Birds I have seen

Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher

At my journey to Kithulgala I saw a tiny little bird which is very colorful.
It was on a tree near to the Kalani River which is flow through the Kithulgala.
At that time I had bird guide and I searched it to identify the creature.

It was the smallest and the most beautiful Kingfisher who lived in SriLanka
who named as Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher. His length is about 13cm and
he rarely see in open areas.
Its call is high-pitched and usually lived in mid hill wooden gardens.

It was the nicest and colorful bird I have seen at that time.
Please be alert when you passing a river bank near to a forest so
you will be lucky as me to see this nice bird.

Trip to Kithulgala

I spent my Vesak holydays with my brothering low and his friend at Kithulgala Rafting Retreat holiday restaurant ant it was great trip which add lots of experiences to our life. That was a marvelous place. The cottages are fully made by using natural sources and those are almost at the kalani river bank. The cottages were not fully closed and the bathrooms also made in a eco friendly way.

The first day we had a bath on the cold river water and we spent the night at the cottages. Since the river was next to us the sound of the water gave a very clam feeling to our ears and the cold winds made out bodies relax.

Next day morning we visited to nearby forest. Since the time was not so early we couldn’t see lots of birds but we met a rock squirrel and a wolf spider on the journey.

After the breakfast we had a white water rafting which was the main target of our journey. We went from two boats and we had to pass 7 rapid areas through the river. First three ware not that much difficult to pass, but they let us to familiar with the boat. The fourth one was the most dangerous one and the guide ask whether to rollover the boat not. We said not but my brothering low has said to do that. So on that rapid area the boat crashed with a rock and the boat rolled over and we fall in to the water. That made us confused very much and my helmet was removed from the head. I picked it and after that I noted that the boat was over me. I pushed away it and looked for my sister. She hanged on my brothering low’s hand and the others were floating over the river. The guide told not to be frightened and let the body floats and after few minutes we were able to get on to the boat. That was the nicest experience we had in that trip. We saw the remnants of the blasted bridge at the Bridge On the River Kwai film shoot on 1950s.

The bridge before it blasted

We finished our rafting journey with marvelous experiences and after the lunch we came back to Colombo with a great pleasure. That was a trip which will not forget from my mind.

Udawalawa

“Udawalawa National Park” has great reputation for allowing beautiful and rare animals to build their lives within that beautiful landscape. Mammals and bird are the most common animals available there at any moment. This is a paradise for the elephants and it is a common site to see a herd of elephants on the way along the park. The Udawalawa reservoir irrigate the whole park and the “Walawe Ganga” which flows through the park enhance the beauty more than enough to keep the memories of this paradise forever in their lives.

This was declared as a National Park on 30^th June 1972 as the 5^th National park in SriLanka and area of the park is 30,821 ha and basically lies in both Sabaragamuwa and Uva provinces. Since this is in dry zone it has mean day temperature of 29c over the year and 1524 mm annual rainfall.

There are four wildlife circuit bungalows in the park and those are

· Thibirigasmankada

· Veheragolla

· Sinuggala

· Gonaviddagala

All these bungalows are located near major water resources and this provide a great opportunity for visitors to observe the habits of the mammals and the birds.

In Udawalawa there are so many species of animals and the most common ones which can see at any part of this park are

mammals

· Elephant –Elephas Maximas

· Leopard –Panthera pardus kotiya

· Spotted deer –Axis axis ceylonensis

· Wild boar –Sus scrofa

· Water buffalo –Buballus bubalis

· Jackal –Canis aureus

Birds

· Great flamingo

· Indian cormorant

· Osprey

· SriLanka junglefowl

At the first day we found several herds of giant Elephants and herds of spotted doers. We were able to get nearer to the elephants and that was a amazing thing. On the way one elephant who was alone at that time try to attack our jeep and that was the most fearful moment I had in that trip.

On the way to the bungalow the jip stopped suddenly and it was about 7.00 in the evening. The sound of the elephants came out from the forest and it mad us scary so we didn’t get off from the jip. But we have to get off from the jip and we were able to repair it from an hour.

At night we stayed at the Veheragolla bungalow and it was near to a small lake. We went to the Walawe ganga at that night and had a bath. At night we found a animal like a huge doge came near to the bungalow digging the soil. It was a huge boar and the guide warned us not to get photograph because it will run if the flashers fall on it.

We had a good sleep and next day morning we found that thousands of birds were at the lake and some doers came to the lake. That day also we saw lots of animals but unfortunately we were unable to see a leopard at our trip. Evening we left that great place and that will be a memorable trip to me in my life forever.