Hiking Shaheen Mountain (1043M)

Year and Month	28th October, 2018
Number of Days	One
Crew	Four
Accommodation	Amaya Hunas Falls Hotel
Transport	Hired Bus
Activities	Natural Scenary, Photography, Hiking, Waterfalls sighting
Weather	Misty Morning
Route	Kandy -> Katugastota -> Wattegaama -> Elkaduwa -> Hunas Falls Hotel -> Upper Hunnas Waterfall -> Shaheeen Mountain -> Back to Hotel
Tips, Notes and Special remark	Take a bottle of water Do not carry Plastic items (Minimize), Make sure you bring back everything you took. Get the directions from Hotel staff Start as early as possible. Leech protection methods to be followed. Shaheen mountain is a nesting site of Shaheen falcon. Don’t hike in larger groups. Don’t do camping activities. Don’t make noise. This area belongs to Amaya Hunas Falls hotel. You may need permission to enter if you are entering from Elkaduwa. Do not harm nature/wild animals and birds.
Related Resources	Trip report on Hunnasgiriya
Author	Ramzy
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This time our office Annual trip was planned to Amaya Hunas falls Hotel. I thought this is the perfect time to hike the Shaheen Mountain located near the Hotel. We checked in to the hotel on 27th and collected information for the hike from hotel staff. Information relevant to ‘Birds of Hunas’ displayed at the entrance of the Hotels restaurant.

Birds of Hunas

Shaheen Falcon

The Shaheen Mountain is located near the hotel. It’s a 2 Km Hike from the Hotel and provides an Ella rock hike like experience and view from the peak. On the way we can visit the Upper Hunnas waterfall too. The mountain was named as Shaheen mountain by the hotel as it is one of the nesting site of the Shaheen Falcon.

‘Shaheen falcon’ also known as ‘Blacks Shaheen’ is the local resident race of the peregrine falcon, found in Sri Lanka and India. Popularly known in Sri Lanka as ‘Shaheen Kurulu-goya’. The sighting of this species is rare except of two places. One of these places is Sigiriya Rock. The other is the famous Shaheen Mountain located near Hunnas Falls by Amaya. In fact the first nesting site of the Shaheen falcon in Sri Lanka was recorded in Hunnas in 2006 March by Hotel Naturalist. This was followed by another sighting of another nesting site in 2013 – Amaya Hunas Falls

We started the hike on the next day early morning at 6:00 AM. There is trail map near the lake and we followed the path at the end of the lake which leads to Upper hunnas waterfalls in 200 meters.