan Owyong,

Others were Alan Owyong—a keen videographer, who had visited Sri Lanka a couple of times; Alfred Chia—a serious birder and a keen photographer with a sharp eye and an even sharper wit; Willie Foo—a keen videographer; and Yang Pah Liang—a keen birder who had travelled extensively.

I spotted a pair of Jungle Owlets from a moving vehicle, and this is one of them; it caught a prey item when we were watching it.

We combined several key birding sites: Kithulgala, Sinharaja, Morapitiya, Udawalawe National Park, Tissamaharama, Nuwara Eliya and a host of local patches, and a bit of sight-seeing at Kandy, before heading back to Katunayake for the final night.

Ding Li and Albert Low stayed on for two more days of birding and cultural explorations. During this extension, Albert and I did a "water birds day tour" combining a few wetlands north of the airport: Chilaw sandspits, Annaiwilundawa Ramsar wetland, Palawi saltpans, and the massive Nawadamkulama tank.

Our final bird trip list stood at 221 species—seen. Our top birding highlights were Green-billed Coucal, Chestnut-backed Owlet, Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill, Sri Lanka Green Pigeon, Red-faced Malkoha, Sri Lanka Blue Magpie, White-faced Starling, Sri Lanka Spurfowl, Ashy-headed Laughingthrush, Spot-winged Thrush, Brown-capped Babbler, Sri Lanka Scimitar Babbler, Malabar Trogon, Sri Lanka Frogmouth, Brown-backed Needletail, Besra, Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush, Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush, Sri Lanka Bush Warbler, Sri Lanka Wood Pigeon, Dull-blue Flycatcher, Kashmir Flycatcher, Pied Thrush, Indian Blue Robin, Slaty-legged Crake, Indian Blackbird, Hill Swallow, Blue-faced Malkoha, Osprey, Jungle Owlet, Brown Fish Owl, Jungle Prinia, Yellow-crowned Woodpecker, Indian Nightjar, Blyth’s Pipit, Indian Scops Owl, Malabar Pied Hornbill, Sri Lanka Woodshrike, Spot-billed Pelican, Thick-billed Flowerpecker, Indian Pitta, Lesser Cuckoo, White-naped Woodpecker, Indian Think-knee, Indian Pygmy Woodpecker, and Yellow-wattled Lapwing.

Albert’s water birds tour with me produced Eurasian Oystercatcher, Sanderling, Great Thick-knee, Caspian, White-winged, Little and Lesser Crested Terns, Lesser Sand Plover, Curlew Sandpiper, Little Stint, Grey Plover, Pacific Golden Plover, Kentish Plover, Brown-headed Gull, Garganey, Watercock, and Indian Reed Warbler.

On the main tour, we managed to bag 31 of the 33 endemic birds; plus many of the sought-after migrants and sub-continental specialties. Our notable miss was Serendib Scops Owl. The closest we got for this endemic bird discovered in Janurary, 2001 was when we heard it across a shallow stream at Kithulgala. It was rainy, yet I could have shown it had my visitors been willing to following me in cross that stream. Our second attempt at Morapitiya ended up in failure with heavy rain and greatly swollen streams hampering our movements.

A spread of Sri Lankan rice and curry at Kithulgala.

On account of our missing this rarity, Albert thought it should be named Serendip Scops Owl in our final bird list! The other endemic that eluded was the Crimson-backed Flameback.

As mentioned above, we had to contend with rainy weather—at times rather heavily on certain days because the period of our travel coinciding with a untimely monsoonal peak. Leading to this trip, I was quite surprised as to how many dry and sunny days I enjoyed in November this year, which is usually rainy due to the onset of the North-East monsoon. This monsoon brings rain to the dry zone (3/4 of the island) as well as the wet zone (the balance 1/3). The intensity of rain expected in November was clearly not there this year. (During a trip done in November, I spoke to a farmer in the dry zone, and was concerned by the delayed monsoon.)

A Malabar Trogon at Sinharaja rain forest.

