Although the week long stay at the Bentota Beach Hotel restricted the number of bird species that I saw during the holiday,I did manage to add Little Tern,Mongolian Sand Plover,Whimbrel and Turnstone to my list.We had one excursion during our stay at Bentota and that was a river cruise on the Madu river.It was during this cruise whilst visiting Temple island that I really felt the heat and almost passed out as a result.I was very disappointed with the number of birds species that I saw along the river.One member of our group who had been on the cruise before,ten years ago,said then they had seen good numbers of Stork-billed Kingfishers and Pied.He thought the lack of birds seen on this trip could be down to the fact that many more shrimp farms had sprung up on the river since that time.

Birds seen at Bentota Brahminy Kite,White-breasted Kingfisher,Little-green Bee-eater,Blue-tailed,Whimbrel (1) Turnstone (3) Mongolian Plover (40) Little Terns,Whiskered Terns,Common Myna,Magpie Robin,Asian Brown Flycacher,Red-rumped Swallow,Palm Swift,Common Taylorbird,Red-vented Bulbul,Black-headed Oriole,Spotted Dove,White-bellied Drongo,Common Sandpiper (1) Red-backed Woodpecker,Cattle Egret,Little Egret,Asian Koel,House Crow,Large-billed Crow (1) Red-wattled Lapwing (2) Yellow-billed Babbler and Purple-rumped Sunbird.