Group C. Victoria, Ciara, Vennila

We started the day with the opportunity to see a Sri Lanka Bay owl, which was caught overnight by Sampath, Kalindu and Induja. We had some fresh Sri Lankan tea to fuel our early start (6:30am), before heading out to do some mist netting. We used different bird species sounds, played through a speaker, and also an owl call (as small birds do alarm calls and come close to the putative predator) to attract any birds towards the net. We caught a beautiful black-capped bulbul, which many of us got to hold. Afterwards, we headed back to the Runakanda Rain Forest Conservation Center for breakfast, where many of tried pineapple jam for the first time. Right after breakfast, we headed to the restoration site and climbed to the summit where the locals helped us to plant native trees. We had a very quick return to the centre to get changed, before we left once again for a much-needed swim at Maguru River. Our path to the swim site was rugged, with hiking across a river and over fallen trees, all while trying to avoid (unsuccesfully) the persistent land leeches. We split paths with Sampath and his colleagues when they found a Sri Lanka frogmouth nest, and went to set up a camera trap to monitor it for the months to come. Once we arrived to the river, we hopped in for a swim, and shortly after it started raining. The rain was very refreshing but left all of our stuff soaking wet!  On the way back, some of us got to see and smell cinnamon trees, then returned to the centre for lunch at 5:30pm. After lunch we got some time to rest (napping and working on our field books) until 7:15pm, then a group of us headed out (once again) for some evening herping in the Sinharaja rainforest after the rain. There were many amazing species spotted, including several species of shrub frogs, a green vine snake, a Sri Lanka kangaroo lizard, a Sri Lanka green pit viper, and a lyre head or hump-nosed lizard. We also got to see a red slender loris in its nest, apparently a very rare sight to see. Afterwards, we returned for the long-awaited dinner at 11pm, which was the traditional Sri Lankan dish, Kottu. That concluded our day, and we went to bed for a much-needed sleep after a long day of exploration.