It seemed to me the rain overdue had been delivered with interest December this year!
The heavy monsoonal rain caused extensive floods in some areas in the north-central and eastern districts in the dry zones after a lapse of many years. This was especially due to spill gates in certain tanks (reservoirs) having to be opened due to very high water levels.

Such bad weather encountered on birding tours do not always dampen the spirits completely as some people use that time wisely to follow other more ebullient indoor pursuits. In an evening in which rain called off play, few of us were gathered at Martin’s balcony to drink tea. We enjoyed the rain forest in rain. We kept our binculars with us anyway, lest the rain would ease and bring the birds out again. And then somebody suggested that we played Scrabble. There were a couple of English visitors who were marooned at Martin’s balcony with us. They were to travel to Galle to see the cricket, which was to start in a few days. They joined us too to form three teams. The Englishman and Ding Li were the first one. Albert and the English lady were the second one. And I battling alone.

As usual for a game of Scrabble, there were plenty of disputes. Some resorted to sledging and 'mental disintegration' tactics. Yet, I came from behind to thrash both the combined commonwealth teams just in my last word scored by dropping an 'O' next to 'Z' to make ‘ZO’—earning 26 in the process. And this was challenged straightaway. The final score was Ding Li’s team – 177, Albert’s team – 196 and yours truly 209.

I have never come across an overseas birder who knew all the Sri Lankan birds by their scientific names. That was until I met Ding Li. He constantly dazzled me with his ability to remember scientific names of not only of the Lankan birds we saw on this tour, but also birds across Asia, which I thought was pretty amazing. Ding Li and Albert discussed day’s sightings lengthily, and took extensive notes at the end of the day.

The Scrabble board at the end.

Our non-birding highlights came in the form of Yellow-striped Chevrotain Moschiola kathygre, which we encountered on the trail while driving up to Martin’s at night and Bear Monkey Trachypithecus vetulus monticola in Nuwara Eliya.

Considering rainy weather we ha and us not visiting three national parks usually visited on standard birding tours (Horton Plains, Yala and Bundala), overall we could be happy of what we achieved in such a short span of time.

Sri Lanka White-eye at Nuwara Eliya.

Ding Li left Sri Lanka boosting his Asian tally by 63 ending up at 1,280 seen. Albert Low left Sri Lanka high, raking in 91 lifers to stand at 1,198 Asian birds seen.

Edit: The newly rediscovered Sri Lankan breeding resident Marshall's Iora was seen briefly on this tour at the Lunugamwehera; and made it to the final trip list. After this, I had very convincing views of this bird on my Absolute Birding tour in Feb, 2008. A detailed report of it is here here.


The pair of Jungle Owlets that I spotted from a moving vehicle at Tanamalwila.

Birding with Liz and Keith Richie Part 1

I did a Water birds trip with Liz and Keith Richie, England on 24 Sep, 2007. We combined a selection of sites namely Annaiwilundawa RAMSAR wetland, Palavi Saltpans, Nawadankulama Tank and finally the Chilaw Sandspits. Our driver was Sameera Arandara, who owns and drives a Nissan Bluebird Sylphy and this was the first time I used him for my tours. He did a good job in taking us to our sites promptly and safely, which was important in this type of tours involving multiple sites.

As expected our first stop; Annaiwilundawa RAMSAR wetland was dry as this was the tail end of the dry season. However, that didn’t stop us from seeing a good combination of scrub and wetlands birds including a few migrants. These included Blue-faced Malkoha, Crested Serpent Eagle, Pacific Golden Plover, Blue-tailed Bee-Eater, Purple, Long-billed & Purple-rumped Sunbirds, Brown-headed Barbet, Black-hooded Oriole, Wood and Common Sandpipers, Oriental Darter, Pied Kingfisher, Purple and Grey Herons & Black-headed Ibis.

Next, we visited the Palawi Saltpans, which was again drier than in August when I last visited this site. I had already told Liz and Keith to expect such conditions and to come ready to follow my ass (advance, stop and scan) technique. It didn’t take me too long to realize that waders were too over the head for Liz and Keith so I soon decided to change habitats to give them different birds, which they appreciated. Anyway, our brief Palawi-watch produced Grey Plover, Gull-billed Tern, Lesser Sand Plover, Curlew Sandpier, Little Stint & Kentish Plover.

