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Trip Reports Archive » By Length » Three Days » Bird watching @ Bundala & Wirawila With the experts!

Bird watching @ Bundala & Wirawila With the experts!

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Bundala, Hambantota, Tissa Wewa, Tissamaharama, Weerawila, Three Days, January, Dry Zone, Wetlands, National Park, Birds, Wildlife, Scenic Drive, 2010, Natural Bath, Photograhy

Author: Ashan (216 Trips)

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Year and Month January, 2010
Number of Days Three day trip
Crew 10 (between 22-30 years of age, 6 YZA members)
Accommodation Weera Villa(Wirawila)
Transport A Van and a Safari Jeep(Suranaga-077690178) at Bundala
Activities Bird Watching, see other Wildlife, Photography 

1.   Explore Bundala and Wirawila bird sanctuaries
2.   Learning about Water birds & Forest Birds

Weather Clear Sky
Route Colombo -> Embilipitiya -> Nonagama  -> Wirawila   ->  Bundala–> Wirawila -> Tissa -> Suriyawewa -> Embilipitiya  ->  Colombo
Tips, Notes and Special remark
  • Do not carry Plastic items (Minimize), Make sure you bring back everything you took.
  • Don’t disturb wild life specially the monkeys and Wild buffalo’s & don’t get down from the safari jeep.
  • Carry Water because there is no water source in the park!
  • Ware Camouflaged clothes, do not shout!

Special thanks: Birds group Instructor of Young Zoologist Association (Sudheera) for the knowledge he shared with us

Photographic courtesy: Chinthaka and other crew members

Author Ashan
Comments Discuss this trip report, provide feedback or make suggestions at Lakdasun Forum on the thread 

  • Bird watching @ Bundala & Wirawila With the experts!

Wirawila Bird sanctuary

At last it was a trip to the dry zone. We left Maharagama on Friday at around 5p.m.and had dinner at Rathnapura, when we reached our rest place at Wirawila it was 11.30 p.m. Saturday early morning after enjoying the scenic Wirawila lake behind our rest place we left to Bundala!

Bundala National Park is an internationally important wintering ground for migratory water birds in Sri Lanka. Bundala harbors 197 species of Birds, the highlight being the Greater Flamingo(WHICH IS NOT SEEN RECENTLY), which migrate in large flocks. Bundala was designated a wildlife sanctuary in 1969 and redesignated to a national park on 4 January 1993. In 1991 Bundala became the first wetland to be declared as a Ramsar site in Sri Lanka. In 2005 the national park was designated as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO, the fourth biosphere reserve in Sri Lanka.The national park is situated 245 km southeast of Colombo.

1.6km to Bundala

1.6km to Bundala

From the entrance it was all about wild life, majority of our group members were bird lovers (addicts) and I was the rookie. Here are some photos taken at Bundala.

Little Green Bee Eater

Little Green Bee Eater

Rosy Starling

Rosy Starling

Indian darter

Indian darter

Painted Stroke

Painted Stroke

Asian Openbill

Asian Openbill

Red-wattled Lapwing

Red-wattled Lapwing

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallow

Black winged Stilt

Black winged Stilt

Take off .......

Take off .......

Whiskered tern

Whiskered tern

Egret

Egret

Hawk Eagle

Hawk Eagle

Crocodile

Crocodile

Grey Langur

Grey Langur

Bubalus bubalis - Wild Water Buffalo

Bubalus bubalis - Wild Water Buffalo

Grey Langur in thirst!

Grey Langur in thirst!

 Coelognathus Helena or Trinket snake -  Kata Kaluwa

Coelognathus Helena or Trinket snake - Kata Kaluwa

Try and name them :-)

Try and name them 🙂

Black headed ibis

Black headed ibis

Spotted Deer

Spotted Deer

Brown Speckled Whipsnake

Brown Speckled Whipsnake

The crew

The crew

Pelicans

Pelicans

shooting the eagle!

shooting the eagle!

The Crested Serpent Eagle (Spilornis cheela)

The Crested Serpent Eagle (Spilornis cheela)

The Crested Serpent Eagle (Spilornis cheela)

The Crested Serpent Eagle (Spilornis cheela)

After some bird watching at the salt lagoons we came to the Bundala beach which was simply fantastic & we had our prepared lunch here. But unfortunately we ran short of water so had to exit the park bit early.

Bundala beach and Lagoon

Bundala beach and Lagoon

Bundala beach was simply fantastic

Bundala beach was simply fantastic

We came back to the ticket counter and went through the specimens at the museum & had a rest at the observation centre near the ticket counter. I personally think that if they develop this place it would be a great tourist attraction! The view was marvelous from this point. After having a rest we decided to travel along the Kirinda road in search of a rare bird(not documented recently) and guess what we were so lucky to have a glimpse of that bird(Name cannot be stated). We also walked around few lakes in search of Water Birds and returned back to our rest place at Wirawila.

Resting @ the observation centre

Resting @ the observation centre

View of Embilikala Kalapuwa from observation centre

View of Embilikala Kalapuwa from observation centre

Museum at the ticket centre

Museum at the ticket centre

Life at Bundala

Life at Bundala

More beautiful scenary

More beautiful scenary

Moments

Moments

Next day it was all about scenery so we got up early and walked about 1 km towards Wellawaya side and we came across the Wirawila Lake and the scenery was magnificent, the Kataragama Mountains were seen clearly and yes those brought about a special meaning for the Landscape mode photographs. After doing some early morning bird watching at Wirawila bird sanctuary we left to Tissa wewa and found a nice place to have a bath.

We returned back to our rest place for lunch and left Wirawila with some wonderful memories.

Life @ Wirawila

Life @ Wirawila

Wirawila Wewa

Wirawila Wewa

Choose the odd one!

Choose the odd one!

Early morning reflection

Early morning reflection

Macro

Macro

Cattle Egrets attending a presidential meeting

Cattle Egrets attending a presidential meeting 🙂

Salmon Arab

Salmon Arab

Tissamaharama Stupa

Tissamaharama Stupa

Tissa Wewa

Tissa Wewa

Joy in water

Joy in water

The Crew

The Crew

Part of Bundala that we visited

Part of Bundala that we visited

Wirawila Bird sanctuary

Wirawila Bird sanctuary

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