NUWERA ELIYA

We were in the hill country of Sri Lanka, heading for Hakgala and Nuwera Eliya to birdwatch. Our target species: Indian pitta, pied bushchat, yellow-eared bulbul, SL wood pigeon. Unfortunately, our timing was bad and we arrived smack bang around noon. At this time there were next to no birds in Hakgala, so we moved on to Nuwera Eliya. Victoria Park was a pleasant surprise, giving us the joy of seeing oriental magpie-robin, common tailorbird, scaly-breasted munia, great tit and (most of all) a single grey wagtail, an almost-lifer for me. Unfortunately, I couldn't photograph the wagtail but here is one of the tit and one of the tailorbird.

A female common tailorbird. You can tell because it has a short, not long tail, unlike the male.

A great tit

Victoria Park is certainly a place we must visit in the future. Hakgala? Not so good.

A VISIT TO THALANGAMA TANK

SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY IN POSTS, BUT I WAS BUSY. HERE IS A POST ON THIS YEAR'S SRI LANKA TRIP- WHEN WE VISITED THALANGAMA TANK, ONE OF MY FAVOURITE PLACES IN COLOMBO

It was about in the late morning when we got to the tank. At the paddyfield in front we saw a few egrets and ibises, but nothing much. Then we drove over to the back of the tank and me and dad walked to the front.

In the tank were millions of lesser whistling ducks, a few egrets, purple swamphens and red-wattled lapwings. Out of these birds, I enjoyed the brilliantly-coloured purple swamphens most as they fed on the grasses all around them. In the trees were scaly-breasted munias and black-hooded orioles. Just then, a big shape leapt across the road. I knew it was a purple-faced leaf monkey and hastily started taking photos of it.

Purple swamphen and the head of a lesser whistling duck

Purple-faced leaf monkey

As we continued walking we observed much of the same until we got to the water lilies. Then we managed to see some pheasant-tailed jacanas and an Indian pond heron.

Can you spot the jacanas? They are both in non-breeding plumage.

Compared to our earlier visit last year, this showed up less birds, so it would be better to visit in the early morning.

LEAVING ANDURAPURA and heading for WILPATTU

Today we left Andurapura and headed for Wilpattu. We had lunch at the Heritage Hotel. From the lunchroom, I saw a white-browed bulbul (LIFER), red-vented bulbul, greater coucal and a nest of white-rumped munias.

White-browed bulbul

Then we left for Wilpattu. First, we drove to Wilpattu in one of my dad's friend's cars. Along the way we saw some of the common roadside birds of Sri Lanka- red-vented bulbuls, white-throated kingfisher, common myna and similar. It struck me that there were less crows here than back in Colombo. When we got to the park office, I immediately spotted the second lifer of the day- a common woodshrike.

Can you spot the woodshrike?

From the office we hired a jeep to take us to our bungalow in the middle of the national park. Because it was getting dark, we didn't see much. The main highlight was when the jeep stopped and its headlights lit up the forest. In the headlights I saw my third lifer for the day- A JERDON'S NIGHTJAR!

A nightjar across the road

We also saw a black-naped hare, our only one of the trip, hopping across the road.

When we got to the bungalow I went to sleep, knowing tomorrow would be a new adventure.

SRI LANKA- I'M BACK

We had a wonderful time at Sri Lanka and today I will post about our holiday. I saw 14 lifers. We went to the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo, Wilpattu National Park, Andurapura, Minnerriya, Pigeon Island, Bandarawela and Habarana. Some of the highlights were-
SNORKELING AND WATCHING WILD ROCK DOVES AT PIGEON ISLAND
THE BIRD TOUR AT HABARANA
SEEING ELEPHANTS AT MINNERIYA, AS WELL AS A BROWN FISH OWL
MILLIONS OF WATERBIRDS TRAPPING FISH IN ONE PLACE AT ANDURAPURA
and
WILPATTU NATIONAL PARK

Since I only have images from a certain sector of this trip, I will post from Andurapura-Colombo, not including our first 5 days in SL. Here it comes...

SRI LANKA, HERE I COME!

I will very soon be going to Sri Lanka. Expect posts from Sri Lanka soon! I will try to keep you updated on what I see. There may be times when I cannot post because I am in bungalows with no electricity etc., or in a hotel without internet. As I said, I will try to keep you well updated. I will be visiting:

. THALANGAMA TANK
. DEHIWALA ZOO
. NUWERA ELIYA (Maybe)
. KANDY
. BANDARAWELA
. WILPATTU NATIONAL PARK

Forgive mispellings in this list. Today we pack. See you soon!

P.S: For info on Sri Lanka birding posts, I have posted a few things about Thalangama Tank and birding in Sri Lanka if you are interested

A VISIT TO QUEENS PARK

Today my mum, my sister and I went to Queens Park in Moonee Ponds. We started by walking around the lake. Doing this, I saw a few Eurasian coots, lots of Pacific black ducks and dusky moorhens, two australasian grebes, one hardhead, a few chestnut teals and lots of feral pigeons.

An Australasian grebe

A coot

Then, as my sister played in the playground, I went to the summerhouse and observed some more feral pigeons, lots of silver gulls and a few more hardheads.

A male hardhead

All in all, this trip was well worth it!

VISITING AFTON STREET CONSERVATION PRESERVE AGAIN!

Yesterday my dad and I went to Afton Street Conservation Preserve. Near the carpark we saw a single australian wood duck. We walked along the ridge slope, seeing heaps of yellow-rumped thornbills, Australian ravens and superb fairy-wrens. We saw a large, grey-brown bird with a red wattlebird that had a white edge to its tail. We were unable to identify this bird, although we suggested that it might have been an extra-large wattlebird (but this bird was way larger than the other wattlebird in the tree), a dove (that's the kind of feeling you get from my image of the bird) or a grey currawong. Warning- the following image of this bird was taken against the sun, so is not of very good quality. Please try to identify this bird for me if you can.

The mystery bird

After seeing the mystery bird, we walked up to the grasslands where we saw two raptors soaring- a whistling kite and a black-shouldered kite. I managed to get images of each, but both were too lousy to show on this blog. Then we tried to photograph a few passerines in the trees at the sand quarry. We didn't succeed.

The mystery bird and the two raptors certainly made this trip worth it!