On Saturday March 16th I set off on a wildlife photography adventure, Sri Lanka Untamed 2019, with Craig Greer Photography. I travelled from Adelaide with Craig, and Maggie, another tour participant. We flew to Singapore, which took about 7 hours, where we met up with Nicolas Rakotopare, our other photography instructor. We spent a while admiring all of the indoor garden displays, and enjoying the cuisine in the airport food court. We had a stopover of about 7 hours, and then another 4 hour flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka. We arrived in the middle of the night, and by the time we got to our hotels we were exhausted and ready for a good sleep! The next day Maggie and I went for a tuk tuk ride around town in the rain, and later we were joined by Angus, Karen, and Barbro, our group was complete. We spent a while getting to know each other, and chilling out before the real adventure began.
On Monday morning, our lovely guide and drivers for the trip picked us up and we headed for Sinharaja Forest Reserve, the first of three destinations of the tour. I highly recommend visiting Sinharaja if you are interested in nature and wildlife. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the area has great numbers of endemic birds, butterflies, mammals and plants.
We drove most of the way by bus, but had to switch over to Jeeps for the last leg,- as the road into Sinharaja is steep, bumpy, narrow and winding. As we were huddled under a shelter at a little roadside shop, waiting for our luggage to be transferred to the Jeeps, our guide received a phone call from a local contact, who had found a bird we would want to see. It wasn't long before we were making our way through dense rain forest undergrowth, leeches attacking us from all directions, the rain soaking us to our skins. Until the local guide told us to stop and look through a gap in the foliage. And there, perched on a branch among the leaves, dripping wet, was a beautiful little Serendib Scops Owl. Our first official bird species of the tour is probably the most sought after species in Sri Lanka. Only recently discovered and described as a species in 2004, these owls are rare and very elusive. We were incredibly lucky to see this soggy little specimen! An incredible experience, well worth the soaking and the leeches!
 |
| Serendib Scops Owl, Sinharaja, Sri Lanka |
We stopped at the park office to register to enter the park on the following day, and stayed a while to photograph some birds - Grey Hornbill, Asian Emerald Dove, and Spot-winged Thrush.
 |
| Spot-winged Thrush |
When we eventually arrived at our accommodation, Martin's Lodge, we were delighted to discover the large undercover outdoor area. Here, we could sit and rest, eat and drink, and go through photos and ID guides, while looking out over the beautiful rain forest valley, and watching the birds flying past and sometimes stopping to visit on the trees at the balcony's edge. Our comfortable twin rooms were upstairs, and I shared with Maggie for the first of many nights together, as we had already arranged before the trip to stay on for an extra week after the tour to travel a bit more together.
After an early night, we were downstairs again before 6am for some morning birds and breakfast, where we were treated to Sri Lanka Blue Magpie, Yellow-browed Bulbul, Black (or Square-tailed) Bulbul, and Grey Hornbill.
 |
| Sri Lanka Blue Magpie |
 |
| Grey Hornbill |
 |
Black (Square-tailed) Bulbul
|
We spent two full days walking in the forest. We saw beautiful birds, including Asian Brown Flycatcher, Dark-fronted Babbler, Green-billed Coucal, Sri Lanka Frogmouth, and Sri Lanka Junglefowl - Sri Lanka's national bird.
Other creatures we saw included Purple-faced Langurs (Leaf Monkeys), Hump-nosed Lizard, Kangaroo Lizard, Grizzled Giant Squirrel, Green Pit Viper, and Ceylon Tree Nymph (butterfly).
PHOTOS: BIRDS
 |
| Asian Brown Flycatcher |
 |
| Dark-fronted Babbler |
 |
| Sri Lanka Frogmouths |
 |
| Yellow-fronted Barbet |
 |
| Yellow-fronted Barbet |
 |
| Green-billed Coucal |
 |
| Green-billed Coucal |
 |
| Sri Lanka Junglefowl |
 |
| Asian Paradise-Flycatcher |
 |
| Grey Hornbill |
 |
| Grey Hornbill |
 |
| Grey Hornbill |
PHOTOS: OTHER CREATURES
 |
| Green Forest Lizard |
 |
| Green Forest Lizard |
 |
| Hump-nosed Lizard |
 |
| Frog, Hylarana sp. |
 |
| Toque Macaque |
 |
| Grizzled Giant Squirrel |
|
|
Ceylon Tree Nymph, Sinharaja, Sri Lanka
|
After our long days walking in the forest, we enjoyed finishing the day sitting on the balcony watching birds and sipping nice cold ginger beers!
**Travel Tips**
Get some cash out at the airport, and ask to exchange at least one of your larger notes (5000 rupees) for some small notes so you have money for tips - tipping in Sri Lanka is very important.
You can also get a SIM card at the airport, and they have good deals for travellers here. You might have trouble getting one elsewhere, so it's recommended to get it at the airport. My travel buddy got one with about 10GB of data, plus calls and texts for about 1000 rupees. Don't rely on hotel wifi, as from my experience it was usually either patchy or non-existent, even if it is listed on the booking website! The electricity is also unreliable in some areas which will obviously make the wifi drop out, and in Negombo on our last night there was a scheduled outage for a few hours. So also - bring a torch!
Bird species location lists posted on eBird.com.
Species list for the whole trip will be included in my final post for the Sri Lanka trip :-)
Amazing write up Alysse! It's great to be able to relive the trip through your eyes and glad you had a a good time with us! Looking forward to the next instalment of your Sri Lanka Blogs!!
ReplyDelete