Despite some unexpected changes in the weather and flight delays we had a successful tour with almost all the target endemic mammals and plenty of birds. 36 mammals, 148 birds and 15 reptiles and amphibians were recorded during the tour.
We had a challenge in recording the Red-slender Loris due to heavy rains although it was definitely heard and the Golden Palm Civet and the Yellow-striped Chevrotain were not to be located with the down pours.
Sadly, in Sigiriya the Rusty-spotted Cat didn’t stay long enough for the clients to get a look at it but we made a valiant effort to search for it during all our night drives.
Our star cat of the tour was the Fishing Cat, it stayed with us for almost an hour, cleaning itself near a reservoir bank, constantly looking out for any activity in the water and also came out in full view as it walked along the road.
Jungle Cat showed well in many of the locations we tried for it, often sleeping in the middle of rice fields or walking across them in good view.
All our day time safaris to the National Parks were immensely successful with sightings of a Tusker, an active Leopard and a Sloth Bear that was busy digging up grub mere meters away from our jeep.
In Kalpitiya we had amazing views of thousands of Spinner Dolphins and had brilliant sightings of Bryde’s Whale, Sei Whale and Minke Whale.
Birding was also very good as rice fields been plowed attracted hundreds of birds including Asian Openbill, Woolly-necked Stork, Brahminy Kite and Brown Fish Owl.