Having a whale of a time in Sri Lanka (Part 1)

I have not long got back from a wonderful trip to Sri Lanka with Lorna, my parents, sister and Alex. I have wanted to visit Sri Lanka for a long time and in mid March we had the opportunity and explored the south, Yala National Park, Trincomalee and Habarana in the cultural Triangle. This island paradise is most known for its impressive Buddhist temples, fascinating history, stunning beaches, inviting warm tropical waters and highland tea estates, but its natural history treasures are also a big draw.

 

(Pied kingfishers in Yala National park)

 

(Dawn in Habarana)

We began in south with a stay at the lovely Mirissa Hills, perched on the top of a working cinnamon estate with far reaching views towards the coast, plus a little pocket of wet zone forest. Here we saw some our first birds of the trip such as blue-naped monarch, black-hooded oriole, shikra, white-throated kingfisher and a variety of egrets, herons and waders in the wetlands at the bottom of the hill.

(Alex enjoying the sunset at Mirissa Hills)

One of the reasons for stopping here was to get out to sea. The continental shelf between Mirissa and Dondra Head has gained a reputation in recent years as one of the best locations in the world to see the largest animal to have ever lived; the blue whale. However we were travelling towards the end of the season here but the start of the season in Trincomalee and narrowly missed a whale sighting here. We did however have an outstanding sighting of a large pod of pantropical spotted dolphins that rode the bow in front of our boat.

(Pantropical spotted dolphin in the sea off Mirissa)

(Pantropical spotted dolphins in the sea off Mirissa)

(Mirissa Harbour)

(Mirissa)

 

 

(Stilt fishermen near Mirissa)

 

We then popped into a local turtle conservation project and were lucky enough to help with the release of some recently hatched Olive Ridley turtles. Its important when releasing these hatchlings that they are placed down facing inland to imprint their birth beach on to them and we hope that at least one will return in maybe 30 years time.

(Olive ridley turtle hatchling)

("Good luck" Olive ridley turtle hatchling making its journey out to sea)

We then moved to Tangalle, further east along the coast to spend a night at the superb Buckingham Place and also enjoyed an evening on the wild windswept beach here watching an enormous green turtle laying her eggs. A really memorable experience particularly with the sound of crashing waves in the background and just the moonlight to guide you.

(Buckingham Place)

(The garden at Buckingham Place was full of frogs including this Indian green frog)

We then travelled further east via stops at Buddist Stupas to the famous Yala National Park. Yala is a wonderful wilderness (965 square km) of thorny scrub, plains and monsoon forest. It has become most well known for probably having the world's highest density of leopards. A study in 2007 found that Yala's block 1 area has around 18 leopards per 100 square kilometres. It is also a very beautiful park and home to an impressive array of other wildlife.

During our 7 safaris in the National Park's block 1 and 5, we saw 7 different leopards, numerous elephants including a very rare tusker, sloth bear, golden jackals, 20+ ruddy mongoose, spotted deer, sambar, Sri Lankan giant squirrel, tonnes of wild boar, water buffalo, tufted langurs and black naped hares among the mammals. It was fantastic see how abundant birds of prey were very here and we regularly encountered changeable hawk eagle, crested serpent eagle, grey-headed fish eagle, white-bellied sea eagle and brahminy kite. Some of the other avian highlights included malarbar pied hornbill, Sri Lanka grey hornbill, coppersmith and brown headed barbets, yellow crowned woodpecker, blue-faced makloha, Indian pitta, small minivet, pied cuckoo, grey-bellied cuckoo, ashy-crowned sparrowlark and barred buttonquail to name just a few.

(One of my highlights of the trip was this Sloth bear with a wound on his back)

 

(Golden jackal in Yala National Park)

 

(Pintail snipe on the lagoon near our lodge)

(Young Sri Lankan elephant in Yala National Park)

 

(An even younger Sri Lankan elephant in Yala National Park)

 

(Only 2% of the elephants in Yala have tusks, because the gene for producing them has almost died out in the population due to hunting pressure in the past)

 

(Juvenile changeable hawk eagle in Yala's block 5)

(The stunning chestnut-headed bee eater in Yala National Park)

(The green bee eater was the most common of the bee eaters and also landed in a photogenic location)

 

 

(The blue-tailed bee eater)

(Black naped or Indian hares were very common at dawn and dusk in thorny scrub)

(A very expressive tufted grey langur in Yala National park)

(The impressive Malabar pied hornbill eating soil, this behaviour is probably carried out to bind the poisonous and bitter tasting substances in the fruits and seeds they eat, to make it possible for them to digest them.)

