KITHULGALA VILLAGE AREA - MAKANDARAWA NATIONAL RESERVE - HOTEL GARDENS
WEATHER: hot and humid all day, some cloud. Temp 30C
Our best birding of the day was the first hour we spent in the garden before breakfast, it was alive with birds and many new species went onto the list. A couple of endemic species were soon in the bag as we found Hanging Parrots near the car park, not so easy to see but the Alexandrine Parakeet was much more of a show off.
White-browed Fantail - by Tony Moore
Lower down in the bushes we found a White-browed Fantail but failed to photograph it with its tail fanned out. We saw Sri Lankan Green Pigeon high up in a tree sitting in the morning sunshine and we also saw Yellow-browed Bulbul, Orange-billed Babbler (endemic), Purple Rumped Sunbird, Indian Swiftlet, Asian Paradise Flycatcher, and lots of the common birds too.
Hanging Parrot - Ton y Moore
A walk around the back of the garden produced sightings of Oriental White-eye and Pale-billed Flowerpecker and a fly-by Stork-billed Kingfisher.
Alexandrine Parakeet - Tony Moore
After breakfast we walked down to the river-bank and waited for the ferryman to row across the river. The ferry held four adults, standing room only, two on each side. From the river-bank we scoped the Stork-billed Kingfisher and saw a White-throated Kingfisher flash by. A Little Cormorant sat on a rock, a few Cattle Egrets flew downstream and a small Bittern flew across the river and landed out of sight, it was most probably a Black Bittern but we never got an ID on it.
Little Cormorant drying out its wings
Our morning walk took us up hill and down dale, we walked all morning and got very little reward for our efforts. We failed to find Dwarf Kingfisher, Green-billed Coucal, the elusive Chestnut-backed Owlet and we never saw a single raptor all morning.
White-throated Flowerpecker - Tony Moore
Red-vented Bulbuls showing off their red vents - Tony Moore
We have several good sightings of Hanginmg Parrots, we found Golden-fronted Leafbird, Black-hooded Oriole, Asian Brown Flycatcher, White-throated Flowerpecker (formerly Legg's Flowerpecker), Lesser Hill Myna and all the time we heard noisy Bulbuls and Babblers.
Yelloe-fronted Barbet - Tony Moore
It was almost 12 noon when we reached the 'hanging' bridge, it was bit scary walking across, we were sent alone, one by one across the wobbly walk-way.
the wobbling bridge
We took a long lunch and a bit of a siesta and met up again at 4pm when the heat of the day had abated somewhat and the humidity had dropped. We made a repeat journey of yesterday's walk belwo the village of Kithulgala. I called it a forest yesterday, but it is more of a wooded hillside with dwelling dotted all over the place.
Dwarf Kingfisher
We sat in the same yard and drank afternoon tea from China cups as we did yesterday, but today we found a Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher before we imbibed our afternoon delight. We then waited around for an hour or so waiting for the Chestnut-backed Owlet to arrive, but it never did. We, once again, Heard in the disatnce, the only excitement we had was when a Brown Mongoose ran across ther yard just behind us!
We left at 6pm as it was getting dark, we vowed to return early tomorrow to finally bag this elusive endeic little owl.