After enjoying a sumptuous lunch in the good-old Puttlam Resthouse; the Sri Lankan rice and curry lunch of which was described by Keith as one of the best meals he had on his Sri Lankan holiday, we leisurely explored the Nawadamkulama tank where we had White-naped Woodpecker, Black-rumped Flameback, Common Coot (a locally scarce bird), Little Grebe, Purple Swamphen & Pheasant-tailed Jacana. Liz also picked up a Pied Cuckoo. We also enjoyed seeing several good-looking Indian Green Frogs aka Green Pond Frog (Euphlyctis hexadactylus) floating in good light.

Finally we explored the Chilaw Sandspits for Sanderlings and we were rewarded with good views of 17 of them in addition to Whimbrel and several Large Crested Terns. Thereafter, I dropped them off at their cosy retreat; Club Palm Bay Hotel, Marawila.

Water birds & Sea food trip

Kusum, a birding pal, and I organised a 2-day "water birds and sea food trip"  from 11 to 12 Aug., 2007. It served two puposes: to catch the early arrivals of winter migrants and to increase our blood cholesterol levels measurably. We were joined by several of our birding buddies: Mihiri, Umesh, Ayanthi, Rohantha, Madhu, Kishan and Devi—latter an MD—our doctor on call, just in case.

Our overnight base was a private Bungalow close to Kalpitiya, named the Turtle Point, which was recommended by Sandali Wijayatilake, who had been there in April and alledgely seen the highly sought-after Crab Plover nearby. All my previous sightings of this Deccan avi-faunal zone rarity had been in the Talaimannar area in Mannar, so one of the ulterior motives of this trip was to find it in a site more accessible.

We left Colombo very early and reached our first birding spot, Chilaw Sandspits—a wader patch in the western coast, north of the airport. It was too early in the season for the Sanderlings, which are usually found wintering here. But, we found a few early arrivals in the form of Common Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, and several Eurasian Whimbrel in the shoreline. A pair of Great Thick-knees and several Great Crested Terns also were noted. I was the only person with a scope, so as usual, there was a neat queue to take turns for better views.

Chilaw Sandspits is situated close to a fishing hamlet. Several of our participants had to experience ‘too much of reality’ too early in the morning. But what can I say? I had warned them precisely of such "ground realities."
 
Breakfast at the Chilaw Resthouse was good and Kusum fell 10 short of his alltime string-hopper-eating record—gobbling 70!

This was with fish, potato, and dhal curries; plus pol sambol. The fish curry was a bit on the hot, and this was made an excuse to eat two slices of bread on top of it—in a bid put off the fire in his mouth!



With our bellies full, we drove to the Annaiwilundawa RAMSAR wetland, which not surprisingly for this time of the year, was very dry—with its network of tanks reduced to small ponds here and there. A noteworthy birding highlight was  Large Cuckoo-shrike, which is somewhat of a regular at this site.

Cotton Pygmy-goose, Oriental Darter, Pied Kingfisher, Green Bee-eater, Indian Roller, Black-headed Ibis, Purple Heron and the four species of white Egrets, came in quick order. Thereafter, we drove up to the Puttlam Saltpans, which appeared devoid of birds at the first glance. It was so desolate that we almost turned back before we spotted a couple of small flocks of waders comprising of Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Kentish Plover, and Lesser Sand Plover—all retaining variable degrees of summer plumage. Some of those Curlew Sandpipers were almost in full summer with their beautiful brick-red plumages.

Several Gull-billed Terns were also spotted settled down close by. Returning to our vehicle baked in the blazing Puttlam sun, the organisers of the trip bedazzled the lot with some chilled soft drinks pulled out from a a coolbox tucked inside a seat. A few brownie points.

We broke for lunch at the good old Puttlam Resthouse, and since this is not a FOGSL trip, some of us had the luxury to replenish the lost liquids properly with chilled Lion beer with devilled cuttle fish as "bites" (Sri Lankans almost never drink without bites—which are often spicy/fired dishes with liberal amounts of chillie and high fat eating thingies).

