11th to 12th March - Weligama Bay, Sri Lanka

We decided to have a walk along the beach from the hotel after breakfast on our first day of leisure, we headed east and walked among the fishing boats.  

The boats were being cleaned and washed down after the night's fishing and this was attracting quite a few terns to the beach as they picked off the remains of the fish catch that was washed off the nets in the sea.

I made a mental note to come back tomorrow and to try and photograph them.  That evening some cloud produced a beautiful sunset.

The following day I returned to the beach after breakfast and there were plenty of terns on the beach and in the air around the fishing boats.

A Whiskered Tern.

Not just the terns though, the House Crows were also in on the act.  Again another very common bird, but also comical to watch around the human settlements as with all corvids

The crows keeping close to the boats and the nets rather than picking off the scraps in the sea

But it was the terns on the beach this morning that were the centre attraction.  Common Terns settling on the beach, this time looking into the sun.

Where one settled others would follow.  They didn't seem to bothered as people walked past, but if they got too close they would take off hanging over the water before settling back on to the sand.

It was possible to get close and low down amongst them.

Interestingly this one has a damaged lower mandible.

There were also a few Whiskered Terns, one of which was almost in full breeding plumage, with the black belly that extends towards the bill leaving a white streak that gives them the name "whiskered".

These were still in non breeding plumage hovering over the water where the nets were being washed.

There was calling behind me as I looked out across the water and turned to find two White-throated Kingfishers squabbling.  One settled on the ropes of one of the fishing boats.

I moved around the boat to get a view without too much ropes.

Its mate or rival was perched in a dead tree, the bill is covered in mud, so has probably been hunting around the trees, prey more than likely lizards or frogs.

The other bird still on the ropes before both flew off.

With the kingfisher in the dead tree was a Blue-tailed Bee-eater.

It was back to the terns around the boats, the numbers seeming to increase.  Amongst the Common Terns and Whiskered Terns was the much larger Greater Crested Tern.  Its size and distinctive yellow bill standing out.

I wanted some more photographs of the breeding plumaged Whiskered Tern.  Not quite full plumage but good to see

Nice ones hovering.

Then I found what I had hoped to see, a Gull-billed Tern.  Larger than the Common Terns but not up to the size of the Greater Crested Tern.  It showed much whiter than the others, still in non breeding plumage the head cap pattern different to that of the Common and Whiskered and of course the substantial bill that gives it the name.

A successful hour on the beach, with four tern species and two I was hoping for, Greater Crested and Gull-billed and a nice breeding plumaged Whiskered Tern.  It was getting hot now so I returned to the pool to chill out for the rest of the last day here.

10th March - Marissa Bay, Sri Lanka

It wasn't the earliest of starts, leaving the hotel just after sunrise.  We drove through the village of Marissa, familiar streets and sights from previous visits here on our last two trips.  We pulled into the car park of the Marissa Water Sports company, another familiar sight (the photo was taken when we returned, hence the light, but I thought it fitted better here).

There were familiar faces as we checked in, however today would be different we were going out in a small boat, just us on board and a driver and guide.  This was not what we expected and really not what we wanted, but we had no choice now.  We walked to the harbour, put on the life jackets and settled in.  The fishing boats in the harbour were as colourful as ever in the morning light.

The designs and names are always interesting to see

Greater Crested Terns on one of the fishing boats.

Boats coming in from the night's fishing.

We headed out into quite a swell and with a small boat this meant we were getting wet as the boat broke the waves.  As a result I kept the camera well out of the way.  We could see other boats ahead of us and the hope as always is that they find something.

It turned out that they had as we came across a pod of over a hundred Spinner Dolphins.  The dolphins were all around us, breaking the water.  There were also local fishermen in small boats as the presence of the dolphins means that there was probably Yellow-fin Tuna about and the dolphins were feeding on them.

These dolphins are very active, leaping out of the water and one or two living up to their name by spinning high into the air.

It wasn't easy photographing from the small boat as you are too low down and can't anticipate where the dolphins will be.

A young dolphin alongside its mother.

The closest I got to a full leap.

We moved on from the dolphins and set off in search of bigger things. We saw a couple, but these were oil tankers and not the whales we hoped for.  After searching for some time we came across a pod of Risso's Dolphin, but if the Spinners were difficult to photograph these were nearly impossible.  This was the only acceptable one I got and it was just a dorsal fin.  I did though see them.

There was more searching but without any luck and we headed back to shore, missing out on a whale sighting, which was a big shame, but that is nature.

As we came into the harbour there were Whiskered Terns fishing around the still water.

I also managed to get one of the Greater Crested Terns.

We made our way back to the offices and then back to the hotel.  The rest of our time in Weligama bay would be at leisure.