TomKal foto

There was no such destination as Sri Lanka on my list of travel plans. This time Tadeusz and Piotr  were those who took the initiative. Our previous trips were interesting, nice and always full of close encounters with nature – so I did not hesitate and made my mind - we have to go! From the very beginning of my stay in Sri Lanka, hour by hour, day after day the country and its inhabitants convinced me that this place was really worth visiting. From our perspective, of course, the most important was to come into contact with nature. The wildlife and the multiplicity of species, often new to us - evoke emotions for which it is worth enduring the hardships of traveling and photographing. The hardship, as to take photos and create the presented galleries, it was necessary to accept a fairly simple but rigorous rules during our stay. An early wake up, usually 4:30, at sunrise, when light conditions are the best and the birds are most active. So it is needed to be around 6 am in the place of their occurrence. Well, breakfast in the car (cheese sandwich, hard-boiled egg and banana) often had to be enough until noon hours. The temperature was another challenge for us. High humidity with temperatures of about 30 degrees was acutely felt. Taking photos of birds is often called bloodless shooting. This time, literally "bloody shooting" happened. The ubiquitous leeches did not overlook any of us, and everybody was drained of blood. There was no way to protect ourselves from the leeches in humid, warm forests. Whenever one stopped for a moment to take pictures, or when it happened that we had to lean against the ground, or kneel on the ground - it was no question whether the leeches were on, but how many of them. All these inconveniences were made up by close contact with nature. In general, the methods  of shooting there can be divided into two types. One of them is taking photos out of the car, a well-know safari in nature reserves without the possibility of getting off the car. And the other way of shooting in generally available areas, places open to the public. When photographing along roads, among rice fields, we always met a smile and sympathetic attitude of the Sri Lankans. They are really nice, friendly and ready to share what they have observed in the area and show the places where it is worth approaching to photograph a bird. They do not mind, or even like to have their picture taken. A really welcoming ambience. With such hints and thanks to our competent guides, most of the presented photos were created. None of the published photos were taken from the hide or in camouflage. Of course, sometimes it took hours to search for and find birds, but it had nothing to do with camouflaging, as we often do in Poland. Here, contact with nature is quite different and has another dimension. The farmers working in the rice fields are always accompanying by several herons, which keep a distance of a few meters and count on an easy meal, while the farmer is shoveling the mud. The Lankans often lay fruit or rice for the birds, despite the fact that the birds can not complain about the lack of food in the area. There are insects, fruit and flowers in abundance. Around the whole country shooting birds is strictly forbidden throughout the year. These are probably the factors that make Sri Lanka an interesting place to visit for "birdwatchers". When writing this report, the specific road traffic in Sri Lanka cannot be overlooked. It is so different, so exotic for a European that it has to be mentioned. Usually nice, smiling, friendly Lankans when driving moped, car or tuk-tuk, show their temperament and imagination they have as road users. First of all I have to point out how important a horn is in traffic in Sri Lanka. A car or scooter without a horn would be like a car without an engine in Europe, exaggerating a bit, maybe. The average Sri Lankan uses a horn as many times per day as I do for a period of 10 years, driving a lot in Poland. But the roads there are quite specific. They are of good quality but quite winding, narrow and without roadsides. Thus the horn is used before taking the turning. If you want to signal overtaking it is also more natural that you hoot rather than use a blinker. When you want to thank for helpful behavior on the road - use horn (of course!) instead of hazard-warning signals. In addition, there were ubiquitous, numerous dogs and very often cows lying on asphalt, on the edge of the road, ignoring cars and tuk-tuks that were passing by at speed of several dozen kilometers an hour, a dozen or so centimeters away from them. Initially, we were very worried and looked back to see whether our car did not run over or did not hit the animal, but we got used to such views. Despite the dynamic traffic, overtaking as the third, uphill, with omnipresent horns, for two weeks we have not seen a single accident, not a single driven animal. It seemed to be quite chaotic for us, how different, but just Sri Lankan and it was better not to be a driver there.
When on my way home I was considering what species should be assigned to introductory information about  the Sri Lanka expedition. On this trip, we were focused on endemics and the quality of the pictures in general. It is no more my goal to increase the number of species, although, when it comes to endemics or rare birds such galleries with sufficient or documentary content may eventually be built. This time that is not the case. The best showcase of Sri Lanka and recommendation for our guides is the multitude of satisfying photos. I invite you to the gallery of Sri Lanka FAUNA (link), where I put a few dozen of the most interesting photos from our trip. There are 34 endemic bird species in Sri Lanka. Albeit with variable results, it was possible to photograph more than a half of them during a two-week stay. I managed to photograph the Serendib scops owl, which was discovered in 2004, and its population is estimated at several hundred individuals. The gallery of this species consists of the single photo, in memory  of this amazing meeting, but it is not interesting enough for the leading gallery with the introductory text. As usually, each gallery set after the trip to Sri Lanka in the information part includes a list of those newly created and those where quality changes were made. So many galleries created after trip to Thailand, so far documentaries or of sufficient quality, now has a new, better, more interesting version. You can find here several dozen galleries that were reconstructed. Probably also a number of recordings I managed to make, mainly the voices of birds, has reached a record-high level. Unfortunately, we often photographed in quite busy places and it was difficult to clear the soundtrack from the sounds of civilization during recording. On the list, the letter T in parentheses after the name of the animal stands for ‘text’ and means that information is attached, and the letter G – means the recorded voice of the animal. It was quite surprising for me that we have found there 3 new bird species belonging to the Polish fauna, which is a very nice and an important accent for me. Of course, the fauna of Poland counts twice! Despite the considerable distance from our country (11-hour flight) many species from the Sri Lankan list of bird fauna are the same as those on the list of our birds. The endemic Sri Lankans on the list are marked in bold, underlined font.
And finally greetings to my traveling companions: Tadeusz, Piotr and Krzysztof, and thanks for the spirit and atmosphere of our trip, which probably make us smiling when we come back to the memories of this trip. I send my greetings also to our Sri Lankan, nice, competent guides – Hettie, Chadima and Indunil. Who knows, maybe this was not our last meeting? It was great time, many interesting photos were taken, and we visited only a part of the southern Sri Lanka. Finally, with admiration, with thanks to the Sri Lankans, I have chosen the Sri Lankan junglefowl - Their endemic, national bird, to include the introductory information on the trip to its gallery.
Sri Lankan junglefowls were seen several times in a fairly dense, humid forest. Like most birds in Sri Lanka, they were not too skittish. The light was good and I have a photo  material to create a varied gallery. During my stay in Thailand, also in the forest, I wanted to photograph the ancestor (supposedly) of poultry in the world (red junglefowl). Unfortunately, there the birds were so skittish that no picture was taken. For a change, in Sri Lanka we could admire these beautiful birds that we sometimes saw in the neighborhood of households. Regrettably, only when we tried to shorten the distance the bird disappeared in the forest. I invite you to the gallery, please note that the list is also a collection of links.