Birding with Yong Ding Li & friends

Yong Ding Li, a 23 year old Singaporean birder had seen 1,217 bird species in Asia by the time he came to Sri Lanka. Ding Li is determined to break Ben King’s record in Asia! He was referred to me by Enoka Kudavidanage who is doing her PhD work in NUS where Ding Li is also a student and by Jimmy Chew, a top bird and natural history Photographer in Singapore. Although Ding Li at first wanted to do a backpacking style birding trip, inviting me to join him in a few important places such as Sinharaja rain forest, I was able to lure him with a more tempting structured itinerary, which also offered scope to invite a few others.

.

The result was a birding trip done between 10-19 Dec 2007 with 5 other Singaporean birders joining in! They included Ding Li’s birding buddy; Albert Low aged 21, who had seen 1,107 bird species in Asia and 1,500 species in the world by the time he came to Sri Lanka. Others were Alan Owyong; a keen birder & a photographer who had visited Sri Lanka a couple of times, Alfred Chia; a serious birder & a keen photographer with a sharp eye and an even sharper wit, Willie Foo; a keen birder and a photographer & Yang Pah Liang; a keen birder who had travelled extensively.

We combined several key birding sites namely Kithulgala, Sinharaja, Morapitiya, Udawalawe National Park, Tissamaharama, Nuwara Eliya and a host of local patches & finally a bit of site seeing in Kandy before heading back to Katunayake for our final night. Ding Li and Albert Low stayed on for two more days of birding and cultural explorations. During this extension, Albert and I did a Water birds day tour north of the airport covering Chilaw Sandspits, Annaiwilundawa Ramsar Wetland, Palawi Saltpans and finally the massive Nawadamkulama tank.

Our final trip list consisted of a total of 221 species seen. Our top birding highlights seen included Green-billed Coucal, Chestnut-backed Owlet, Sri Lanka Grey Hornbill, Sri Lanka Green Pigeon, Red-faced Malkoha, Sri Lanka Blue Magpie, White-faced Starling, Sri Lanka Spurfowl, Ashy-headed Laughingthrush, Spot-winged Thrush, Brown-capped Babbler, Sri Lanka Scimitar Babbler, Malabar Trogon, Sri Lanka Frogmouth, Brown-backed Needletail, Besra, Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush, Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush, Sri Lanka Bush Warbler, Sri Lanka Wood Pigeon, Dull-blue Flycatcher, Kashmir Flycatcher, Pied Thrush, Indian Blue Robin, Slaty-legged Crake, Indian Blackbird, Hill Swallow, Blue-faced Malkoha, Osprey, Jungle Owlet, Brown Fish Owl, Jungle Prinia, Yellow-crowned Woodpecker, Indian Nightjar, Blyth’s Pipit, Indian Scops Owl, Malabar Pied Hornbill, Sri Lanka Woodshrike, Spot-billed Pelican, Thick-billed Flowerpecker, Indian Pitta, Lesser Cuckoo, White-naped Woodpecker, Indian Think-knee, Indian Pygmy Woodpecker & Yellow-wattled Lapwing.

Albert’s Water birds tour with me produced two Eurasian Oystercatchers, many Sanderlings, Great Thick-knee, Caspian, White-winged, Little and Lesser Crested Terns, Lesser Sand Plover, Curlew Sandpiper, Little Stint, Grey Plover, Pacific Golden Plover, Kentish Plover, Brown-headed Gull, Garganey, Watercock & Indian Reed Warbler. We managed to bag 31 of the 33 endemic birds plus many of the sought-after migrants and sub-continental specialties. Our top dip was Serendib Scops Owl, which we managed only to hear in Kithulgala. On account of this Albert Low observed that it be referred as Serendip Scops Owl in the final list! The other endemic that eluded us rather tragically was the Crimson-backed Flameback!

We had to contend with rainy weather; at times rather heavy on certain days of the tour due the period of our travel coinciding with an untimely monsoonal peak. Before this trip, I was quite surprised as to how many dry & sunny days I enjoyed in November this year, which was rather unusual as this month is particularly rainy due to the onset of the North East monsoon, which brings rain to the dry zone (3/4 of the island) as well as the wet zone (the balance 1/3). The intensity of rain expected in November was clearly not there this year as confessed by a farmer in that I chatted with in a dry zone village. It seemed like all the rain delayed in November had been saved for December this year and more precisely during our travel days! The heavy monsoonal rain caused extensive floods in some areas in the north central and eastern districts in the dry zones after a lapse of many years soon after the tour. This was especially due to spill gates in certain tanks (reservoirs) having to be opened due to very high water levels.

Such bad weather encountered on birding tours do not always dampen the spirits completely as some people use that time wisely to follow other more ebullient indoor pursuits. In an evening in which rain called off play, few of us were gathered in Martin’s balcony sipping tea, gazing at the rain forest in rain when somebody suggested that we played Scrabble. There were a couple of English visitors who were marooned at Martin’s balcony with us. They were to travel to Galle to see the cricket, which was to start in a few days. They joined us to form three teams with the Englishman and Ding Li making one team, Albert and the English lady teaming up for the 2nd and myself battling alone in the 3rd. After a few close calls some needing to go to the 3rd umpire & having to put up with sledging & such 'mental disintegration' tactics, I came from behind to thrash both the combined commonwealth teams just in my last word scored by dropping an 'O' next to an idling 'Z' to do ‘ZO’; earning 26 in the process! Needless to say this was challenged in one voice and more sledging followed that would have honestly put Ricky Ponting’s Stralian team to shame! The final score read; Ding Li’s team – 177, Albert’s team – 196 & myself – 209.

I have never come across an overseas birder who knew all the birds that were being observed by the scientific names and Ding Li constantly dazzled me with his brilliant ability to remember scientific names of not only Sri Lankan birds but also birds across Asia, which I thought was pretty amazing! Ding Li and Albert discussed day’s sightings lengthily and took extensive notes at the end of the day. I quite enjoyed their sense of humour; especially how they always seem to say “It’s a great day for mankind” or “It’s a momentous day for mankind” after bagging a lifer! This soon became two of the popular phrases of the tour!

Our non-birding highlights came in the form of Yellow-striped Chevrotain (Moschiola kathygre), which we encountered on the trail while driving up to Martin’s at night and Bear Monkey (Trachypithecus vetulus monticola) in Nuwara Eliya.

Considering the inclement weather we had to deal with and the fact that we didn’t visit three National Parks usually covered on standard birding tours namely Horton Plains, Yala & Bundala due to this being a short tour with time constraints and other considerations, all were happy with what we achieved at the end.

I am thankful for Ding Li for putting the group together while being busy preparing for exams & bringing a few back issues of 'Nature Watch' of NSS for me. I am also thankful for Alan for doing some shopping for me and sharing his past experiences in Sri Lanka and Alfred for sharing a few photo techniques during the tour. I am thankful for the all the participants for bringing together tons of Asian birding experience to make this tour a success despite challenges faced. Finally special thanks to my friends; Enoka and Jimmy for recommending me! Ding Li left Sri Lanka boosting his Asian tally by 63 ending up at 1,280 seen. Albert Low left Sri Lanka high, raking in 91 lifers to stand at 1,198 Asian birds seen.

Edit: The newly rediscovered Sri Lankan breeding resident; Marshall's Iora was seen briefly on this tour by a few of us at Lunugamwehera and therefore it went into the final trip list. Subsequently, I had very convincing views of this on my Absolute Birding tour in Feb, 2008. For details of this sighting click here.