After days of postponing we finally decided to make a visit to the lakes in the Ragama area on 07/10/2014. The focus was to see wild ducks in Sri Lanka for the first time. It was the rainy season but the past few days had been sunny with no sign of rain. However to our misfortune it started raining heavily from dawn on the scheduled date. Nevertheless we decided to take the plunge and go find ducks because they are known to love the rain. The sky had cleared a bit by 9 A.M. and we reached the loaction within 15 minutes.
At first there was no sight of birds. But then when we thoroughly looked through the vegetation, we were delighted to see flocks of lesser whistling ducks and a few jacanas in their non-breeding plumages. At one point there were 10 ducks in a flock swimming to and fro, feeding on the vegetation. 3 juveniles were noted. On the other end of the tank a pair of little grebes were seen. After a satisfactory round of photographing we decided to move to the other end of the tank to have a closer view of the grebes.
Luckily a flock of ducks landed up close and we managed more photographs. However on our way to the other end of the tank it started raining heavily. Despite the rain we were unable to run because we were being chased by a savage dog. It almost got my leg but my shoe prevented his grip. After waiting for almost 30 minutes for the rain to clear up we decided to head home because the rain only became worse. We also saw 3 blue tailed bee eaters on an electricity line.
Hopefully we'll be visiting the lake soon to get a closer glimpse of the grebes.
At first there was no sight of birds. But then when we thoroughly looked through the vegetation, we were delighted to see flocks of lesser whistling ducks and a few jacanas in their non-breeding plumages. At one point there were 10 ducks in a flock swimming to and fro, feeding on the vegetation. 3 juveniles were noted. On the other end of the tank a pair of little grebes were seen. After a satisfactory round of photographing we decided to move to the other end of the tank to have a closer view of the grebes.
Luckily a flock of ducks landed up close and we managed more photographs. However on our way to the other end of the tank it started raining heavily. Despite the rain we were unable to run because we were being chased by a savage dog. It almost got my leg but my shoe prevented his grip. After waiting for almost 30 minutes for the rain to clear up we decided to head home because the rain only became worse. We also saw 3 blue tailed bee eaters on an electricity line.
Hopefully we'll be visiting the lake soon to get a closer glimpse of the grebes.
