Set in the rock and jungle strewn landscape near Dambulla sits a beautiful hotel cleverly hidden from casual scrutiny.
A few kilometres away in the jungle sits an ancient rock fortress.
Around both of these live many creatures….
Monkeys
There are many monkeys. Big ones, small ones, adults and babies. Different types, alone and in groups.
We were warned that the monkeys had learned not only to push open slightly open sliding doors into the rooms, but also slide open the closed but not locked doors too. They crafty little tykes had discovered the tea, coffee and sugar too, so knew exactly what they were doing if they managed to gain access.
They looked cute but we were warned they could be dangerous.
As if on cue, after being in our rooms for a couple of minutes the welcoming committee appeared at the windows.
The monkeys did not confine their activities to the rooms, they also appeared in other locations around the hotel.
Sigiriya was home to many monkeys too.
These little fellas were sitting on the rock above the lion’s paws.
Many of the monkeys were trying it on with tourists to get something to eat or even stealing when they could.
Again, we were warned about the dangers these cute little things presented. I think this example says it all – if looks could kill…
Birds
There were more birds around the hotel than would could see, either that or one or two made an awful lot of noise.
The first bird to come into our cross-hairs was the
Red-vented Bulbul. These little birds were waiting eagerly to catch any small morsel dropped from our plates.
Something caught my eye off to one side and when I looked I saw this beautiful
Sunbird. I found the colour of its head quite stunning.
Looking out from our room we spotted a yellow blob darting around in a distant tree. Looking more closely we saw that it was a bird – a
Black-headed Oriole. A spritely fellow who darted around so much it took ages to get any half decent snaps.
The drive from the hotel to Sigiriya should have been easy, a quick 30 minutes at the most. What we had not taken into account was the effect of the monsoon rain. The road was in a terrible state and at one point we had to turn back and take a detour because road ahead was flooded. In the end the journey took us about 1.5 hours.
As part of this detour we happened upon this
Kingfisher flitting on the high wires.
On the road out of Dambulla heading towards Colombo we spotted some cattle spilling out onto the road. Atop one of the cows was a
Cattle Egret known as a paddy bird. Notice the cow seems completely unperturbed by this. The bird picks the undesirable insects from the cow’s back so it does not mind.
Other
Clearly this is a lizard. Caught lounging around on the foothills of Sigiriya. We have no idea what type but here it is.
I am sure this is not the end of our wildlife sightings but this should give a flavour of what we have seen so far.
