2015 March 12: Kandy: Part 2...Or, a Global Celebrity

On March 12th we spent several hours walking around Bogambara, popularly known as Kandy Lake.

Here are some things that we saw:

I know, it's just a pigeon...but it's the first GOOD picture of a pigeon that I have ever taken!

Little cormorant

Flowers

Egret

Pond heron and black turtle

Stork-billed kingfisher

Domesticated ducks

Cormorants in the trees

Entance to the pilgrim's bath houses

This one I just like a lot.

This could be a woodapple tree, but we are not sure.

Egret on its nest. I am still not sure whether or not getting crapped on three times while getting this picture was worth it. 

Pond heron

Little egret?

Flying foxes - a species of fruit eating bat

More domestic ducks

And more domestic ducks

And still more domestic ducks

Tilapia

I've got an itch!

Beautiful floating gardens with herons...

...and this big monitor lizard hiding in them!

Night heron

Water monitor lizard

More domesticated water fowl

A gigantic flying fox rookery

A spot-billed pelican - the locals claim it is not native and is from Africa.

Night heron again?

White-bellied sea eagle. We watched as he caught his fish and then escaped, leaving behind some very unhappy crows who wanted his catch.

The view of our hotel from the other side of the lake.

And this monster - a water monitor that is over 8 feet long and weighs over 100 pounds!

On March Mar 14, Steve was just reading the Wikipedia article on water monitors (a type of huge lizard found in the Asian tropics), and he realized that "one of the photos is of the exact same gigantic, very corpulent water monitor, resting on the very same dead tree, that we saw two days ago on our own visit to Kandy (the photo is captioned "Kandy Lake, Sri Lanka").... Apparently, he's now a global celebrity, thanks to Wikipedia."

2015 March 23-28: Steve's Report: Trip to the South

We got back Saturday night to find our internet service gone, and didn't get it restored until just now (Monday AM). We left Monday morning for Mirissa on the south coast a beautiful touristy resort city with a lovely (but boring) beach. We stayed in a very interesting hotel built in a series of levels up the side of a hill. It had a rooftop swimming pool, so it was quite luxurious. I have no interest in beaches; our real motive for going to Mirissa is that it happens to be the place where the blue whale tours -- now famous worldwide -- originate. It was only recently discovered that large numbers of blue whales live year round off Sri Lanka's south coast.

Tuesday morning we climbed aboard one of more than a dozen smallish whale tour boats (ours seated thirty people or so) and headed out into the Indian Ocean. On the way out, we saw flying fish, very bizarre creatures that erupt from the waves and glide rapidly along, banking and changing direction as their long fins flutter like wings. There were few seabirds aside from the ubiquitous whiskered terns. To everybody's (and especially Elanor's) delight, we found ourselves in the middle of a huge school of acrobatic spinner dolphins (as many as 200 individuals) that leaped and pirouetted in groups of five or ten at a time. We watched them for quite a while. Much farther out to sea (about 15 miles) we finally found blue whales -- five in all, and one pair that we were able to approach within a hundred yards. They are truly enormous, visibly much larger than the humpback and even the fin whales we see so often in Newfoundland, and do quite a bit of rolling and fluke-displaying between dives. One of them must have been nearly 100 feet long. Standing in the presence of the largest animal that has ever lived on this planet (or perhaps, anywhere else!) was a nearly religious experience. On the was back to shore, three pomarine jaegers -- very rare birds this far south -- flew past the boat. Elanor and I spent quite a bit of time in the hotel swimming pool, and she's now really learning to swim quite well. She learned to do a passable crawl while we were there, as well as to swim on her back all over the pool and to tread water. She's now fearless in the deep end, and I've ceased to worry about her drowning.

