Meet the half ant, half jumping spider, and totally mean, Weaver Ant-Mimicking Jumping Spider Myrmarachne plataleoides that I photographed in my home garden yesterday. As soon as I stumbled it, I could see through its cunning disguise by noting that it had four pairs of legs like in a spider, as opposed to three pairs of legs like a plain ...
I am happy to share the news of a sight record of a vagrant bird species to Sri Lanka—the Yellow-rumped Flycatcher Ficedula zanthopygia. I saw it on 3 January, 2012, at Tanamalwila, in the sylvan interiors of southeastern Sri Lanka on the tour that I am currently guiding with Hans Veltman and Irene ter Horst from the Netherlands. My visitors ...
I am back after guiding several trips. One of them was a two-day trip to Sinharaja rain forest from 28–29 August. It was with Dr. Jane Rosegrant, who is the outgoing country director of VSO (Voluntary Services Overseas) in Sri Lanka. An American married to a Scot, Jane holds a PhD in Human Ecology from the University of Edinburgh. ...
22–29 October, 2011 saw me guiding my first "Leopards and Scrabble" tour. It was with Diane Lofthouse from Sydney, Australia. The trip centred around Yala National Park—the celebrated wildlife hotspot in South East Sri Lanka. Diane had turned 70 just days before the trip. And seeing a Leopard in the wild I was told was on top of her ...
This primate moment happened last month at the Hakgala Botanical Gardens. I was guiding Prof. Aiden Foy and Mrs. Hilary Foy from Australia. Seeing a troop of Toque Macaques marching along, I stood ground at a spot that I thought they may pass. The troop were quite disciplined in that they kept to a pavement designated for walkers. Expecting ...
The regular migrant Indian Pitta is back in my garden. I maintain a woody patch in my backyard to host it. And it accepts my invitation every year. In addition to the allocated one, it frequents a new patch this season. It is 25-feet from my room in the front yard! This new patch is roughly 400 sq.ft in ...
I am happy to share the news of a sight record of a vagrant bird species to Sri Lanka—the Yellow-rumped Flycatcher Ficedula zanthopygia. I saw it on 3 January, 2012, at Tanamalwila, in the sylvan interiors of southeastern Sri Lanka on the tour that I am currently guiding with Hans Veltman and Irene ter Horst from the Netherlands. My visitors ...
The Scarlet Basker has got to be one of the most easiest dragonflies to photograph. That is, if you're willing to put the hard hours in baking sun. Midday is when it is mostly at its element. The male above was shot in a quarry just 250 metres as a crow dragonfly flies from my garden. The owners there ...
I am happy to share the news of a sight record of a vagrant bird species to Sri Lanka—the Yellow-rumped Flycatcher Ficedula zanthopygia. I saw it on 3 January, 2012, at Tanamalwila, in the sylvan interiors of southeastern Sri Lanka on the tour that I am currently guiding with Hans Veltman and Irene ter Horst from the Netherlands. My visitors ...
I am back after guiding my first birding tour for the winter tour season of '2011/'2012. It was a 14-day Absolute Birding tour with Brice and Gail Wells from Perth, Australia from 1–14 November, 2011. Brice, at 78, became the oldest birder to survive my Absolute Birding tour. Our final tally of birds stood at 231 species. We saw all ...
Somewhere in the lowland wet zone, I spotted this Sri Lanka Bay Owl from a moving vehicle! That was during an Absolute Birding tour that I guided in the second half of January, 2012 for Mark Yates, Gary Thonburn (both from the U.K.) and Brendon Ryan from South Africa. We were returning to our accommodation 'empty-handed' after specially going ...
In August, 2012 I guided a five-day abridged version of my Absolute Birding tour. It was with Ron and Ben Barkley, a farther son duo from the U.S.A. Ben is a student at the prestigious Cornell Lab of Ornithology and was keener birder of the two. Our focus was on the endemic birds of Sri Lanka and other resident species ...
I guided Yumiko Hatori from Japan in September. It was a two-day natural history tour to Sinharaja. Not familar with Japanese names, when I went to pick up, I expected a bloke. But, Yumi turned out to be very much a girl. She was on a solo backpacking trip. And this tour was done at the begining of her Sri ...
Meet the half ant, half jumping spider, and totally mean, Weaver Ant-Mimicking Jumping Spider Myrmarachne plataleoides that I photographed in my home garden yesterday. As soon as I stumbled it, I could see through its cunning disguise by noting that it had four pairs of legs like in a spider, as opposed to three pairs of legs like a plain ...
I guided a 2-day natural history trip to Sinharaja "world heritage" rain forest from 13 to 14 October, 2010. It was with Kevin and Annie Ford from Bath, England. Kevin was a keen bird watcher and Annie a nature enthusiast. This was their third visit to Sri Lanka, and they were staying in the Club Palm Bay Hotel in Marawila, ...
Back to regular programming, and this time, it's a masala post—covering some current affairs in the world of natural history. A sticky situation has arisen in ACBWildlife's Blog about some sticky matters that I discussed sometime ago. I just don't want to confound matters any further. For the first time in recorded history, a Mime (butterfly) is reported here from ...
I guided Paul and Ros Brown on a 2-day trip to Sinharaja rain forest. An entomologist by profession, Paul works at the British Natural History Museum in London. His main focus on the tour was birds, and more specifically, endemic birds, for which Sinharaja is famous for. Ros, on the other hand, was the supportive spouse of the birder, who ...
The pair of Sri Lanka Frogmouths above were one of the 12 species of resident night birds seen out of 15 in a successful Absolute Birding tour that I guided in March, 2010 with Chris Holtby and David Thrussel from the UK. Keeping their promise, Chris and Dave have done a detailed tour report of this birding tour, which ...