(Orange-breasted green pigeon in Yala national Park)

(Indian peacock strutting his stuff, unfortunately he never turned to face us straight on)

(Painted storks enjoying the last rays of sun of the day)

 

(Almost every pool in Yala had a flock of egrets, spoonbills or storks feeding from it)

 

(A typical Yala scene)

 

(Spot-billed pelican in Yala)

 

 

(Ruddy mongooses were surprisingly common in Yala National Park, we even saw one raiding a monitor lizard burrow)

 

(Indian Wild boar piglets having a skirmish at dawn)

 

 

(Wild boar at dawn)

 

(The Sri Lankan spotted deer is the only known subspecies of the chital)

 

(Water buffalo of mixed wild and domesticated descent)

 

Our favourite leopard sighting came right at the end of the day in Block 5; a remote and little visited part of the National park with denser forest dominated by Palu Trees. Here Kasun, one of our excellent guides picked up distant langur alarm calls and directed our driver to an almost dry riverbed. Here as the sun was setting, we were surrounded by alarm calls on both sides of the river. Being in this location at this time of day, it felt like a story was about to unfold and I exclaimed "does anyone else get the feeling something is about to happen..." with Heather following by saying she felt nervous with anticipation of what might emerge from the bushes closest to us. By following where the langurs were moving and the direction in which the troop were aiming their alarms calls, I narrowed down roughly where the predator was and started scanning into the dense scrub and then bingo. I could just make out the a few spots through the undergrowth on the other side of the river around 200 meters away so we reversed back for a clearer view of what was actually a very relaxed leopard sprawled out on a bank.

 

As if this wasn't good enough to end the day with we then bumped into a second leopard, this time on our side of the river  which obliged us with a stunningly close view. After some time this female leopard got up and to our amazement started stalking along the river bank no less than 10 meters from us, fully hunched down and creeping a few centimetres off the ground. We were only forced to leave this exciting scene because the light had almost gone, park restrictions and also we didn't want to miss dinner. The night drive back to our lodge after this was also productive and had a distinctly Indian theme to it as we found 2 small Indian civets, Indian flying fox, Indian gerbils, Indian nightjar and a roosting Indian pitta!

(Indian flying fox)

(Our first leopard just after dawn)

(Young female leopard spotted as the light was fading at the end of our day in Block 5)

(the same female leopard got up to start stalking along the river bank)

 

(The female leopard in stalking mode)

(Female leopard yawning)

(Young male leopard)

 

(Young male leopard crossing the track)

 

 

 

(Sunset in Yala)

We also had some luck with the reptiles and amphibians particular Bengal monitor lizards and fan throated lizards which were very abundant and obliging.

 

 

(Fan-throated lizard in Yala)

 

(Bengal monitor lizard on the prowl)

 

(Juvenile monitor lizard)

 

(Getting this picture of a marsh mugger crocodile meant creeping up very carefully and then lying on the ground a few meters away, but I always ensured I was outside of striking distance. A very exciting experience for me and the croc didn't even bat one of its three eyelids)

 

Best of all though was a rare sighting of a star tortoise, that our driver incredibly spotted as we rounded a bend at high speed. All of us were gobsmacked at how he spotted it hidden in tall grass under those circumstances.

 

(This tortoise was our star reptile in Yala)

 

Highlights from the Highlands Part 2

For the second half of our trip in Scotland, we headed to the west coast starting with a few nights on the Isle of Skye, staying in a friendly vegetarian B&B near Portree. Skye has to be one of the most scenic parts of the British Isles and the drive around the northern half of the island is particularly special.

A must do activity whilst staying in the area is to take a wildlife boat trip out of Portree. The main target on these trips is the white-tailed eagle, which I have seen many times on Mull and around Gruinard Bay, but the resident pair that nest on the cliffs not far from Portree provide the best sighting of this magnificent eagle you could ever hope for. Over time the local boat operators have built up a relationship with these birds by offering them a mackerel. The result being, (if you are lucky) one of the birds will swoop down from the cliff above and pluck the fish from the water at close range leaving the crowd of onlookers gasping and the skipper desperately trying to balance the boat as everyone rushes to one side.

 

White-tailed eagle

 

We also crossed the sound of Raasay to visit a common seal colony and watched black guillemots at their nest, while great skuas were harassing kittiwakes and gannets and terns were diving into a feeding frenzy. We also came across a few flocks of puffins, but unfortunately they were always just too distant for pictures.

Great skua

 

Gannet

Common seal

 

Common seals

On the way back into Potree harbour I spotted a superb great northern diver, sporting its full summer plumage which was a treat as I never seen them in this plumage before.