On Wednesday we went over to Tissamaharama (near Kataragama in southeast Sri Lanka), a lovely town near both Bundala and Yala national parks. We stayed at a small hotel beside a lake full of lotuses that absolutely brimmed over with birdlife, including such beauties as pheasant-tailed jacanas, purple swamphens, lesser whistling-ducks, and black bitterns. The woods and paddies around the lake were also alive with birds. The huge pipal tree at the Buddhist shrine near the hotel usually had green imperial pigeons roosting, and the newly-cut rice paddies were full of little birds like ashy prinias, scaly-breasted munias, and the dauntingly-named zitting cisticola. I racked up quite a number of new species for my growing ebird list just walking around the lake. Also, several mugger crocodiles lived in the lake; one fair-sized individual often lay out in the sun on an islet, daring the lapwings, cormorants, and other waterbirds to come within reach. Elanor enjoyed observing the epic numbers of geckos around the hotel and following around the large monitor lizard that patrolled the grounds.

We headed out at 4:30 AM for Yala National Park in a safari jeep. The driver was pretty knowledgeable. We told him we didn't want to participate in the mad rush into the park when the gates opened to go to the spot where leopards were usually seen. If we saw a leopard, fine, but we wanted to go at a leisurely pace, along less-traveled roads, and see lots of birds. We arrived at the park gates while it was still dark and waited in the gloom for dawn to break. Accordingly, when the gates opened, the other jeeps tore off in the direction of the main leopard sighting area, and we took "the road less traveled" by ourselves. As a result, we didn't see any leopards, but we saw many other things, mostly without other vehicles around. The first prize of the day was a lesser adjutant, a very rare giant stork species, standing in the middle of the road. We got a good long look at him. We found large, very entertaining flocks of Malabar pied hornbills that cackled and cavorted in the trees along the road. Also present were plenty of grey langurs and tocque macaques, as well as wild water buffalo (one of the few places in the world where they can be seen), and lots of mugger crocodiles, including one that was more than 15 feet long. The landscape was surprisingly beautiful, with scrub jungle punctuated by ponds and lakes, as well as ranges of striking rocky hills and tors, one of which resembled a human profile. We stopped at every pond and tallied species, with Pam taking oodles of photos. Near the sea, we found a beautiful flock of herons, painted storks, and spoonbills probing in the mud for snails and whatever. Behind then stood two great thick-knee (the first burrhinids I've ever seen) and a host of shorebirds. While we were watching these, a grey-headed fish eagle sailed up and landed on a log; Pam got nice shots of him.

Back inland, we found many more birds, including the crested treeswift, the golden-fronted leafbird, and the ashy-crowned sparrow lark, among many others. We saw several mongooses and at least three Indian monitor lizards, hers of spotted deer, a pair of sambar, quite a few wild boar, and finally, a number of elephants. The first one we encountered was a large tusker walking down the middle of the road, which we followed, along with several other jeeps. Eventually, he let us pass -- so close that we could see his cheek glands. Elanor, of course, was ecstatic. A little further along, we came across a female elephant with two half-grown calves bathing in a pool. We watched them blow water on each other for a while. We later encountered another large tusked male. by the day's end we had tallied more than 90 bird species.

Friday we went to Bundala National Park, known primarily for its birds. Here we were accompanied by a park guide who knew where to find the birds. We racked up lots more species, including a pied cuckoo and common thick-knee. Our real hope was to find the black-necked stork, of which only one lives in Bundala and the other ten or eleven (Sri Lanka's entire population) in remote corners of Yala. At one point, we came upon two huge saltwater crocodiles mating at the edge of a lagoon; they glared at us and began swimming slowly out into the lagoon, passing within a few feet of our vehicle. Bundala also had enormous numbers of langurs and macaques all along the roads, and Elanor happily kept a tally. Finally, just past noon, in a remote salt pan full of painted storks, spoonbills, and smaller shorebirds of many kinds, we found the black-necked stork, a very shy bird that stayed just close enough for a good long look in the spotting scope. As a bonus, I spotted a small group of rare pratincoles, a sort of cross between a swallow and a sandpiper. Once again, we ended up with nearly a hundred species for the day.

