Sri Lanka with Bird's Wildlife & Nature - Day 11: 26th March 2024

A final breakfast at our hotel in Nuwara Eliya before heading off once again but the transit journey this time included a couple of cultural stops on the way with a pop into the original and still functioning colonial era Post Office (I bought some bird stamps!) in the town opposite a large Buddha.

The original 1894 post box

The roadside vegetable stalls were wondrous - no packaging - food miles

Down valley we visited the Glenloch tea plantation and factory which was an enlightening experience.  Hill Swallows, Asian Koels, and Oriental Honey-Buzzards and Loten's Sunbirds were watched while subsequently taking tea.

Tea view

Navigating the major city of Kandy was an enlightening passenger experience before a brief walk around the urban lake at its heart. The sun shone off the gold roof of the Buddhist Temple of the Tooth while hundreds of Night Herons, Little, Intermediate and Great White Egrets, Pond Herons and all three Cormorants jostled for nesting position in the roadside trees while the path and roads thronged with people going about their day.

Temple of the Tooth

Indian Cormorants

Little Cormorant

Little Cormorant

Great Cormorant - seems closest to nominate UK birds

Great Cormorants - big broods

Black-crowned Night Heron

Black-crowned Night Heron

Indian Pond Heron

Indian Pond Heron

Indian Pond Heron

Indian Pond Heron

White-breasted Waterhen

Rapacious Flangetail - yep, it is really called that

Rapacious Flangetail 

Indian Flying Foxes

Meanwhile three Kingfisher species and monstrous Water Monitors hunted the margins while the ice-cream tuk-tuks vied for our attention.  The biggest lizards I have ever seen.

Common Kingfisher

Water Monitor

Soft Shell and Hard Shell Terrapins

We checked into our lovely Thilanka Hotel overlooking the lake from up high and then, after lunch headed to the Udawatta Kelle Forest for another hot and steamy walk around some wide jungle trails. A troop of Toque Macaques appeared upon our arrival and followed us up the trail for a while but soon got bored. 

Giant Bamboo and a Macaque

Toque Macaques

Much was now familiar but White Rumped Shamas and Velvet Fronted Nuthatches put on a show while SL Hill Mynas and three Barbet species tooted from the canopy. Tickell's Blue Flycatchers were quietly singing and we found a Large Billed Leaf Warbler at eye level which Saman said was unusual. We could hear White-bellied Sea Eagles somewhere up above but the canopy was in the way but it all added to the aural atmosphere.  Eventually one came into view though with two Brahminy Kites.

White Rumped Shama

White Rumped Shama

Velvet Fronted Nuthatch

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher

Crimson Fronted Barbet 

White-bellied Sea Eagle

Brahminy Kite

Brahminy Kite

Malabar Red Muntjac blended in with the leaf litter where Spot Winged Thrushes tossed leaves and gave away their position. Back at the small lake a white male Indian Paradise Flycatcher took our breath away but there was no chance to get it back as a Black-backed Pygmy Kingfisher popped up under our noses moments after I had asked about our chances in the dwindling days. It is about the size of a chickens egg and made a Common Kingfisher present look huge!

Spot Winged Thrush

Spot Winged Thrush

Spot Winged Thrush - a true denizen of the dark woods

Malabar Red Muntjac

Malabar Red Muntjac

Indian Paradise Flycatcher

What a perfectly divine little predator. The light was very poor for most of this walk so I reverted to video... enjoy.

That evening we watched the lake way below us as dusk fell and the Flying Foxes woke and began to stream out into the twilight.  Soon some were up with us and passing within just a few meters while their smaller cousins flicked in and out of the shadows.

White-throated Kingfisher surveying the gardens below

The log that evening was a relaxed affair... volume up