4th March - Gal Oya to Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka

Another beautiful morning and a much more expected warm night.  Today we were off to Arugam Bay on the south east coast, apparently a very special surfing area, but we are in the close season so we expect it to be quiet.  We are going here to visit another national park, Kumana.

But first breakfast and the highlight here after the food was surrounding scenery in the morning sunshine

This Oriental Garden Lizard was sunning itself just outside the restaurant.

After a confusing handover by the camp's jeep we were eventually on our way.  The journey took us through a strikingly diverse landscape, with forested hills, savannahs, turtleback rock formations and low grasslands, providing a serene, varied environment that remains blissfully undeveloped by mass tourism.

It was clear as we reached the coast that this flat land was important for rice growing with endless paddyfields stretching out on both sides of the road.  The local farmers spread the rice husks out on the roads to dry them out.  The traffic is very good and avoiding driving over them and will even stop to let other pass rather than driving over the rice.  Once dry the rice is bagged and then sent for processing.

Just outside one of the towns we passed through, Viraj stopped the car and pointed out an Indian Roller on the overhead wired.  At first the light wasn't too good, but I took a record shot.

I then slowly moved to get the sun in a good position,but the Roller flew, fortunately to another wire in much better light.

As we approached the hotel, which was located on the coast in the town of Pottuvil Viraj received a phone call.  I could see that it was from the Jetwing offices.  The conversation was in Sinhala, but I was able to understand our names and the reference to Singapore.

We had been booked on a Singapore flight out of Colombo to Singapore, and then on to London Heathrow on the 15th March, two days after we were supposed to leave.

As we pulled into the hotel I received an email from Audley confirming the flight details and that they would be making the reservation and covering the cost of the two days hotel charges.  The relief was immense and we were able to relax a little more.

We checked into the hotel and had a wander around the grounds.

Cattle were grazing around the cabanas accompanied by Cattle Egrets.

I then had a call with the travel agents, confirmed we were happy with the flights (we would be happy with any flights away from the Gulf states!).  The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing by the pool.  A good thing considering the day we would have tomorrow.

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.