After we got back to Tissa, we took a took-took (!!) up to Kataragama, one of Sri Lanka's two holiest places, revered by Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists alike. The sprawling complex of temples and shrines extended over many acres. For me the most interesting thing was the cell phone tower built of reconditioned sewer pipes, which had become a preferred roost for the Malabar pied hornbills that frequented the area. The place was of course full of hawkers and beggars, as well as Hindu holy men and Buddhist monks, and monkeys were everywhere. The temple elephant was getting its daily bath in the Menik river when we arrived, which Elanor watched with rapt attention.

Saturday we took the only air-conditioned bus of the day back to Colombo (a six hour trip, including a rest stop in Matara). We got home to a dead internet and a new water leak in the upstairs hallway, but it was a great trip. Elanor is now a very seasoned jungle adventuress, and can't quite decide if she likes the monkeys, elephants, or dolphins the most. I've nicknamed her "Elanor of the elephants."

2015 February 20: Muthurajawela – The Marsh of the King's Pearls

Friday was our first real bird watching outing. We went to Muthurajawela Marsh, a 6000 hectare wetland at the south end of the Negombo lagoon. Relatively unknown by tourists until the 2012 edition of the Lonely Planet Sri Lanka Guide, it is becoming a popular tourist attraction, and is currently rated as the #4 (out of seventeen) must-see Negombo attractions on TripAdvisor.com.

Before the Portuguese arrived in Sri Lanka in the early 1500s, the area was a rich basin filled with rice paddies. The Portuguese constructed a canal - now called the Hamilton Canal - that ultimately flooded the fields with seawater, and over the ensuing centuries, the basin has become Sri Lanka's largest saline wetland, home to many different species, including one hundred ninety-four plants, forty fish, fourteen reptiles, one hundred two birds, twenty-two mammals, forty-eight butterflies, and twenty-two dragonflies. Of these, fifty-two species are on the nationally endangered list, and one - the Grey Slender Loris – is on the globally endangered list.

"Slender Loris" by Kalyan Varma (Kalyanvarma) - Own work. Licensed under GFDL 1.2 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Slender_Loris.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Slender_Loris.jpg

Despite the importance of the Marsh with respect to biodiversity, there is constant pressure on the wetland from encroaching industrial development, prompting a study of the economic potential of the area in 2003.

We traveled by tuktuk through the non-tourist side of Negombo, an area with many traditional homes interspersed with grand luxury houses probably owned by wealthier fishermen and businessmen. We passed by the fish market, reminiscent of my childhood home....the smell of salt water in the air, seabirds wheeling and diving for savoury bits of rejected offal, the revoltingly comfortable odour of fish left too long in the blazing sun, the call of fishermen comparing their catch, the quick hand movements as nets are repaired.

Steve spots all four species of egrets of as we make our way through the port, then grey herons and a Eurasian spoonbill.

We arrive at the Visitor's Centre, described by more than one guide book and travel site as “moth-eaten” or worse. While a little rundown, it basically houses posters of some of the more common flora and fauna that one is likely to see. For a mere 1000 rupees per person ($7.81 US) we enjoy the cool shade of the visitor's centre, its restrooms, conversation with three centre personnel, a personal guide for our boat ride through the marsh, a boat operator, and the two hour ride itself.

The tour begins in front of the visitor's centre, where we spied white-breasted waterhens on the road,

and an Indian robin drinking from the Canal and then preening in the branches of a tree hanging over the water. That little bird can certainly shake a tail feather or two!

Rose-winged parakeets and Indian mynas fly overhead, and in the trees we can hear a coucal calling. A brown-headed barbet flies past. A juvenile Brahminy kite sits in a tree. 

We spot it a few seconds after we pass chasing a rose-winged parakeet. The parakeet flees and escapes – good news for the parakeet, but the kite is still hungry.

Barn swallows and long-billed sunbirds and blue-tailed bee eaters are everywhere. Pale billed flowerpeckers eat the seeds of the Penjamic tree and drink from the flowers of the parasitic plants that grow on it.

The ever present crows – both Jungle or Long-Billed and the House variety – are present but in small numbers. We see a total of five, in sharp contrast to the flocks of thousands that fly south along Negombo's beaches every evening.

