Sri Lanka - A national park and the beaches

 

Yala national park, is an absolute treasure trove of wildlife. Safaris here are not too regulated, but with the right amount of bargaining can be much cheaper than the ones in India. Also with a whole day safari option including a lunch on the beach available, the park is quite popular with many tourists. The prime highlights are the leopards, which are followed with extreme obsession by the drivers. With the high density on display, it is only a matter of time before one is spotted and the droves of jeeps close in. The other common attractions here are the elephants, wild buffaloes, hares and monitor lizards. Managed to see a lizard catch and eat a scorpion in front of our room in the resort. After rains, tortoises are another frequent visitor with a star tortoise and other species cross the road in the night as we drove down. Birding is quite rewarding here as well with plenty of species, endemic and migrant visible throughout the park. The sights included woolly necked storks, peacocks, yellow wattled lapwings, multiple species of cuckoos, crested serpent eagles, changeable hawk eagles, sirkeer malkoha, shrikes and kingfishers.

While driving along the coast, multiple Buddha shrines, monasteries and beaches catch your attention. The resort in Galle had its own private beach to chill and the town has forts and museums for the curious. The fort itself runs through a large part of town with colonial buildings and beaches for the crowds. The museum is another interesting place for the naval history of Sri Lanka. The beaches in this area are some of the best there are with white sands and turquoise clear waters. There was also an option for whale watching which we had to skip due to lack of time.

Along the coast towards Colombo are many more places for water sports and scuba. A river boat-ride on the backwaters through the mangroves is highly recommended. With stops for fish therapy, viewing cinnamon production and mangrove tunnels, the boat ride is a pleasure for 2 hours. Early mornings or late evenings would also have a number of birds or monkey in trees. We had gone in the afternoon, but we still spotted a kingfisher catching its lunch. The glass bottom boat is not as good with the boatmen trying to shorten it and the boat itself not being in good shape. Would recommend scuba or snorkeling instead to get close to the fishes

The final leg of the trip in Colombo was spent in the Mount Lavinia hotel, a massive colonial palace converted into a hotel. The hotel itself has plenty of places to explore within while the beaches on the side provide some fantastic views of the sunset. The city itself has many more Buddhist temples, historical monuments, museums and modern architecture to view. One of the temples had a fantastic collection of artifacts and felt more like a museum, while the independence memorial museum had another fine collection. The final morning was spent across the city streets and museums but although the flight was only in the evening, the distance of the city to the airport resulted in us heading back in the afternoon itself.

Sri Lanka - Hills and Plains

Vardha had just moved away from Tamil Nadu and transport had just normalized on the previous day, so we were lucky to make it to the Negombo airport with just a 2 hour delay. The drive to Kandy from the airport takes a few hours mainly due to the speed limits despite the fantastic roads. We stopped en route at a spice garden where despite the sales efforts, I spent most of my time photographing birds. A 15 minute break in a small area had black naped monarchs, pygmy woodpeckers, a lesser yellow nape, white browed fantails, yellow fronted barbets and minivets. Got to Kandy late in the evening but we had time to watch a cultural program and spend some time at the temple of the tooth. We entered the temple unfortunately at the time of a daily prayer and had to wait until they opened the main shrine as the crowd built up. The artifacts, architecture and statues inside though were worth the effort.

We headed out to the nearby Royal botanical gardens quite early in the morning and proceeded with a second round of birding. The garden area itself is massive with different areas housing a variety of flora. The main attractions are the orchids and the giant Javan fig tree. Toque macaques also frequent the gardens stealing food whenever they can. Additional birds in this area included the black hooded oriole, white bellied drongo and a smaller raptor that I am trying to identify. As we headed out to Nuwara Eliya, the first stop was at a Hanuman temple on the way. We were a bit late but managed to get in a few minutes before it closed. As we had lunch at a nearby restaurant, our driver pointed out a huge squirrel. While I tried to make out what it was, it jumped and glided over the trees and out of sight.

After a couple of stops at waterfalls on the way, we reached Nuwara Eliya late in the afternoon. After a quick stop at Lake Gregory, we headed out to Seeta Eliya, which is a temple to Seeta where legend says she was kept after Ravan abducted her. A couple of marks on the ground mark where Hanuman had landed. Spent some time at the Victoria park until it got dark, where we ran into a primatologist who helped us spot a couple of Indian pittas and an asian brown flycatcher. Also glimpsed a Kashmir flycatcher which kept to the bushes.

The next morning had an extremely early start to get to Horton plains. The plains has a couple of trekking trails, the most popular of which is a 10 km circular route which goes through mini world's end, world's end and Baker's falls. The world's end viewpoints provide some amazing sights on a clear morning but as the fog rolls in, the cliff looks like it is on top of the world. The trek gets steeper closer to the Baker's falls but is always manageable. The overall path at a brisk pace takes just under 4 hours. The route in and out of Horton plains is quite scenic and has birds and mammals crossing frequently. We were able to see kestrels, sambar, purple faced leaf monkeys, yellow eared bulbuls, Sri Lankan wood pigeons, bee eaters, bushchats, white eyes and grey tits. Heard a whistling thrush but couldn't spot it. We drove down to Yala immediately after the trek stopping for coconuts, few grizzled giant squirrels and hornbills. The day ended at the Katargama temple near Yala which is a major draw for pilgrims, but surprisingly, the deity there is always hidden behind a curtain.

