When: October 2014 Weather: Hot 25-30C
Leica M240. 35 summilux, 21 super elmar, 90 summicron. Lumix FZ200
Our adventure started off well when we had a power outage during dinner in our hosts’ house in a Colombo suburb….with the blackout the fireflies came out and flashed brilliantly in the garden…
firefly trail
fireflies in pitch darkness
Having ended our meeting, our group of birders and nature lovers set off from Colombo heading east towards Udawalawe national park in our ten seater van, intending to stop there to view the elephants. As it turned out, it took a bit longer than we expected and we didn’t have time to stop in Udawalawe…but a friendly elephant came up close to us on the main road which kind of made up for it…After Udawalawe, we turned south towards our final destination of Yala National Park, the park with the most leopards resident. It took us the best part of 5-6 hours to get to the Leopard Lodge in Yala, our base for the next four nights.
the road passing throughj Udawalawe national Park…elephant in the distance
He was a friendly fellow..but note the electric fence…
our most comfortable accommodation for 4 nights Yala Leopard Lodge
The next morning, we headed in our jeep to Bundala Wetlands for some birding…it was about 1-1.5 hours away and we found a large lake there with many water birds…
Dawn over Yala
our transport for the trip
Bundala National Park
disused hide
Terns were the dominant species
The hard to find Adjutant Stork
black headed Ibis
the less common Glossy Ibis
Pacific Golden Plover
amorous activities!
my favourite Pied Kingfisher
Godwit with long reddish beak
the less common yellow wattled lapwing
The common red wattled lapwing
Eurasian thick-knee or stone curlew
another thick-knee
black winged stilt
feeding time
longtailed jacana
spoonbill
Tricolour Munia
making a splash
hawk eagle being harrassed by crow
and fleeing…
blue tailed bee eater
green bee eater
parakeet
Aah…that feels so good..
Bundala was a wonderful birding location…highly recommended for general birding!
We were disappointed that Yala NP which was supposed to open on the day we visited instead remained closed due to the drought. So we managed to go in for one safari only…
The Natural Traveller 