Sri Lanka Day 8

Our last trip was to the Kaludiya Pokuna Forest near an old Buddhist site and again gave us the chance to walk around a good deal in search of new species.

Once again there was a lot of blue flashes from blue mormon and common jay (of which I got the best shot to date) and we caught sight of the attractive mime butterfly, a new addition.  Blue glassy tiger was another one I got in the camera, probably by now forgetting what I'd photographed and what I hadn't.

Blue glassy tiger

Common jay

Once again also I fell victim to a bit of elusive butterfly chasing when a couple of chestnut streaked sailors turned up but all I got was a blurry in-flight shot rather and an unconvincing profile of a bedraggled specimen when it settled. The other new sightings were the tamil yeoman and the white-banded awl, plus I got another snap of the peacock pansy.

Chestnut streaked sailor

Peacock pansy

However, it should be added that the butterfly we saw most of today and everyday since we left the wet zone  was the common crow. This butterfly was absolutely everywhere in big numbers and, by the last few days we weren't even paying them much attention. There was also an interesting black and white day-flying moth which I don't have a record of but it was quite a striking wee fellow.

Moth

By Day 8 we were almost dividing into a group of three who were chasing butterflies and the other three who were more focussed on birds, some of which I missed.  I was however pleased to spot a rosy starling in flight as I have often hoped to see one somewhere in Europe.  Apparently they are on the increase in Sri Lanka but I think that no-one else saw it.  There was also further confirmation of the white-browed fantail, which I had seen taking refuge in treetops on a couple of occasions when no-one was around to confirm.

A lot of the birds replicated previous sightings but I was pleased to see a black kite once again.

I couln't leave without getting a photograph of one of the shelters the rice farmers use at night when they are on the lookout for wild elephants.  We saw several of these.  It seems elephants are very keen on rice as it nears harvesting time and can cause mayhem.

Elephant shelter

Putting down bait for the butterflies didn't work today, so eventually we started the trail back to Katanayike via lunch.  There was still time to see this land monitor and nesting sea eagles en route.

Land monitor

Sea eagles