Next, we enjoyed an artery-clogging rice and curry lunch—with more cuttle fish, prawns curry, and some fish curry for those who didn't like prawns and cuttlefish.


Post lunch, we explored the vast expanse of Palavi mudflats.

As soon as getting off the vehicle, I picked up the call of a Grey Francolin—yet another deccan avi-faunal zone specialty. It was my first at this site. We looked for it but had no luck. It was extremely dry here, as expected, resulting in the wader patches being too far from the roadside. I saw not much point in trying to scope things from the roadside so Rohantha, Mihiri and Umesh agreed to walk up to the wader flocks following my ASS (advance-stop-scan) technique.

We had to report to our accommodation at around 5ish with the dry rations that we had brought along, in order for the caretaker family to cook our dinner. So this meant we could ASS only 750m. However, this was enough to find several high profile early migrants in the form of a grey morph Western Reef Egret, at least five Broad-billed Sandpipers, and Grey Plover. Those who stayed back in the dry land had also picked up blobs of the Grey Plover and the Western Reef Egret, but had missed the Broad-billed Sandpipers.

Returning to our vehicle, we accidentally flushed a Grey Francolin, a lifer for the rest. A BVD, of course.

After getting some ice from an ice factory to cool our food and beverages, we drove to the fish market in Kalpitiya to buy some seafood. It was here that another one of my techniques came in real handy. When we turned up at the fish market, all the fish vendors, who happened to wholesale fish dealers, didn’t care about us townies wanting small quantities of fish. And they gave us ‘Colombo prices!’.

One of the interesting things about our culture (shared also with certain other eastern cultures) is addresing complete strangers in kinship terms. So I addressed the vendor that I was speaking to ‘Ayye’ (elder brother), for he clearly looked older than me. This not only conveyed respect, but also put me in equal level with him socially. To be effective, I used it more often in my sentences than I would do it normally.

And Lo and behold!

It really worked as that bloke who seemed rude, and unfriendly at first really loosened up. We were quoted Rs. 1,200 per 1 kg of ‘jumbo’ Prawns initially but thanks to my heart-melting Ayyefying, we walked away with the same quantity paying just Rs. 500, which was a great bagain!

Similarly, I Ayyefyed another vendor to get a 2.8 kg Paraw Fish (Black-Tip Trevally,) at fraction of the Colombo prices! And I did this wearing my shorts and looking more like one of them.


We reached our accommodation around 5.30p.m., to be greeted by our friendly caretaker, Lional, who looked after us extremely well during our stay. The Turtle Point has three rooms (one with two beds, and two with three beds) each coming with private facilities. Note it has no electricity. Also, there are also extra beds that can be used if you want to sleep out in the veranda, which is what Kishan, and I did as it was a bit stuffy inside the room. More liquids, checklist and a fine seafood dinner marked the end of a great day.

A pre-breakfast birding walk on the following day along the shoreline was productive with steady flows of Brown-winged (Bridled) Terns, a passage migrant flying south, close to the shoreline. This proved a lifer for some. Also seen here were Little, Common, Large Crested, and Lesser Crested Terns, in addition to Black-winged Stilt and more Eurasian Whimbrels. Other highlights were early arrivals of Ruddy Turnstone, Little Stint, Common Greenshank, Wood Sandpiper, and Curlew Sandpiper—all showing of summer and summer to winter transitional plumages in varying degrees.

No luck with Crab Plover. Our breakfast was rice with dhal curry, pol sambol and more Paraw fish curry.

Our exportations until lunch didn’t produce anything spectacular, and after another superb lunch, we bid farewell to Lionel and his family and drove to the Nawadankulama Tank. Here we had 19 Common Coots, a locally uncommon bird, and many Little Grebes feeding in formation. I also heard a yet another deccan avi-faunal zone specialty in the form of Eurasian Collard Dove, which would have been a lifer for the rest.

We returned home with copious quantities of Jumbo Prawns –the bloke charged only Rs. 450 per kg!

The above was my submission for I and The Bird #63 hosted by The Greenbelt