It was my third trip to Miami Florida. A trip undertaken with much financial constrains; to witness my son being conferred a Ph.D. I had been to Miami twice before and seen much of its wildlife, camped many a times in the Everglades and been out birding in the parks. However it was this time that I had been there ...

Bird Watching too is not free from assertion ….it is noted that certain birds are only identified by their silhouetted flight profile and one may not see them rested on a branch or sitting on a nest in one's lifetime.Two such birds have lingered my memory until resent. The Indian Swiftlet [Collocalia uniclor] and the Brown-backed Needle Tail [Hirundapus giganteus] ...

Paradise in a religious sense is a place with positive existence where life is harmonious and eternal. Generally, a place of contentment where peace and prosperity prevail. In a practical sense, a land of satisfaction but not necessarily a land of luxury and idleness. A tropical island where one feels as though everything is perfect and wonderful is also defined ...

It is located in the most bizarre place; no sea front nor a lake front, but alongside a rivulet with no fish for the hook. Moray Estate is a remote tea plantation in the fringe of Sri Lanka’s peak wilderness; ‘Samanala Adaviya’, colloquial to the native or the ‘Adams Peak’ protected area.Samanala Kanda surrounded by the Peak WildernessMist setting in ...

Horton Plains and its immediate of Ohiya and Idalgashinna has fascinated me ever since my schooldays at Gurutalawa; located at a distance of about 5 to 8 miles from these localities. None of these places were inhabited then in the 60’s as today. S Thomas’ College Gurutalawa was the only outbound boarding school in the country and these serene hillsides ...

Landscapes are definitive land areas that stand apart from each other. They are classed under different physical elements; mountains, hills, deserts, ices-capes, water-bodies, rivers, lakes, ponds and seas. They also vary on living elements as land-cover and vegetation. Human elements also create landscapes though land use practices; architecture, building construction, large scale farming and agriculture. Man’s association with natural landscapes ...

Ever since the Horton Plains was declared a National Park in 1988; so was the influx of busloads of visitors to view the famous escarpment named the World’s End. Its a pity that most visitors only come here to view the precipices and the Baker’s Fall. They seem to be ignorant of the fauna and flora that is unique to ...

Horton Planes has fascinated me ever since my school days at Gurutalawa. Many were the weekends spent on the planes in the 60’s when we hiked up there from school. July 13, 2012 was more like a family reunion when we spent the night at the Anderson / Ginihiriya Bungalow in Horton Planes.We scanned the Ohiya side of the planes ...

Those of us who went to school before 1972 would recall when many specimen applications for government employment [self made Bio-Data’s was not the order then] had a question asking if you belonged in the “Up-Country or Low-Country”.This confused me ever since a schoolboy; I was born in Kandy in the so called Up-Country and my father too was born ...

Units of measurement were among the earliest tools invented by humans. Among them distance was primeval. . History records of a early Cubit used in the Indus valley in the 3rd millennium BC. The measures of length used in ancient India included the dhanus (bow), the krosa (cry, or cow-call) and the yojana (stage). Yojana may be the equivalent to ...

Trains and train journeys have fascinated both children and adults ever since they were invented. Likewise railway lines on which they run have posed challenges to engineers and surveyors when laying them on difficult terrain. Railways are far more different to highways; they cannot negotiate sharp bends and inclines, and the specified gradients for railway lines have not changed much ...

The bill or beak for a bird is the most versatile anatomical component adopted for its survival. Apart from the common physical features of a feather covered body and egg-laying for breeding; it is the bill and the feet of a bird that vary according to the food and the habitat they dwell upon.A stout and strong bill of ...

Of all Sri Lanka's development projects considered…. it was the Upper Kotmale Hydro Power Project (UKHP) in Talawakele that had to face so much dissidence. The project had to be shelved at least on three occasions due to relocation factors, environmental factors and political factors.However the euphoria that was to stay with the ending of the 30 year conflict in ...

If there is anything that I like of the American,,,,, it is their liking for outdoors. This said…… it’s not that the Europeans and the British do not like outdoors, but the American is more adventurous. They hike and camp in the rough rugged terrain of America in groups or as loners frequently and document their personnel experiences.Camping in the ...

The area named Everglades National Park of the Everglades wetland landmass situated towards the south of Florida is different to the Big Cypress National Park which is situated more centrally in the glades. It’s a total preservation unlike the Big Cypress while no ownership of property is entertained and the only overnight stayers are the recreational campers.The flora is of ...

My visit to the USA in 2009 was never a dream come true. It was only because Naveen our son, having won a scholarship to read a PhD at Miami in 2006 and us qualifying for a Visa being able to meet the minimum financial requisites.Camping in the Everglades of Florida, the worlds largest mangrove ecosystem was such a memorable ...

Love and affection keep us united and attached to one another. Culture and society have dedicated days, norms, means and ways of communicating love and affection. The beginning of the Gregorian Calender is one such day. Twenty years ago our neighbours migrated to the UK, Sankalpa their daughter who was my daughter's play kid is now a lady of 25 ...

E 01 – Sri Lanka’s first ever express way from Kottawa in Colombo to Matara in the southern province was partially commissioned up to Galle, a main city in the south of Sri Lanka on 27th November 2011.To me and many other Galle wallahs employed in Colombo, home is now an hours drive away. This is the most welcome happening ...

Sri Lanka is home for 10 native bamboo species and 7 introduced bamboo species. This is as per a research done by Soderstrom and Ellis 1998. The chart below gives the science of them.Native and Introduced Bamboo Species in Sri LankaSource: Soderstrom and Ellis 1998 Species Local Name Native * Arundinaria densifolia1 Bata * A. debilis Bata * A. scandens ...

Recently it was reported, of a leopard cub being run over by a speeding jeep within the Yala National Park. Many were the criticism on the social net working groups that spelt high adrenal language on the new digital photo maniacs of Colombo chasing leopards in Yala, who are more in the liking to make shots similar to those ...