This is the first of two buckets about my trip to Sri Lanka. This first piece is about the village where I stayed and the birds and other creatures I encountered there, the second will feature a boat trip I took on a nearby lake and the birds I saw there.
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January 2017, Southern Province, Sri Lanka
On January 3rd I flew to Sri Lanka to visit my sister who has a house by the beach in the island’s southern province. It takes about three and a half hours by car from Colombo to Weligama district. Fascinated as I was by the scenery we passed, I kept nodding off. The flight from London took 10.5 hours and the day before I had flown from NY so I was exhausted. Even though I missed a fair bit, I still managed to see at least 100 Egrets of varying sizes as well as a purple heron, foraging in the nearby paddy fields we passed along the way. As we neared our destination and were stopped at an intersection I saw a cattle egret fly up to a cow and gaze soulfully into it’s eyes. It was a beautiful moment, my first observation of the close relationship between the two species.
By the time I reached my destination it was close to 4pm, my sister was waiting for me and got me settled in. I had a quick shower and she took me to Villa Naomi, a tiny hotel with a wonderful patio bar that overlooks the village green and the Indian Ocean. It became a daily ritual to meet friends there to watch the sunset and to catch up with the day’s events.
The village green is where everything happens, it is at the very heart of village life.
A couple of days after I arrived there was an all day cricket match. It involved around twelve teams, each comprised of three locals and three foreigners. I know very little about cricket, but Sri Lankans are passionate about it and the whole village participated. The free roaming village cows were tethered on the sidelines. I happened to see one of the cattle egrets almost beaned by an errant ball, luckily it missed. After the match ended children were allowed their own mini match.
Every sunset was beautiful, some were soft, some spectacular. The example below occurred on my birthday, nature’s gift to me.
December and January are the safest months for swimming here, but there are still riptides. Just where the beach grass ends in the upper right of the photo below, there is an area almost completely encircled by rocks. Thus a natural swimming pool is formed which provides a safe swimming area even when the rest of the ocean is rough.
One of the first things I noticed is that crows are everywhere and they are unbelievably vocal. Two species are resident in Sri Lanka, the House crow (Corvus splendens protegatus) and the Large-billed crow (Corvus macrorhynchos culminatos) which is also known as the Indian Jungle Crow. While I saw both species daily, the house crow was present in greater numbers. As with crows everywhere they mob potential predators. One of the village feral cats was on the hunt creeping along the garden wall at my sister’s house, suddenly every bird in the area was sounding the alarm. It was at moments like this that I realized just how many species were around that I never even got a glimpse of. Within seconds a group of crows arrived and mobbed the cat until it turned tail and fled.
Aside from having narrower beaks than their larger relatives, the House crow has a grey nape and is sleeker looking.
The jungle crows are somewhat chunkier than the House crow, have shaggier heads and are glossy black in color.
Among my favorite local birds are the Yellow-billed babblers (Turdoides affinis tabrobanus). They are gregarious, vocal birds who visit the garden frequently to see if we have put fruit out for them. My sister and BIL call them the seven sisters because they travel and forage in groups usually consisting of seven or more individuals. At least one bird will perch somewhere high and act as sentinel, while the others forage below. They hop with both feet at the same time in the manner of kangaroos, a behaviour that I was unable to find mentioned in either my field guide (which sucked btw) or online.
The Brown-headed barbet is the largest of Sri Lanka’s varieties. The barbet gets it’s name from the bristles that fringe it’s bill. These large headed birds have short necks and tails and are related to the Toucan. As you can see they love fruit although they also feed on insects.
I was surprised to see the extremely territorial Common myna (Acridotheres tristis melanosternus) share the papaya with the barbet. Actually it looks as though the barbet can’t believe it either.
The Red-vented Bulbul is common throughout Sri Lanka, it’s short crest makes it easy to identify, as does the bright red vent on it’s underside. In it’s native range it’s an important disperser of seeds, unfortunately these birds have been introduced to various Pacific Islands as well as to Australia and New Zealand and are considered pests due to their habit of damaging fruit crops.
The Southern coucal (Centropus sinensis parroti) used to be known as the Greater Coucal. It is a large crow-like bird that is a member of the cuckoo family. It’s long tail, chestnut wings and bright red eyes make it unmistakeable. These birds are predominantly ground feeders and will eat everything from insects and small vertebrates to nestlings. This coucal appeared to have been sunbathing, as when I first spotted him/her both wings were completely spread out. Palm trees are also favorite nesting sites.
My favorite bird of all is this White-throated Kingfisher ( Halcyon smyrnensis fusca) who visited the garden at least once a day. This species is a tree kingfisher and therefor is not a fish specialist, but instead eats a wide variety of prey such as crustaceans, amphibians, reptiles and rodents. They perch up high and swoop down to catch their prey. As these birds are territorial I imagine that he considers this garden to be part of his domain. He would perch on a tree limb and stay for half an hour or longer and always appeared to be watching intently. It never seemed as if he was looking for prey. Sometimes when the neighbor’s children were playing outside he would turn his back to me and watch them instead, at other times it seemed as if it was us he watched. Once he stared directly at me for at least ten minutes, it was as if he were trying to decide whether I was acceptable or not. He seemed completely unbothered by the proximity of people. This is a supremely confident bird.
Red-wattled lapwings (Vanellus indicus lankae) are always to be found on the village green
These plover-like birds run in short bursts and despite their tolerance of people are vigilant lookouts.
It has characteristic loud alarm calls which are variously rendered as did he do it or pity to do it[2] leading to colloquial names like the did-he-do-it bird.[3]
Sri Lanka is a herpetological paradise and 60% of the species are endemic to the island. Sri Lanka has the highest per capita death rate from snake bite in the world. There are 96 species of snakes, including seven land snakes and thirteen sea snakes that are venomous.
The following venomous snakes are responsible for a high incidence of snakebite morbidity and mortality in Sri Lanka: Cobra (Naja naja), Common krait (Bungarus caeruleus), Sri Lanka krait (Bungarus ceylonicus), Russells's viper (Daboia russelii), Saw scale viper (Echis carinatus), Hump nose viper (Hypnale hypnale), Green pit viper (Trimeresurus trigonocephalus)
The only snakes I saw were a couple of King Cobras who were the reluctant partners of snake charmers. It was a sight I tried to avoid seeing up close. Around the coast, the majority of snakes encountered are of the harmless variety. However, cross the railroad tracks which run parallel to the coastline and is at most a quarter of a mile inland and it’s a very different story.
This Bengal monitor (Varanus bengalensis) is a juvenile, but they grow anywhere from 2 to 5.75 feet in length. I did see a full grown specimen ambling along the side of the coastal road, unfortunately I was without a camera at the time. When the tourist season ends they are common sights in the village. My BIL was sitting on the beach one day last year and heard something move only to find one sitting next to him looking out to sea.
I have no pictures of turtles, but am happy to say that I saw them in the surf near the rocks where I swim. They would pop up suddenly looking a bit like the periscope of a submarine. There are five species of turtle that can be found in Sri Lanka, I have no idea which one I saw. Turtle hatcheries are becoming common tourist attractions and should be avoided at all costs as they are mostly scams and the turtles are kept in tiny areas and are in obvious distress.
In fact I was googling grocery stores in the area today and found a turtle hatchery listed under that category. A mistake or just twisted? Supposedly the Chinese are big purchasers of turtle eggs.
Well that’s a slice of the village life and some of the birds and reptiles I was lucky enough to see while I was in Sri Lanka.
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