5th March - Kumana National Park, Sri Lanka - Part One

 We had about an hours drive from the hotel to meet our driver for today's all day safari.  This meant an early start and we left the hotel just before 5:00 am.  The drive took us through more paddyfields and just before reaching the closest town, Panama we stopped for a Jerdon's Nightjar sitting on the road.

As this is an all day trip and we saw an awful lot I am going to split the day in the blog into three parts.

We met our driver and Hilux, and then set off into the park.  All was well to start with, then we turned onto an ungraded road.  It was apparently only sixteen kilometres to the park, but very quickly we realised that this was not going to be a quick journey.  With gullies and holes it was very slow going and very uncomfortable.  There were kilometre markers by the side of the road and we seemed to take ages to go one kilometre, let alone sixteen.  Still the sun was coming up and we could see around us when we were not hanging on for dear life.

The sun rose into the sky just after dawn appearing like a big red ball as we looked back across the many paddyfields.

Early morning the Sri Lankan Jungle Fowl are not so elusive, this one of several males we saw on the journey.

A displaying Peacock, not sure what was the subject of its attention.

As the kilometre markers passed sixteen we passed through some open grassland.  A Stripe-necked Mongoose ambled across the grass towards the woodland scrub.

This was the second species of Mongoose we had seen, this one a lot more hairy than the Ruddy Mongoose.

Finally we stopped at the park entrance.  The offices were along side a large lake and a large Crocodile was laying on the rocks.

Helen negotiated the Macaques to get to the bathrooms, these are Toque Macaques, so called because their ruffled fur on the head looks like a Toque cap.

It was quite a large troop around the offices with quite a few babies, although you have to hope their mothers love them.

All checked in and we were on our way.  We had been told that the roads were better in the park, it didn't seem so.

A Great Thick Knee by the side of the road.  The name "thick knee" comes from the swollen joint that in all birds is actually the ankle, but assumed to be a knee!

An Open-billed Stork in a pool by the side of the road, not bothered at all by us.

If you wondered why its called Open-billed?

The Sri Lankan Grey Langur monkey, the other monkey species found in Sri Lanka.  I have commented before how they appear to be dressed like local costumes.  The long tail held high here in a question mark.

A female Asian Flycatcher.

We headed into the park and I asked the driver to stop while I tried to photograph a Pacific Golden Plover.  But news then came in that a Sloth Bear had been seen, so we were off, bouncing and bumping along the roads.

When we arrived at the place the bear had gone, but we drove up and down looking for the bear and Leopard as the driver had seen paw marks in the sand.  We seemed to drive up and down for ever, passing a very nice yellow cement mixer at least four times!

Finally the driver conceded and we moved on and came across a beautiful piece of open water.

With Water Buffalo in the water.

A Painted Stork close to the road, like the Open-billed completely oblivious to us.

A Black-winged Stilt with some lovely reflections.

A Curlew Sandpiper feeding on the margins of the lake.

Then a cow buffalo appeared with a very young calf.

Who were then joined by a Cattle Egret!

The calf licking it's mother ears.

Then another cow and calf appeared in the water.

A Land Monitor lizard made its way across the path.

We were sitting enjoying the scene with the buffalo and the many birds when a Common Kingfisher landed in the tree alongside us.

One of the dead trees had a Brahminy Kite sat in it.

And a Marsh Sandpiper dropped in, again, ridiculously close.

Kumana is not a busy park, we were told that today there were only ten cars booked in.  Contrast this with the hundreds of jeeps that would be driving around Yala at the same time.  There was a car in front of us and they were signalling for us to come closer.  Our driver did so and they pointed to a tree and in the tree this is what we saw.

This is a convenient point at which to close Part One.

1st March - Udawalawa National Park, Sri Lanka - Afternoon Drive

We were told that the morning drive would be all about the birds as the elephants seem to be more active in the afternoon and early evening drives.  We set off around 14.30 and entered the park at the same site.  As e passed through the main gate there was an Indian Roller on one of the dead trees by the office buildings.

A couple of hundred metres into the park and the jeeps started to back up, the reason being our first elephant of the afternoon.  This was a small male and was feeding on the grass by kicking the grass and then with its trunk rolling the grass, shaking the soil of, then rolling it into a ball and finally eating it.

We went into a different part of the park from that we visited in the morning, our driver seemingly now searching for elephants.  We came across another large lake and in the distance could see good numbers of elephants on the other side of the lake.  As we drove around there was still plenty of birds.  Here a nice collection of Black winged Stilt, Grey Heron Indian darter, Spoonbill and Open-billed Stork

A pair of Open-billed Stork, any idea why the name?

