Our penultimate day and last full day in Sri Lanka was spent at Tissa Tank in the morning which was literally on the other side of our hotel. We visited Bundala National Park in the afternoon missing the morning rush hour. This park isn't as popular with your average tourist as there are no Leopards to be found inside. One of the highlights here was the big area of lagoons/salt pans which held good numbers of waders. While most of our group we busy looking and photographing a close Osprey (our only one of the trip) I spied a rather arresting looking small wader on the other side of our 4x4's. A full summer plumaged Red-necked Stint no less! I was delighted to find this lifer for myself and what luck to find one in this stunning plumage. Red-necked Stints are supposed to be a rare winter visitor to Sri Lanka. I would imagine they are probably a little more regular in the country given that a few are probably overlooked due to being in winter plumage. Interesting none of the numerous Little Stints seen showed no hint of moulting into summer plumage. Certainly another of my own personal highlights of the trip.
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| Purple Heron |
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| Purple Heron |
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| Purple Heron |
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| Grey Heron |
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| Cinnamon Bittern |
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| Cinnamon Bittern |
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| Indian Pond Heron and Grey Heron. |
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| Black-headed Ibis |
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| Open-billed Stork |
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| Little Cormorant |
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| Indian Darter |
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| Red-necked Stint with Little Stint |
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| Red-necked Stint |
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| Red-necked Stint |
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| Red-necked Stint |
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| Red-necked Stint |
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| Red-necked Stint |
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| Red-necked Stint |
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| Whimbrel |
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| Whimbrel |
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| Ruff |
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| Great Stone-Curlew |
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| Great Stone-Curlew |
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| Great Stone-Curlew |
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| Great Stone-Curlew |
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| Great Stone-Curlew |
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| Indian Stone-Curlew |
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| Snipe sp. |
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| Common Sandpiper |
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| Common Sandpiper |
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| Black-winged Stilt |
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| Black-tailed Godwit |
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| Redshank |
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| Pacific Golden Plover |
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| Pacific Golden Plover |
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| Pacific Golden Plover |
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| Pacific Golden Plover |
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| Streaked Weaver |
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| Weaver nest |
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| Streaked Weaver |
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| Clamorous Reed Warbler |
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| Clamorous Reed Warbler |
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| Clamorous Reed Warbler |
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| Clamorous Reed Warbler |
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| Clamorous Reed Warbler |
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| Clamorous Reed Warbler |
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| Black-headed Munia |
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| Scaly-breated and Black-headed Munia |
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| Common Kingfisher |
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| White-throated Kingfisher |
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| Common Kingfisher |
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| Common Kingfisher |
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| Osprey |
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| Ashy-crowned Sparrow-Lark |
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| Oriental Skylark |
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| Oriental Skylark |
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| Grey-headed Fish Eagle |
Great images Dermot.
ReplyDeleteDecades ago (1960s), when Sri Lanka was Ceylon, I worked as a volunteer there for 18 months. Down south we visited a park & rowed a boat around a small lake w many islands, up close & personal w what I believe we were told were Painted Storms. Would that be correct or is my memory faulty? Wondering whether you know where that would have been (in the SE I think), & whether you came across that very magical lake in a magical country?
Painted Storks are common enough there Heather. There are a huge amount of what are locally called "tanks" in the country which are artificially made lakes. There are hardly any natural lakes in the country according to the guide we had. Many of the tanks were constructed generations ago.
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