Who's this coming up the road?  None other than Charlie on tour, back in Sri Lanka yet again for the….is it the 5th time now.?  I am staying at Ravi's house again, its just great and I have spoken about it so often.

It was lovely feeling to see all my friends again yesterday and I received the usually very warm welcome from everyone including "dog" who unbelievably remembered me as well. Thats him in the top picture.  Last night I wandered up the Dolphin Hotel for a beer and to re-meet my old friends from behind the bar, that was lovely too….when I got back in to the road who was there waiting for me but "dog" and he wagged his tail and accompanied me down the road to keep me safe!

Cattle Egrets are one of the more more common and easy to see birds here, this one is searching for ghost crabs. and he gets successful.

I was up at dawn after a fractured, jet lagged night of sleep when you keep waking at all hours and not knowing what the time is, so at 6 I felt just as awful as I had at 3!  Never the less I climbed out of the air con into a reasonably nice morning and stumbled over to the restaurant….Ravi's new venture….and downed my coffee. My morning's exploration saw me revisiting the old haunts and I saw the usual favourites.  Blue tailed Bee-eater, Cattle Egret and Common Sandpiper.  I caught sight of a spectacular Sea Eagle, the first one I have seen here in Sri Lanka so it was good start although it was a disappointment that the Sea eagle didn't return after disappearing out of sight over the village next to the Oya…… that's river by the way.

I have seen Common Sandpiper on this old boat on every trip here, can't be a coincidence.

Whiskered Tern were fishing over the lagoon and there were fly-overs from  Parakeet, Red-vented Bulbul and Bablers . All in all, a promising start to the trip.  It's going to be even more special this time because my wife Jenny and son Tommy are flying out to spend the last 10 days with me next week.

This is a Red Vented Bulbul with a mouth full of berries.

We put out lots of free offerings for the birds this morning, banana and pineapple.  I had a nap mid-morning to shake off  of my jet lag and when I went out in to the garden later everything had been eaten. There is a Myna Bird nest in the eaves of the Dream house and the parents are coming constantly to feed their young. It's going to be a good trip!