Farewell home for 5 weeks............

Finished all the chores, took the rubbish to the tip, washed all the dishes in the sink and here is Sally to see me off....................

One night in the Tune Hotel, KL Malaysia and then flight to Colombo next morning.

Following on from the wonderful Sumba Islands birding trip led by Greg Roberts in February I'm heading off next Tuesday, 1st May to Sri Lanka.  First night in Negombo waiting for pickup the next day for a 2 week volunteer stint with the Sri Lanka Wildlife conservation Society HECS project (Human Elephant Conflict).  I'll be based a short walk from the village of Pussellayaya (approximately 4 hours drive to the east of Kandy in the Matale District) and working in the countryside and communities around the southern part of Wasgamuwa National Park.

An early morning arrival at Colombo airport will give me most of the day to settle into the Ice Bear Hotel in Negombo with it's free use of a bicycle for guests to explore the area and I plan to spend the first afternoon birding around Muthurawjawela Marsh which is 18kms south of Negombo before pickup on Thursday morning.

After the project I'll be birding solo around

• Polonnaruwa and the Parakrama Samudra Reservoir (based at the Primate Centre accommodations)
• Dambulla and the Knuckles Mountain area (based at Kandalama Hotel)
• Trincomalee for whale watching and snorkelling opportunities
• Sinharaja Forest Reserve (based at Martin's Lodge)

Will keep the blog updated throughout the trip.........................

Testing for Sri Lanka blog

Just working through the field guide 'Birds of Sri Lanka' by John Harrison and noting the endemics.  May is just at the end of the migration time so a bit on the late side but nonetheless looking forward to this trip!