After the very successful pelagic trip from Mirissa, everything has returned to normal. With university work taking over most of my time, I could not do any birding trips during the last few months of my first university year, which ended on July 2nd. However, I did not miss the chance to use the Global Big Day on May 8th as an excuse to get out of our current home in Thalpe and do some birding. Going outside shouldn’t be hard given the beautiful surroundings, but there always remained more things to do for university that meant I was outside with my binoculars much less often than I would have wanted to.
This year’s Global Big Day was, despite the various COVID-19 restrictions, very successful. According to the Cornell Lab, 7,247 species were seen around the world – around 65% of the world’s species! I myself did not have a very ‘big’ day, it mainly consisted of morning and afternoon walks around the rice fields and I did not aim to see as many species as possible. Instead, I just used the opportunity to enjoy the outside and appreciate some common birds. Many of the common species I mentioned in my post about garden birds were around in the morning as made my way to the rice fields. A narrow gravel road crosses the paddy and is an excellent birding site for regular birds, as the view is great and some denser grass bordering the track attracts several passerines. White-throated Kingfishers are very common both in the trees bordering the fields and in the paddies themselves, always adding a delightful dash of color.
On the fields themselves, the usual large numbers of Black-headed Ibis, Black-winged Stilts, Cattle and Great White Egrets, Grey and Purple Herons and Indian Pond Heron were in evidence. Some Painted Storks also slowly waded through the more deeply flooded areas, while Oriental Darters and Little and Indian Cormorants dried their feathers on exposed areas. Other wetland species were Grey-headed Swamphen, Fulvous Whistling-Duck, and White-breasted Waterhen. The “zit-zit” that gives the Zitting Cisticola its name was constantly heard above, and sometimes these birds could be approached quite closely, providing wonderful views. Whenever I see this bird in Sri Lanka, I notice that there is no need for the mixed reaction – consisting of both eagerness to identify these challenging species and stress that this endeavor will fail – that usually accompanied cisticola sightings in Southern Africa, which is blessed with around 20 species of these LBJs. The only somewhat similar bird is the equally common Plain Prinia, which also abounded in the rank grass along the track.
In the skies, a Brahminy Kite could be seen circling, while the regular pigeons passed overhead, together with Indian Swiftlets, Little Swift, and Sri Lanka Swallow. Having crossed the roughly 400 meters of paddyfield, the opposite verge bordered by home gardens in which banana, maniok, and various other plants are grown, harbored seed-eaters such as Scaly-breasted and White-rumped Munias, as well as Common Myna, Black-hooded Oriole, Red-vented Bulbul, Purple-rumped Sunbird and Common Tailorbird. Unsurprisingly, these are the same species we have in the garden, but a nice addition was an alert Indian Robin. On the way back, I was also happy to find a few Streaked Weavers, which I hadn’t recorded in the area previously.
It was also nice observing the water buffalos, some of which had calves, treading through the paddies in the morning light, surrounded by the saturated green of the rice and the trees in the background – a typical scene in the wet zone. During the afternoon walk along this track, I noticed some commotion which turned out to be a rat snake having caught a garden lizard. Together with a few farmers who had just returned from the fields, I watched the snake eyeing us from the water before sliding away – a great sighting to end the day!
A few weeks after the Big Day, I was walking past the windows in our room when I saw large birds fly over the fields in the distance. I knew it could only be one thing – Knob-billed Duck. I grabbed my camera and binoculars and headed out onto the paddyfields, where they had landed. They were quite a distance away but I got great views of the group of three of these odd-looking birds. Suddenly, a Changeable Hawk-Eagle flew over the fields in the distance, sending all egrets, herons, ducks, stilts flying off, with the Knob-billed Ducks disappearing for good. This is a rather rare species that is only sporadically recorded from a few areas in Sri Lanka. As Moditha, whom I had met on the recent pelagic, told me later, they appear to be regular at Kirala Kele, a wetland in Matara (not too far from Galle), and could therefore be the same individuals.
It’s always relaxing to be out in the greenery and watch the birds going about their daily business, and Global Big Day provided an extra incentive. However, I would also like to do another proper big day as I did in South Africa back in 2017. Maybe I can do so in May 2022…
My Zone Is Birding 
Wonderful images of some beautiful birds Luca ! But for the Cisticola, all new birds to me down here. Your Kingfisher is quite unique.
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Thanks for your comment! Yep the kingfisher is really beautiful – it was always my dream to get a good flight shot but I never managed:)
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