Today was another enjoyable day which was largely spent inside Udawalawa National Park on safari. I took a large amount of photos so I've had to split the post into two. One of the trip highlights were a pair of Rain Quail that I managed to pick up out in an open area of grassland. These are rare winter visitors to Sri Lanka and they both gave decent views with a little patience. Birding from a safari jeep had its good and bad points. One of the positives was that wildlife had become habituated to the numerous vehicles which gave some great photography opportunities. One of the negatives was that you didn't have complete freedom to stop where you wanted and spend time on particular species of interest. I'll post another blog post of the passerines and mammals encountered on the same day shortly.
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| Grey Heron, local birds were noticeably paler than our own. |
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| Painted Stork |
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| Painted Stork |
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| Painted Stork |
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| Woolly-necked Stork |
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| Black-headed Ibis |
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| Adult Crested Hawk-Eagle with prey. |
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| Adult Crested Hawk-Eagle |
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| Juvenile Crested Hawk-Eagle |
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| Grey-headed Fish Eagle |
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| White-bellied Sea Eagle |
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| White-bellied Sea Eagle nest number one. |
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| White-bellied Sea Eagle nest number two. |
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| Female Rain Quail |
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| Male Rain Quail |
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| Male Rain Quail |
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| Male Indian Peacock |
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| Red-wattled Lapwing |
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| Pacific Golden Plover |
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| Wood Sandpiper |
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| Indian Stone Curlew |
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| Indian Stone Curlew |
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| Indian Stone Curlew |
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| Adult Yellow-wattled Lapwing |
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| Juvenile Yellow-wattled Lapwing |
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| Juvenile Yellow-wattled Lapwing |
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| Marsh Sandpiper |
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| Marsh Sandpiper |
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| Marsh Sandpiper with Indian Pond Heron. |
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| Whiskered Terns |
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| Whiskered Tern |
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| Brown Fish Owl |
