Day1: 11/02/2024 – Vivanti airport hotel nr Columbo
We had a trouble-free journey and arrived at our hotel near Columbo airport at 6am. Having been informed in advance that we would not be able to check-in until 3pm we were very pleased to be in our room 10 minutes after arrival (at no extra cost). We were soon out exploring the hotel gardens and seeing lots of birds. We did 2 hours then broke for breakfast then another hour after breakfast before succumbing to the combined needs for sleep and avoidance of the heat. After a nice siesta we met our guide, Deepal, and one of the other two tour participants, Sylvia, and had a further 3 hours exploring the hotel gardens adding several species we hadn't seen in the morning including 2 owls. Overall today was a nice introduction to Sri Lankan birds with 50 species found, 3 of which were new for me.