Great northern diver

We then moved to Plockton for a few nights and explored the Applecross Peninsula. The drive across this remote area is not for the inexperienced driver and there are signs warning you not to attempt it at all in the bad weather. The highest point is the Bealach na Ba pass which takes you towards the village of Applecross is the highest navigable road in Britain and one of the most beautiful too.

Applecross Pass

 
There are plenty of red deer on the higher moor here and on arrival in the village of Applecross we actually found some in cultivated fields close to the road.

Red deer

Red deer

 

It was quite a surprise though to find not one but two immature Iceland gulls feeding alongside the herring gulls on the beach outside the Applecross Inn. In fact I took delight in feeding them parts of my cheese and pickle sandwich. Other notable birds seen here included rafts of red-breasted merganser, eiders, rock pipits, a singing wood warbler, common sandpipers, bullfinches and wild rock doves.  

Iceland gull

 

Iceland gull

 

Iceland gull

 

Hooded crow

Wild Rock Dove

 

Rock pipit

 

Heading south we spent some time around Fort William and Glencoe and used Glenloy Lodge as our base. The owners of this lovely B&B also run Glenyloy Wildlife Holidays and are wealth of knowledge on the local fauna and flora. Best of all though is that they leave titbits around the gardens for their resident pine martens which are unusually for martens are active well before dusk.

 

 

Pine marten

Buachaille Etive Mor

We were staying Glenloy at the start of the flight season of the chequered skipper, which is now restricted to just a handful sites in the Fort William area, but despite some favourable weather conditions at the time of our visit we still failed to find any, but we may have been just a little too early for them to be on the wing.

Siskin

 

Orange tip

 

Oak fern

One of the last points of call was Loch Garry en route back to Inverness, for some exquisitely marked summer plumaged black-throated divers and we were even lucky enough to see common scoter on their breeding grounds here too.

Black-throated diver

Loch Garry

Highlights from the Highlands Part 1

Back in May this year, we spent two weeks exploring the Highlands of Scotland.

The Lairig Ghru (A spectacular example of a glacial valley)

 

We took the Caledonian Sleeper train up to Inverness overnight so initially spent some time on the Black Isle and made our first point of call; Chanonry Point. Famous for its acrobatic and crowd pleasing bottle-nosed dolphins, we had good fortune in spotting the resident pod immediately on arrival. You have to keep an eye on the tide here though, as whilst being engrossed in dolphin watching it creeps up very quickly and will soon be lapping at your feet. Other sightings included whimbrel on the golf course and a steady movement of sandwich and common and arctic terns moving up the Moray Firth.

Bottle-nosed dolphins

We then took the Farr road down to Aviemore, for good views of red grouse and a frustratingly brief golden eagle plus some surprisingly high numbers of red kites.

Next up was Speyside and the Cairngorms, where we called in at all the key wildlife sites and discovered a few new places of interest. First up was Abernethy Forest and RSPB Loch Garten, where we enjoyed seeing the usual suspects of red squirrels and the celebrity ospreys from the visitor centre. The walk to Loch Malachie proved productive for redstarts and spotted flycatchers although it took alot of effort to find our only crested tit of the trip here.

Crested tit in Abernethy Forest

Red squirrel

On one day we took the funicular railway up Cairngorm which was still receiving fresh snowfalls at this time of year. We enjoyed watching ring ouzels and real ptarmigans from the Ptarmigan restaurant at the top over a tasty lunch. I also climbed Carn Ban Mor another day in search of freshly arrived dotterel and was rewarded with a flock of at least 20 birds. Ptarmigan were also present and I found some interesting mosses and lichens deep into the cairngorm plateau.

Dotterel habitat

Female dotterel

Male dotterel

Male Ptarmigan

It was on the way back from Carn Ban Mor and travelling through remote Glen Feshie however, that we came across the mega find of that day; a female capercaille crossing the road!

Female Capercaillie

We also spent a day at the Highland Wildlife Park, where there was as much wildlife outside the fences as inside them.

Lapwing nesting inside the bog at the Highland Wildlife Park

Oystercatcher on nest in the Highland Wildlife Park

Eurasian lynx in the Highland Wildlife Park (Hopefully soon to be on to outside the fence list)

The Speyside Wildlife Hide on the Rothiemurchus estate was also visited, which has now become something of a tradition for me when in Aviemore. A young female pine marten and three badgers showed well.

Badger

Badger

Pine marten

 

We also discovered an excellent new site near Grantown-on-Spey for mountain hare.

Mountain hares changing into summer coats

Mountain hare