As a distraction from footy matters I thought I'd share another Sri Lankan National Park -
Bundala (pronounced Boon-the-la)
History: The area was declared a wildlife sanctuary on 5 December 1969 and was upgraded to a national park on 4 January 1993 with land area of 6,216 hectares (24.00 sq mi). In 1991, Bundala became the first site in Sri Lanka to be designated a Ramsar wetland. In 2005, Bundala was declared a Man and Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO.
Habitat: Bundala is quite close to Yala, so the vegetation is pretty much the same, though it's lagoons and wetland areas are more accessible by jeep.
This is typical, acacia brush jungle dotted with ponds and small lakes. In this pic the majorirty of the bidrs are Eurasian spoonbill, Platalea leucorodia, with a couple of Painted storks, Mycteria leucocephala, in the centre.
Here you can see the spoonbill in it's breeding plumage - orange tip on it's bill and the colourful throat patch. Bundala is primarily a bird sanctuary, so the best time to visit is in January, when the place is flooded with winter migrants. The other bird on the right is a grey heron Ardea cinerea
Fauna: Bundala National Park has been identified as an outstanding Important Bird Area in the South Indian and Sri Lankan wetlands.
324 species of vertebrates have been recorded in the national park, which include
32 species of fish,
15 species of amphibians,
48 species of reptiles,
197 species of birds and
32 species of mammals. 52 species of butterflies are among the invertebrates. The wetland habitats in Bundala harbours about 100 species of water birds, half of them being migrant birds. Of 197 avifaunal species 58 are migratory species.
You can also see flocks of greater flamingo,
Phoenicopterus roseus,which visits in large flocks of over 1,000 individuals, wintering from Rann of Kutch (India).
Accommodation: There are no permanent bungalows here, but you can camp in the park. Strangely enough if you're ever in Sri Lanka and you've forgotten to pack your tent, you can hire them from the Red Cross (presumably if there isn't a disaster going on at the time).
An Asian Openbill stork,
Anastomus oscitans,[/size]showing us why it got it's name.
A Black winged stilt,
Himantopus himantopus ceylonensis
A yellow bittern,
Ixobrychus sinensis, which is apparently quite rare in Sri Lanka.
As you might have guessed, I'm not that into birds. My mum, bless her, loves her waders but I find it difficult to get excited about the things. Of course there are worse things to do with your time than spend it in a jeep in the wilds so I'm still quite happy. The one redeeming quality for me about Bundala is the abundance of one species of reptile -
Crocodylus palustris kimbula - the Sri Lankan Mugger Crocodile. With all those ponds, lakes and lagoons, they are everywhere.
There's two in this shot
Over that sand back is the Indian Ocean. The water would be brackish and there's a croc cruising on the right foreground
An arty one
