Ranjith Premasiri a sharp-eyed local guide from Sinharaja rang me on 18 Jan at around 10.15 a.m. with the ‘breaking news’ that a day roost of a Sri Lanka Bay Owl Phodilus assimilis had been discovered by him, while accompanying a couple of British bird watchers and their local bird tour guide, the day before. And with the same breath he added that, it was re-spotted in a different tree today!
According to him, when it was first seen it had been out in the open on a tree sapling at almost eye level beside a track leading to a few village houses. The two guides concerned had misidentified it as Serendib Scops Owl!
Lester Perera, a local birder and Vajira Wijeygoonawardene, a photographer who had been at Sinharaja at that time, had heard the news & visited the site shortly afterwards to find a Sri Lanka Bay Owl instead!
I thanked the two informants & told them that I am on my way and soon rang my local tuktuk driver, Sarath to come to pick me up, ready for a long trip. We were on the road by 10.30 a.m. and after buying enough social lubricants to quench the thirst on the way & to celebrate in the evening, we arrived at Sinharaja by 2.15 p.m. after way too many unscheduled stops en route.
I met Ranjith and his colleague Tilak who took me to the site and I was soon looking at my first Sri Lanka Bay Owl! What-tey-bird! It was about 5 m above the ground and was about 12 m away from the track. I quickly mounted my digi-scoping gear & took some record shots.
It was facing its back towards the road and every now and then looked over the shoulders to give that real owlish glance. It would also go into a rocking motion – slowly moving its body sideways (like a Forest Wagtail), presumably to ease of the strain on the legs after perching motionless for sometime. Unfortunately, it was terribly overcast by the time I arrived at the scene, and I could only take a few record shots shown above before the rain started belting down. When it eased off after an hour or so it began to get steamy, hampering further photography. Before this I had already said good-bye to Sarath who left unconvinced of my explanations as to why I took all this trouble over a single owl!
Soon afterwards more birders & photographers flocked to the site; thanks to Ranjith the Reuters. These included Uditha Hettige and Chinthaka de Silva and Palitha Anthony. As for me it turned out to be top lifer for them too! I also met Lester and Vajira who correctly identified it yesterday. Light kept on deteriorating. I lingered on to see it leaving the roost joined by Thandula Jayaratne, arguably the best birder among the local guides in Sinharaja who was only informed of the ‘news’ by me. As the dusk approached all the visitors around left leaving only me and Thandula at the site. I had it focused in my scope to observe it in the deteriorating light.
As the dusk was approaching it was moving slightly along the perch and making rocking motions more often. It was also seen stretching its wings several times indicating it was ready to leave the roost pretty soon. The calls of Sri Lanka Frogmouth filled the air announcing the dusk by around 6.20 p.m. However, the Owl didn’t leave the roost until around 7.12 p.m. by which time the dusk has given way to night completely.
After it had left the roost we remained at the site hoping to take a sound recording of it. No luck. As we were about to call it a day, a rustle in a nearby Jak tree caught both our attention and I flashed my torch to see....you guessed right a Sri Lanka Bay Owl. We couldn’t be sure whether it was the same bird or a different one. It was glancing down very eagerly and seemed to be looking for its first meal of the day and seemed oblivious to our presence. It also flew about in different branches and after doing so walked a bit along them looking down all the time. Using this opportunity, I tried my first every night time digi-scoping shots taken of any bird, which turned out better than I expected.
Close to the original site of discovery and the tree it was observed during the night time was a dead Fish Tail Palm tree Caryota urens with an hollow top and as Sri Lanka Bay Owl is known to nest it tree holes, I suspected that this Bay Owl may be nesting at this site. However, we couldn’t see it reaching this dead tree. Finally at around 7.55 a.m. it flew in the direction of the river, prompting us to finally call it a day! Dinner, celebrations & overnight stay in Thandula’s residence.
Thandula and I both reached the site, early morning next day. Despite searching the nearby trees we could not locate the bird. Soon, birders and photographers who were here yesterday plus more who had come from Colombo this morning were at the site. They included Namal Kamlgoda and Gihan Rajapakse both equipped with the latest Digital cameras & monster telephoto lenses.
