MIRISSA WHALE WATCHING CRUISE - TRANSFER TO SINAHARAJA RAIN FOREST WITH STOPS AT A TURTLE SANCTUARY
WEATHER: overcast with some sunny spells, light breeze. Temp 27C
IT WAS Friday 13th today and yet nine out of ten of the group opted to go on a whale watching cruise!! The choice turned out to be a good one.
We were onboard just after 6am after a short drive from our beach hotel, in the bay we logged Sandwich Tern, Whiskered Tern, Pond Heron, House Crow and a White-bellied Sea-eagle flew over the quay. By 7am we were several miles out into the bay with other boats searching for whales. We didn't wait too long before a shout went up and we changed direction, and headed towards the other boats.
sunrise at Mirissa
Over the next hour we had several good sightings of a Fin Whale, we saw it come up and blow at least five times, sometimes it was quite close to us.
Fin Whale to the left of the boat
Another shout went out for Dolphin sightings, Spinner Dolphins were seen, we bumped into some large pods, but none of them breached and showed off their spinning skills.
Spinner Dolphins
A few birds were also noted, we found Bridled Tern on at least 5 occasions and one flock of terns held half-a-dozen of them. The bird of trip was found by Peter and he ID'd it too. A BROWN BOOBY came over the boat and circled for a while it was with a couple of Bridled Terns!! Amazing, this was a Sri Lankan lifer for me and everyone else.
three pics of the Brown Booby
The trip was over by 11am it had been great, with a flat calm sea, very light winds and prefect visibilty.
Back at the hotel we had time to pack and take a quick snack if we wanted to, before jumping onto the bus and setting out for Sinaharaja. We made a planned stop at one of the Turtle Rescue Centres which was both informative and reassuring that something was being done to protect these lovely animals. We spent a good hour there, taking a guided tour and being shown rescued turtles of at least 5 different species.
back at the harbour after our trip
It was late afternoon when we arrived at Sinaharaja Village, our guide Saman insisted that went straight out into the field before we checked into our hotel. As we stopped the bus at the roadside Saman heard the endemic White-faced Starling calling, it took a while but we got it in the scope for everyone to see, wowza! what a great start to rainforest birding.
a White-faced Starling
The light was fading, lightining flashed across the sky and a few drops of rain came down. but still Saman insisted that we walked to a site where he knew a Serendib Scops Owl was waiting for us. So, once we had donned our 'leach-socks' we set off for a walk into the forest. We took a track that led us down to a river and up to some small tea-plantations. From there it got a little bit tricky, it was muddy and quite steep. But the reward was worth it, there was the Serendib Owl watching us form deep in the scrub, how fantastic was that?
Serendib Scops Owl taken by Richard Geeson
A Local guy also led us to a roosting Sri Lanka Frogmouth, that also showed well. We also found a Sri Lanka Hill Myna, which topped off our last minute dash really well!
We got to the hotel around 6pm, we had a cold drink on the balcony whilst watching, Little Swifts, Cattle Egrets, Storks and Ibis going off to roost further down the valley.