This event was organized by Adventure Sri Lanka (flickr) group as it’s 4th consecutive event this year. Anawilundawa is a bird sanctuary located aproximately 10Km away from Chilaw on Colombo Puttalam road (120Km from Colombo) and Nawadankulama is a lake complex about 10-15Kms away from turn off to Anawilundawa. Anawilundawa is a Ramsar wetland where there are many migrant birds in the migration season.

The event was organized as the 4th event of Adventure Sri Lanka flickr travel and photography group. As planed, we left Colombo around 3 in the morning. Fortunately the unexpected raining stopped in the morning and the weather conditions became much better with clear sky. We were travelling in a van with 11 members of the Adventure Sri Lanka group and were soon joined by two other members in a car and a cab on the way to Negambo. All together we had 15 and were later joined by another two.

We managed to get to Anawilundawa junction by 5.30 a.m. and had morning tea with some short eats there. Our morning session was scheduled at Nawadankulama, so we left Anawilundawa to get to Nawadankulama as soon as possible. There was a one member (Dhammika Heenpella) who had been there before. He was guiding us to Nawadankulama. We were at Nawadankulama by 5.45 and managed to capture the sunrise. It was at the first lake on Nawadankulama rd.

Sunrise over one of the lakes at Nawadankulama	The team busy capturing the Sunrise
Busy photographer keen to capture the moments

After spending about 20 minutes at the place, we started our journey towards the lake Nawadankulama. On the way we stopped at several places to capture some beautiful landscapes and birds/butterflies.

Pide Cuckoo on the way to Nawadankulama

Asian Openbill

We got to Nawadankulama by around 6.45 AM. When we got there, the other two vehicles were already there and they had already started shooting. They were all over the place taking their own routes to get close to wildlife. The place was full of birds, with few migrant species. Lots of butterflies were around. I broke from the crew and went on my own path searching for wildlife. Here are some of the shots I managed to capture with my newly married bride – Canon 50D + 100-400mm lens.

Blyth's Pipit at Nawadankulama	Male Plain Tiger at Nawadankulama
Is this a Prinia?	Black Headed Munia in flight
Indian Darter - Nawadankulama	A Pair of Black Winged Stilts in flight - Nawadankulama

After walking about 2 hours around the lake I felt a little hungry and a bit tired by holding the heavy gears. Walk has given me some good captures for a first time DSLR user. So I started heading back to where we started. On the way back I met some of my fellow members and all of them have collected some beautiful captures. Some had superb butterfly shots while others had managed to capture some difficult to capture bird species like common kingfisher.

It was really difficult to stop these nature lovers for the breakfast. It seemed like they have forgotten the hunger and had got lost in the beauty of the nature. It took about half an hour to make everyone gather for breakfast. We brought bread with dhal and sinisambala for breakfast. Everyone got around and had a good meal.

Adventure Srilanka Group at Nawadankulama

Adventure Srilanka Group at Nawadankulama

After breakfast we were discussing about the success of the morning session and everyone seemed so happy. After spending about another half an hour there, we started to head back to Anawilundawa. Plan was to take lunch from Anawilundawa junction and head to the Anawilundawa bird sanctuary. We had enough time so we stopped by several locations to capture the nature’s beauties.

Nawadankulama

Two of my friends trying to capture a bird. (Saranga and Prabath)

More scenary - Nawadankulama

Finally we got to Anawilundawa junction around 11.30 AM and ordered lunch from one of the hotels there. We asked them to prepare lunch and head to the sanctuary. Anawilundawa is one of the Ramsar wetlands in Sri Lanka. It was only about 500m to the sea side from Colombo – Puttalam main road situated in quite calm atmosphere with a lake complex of 7 reservoirs namely Anawilundawa, Pinkattiya, Wellawela, Maradansole, Irrakkawala/ Ihala Wewa, Suruwila and Maiyawa (Reference Neth Sanchare)

Anawilundawa Signboard with map

We spent about 2 hours walking around the place and shooting some interesting shots. Since it was mid-day there was not many birds around. We were expecting some more birds in the evening.

Purple Coot walking on water - Anawilundawa	Brahminy Kite - Anawilundawa
Peaseant Tailed Jacana - Anawilundawa	Anawilundawa Marsh

Unfortunately after lunch it started to rain. We did wait for about an hour expecting the rain to fade away but no luck this time. So at about 4 PM we decided to head back to Colombo and managed to get there by around 7pm. Even though the evening session was not as we expected, it was a memorable trip to Anawilundawa and Nawadankulama. I m looking forward to get back there again.