With Carol not feeling too good a 5.30 start for 3 of us for a ride up to gate 1 and the ticket office followed by a jeep ride up to gate 2. We collected our forest guide, called Santa, and set off. The jeep was an old Willy's Jeep from WW2 with no ignition, so a hot wire start and no doors. However, it clambered up the steep, rock-strewn road with a stop on the way to try and see Sri Lanka Spurfowl which was not very successful but we did manage to see Brown-capped Babbler. Looking down saw lots of leeches heading purposefully towards our boots and we had to spend some time checking our leech socks and removing the beasties.
At the gate we started walking round the reserve, stopping in likely places for birds and butterflies. A quick trip down a short, muddy track found 2 Sri Lanka Frogmouths roosting side by side on a branch, fairly oblivious of the people admiring them. Photography was difficult and quite frustrating in these darker situations but these birds very obligingly roosted in a brighter spot.
Another forest trek, this time down the edge of a stream and we all had good views of a very difficult bird, Scaley Thrush.
As the day warmed up lots of butterflies started appearing but were so active they were extremely difficult to identify, let alone photograph. We took several trails, including one up to the Education Centre where we looked for White-faced starling, unsuccessfully, but did see woodpeckers, and Layard's squirrel.
A walk along to the research station was successful for Blue Magpie Robin where we saw several hopping about the trees, on the ground and in the trees. We also had close views of the Jungle Fowl.
It began to get dark and the clouds looked very threatening so we decided to return down the mountain. As we left an amazing thunderstorm overtook us sending a river of red mud down the jeep track. Although there were sides for the back of the jeep, as it had no door it was awash in the front seat. I cowered under my plastic poncho with a waterproof round my legs but the poor driver became absolutely soaked as he had to lean out the door to see were we were going. The drive back down to the hotel crossed several water splashes, one which was a little hairy, but by the time we arrived back the rain had almost stopped and the clouds were moving on.
On the second day we walked up from Gate 1, which was interesting although a bit of a struggle. We tried various tracks with a nice flock of birds including a Trogon. We were also told about a nesting Frogmouth just below the education centre which we saw, although the light wasn't great.
We spent a bit of time on our own as the guides went off looking for the Scops Owl but no luck at any of the expected places. There were lots of butterflies to identify and a few interesting plants.
On the way down the hillside we were shown a pit viper curled round a tree trunk. Despite all the rain yesterday, the streams were more or less back to normal.
On the way back we visitied the Blue Magpie Lodge for a drink and walked up the road meeting a Sunday school group walking down with big smiles.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
At the gate we started walking round the reserve, stopping in likely places for birds and butterflies. A quick trip down a short, muddy track found 2 Sri Lanka Frogmouths roosting side by side on a branch, fairly oblivious of the people admiring them. Photography was difficult and quite frustrating in these darker situations but these birds very obligingly roosted in a brighter spot.
As the day warmed up lots of butterflies started appearing but were so active they were extremely difficult to identify, let alone photograph. We took several trails, including one up to the Education Centre where we looked for White-faced starling, unsuccessfully, but did see woodpeckers, and Layard's squirrel.
A walk along to the research station was successful for Blue Magpie Robin where we saw several hopping about the trees, on the ground and in the trees. We also had close views of the Jungle Fowl.
It began to get dark and the clouds looked very threatening so we decided to return down the mountain. As we left an amazing thunderstorm overtook us sending a river of red mud down the jeep track. Although there were sides for the back of the jeep, as it had no door it was awash in the front seat. I cowered under my plastic poncho with a waterproof round my legs but the poor driver became absolutely soaked as he had to lean out the door to see were we were going. The drive back down to the hotel crossed several water splashes, one which was a little hairy, but by the time we arrived back the rain had almost stopped and the clouds were moving on.
On the second day we walked up from Gate 1, which was interesting although a bit of a struggle. We tried various tracks with a nice flock of birds including a Trogon. We were also told about a nesting Frogmouth just below the education centre which we saw, although the light wasn't great.
We spent a bit of time on our own as the guides went off looking for the Scops Owl but no luck at any of the expected places. There were lots of butterflies to identify and a few interesting plants.
On the way down the hillside we were shown a pit viper curled round a tree trunk. Despite all the rain yesterday, the streams were more or less back to normal.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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