United Kingdom

SRI LANKA HAS SOME EXCITING WILDLIFE AND A GOOD RANGE OF ENDEMIC BIODIVERSITY, INCLUDING 25 - 30 BIRD SPECIES. THE LOVELY COUNTRY IS NOT EASY TO GET AROUND HOWEVER - AN INDEPENDENT TRIP INVOLVING CAR HIRE IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR A NUMBER OF REASONS!

HOWEVER MANY GOOD QUALITY BIRD / WILDLIFE TOUR COMPANIES OPERATE HERE, INCLUDING OUR CHOICE - THE EXCELLENT 'WALKWITHJITH'. OUR GUIDE, UPALI, WAS VERY KNOWLEDGEABLE ON MOST GROUPS OF WILDLIFE SPECIES SEEN, FOUND US ALL BUT ONE OF THE ENDEMICS, WAS A VERY NICE MAN AND A VERY PATIENT ONE TOO. HE HAD TO BE. AS WELL AS FINDING US MANY DIFFICULT BIRDS HE HAD TO DEAL WITH MY PHOTOGRAPHIC REQUESTS! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Having been to several parts of the Indian Subcontinent on previous trips, Louise and I decided it was time to visit Sri Lanka.  We contacted Manoj Vardhan at Vardhan's Individual and Group Tours (VIGT), who had put five trips together for us before, and he liaised with Prasanjith (“Jith”) Caldera of 'Walk With Jith' to act as our ground agent.

Just back from my trip with Mark Edgeller and Ollie Wardman, and it was a good one. We had some poor weather but not enough to spoil things and it allowed us to see all 33 endemics plus take a half-day whale watching trip in just 9 days:

Sri Lanka is recognized as an easy birding destination as the island is quite small and easy to navigate. Roads are fairly good and the birding sites are quite accessible. There are still quite large areas of forest and the current 33 endemics and many regional (southern India and Sri Lanka) make a trip here quite appealing. Sri Lanka also has quite a rich cultural history and many historical sites are well worth visiting. With that in mind my wife and I spent twelve days touring the country.

We had a very enjoyable time in Sri Lanka and our guide proved to be a superb guide for the birds, other wildlife and cultural sites. He made the holiday an excellent experience for us all and we appreciated the great efforts he made to find all the birds he possibly could for us. We only missed 3 targets and all of them were almost impossible to find, no Pied Thrushes - we were too early, Scaly Thrushes weren't calling and were impossible to find and Serendip Scops Owls did not co-operate despite great efforts by our guide and the local guides in Sinharaja.  If we come back to Sri Lanka we will be delighted if our guide were our guide again.
 
We will write a trip report and once it is complete we will send you a copy for your website and we look forward to meeting you again in August at the Birdfar.
 
Thanks again for organising an excellent trip for us

Paul Seligman and Janet Dewes with Prasanjith

This travell report is by Paul Seligman who travelled with Janet Dawes in Feruary 2005. Our sincere thanks to him for providing this report.

Nearly 200 species of birds were observed in this trip!

... Another beautiful setting on the beach we watched Terns ,gulls & sea eagles .The Icing on the cake was a boat trip at the end of the day prior to our return flight home. Through the Mangrove swamps we came close to Black bittern, Yellow bittern, Striated heron and many of the birds we had attempted to photograph this time getting excellent results. Indeed it wqs a good job we were using digital photography otherwise it would have been very expensive session. All in All a perfect trip organised at a very reasonable price by a great leader well done Jith & Sammy. ...

This was the best trip I have been on, we managed to pack so much in over the fifteen days all thanks to the meticulous planning of our guide Prasanjith Caldera. The food, accommodation, the mix of culture, wildlife, scenery and attractions were all excellent. I would have no hesitation in recommending “Jith” as he is known to anyone wishing to visit this beautiful country.

See more photos of the tour by Mary and Martin here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11426611@N03/

09th March – Arrival

10th March – Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. Birding stops on the route to Anuradhapura – Pleasant tailed Jacanas (saw many later but never tired of watching this stunning bird), White throated Kingfisher (same), Grey...