The wild-life of Goa in December

This was my sixth trip to Goa and the first one where I spent less than 2 hours on the beach. Goa in  December is generally known for the wild life rather than the wildlife and trips there have always been about the parties. However there is a different side to Goa which is far less crowded and a lot more alive. Stayed close to the Bhagwan Mahaveer sanctuary at Nature's Nest and traveled by car on most days to different places.

We trekked and drove through multiple sanctuaries during the trip. The first few days were spent around Bhagwan Mahaveer sanctuary and Bondla. Although mammals were few and difficult to spot, we did manage to see a few jackals, giant squirrels, macaques and mongoose. The highlight of the trip was the bird life. A fruiting fig tree near the Tambdi Surla area in the sanctuary brought in different barbets, pigeons and hornbills while treks in between gave us glimpses of flycatchers, babblers, warblers, woodpeckers and multiple species of bulbuls. Kingfishers were there in the plenty with a blue eared kingfisher quite visible under the bridge in Tambdi Surla but the oriental dwarf kingfisher eluded us. One of the treks to spot it also brought in a pair of Malabar trogons.

 

A couple of vine snakes and crocodiles were the reptiles seen. The night treks were the highlight though with Jerdon's and grey nightjars as well as oriental and collared Scopps owls. Spent one night shooting stars with the party lights as well on the plateau near the lodge. A lone crested serpent eagle eating a bamboo pit viper was one of the many birds we saw catching or finishing a meal. The Bondla sanctuary also has a zoo inside but we kept to the sanctuary. The return to the lodge coincided with the hornbills returning to their roost for the evening a few times and made for some very interesting sunsets.

Our guide, Pankaj who also ran the Nature's Nest made the trip all the more memorable. His spotting and identification on the calls alone was unbelievable. The fact that we spotted over 200 species in less than 10 days was a result of his skills and dedication. At one point of time, while we had given up looking for a trogon, he kept us going. Other interesting sights were the frogmouth at Cotigao, a rufous bellied eagle in Mhadei and scimiter babblers en route to Castle Rock. Mhadei was a complete surprise as while the other sanctuaries have villages and people traveling through, this had a muddy road with no movement at all. The forest was beautiful and the lack of traffic made spotting much easier. While returning, the gears on the car were damaged, but we made it back.

Outside of the forests, Pilerne plateau was another trip where we were able to spot a blue faced malkoha, buzzards, larks and pipits. The lakes around Goa had a few migratory ducks and pratincoles along with a variety of waders and other water birds. The only time we spent on the beaches were at Morjim and Galgibaga watching gulls, terns and plovers. The sheer number of gulls at the Morjim beach was incredible. Being December the places were quite crowded but since we got there early Christmas morning, it was still not packed. One of the best parts of the trip I would say was still the boat ride on Zuari river. A couple of rides on it resulted in some fantastic views of ospreys, white bellied sea eagles and peregrine falcons hunting. Other interesting spots were black capped and collared kingfishers, striated herons,a slaty breasted rail, whimbrels, eurasian curlew and other waders.

Overall a fantastic trip, with every day providing a different view of the place and the birds. Have not seen this side of Goa but would most likely return in the monsoon for the snakes and the oriental dwarf kingfisher.

Bharatpur - again :)

 A short stopover at Delhi gave me enough time for a quick visit. Although the first day was foggy and the threat of rain was constant, we still managed to spot a few migrants. The painted storks were conspicuous by their absence. They were disturbed due to some construction work - our rickshaw driver told us. The fog throughout the day made it quite difficult to spot anything but raptors were still easily visible. We must have seen at least about 10 spotted eagles and multiple harriers.

 
A lone juvenile python crawled out to find some sun but came up against a crowd of tourists. It went back in quick time. A black necked stork along with the juvenile hungrily went through a common coot while raptors swarmed around trying to get a bite. A sick monitor lizard lay near the canteen while a jird was spotted engrossed in eating.

The next day was brighter if not more eventful. The sun was up by the afternoon and by then we had spotted a water snake, few more of the migrants and while everyone I met seemed to be looking for a blue throat, I spotted at least 5 males and 3 females. We got out by the afternoon to catch a train and it was just in time as hundreds of kids started pouring in owing to school holidays and the weekend.

Perambikulam - The other side of Top Slip

 Was picked up from Valparai on this trip. Had gone up all the way from Pollachi early in the morning after an overnight journey from Bangalore. Spent ten minutes on top to have breakfast and coffee, post which we drove back and towards Top Slip. The route is fantastic and although there is a very good chance of seeing wildlife, the afternoon was quite dry.

Perambikulam lies on the other side of Top Slip, on the Kerala border side and the vehicle checking was a lot more strict. The lodge itself was quite comfortably located near a village. The stay was cozy and treks into the forest were fun. Birding was quite easy and orange headed ground thrushes, jungle owlets and paradise flycatchers are very visible. A lesser yellownape woodpecker was the spot of the day. Among the mammals, we came across gaurs, nilgiri langurs and giant squirrels but my hunt for a slender loris had no results. It was mostly a lazy trip with some walking and lesser crowds compared to Top Slip.