I had the opportunity to go to Nuwara eliya and Horton plains in the 3rd week of 2023 with a fellow birding photographer. The primary objective was to confront the pied ground thrush which had migrated for the season and Victoria park in Nuwara Eliya has been a guaranteed location and this year too sightings had been made thus prompting us to make the trip as it would be a lifer for me and my friend.
We started around 3 in the morning and directly arrived at the park at 7 am and went to the area near the water stream and the bridge located near one of the 2 entrances and boy we got to see the bird in pairs and many more species not very common as well during our 4 hour stay there.
The only downside was that the pied, black bird and the Indian blue robin were frequenting the dark places near the stream making our shots not the clearest.
Our next plan was to go and spend the afternoon in Horton plains and to see any possibility of locating the Leopard along with some birds. Though we saw the dull blue flycatcher and the pied bush chat, we were deprived of seeing the Leopard as the only sighting was in the morning around 7 before we came to the park .However we were elated that we got to see the endemic rhino horned, pigmy and the rare black lipped lizards near the Ohiya entrance . we choose to stay at a place in Ohiya for the night and started a run again to the park in the morning.
As we were informed that the illusive sri lanka scaly thrush frequents the road sides from Ohiya for a good 2-3 km's, we were on the lookout though even at 6.20 it was quite dark and a thing blanket of mist was also setting in. We heard the call immediately and got to see at least 6-8 birds flying from the ground on the sides and could get only a few record shots.
From the time we entered at 7 and exited due to bad weather at 8 , the whole park was covered with thick mist which made the visibility next to nothing and the same remained even after we passed Pattipola and this phenomenon was experienced by me for the first time.
Icing of the cake -The pied ground thrush ( female) - Victoria park
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