It was a 2.5 hour drive getting to NE and we arrived in good time for lunch at the lovely hilltop Galway Heights Hotel…again olde world feel but well maintained. We arrived in the middle of a Hindu festival where the music blared out far and wide! Not exactly condusive to birding!
After a great lunch, we set off to explore the local country lanes….had a glimpse of a Sri Lankan white eye but didn’t get good pictures……and then Nila pointed to the bush ahead….Dull Blue He whispered loudly..
The dull blue flycatcher..not always the easiest FC to spot….E28! first endemic up in the highlandsThe delicately hued but still very pretty Dull blue FC
We then headed over to some farmland nearby…..to seek our the SL bush warbler…..we heard it and it hopped about and kept us guessing and peering for an hour wihtout showing until finally Nila went behind it and finally…..
Sri Lankan Bush Warbler! (E29) poked its head out briefly…between 4 cameras and many many shots…this was the only shot that was good! (Picture courtesy of H Tan)..Indeed though we heard the bush warbler in several other locations, it was never seen again!whilst waiting for the bush warbler, some friendly grey headed canary flycatchers entertained usgrey headed canary flycatcher
By this time, it was 6pm and the temperature was falling…we stopped at a local farmer’s house where we tried to get the Sri Lanka whistling thrush….and we saw it at the head of the stream but pictures were challenging in the fading light…..so we called it a day….
The next day we had another 5am start……to get to Pattipola railway station on the way to Horton Plains to try and get the rest of our endemics…..Pattipola was where the SL wood pigeon usually appeared at day break…
sure enough as the sun gradually illuminated this corner of Nuwara Eliya, the wood pigeons arrived! E30! We’d hit the 30/35 endemic targets…Sri Lankan Wood Pigeon (E30)We also saw the Indian blue robin at the same location later that morningthe entrance to Horton Plainswe entered from the Pattipola entrance at the north and headed to the Park office near the southern end..Just after the park entrance, we came across a lovely pond which was where we spent the most time tracking down a few more endemics….this pond occupied us for a good hour and a half….cool montane floraat last good views of the Sri Lanka White Eye (E31!) ….with pollen dusting his foreheadAnd here posing with the endemic red flower …Rhododendron Arbareum var Zeylanicum a dark fronted babbler confronted usand then Nila pointed and whispered…whistling thrush!! E32This female SL whistling thrush was quite friendly and posed for usThe Sri Lankan Whistling ThrushA Cinereous tit..now known as an Asian Tit poseda grey wagtail walked on watereven the frogs were pretty ! This is a Gunther’s golden backed frogAnd as we walked along the road, NIla heard sounds…the SL Scimitar babbler! E33! Scimitar babbler..with this 33rd of 35 endemics, we were achingly close to our target of 35 with only a day left… we drove on through Horton Plains to the Park Office tor a pit stop…a flock of scaly breasted munias took flightA zitting cisticola zitted about…A female pied bushchat showedand then the handsome male pied bushchatblack eagle soaring over horton plains
So we headed back to the hotel for lunch and to recharge bodies and batteries…..and then to see if we could find our two remaining , outstanding endemics….we set off first for Victoria Gardens where the desirable Pied Thrush is known to winter….
entrance to Victoria Park…pretty enough but it was the Pied thrush we were after…Finally our local contacts showed us th tree where several pied thrushes were hanging out….not endemic but a great sightingPied thrush
Nila then suggested we go the local landfill at Moon Plains where records of good sightings had been recorded….you knew you were in the neighbourhood well before you got there! Nila gave us a choice…to avoid the stench of the rubbish dump or to go seeking for more endemics….we all dashed across the stinkiest portion to the far side…..
one of our target non-endemic birds was the Kashmir flycatcher which is much harder to see in Kashmir than here in Sri Lanka where it winters….and there it was!the lovely Kashmir FlycatcherA Legge’s hawk eagle also showedLegge’s Hawk EagleAnd then to our great delight the yellow eared bulbul (E34) appeared and posed not too far away in the fading lightThe yellow eared bulbul was of course Endemic number 34!
And just before we left, with almost no sun left…the indian black bird showed…
Indian blackbird in the gloom
We were thrilled that we were now just one shy of our target but also nervous that we might just miss our target by one as we only had our journey back to the airport the next day via Kandy…. but we had done well….7 endemics today had brought us from 27 to the brink…..we rested well that night…..
The Natural Traveller 