Travel Diary (Day 2)

13th December 08 (Saturday)

Misty mounted tops at 6.30am lookign towards North East

Susitha & Sheran

There's no sleep after 4.15am. 1st bird I hear is the Indian Pitta, followed by the Changeable hawk eagle. I read by candle light till 6.15 till we hear the boys rousing in their rooms. Sunil divides us into two groups. After tea we set off to observe our respective troops of purple faced langurs.

Breakfast at the Blue Magpie is Milk rice, manioc and scraped coconut, boiled egg curry and fruits. The food is delicious, clean and well presented. What the Blue Magpie lacks in luxury they make up in quality and taste of food offered and with a young and friendly staff, ready to help with locations for bird watching or contacts for guides. Not a single day did we feel that this is a place they need to be nice to us because we are paying guests.

Aricanut Flower

Pepper Plant with Seed

Late morning, stretches on comparing bird lists for the two parties that went off towards opposite direction in search of the elusive monkey. By late evening when I write this the list we complied in a 24hours.

1. Black Eagle
2. Changeable Hawk Eagle
3. Serpent Eagle
4. Sri Lanka Jungle Fowl
5. White breasted Water Hen
6. Spotted Dove
7. Emerald dove
8. Pompadour Green Pigeon
9. Green Imperial Pigeon.
10. Sri Lanka Hanging parrot
11. Layard's Parakeet
12. Greater Coucal
13. Grey Hornbill
14. White throated king fisher
15. Chestnut headed Bee Eater
16. Blue Tailed Bee Eater.
17. Brown Headed Barbet
18. Crimson Fronted Barbet
19. Grey Wagtail
20. Greater Flameback
21. Common Wood Shrike
22. Brown Shrike
23. Small minivet
24. Black Headed Yellow Bulbul
25. Yellow Eared Bulbul
26. Red Vented Bulbul
27. White Browed Bulbul
28. Yellow Browed Bulbul
29. Common Iora
30. Jerdon's Leaf Bird
31. Magpie Robin
32. Indian Pitta
33. Brown Capped Babbler
34. Yellow Billed babbler
35. Pale Billed Flower Pecker
36. Sri Lanka Paradise Flycatcher
37. Indian Paradise Flycatcher
38. Asian Brown Flycatcher
39. Purple Rumped sunbird
40. Purple Sunbird
41. Black Throated Munia
42. House Sparrow
43. White breasted Drongo
44. Common Myna
45. Little Comarant

White Browed Bulbul

Black Headed Yellow Bulbul

Yellow Browed Bulbul

The bath at the river is awesome with a Ruwan jumping off a ledge and making everyone laugh. Sheran and I unfortunately had several cuts while scampering over rocks and was unable to really enjoy the water.

Evening we make another trip towards the west to see another troop of langurs but the evening is washed off after an hour.

Leeches crawling up shoes

This is the area Sunil and his team worked in the morning and on their way back they've had a tea at a tiny boutique at the road side. They were told that the shop keepers would be making Wade, a deep fried small dhal patty. Which is a south Indian delicacy. And they really managed to make it really spicy.

Party at night in the hotel room.