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   It was dark during our ride and it was the crack of dawn when we arrived. We had a group of elephants playing at the highway. So when they say DRIVE SLOW they mean drive slow! My Driver/ Guide reported at the office and then we crossed the road to enter the gate. Block 3 is obviously not a popular safari destination, they could not find the key to the gate so it must have been some time ago people was here last time. They asked us to drive around the gate and so we did. As soon as we had put the gate behind us it started to smell so good. It was the smell of soil and forest. We drove around in a beautiful area and we came to a pond. There was a White-bellied Eagle and when we were just about to leave I saw something looking like a stork on top of one of the trees. I was checking it out with my camera and I discovered that it was a Stork-billed Kingfisher. The Stork-billed dove just as I was going to take a picture. My second Stork-billed Kingfisher in my life. Of course I was disappointed, but we will  hopefully see more Kingfishers today.
 Ready for today's adventure
 No key to the gate
 White-bellied Eagle
  The forest smelled wonderful
 A gorgeous morning
 Bambies
 Male Crested Treeswift / Hemiprocne coronata
 Female Crested Treeswift / Hemiprocne coronata
 Male and Female Crested Treeswift / Hemiprocne coronata
 Grey-headed Fish Eagle / Haliaeetus ichthyaetus
 A tree full of Malabar Pied Hornbills
 A tree full of Malabar Pied Hornbills
 A tree full of Malabar Pied Hornbills
 Stork-billed Kingfisher
 Malabar Pied Hornbill
 Malabar Pied Hornbill
 Spotted deers at the dam/ reservoir
 Spotted deers at the dam/ reservoir
 Spotted deers at the dam/ reservoir
We drove through the forest and we were soon crossing a river, well, it is the outlet from the dam/ reservoir they had built here many years ago. The dam/ reservoir looks very nice with all the dead tree in the man-made lake. There is an outlet and it forms a river/ creek. We passed many spotted deer coming here and when we crossed the river/ creek we saw a Stork-billed Kingfisher far away. We also saw a Grey-headed Fish Eagle. It was really beautiful and when we came out from the forest we spotted another outlet from the dam/ reservoir. This was only a drain with very little flow. We drove along the drainage and we saw many beautiful birds. Among them another Grey-headed Fish Eagle sitting in a tree across the drainage. Pied Kingfisher, but not any good pictures so I never put them on my observed birds on Sri Lanka list. Well, there was more birds that never made it to my list as the pictures turned out to be very bad. But who knows? Maybe I see them again and can get better pictures.  Dam/ reservoir drainage
 Pied Kingfisher far away
 Pied Kingfisher far away
 Driving along the drainage
 Driving along the drainage
 Streaked Weaver - Another bird not making it to my list due to poor quality picture
 Grey-headed Fish Eagle - Haliaeetus ichthyaetus
 Grey-headed Fish Eagle - Haliaeetus ichthyaetus
 A monkey
 A monkey
 The monkey don't like me to take photos
He jumps away and I give him the finger
  A Lizard
 Driving along the drainage
 Driving along the drainage
 Spotted deer at the dam/ reservoir
We made a U-turn and we drove back along the drainage and we drove on top of the dam/ reservoir back to the forest. And we had a beautiful view over the dam/ reservoir and the dead trees while driving along the dam/ reservoir. I have never seen so many hornbills before. The Malabar Pied Hornbill looks much like the Great hornbill we saw in Thailand. Yala National Park Block 3 was a fantastic place. And not a popular place so I was alone with my Guide/ Driver. And we saw many birds and spotted deer. But no sign of any elephants, well, we had seen the elephants on the highway this morning so they are around.  Dam/ reservoir full of dead trees
 Dam/ reservoir
 Dam/ reservoir
 Dam/ reservoir
 Monkey
 Back in the beautiful forest
 Back in the beautiful forest
 Back in the beautiful forest
 Malabar Pied Hornbill - Anthracoceros coronatus
 Malabar Pied Hornbill - Anthracoceros coronatus
 Malabar Pied Hornbill - Anthracoceros coronatus
 Malabar Pied Hornbill - Anthracoceros coronatus
 Crested Serpent Eagle - Spilornis cheela
 Crested Serpent Eagle - Spilornis cheela
 Crested Serpent Eagle - Spilornis cheela
 Crested Serpent Eagle - Spilornis cheela
 Changeable Hawk-eagle or Crested hawk-eagle
 Back at the gate
Ît had been a wonderful morning. Time had passed very quickly and it was soon time to go back to the hotel. The Guide/ Driver will be back at 14:30 to pick me up for the evening safari back at Block 1 where I had done my safari yesterday. We drove back to the hotel and I'm really surprised on how good the roads are on Sri Lanka, and how clean it is. We drove along the road and now there wasn't any elephants. We stopped at a few big trees. I was soon discover that they were full of bats. But we were unlucky with the sun and it was not easy to get pictures against the light.  On the road
 Passing something religious
 Thousands of bats in the trees
 People fishing
       Our hero
 Lunch back at the hotel
Lunch at the restaurant when I was back at Laya Safari Hotel, first time in the restaurant. So far only fruit salad and tea via room service. I have 3 hours to kill before it is time to take off to Yala National Park Block 1. Click HERE for more exciting wildlife adventure. 
    
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To www.aladdin.st since December 2005
Visitors from different countries since 26th of September 2011
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