Black-headed Ibis feeding in the deeper water.

There were two lone male Elephants feeding on the far side of the lake.  The bull elephants live solitary lives away from the matriarch female and her young and other females.  Five legs?

My challenge was to get a close up of the head, particularly the eye, for such a large animal the elephants have very small eyes and consequently poor eye sight, but there hearing and smell plus the low bass rumble noises that they can feel through their feet fully make up for it.

Water is essential and Elephants have to drink at least 70mto 90 litres of water a day, so proximity to water holes is essential, water is sucked up with the trunk and swallowed as so.

I mentioned earlier about the method of eating grass.  Here you can see the grass ball being manipulated by the trunk.

We moved away from the bull and came across a female with a very young baby and a juvenile, probably another daughter.

The youngster was copying its mother as it tried to ball the grass, but wasn't very successful, they remain on the mother's milk for up to four years'

All three together.

As the elephants fed they came closer so I was able to get some close ups which I was able to convert to black and white as I feel this gives them more atmosphere and structure.

There was a larger group of Elephants on the far side so we were trying to get around, one jeep got stuck trying to get across a ditch.

We came across the male again, along with some views of the lake itself.

We managed to get around to the far side eventually and the larger group was present, but it was as if the jeeps were blocking the elephants from getting to the water and one or two were getting stressed.  We stayed back and just watched the group interact.

A view in black and white.

There were two youngsters, this was the smaller of the two and I liked the way the afternoon sun was catching the hairs on its back.

We decided to move on and leave the elephants, the number of jeeps was slowly increasing and it didn't seem fair to hang around.  We stopped for some more waders on the shore.  This was a surprise, a Common Snipe with a Redshank.

And this was a Thick Knee, similar and related to our Stone Curlew, there are two species in Sri Lanka, the Great Thick Knee and the Indian Thick Knee, which is what these two are.

We came across a pair of Common Kingfisher perched on an old log, the female with the pinkish red lower mandible, it makes for a lovely composition.

Having had the elephant encounter it was a case of find a spot and sit and wait.  On one of these sessions we had a Spot-billed Pelican fly over.

I ha only just remarked there hadn't been an monkeys when we found a small group of Toque Macaques.  They are so called because the whorl of fur on their head is said to resemble a Toque cap.

Moving on our driver suddenly stopped and pointed to a White-bellied Sea Eagle in a tree alongside the track.  It took some dexterity on my part and the recling of the seat to allow me to get the photograph.

It turned out there were two in the tree, the other bird ripping a fish apart and eating it surrounded by flies.

We came across yet another lake and this time we were able to get out and walk to the shore, there was a lovely dead tree in the middle of the water.

A closer look at the tree and you may well see birds perched on the dead branches.

It was in fact covered with Black-crowned Night Herons.  Known to be crepuscular, that is the feed and dusk and dawn, the birds were roosting with eyes half open.

Another dead tree was a suitable perch for a Brahminy Kite.

Later one seen flying in.

Those Night Herons not in the dead tree were in amongst the grass and crocodile below the tree.

Once again there were plenty of winter plumaged Whiskered Terns quartering back and forth over the water.

Other birds around the edge of the lake were a Spot-billed Pelican

A Great Egret on what seems to be a favourite dead tree perch.

Two Spoonbill.

A Little Ringed Plover with  very distinctive yellow eye ring.

A pair of Black-winged Stilts flew in and then flew out again.

There were at least four Common Kingfisher on the lake, one decided to come close, right in front of us on some dead branches.  Note the pale tail feathers spot.

Then closer to a single branch.

The weekend was a long holiday due to the full moon and there were a lot of people now at the lake, many having no idea what they were looking at.  We left and as we drove along the track a pair of Malabar Pied Hornbill flew overhead and perched in a tree alongside the track in perfect light.

Both male birds with the large bill extension on the top.

As we headed for the park entrance we came a cross a Ruddy Mongoose, these can be quite ferocious predators capable of taking snakes and Land and Water Monitor lizards.

At another stop and wait we were able to watch two Asian Flycatchers dunking in a pond to bathe.  Unfortunately there wasn't any sign of the superb male.

As we exited the park there was a herd of Spotted Deer grazing on the edge of the woodland, they move out of the scrub as nigh falls, this being safe land with a better chance of becoming a Leopard's evening meal.

The end of our time in Udawalawa, tomorrow we move on heading east across the dry zone of the island and a chance to do some glamping.