A white-bellied drongo watches us motor underneath the bare branch upon which it sits, its deeply forked tail pointing the way we must follow along the canal. Poisonous Eve's Apple trees - also know as the Forbidden Fruit - are abundant. A bright red dragonfly hurries to join a horde of hundreds that flits through the forest. 

Our guide turns the boat around and we head back the way we came. There on the concrete bank of the canal lies a two or three month old crocodile, basking in the warm sun. 

Our guide tells us to watch the holes along the muddy banks. 

There! We see them! White breasted kingfishers leaving their cool earthen nests. 

Striated herons and cormorants and red-wattled lapwings watch our progress from their front row seating on the shore. 

Steve spots a crimson flameback woodpecker and a spotted dove. 

Our guide becomes excited. There, on the antenna of a house under construction on the left bank of the canal we have spied a rarity for this area – an Indian roller. It watches us carefully as we approach, flits away as we draw near, then returns to its perch. 

We approach the mouth of the canal where it enters into the lagoon. Whiskered terns feed on a school of fish directly in front of us.

Little egrets and intermediate egrets join the many terns feeding in the shallow waters.

We drift close to a tuft of vegetation to see purple sea holly up close. Traditionally it is used to treat asthma and rheumatism.

Wait! What's that? Steve and our guide start frantically flipping through our bird book while I catch a few seconds glimpse of a mottled yellow and brown bird before it dives into the plants and can no longer be seen. It's a yellow bittern, somewhat common in the marsh but rarely seen due to its habit of hiding and seclusion.

Ahead – fishermen spreading their nets in a lotus patch. We watch as two of them wade through the water, setting the net in a semi-circular shape. Two others wade towards the net, pushing leafy palm fronds ahead of them. As the school of little fish enters the net, the first two walk towards each other, trapping the fish inside.

Lesser whistling ducks watch carefully nearby. 

Among the weeds, purple swamp hens and a lone moor hen join the ducks.

As we approach the mangrove swamp, pond herons, purple herons and little cormorants make their appearance. 

Acrostica ferns grow in large mounds throughout this side of the Marsh. The tender leaves can be eaten and are considered to be good for treating diabetes. 

A darter, rare for the marsh, makes it appearance. A white-bellied sea eagle soars overhead. Our guide is excited once more – they are very hard to find in the marsh, due to a spectacle which we observe just a few moments later - two Brahminy kites drive the eagle away. 

Water hyacinth abounds. In old times, water hyacinth was a weapon, with the people using it to trick their enemies. When the enemy alighted, ready to fight on what they thought was dry land, they sank and drowned, entangled in the long roots. Once found only along marshy shorelines, as in Florida this beautiful but invasive plant is spreading rapidly through the marsh and other wetland areas, choking out indigenous species. The Sri Lankan government has passed an ordinance requiring landowners to destroy the plant if it shows up on their property, and for conservation officers to do the same on government owned or communal land. It has also introduced an African beetle that feeds only on the water hyacinth to help curtail its spread. 

Surrounded by dozens of whiskered terns, we approach the entrance to the canal once more. A greater egret soars by. In the distance, we spot an open billed stork, another rare bird in the marsh.

We wind our way through the canal. A stork-billed kingfisher displays its brilliant blues and yellows.

Two Oriental magpie-robins watch from an overhead wire. A rare forest wagtail flits by.

On the bank we see a small monitor lizard atop a recently burnt garbage heap, scrounging for food, not minding the heat of the coals underfoot. Another attacks a bag of garbage in the river. A dead one is spotted near the shore. 

Back to the Visitor's Centre, where a young guide excitedly surveys our list, identifying the species that are rare and rare to the marsh. Our meager entrance fee helps pay his salary and that of the others, basic upkeep on the building, boat maintenance, gas.

One last sighting – Steve spots two lowly rock doves.

Back we go in our little three-wheeled tuktuk, through the port, along the sleepy streets of the real Negombo, back to the fast pace of Lewis Place, that tourist hot spot where we are currently staying.