Travelling Light – Photographing Light
13 March 2020
This morning we returned to our preferred Yala Block 5. It was a little quieter today perhaps due to the extreme heat which really does make a large part of the day fairly sterile when it comes to birding and no doubt the Leopards were also avoiding the heat and thus also us unfortunately.
12 March 2020
We were a little uncertain whether to bother with Yala Block 1 but given that we had plenty of time we thought we would, so at dawn we joined the long queue of jeeps waiting to enter the park, not a promising sign from our perspective but time would tell.
11 March 2020
Bundala National Park today. Bundala is an internationally important wetland area, it was the first RAMSAR designated site in Sri Lanka.
As usual we were at the gate before dawn.
10 March 2020
A day in Yala. Yala National Park is the second largest but far away most visited national park in Sri Lanka. The park is split into a number of blocks some of which can be visted and some which cannot. The vast majority of visitors to the park take a safari in Block 1, the coastal part of the park, the reason being that you supposedly stand the best chance of seeing Leopard which, for most people, appears to be all that they are interested in. The result of this is that Block 1 is frankly over-run with jeeps which does tend to somewhat spoil the experience.
Continue reading “Yala Block 5 (Lunugamvehera National Park)”
9 March 2020
On the road again today heading south to our base in Tissamaharama gateway to the likes of Yala and Bundala National Parks.
7 March 2020
Next on the itinerary was the highland town of Nuwara Eliya and from there a trip to the Horton Plains National Park.
6 March 2020
Our first full day at Kitulgala and up at the crack of dawn for some endemic owl hunting.
5 March 2020
A long, hot and winding drive south today in preparation for a few days at one of Sri Lanka’s birding hotspots the wet zone forest at Kitulgala.
4 March 2020
Birding around Kandy means the Royal Botanical Gardens and the Udawatta Kelle Sanctuary – we visited the gardens in the morning and the sanctuary in the afternoon.
2 March 2020
After a hectic couple of weeks we decided to have a fairly lazy day with just some early morning and late afternoon birding around Habarana.
28th February 2020
Following our 2 days in Wilpattu we had a transfer day over to our home for the next few days near Habarana. Habarana is the gateway town for the Minneriya National Park one of the best spots to see Asian Elephant on the island but more of that tomorrow.
27th February 2020
More birds – Willpattu really was heaving with life on our second day in the park.
Continue reading “Wilpattu National Park – Day 2 (Birds Part 2)”
I was busy photographing the Oyster sheds at La Baudissier when I noticed a Barn Swallow shooting in and out of a gap in one of the sheds, presumably feeding some nestlings. Up for a challenge I thought this might be a good opportunity to once again test out the 6K functionality of the G9.
The funny thing about the Hoopoe is that it is one of those birds that if you go looking for them you will never find them. They are common here on Fuerteventura, although less so at this time of year when I think they must be sitting, and yet I have really struggled to find one to photograph.
Who knew that Stone Curlews yawn ?
Well this chap was clearly so bored with having my PL 100-400 poked in his general direction that he had a yawn and nigh on fell asleep !
More bird photography today, no particular targets just a question of what was about. Unfortunately as with most recent days here in the Canary Islands it has been exceptionally windy and hence most things were hunkered down resulting in few decent targets. However I did manage to capture some nice shots of Fuerteventura’s only endemic bird the Fuerterventura Chat (a 1st winter male) and also an extremely handsome Spanish Sparrow that was having a good old sing song.
Not the most obvious location for a wildlife safari but when needs must the migrant photographer must make do with what’s around.
A Good Place to Stand 