We were all assembled near the Jak fruit tree in which the Owl was seen by Thandula and me last night. Apparently Namal has a conference to attend in Kandalama Hotel, in Dambulla (close to north central Sri Lanka) this afternoon and had come here (south western interior, Sri Lanka) 'on the way'....And one mad keen birder had arrived here yesterday by a tuktuk! We were swapping such stories and showing off each others pictures of this high profile rarity. The newly arrived were making no real effort in looking for it. Perhaps the photographers in them were overawed by the sheer number of birders present & thought somebody will find it. The ones who had seen it already were only happy to brag about the sightings yesterday & engage in small talk. Perhaps given its rarity, it was too much to expect for a Sri Lanka Bay owl to be sighted for 3 consecutive days around the same site.
Soon it was time for Namal & Gihan to hit the road sadly empty-handed. The rest of us also went in our own ways. Taking advantage of the morning activity, I went on a walk down the same track looking for other birds, and was rewarded with a great sighting of a Chestnut-backed Owle, which I also photographed reasonably okay.
One of those pics appeared in an article in Oriental Bird Club’s BirdingAsia, Number 7 (June 2007) titled ‘Identification of Asian Glaucidium owlets’ done by Mathias Ritschard & Manuel Schweizer.
Ambling back to the Bay Owl site, I noticed few birders & Thandula were still lingering around the same place where I left them. Knowing his antics, Thandula’s smirk was a give away. I knew he had found the Owl. The question was where? The answer came after a teasing pause. Jesus, Mary and Joseph!, it was in the Jak Fruit Tree!! – the very spot we were all standing & doing everything but finding it! To be fair by all of us, it was visible only from a narrow angle looking from the main trail & the spot was well concealed by foliage, which is why we missed it!! (I hear you say "explain...explain..."). This Jak Tree, was bordering a tea garden in one side and & a separate track that branches off the main track on the other. Moving around its perch, we could find about 3 good angles in which the bird was showing well.
We observed it in the same night (19 Jan) too and observed that the bird left the roost when it was completely dark at around 7.20 p.m. Thandula and I had the company a few more birders at the site. We observed the bird to be flying between the Jak fruit tree and another tree that was close by, middle of which was the dead Fish Tail Palm that I first suspected to be the nest tree. After observing it for a while, we all left the site without stressing the bird too much. Later on during a separate observation, Uditha had observed a Bay Owl approaching the top of the dead Palm making a squeaky note with a second bird responding in a similar manner from inside the hole and continuing to do so. He had also seen this bird that approached the tree hole entering it. So, I was right; they were nesting!
Post Script: Uditha, Palitha & the Deepal Warakagoda, the Serendib Scops Owl discoverer met with a dangerous road accident in February while driving to Sinharaja to observe these nesting Bay Owls. This had happened when their 4 WD vehicle was skidded several metres off the road into a ditch when trying to avoid a head-on collision with a truck. Two persons suffered considerable injuries. However, considering the circumstances, it was a lucky escape as it could have been a lot worse. This unfortunate incident prevented further monitoring of the nest by them. I stopped my night time observations after 18 & 19 Jan. as the local forest rangers weren’t too happy in visitors causing ‘disturbance’ to animals during night.
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2 comments:
Your Sri Lankan Bay Owl looks a lot like our Barn owls but with bushier eyebrows! I like the chesnut-backed owl too. This is quite a story of dedicated birding. I'm glad your friends weren't permantenty injured or killed in that accident!
That is because they both are in the family Tytonidae. Yes not many people would travel in a tuktuk for 4 hours to see an Owl. But then not many self-respecting birders would miss an opportunity to see a Sri Lanka Bay Owl, which is arguably the rarest Owl in Sri Lanka.
The trio who met with that dangerous accident had among them Sri Lanka's top birders, photographers and naturalists. I visited them in the hospital and alos saw the site of accident. We were all glad that they escaped with a few fractures and wounds considering the serious nature of the accident.
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