Chris Lansdell's Birding & Nature Diary: Sri Lanka, Day 7. 16 December 2019

A full days jeep safari in the Yala NP and a day we'd all been looking forward to. What could possibly go wrong?! I make no apologies that this post is a bit heavy on photos - some of the views were so close from the shelter of our jeep.

We were picked up early from the Grand Yala in the jeep and were at the entrance gate to the park just before dawn. A bonus Rusty-spotted Cat already in the bag as one had crossed the road in front of us on the approach. The day consisted of a morning and afternoon (11 hours in total) spent in the jeep with a 2 hours 'enforced' break at a picnic spot by the beach where we were treated to an al-fresco curry lunch with a bonus fly-over Black-necked Stork and our only Thick-billed Flowerpecker of the trip.

At the risk of this just being just a list of species seen on our drives we clocked up Orange-breasted Green Pigeons early on plus Jerdon's Bushlarks and surprisingly a few waders (I'd not really expected therev to be much water) - Kentish Plover, Little Ringed Plover, Marsh Sandpipers, 4 Yellow-wattled Lapwings, numerous Red-wattled Lapwings, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper and Black-winged Stilts were all seen. A few Brown Shrikes perched up and a very pale headed 'Philippine' Brown Shrike flew across the track. During the course of the day all 3 bee-eaters (Chestnut-headed, Blue-tailed and Little Green) all gave amazing point blank views. Gull-billed Terns, Whiskered Terns and our first Little Terns were seen but no gulls were apparant. A couple of Blue-faced Malkohas and a Grey-bellied Cuckoo typically didn't pose for the camera but a Jacobin Cuckoo and a single Indian Roller did. Other goodies included Ashy-crowned Sparrow-lark, Sri Lanka Swallows collecting mud on the track, c20 Indian Robins, Indian Pitta, Coppersmith Barbet, Brown-headed Barbet, a stunning pair of Brahminy Starlings, Baya Weavers, Streaked Weavers, Paddyfield Pipits, c3 Brown-throated Needletails, c12 Crested Treeswifts, 1 Hoopoe and a pair of Yellow-fronted Woodpeckers that caused soem panic as we all tried to get onto them! Herons and egrets were everywhere with big colonies of Asian Openbills plus Asian Woolyneck and Intermediate Egrets amongst the more common species. Tricoloured Munia was another tick for me amongst the much more numerous Scaly-breasted Munias. Raptors included a point blank Crested Hawk Eagle and a couple of distinctive Black Eagles.

Mammals were represented by loads of Spotted Deer, Ruddy Mongoose, c6 Asian Elephants, Grey Langurs and no shortage of Wild Pigs. Despite much searching however our main target eluded us. That is until 30 minutes before park closing time at 18.00 when news filtered through of a Leopard sat in a tree a few km away - cue a crazy twitch! The drive there and subsequent wait in a line of jeeps was like a scene from wacky races. But all was well as we got some great views of this majestic beast in its tree and even did a 2nd pass because AbdulRahman hadn't got a photo on the 1st pass. This time some road rage was in order from our mad driver as the rangers who had been organising things had all left! Then it was a mental dash back to get back to the gate by 18.00 which we failed to do. Luckily we weren't the only ones so our driver got away with it!

Things hadn't finished there because beside the road outside the park gave us some great views of c8 Indian Nightjars some perched on telegraph wires. What a day!