Today was a special one for me, quite a different experence and one that I had been looking forward too since I quickly cobbled together the trip a couple of weeks ago. I met Amila Salgado and his air conditioned taxi for trip 40k up the coast to a RAMSA wetland at 8 this morning. It was quite an experience that had me gasping at times. I won't itemise the whole itinerary….. how tedious that would be, but at a later date there will be a full trip report and contact details for Amila if you want to be in the company, as I was today of a guide with an intimate knowledge of the local wildlife and birds. I booked his services because I wanted take a short cut to the best sites and then learn something of the local birds without having to spend weeks getting to grips with things. I now know what is common, what is possible and what is considered to be a good find. Our first stop was a roadside wetland area which wasn't particularly exciting and it was weird when he "scoped" a bird in the distance, stepped back and told me what he had focused on and invited me to look. Not really my thing, but it might be yours. We watched Pheasant Tailed Jacana and a few other water birds. If you are a twitcher then this would be ideal for you, I am not and I found the hurried way that we put the scope on the bird, menatally ticked it off and then hurried back to the car for our next stop a bit alien to my usual "modus operandi". Never the less we saw some great birds and I took some great shots which I will tell you more about in the next few posts. Internet connection will fail soon, and battery life is not infinite so for the time being please be content with a selection of today's beauties.
This species breeds in Turkey and apparently a good bird to see here in Sri Lanka.
Wildlife in a Suburban Garden 
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