I spotlighted this pair of Brown Hawk Owls during the last tour close to the airport at Katunayake. We first saw the bird on the right arriving at the above perch with a mouthful. It was soon obvious that the victim was a bird. And looking at zoomed up pictures, I could see that it was a Purple-rumped Sunbird. ...
I am back after leading several exciting bird and wildlife tours. My last tour for the season ended was a 15-day Natural History tour from 9 to 23 April, 2011 with Barry Barnacal, Gary Bellingham, Katrina Hay, and Andrew Vinson from the UK. The three gentlemen of this group were very keen photographers, and they carried serious photo gear, including ...
Last month, I guided a 7-day Endemics Clean Up Tour with four super-hardcore Dutch birders: Erik Ernens, Robert Keizer, Eric Lam, and Marius Bolck. It was a mega success with us bagging 220 species of birds, including all 33 endemic birds. Our overnight locations were Nuwara Eliya, Udawalawe, Sinharaja and Kithulgala. After raking in montane specials on the first two ...
Early this month, I guided Max Berlijn from the Netherlands. Max came to me for an eight-day birding tour through Pieter van der Luit of Inezia Tours—one of the winners of a blog quiz done by me. Of the numerous birders that I have guided over the years, Max was special in that he was my first hardcore Holarctic Lister: ...
My last tour for 2010 was in late December with Mike Pope, who came here with his non-birding wife Gill, and their eight-year old thumb war champion son, Jaden. Our first base on this tour was the Hunas Falls Hotel, which is situated in the lush foothills of Hunasgririya mountain. About 10 years ago I researched and named two nature ...
When I last blogged about this planthopper, it was known as Centromeria viridistigma. Not anymore. According to a recent revision done by Dr. Zhi-Shun Song and Al-Ping Liang at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it now goes as Truncatomeria viridistigma. The new genus is endemic to Sri Lanka and is a monotypic one, which means there is only a single ...
I hope the New Year will bring you peace, happiness and good health! The endemic Chestnut-backed Owlet above was photographed last November at Kithulgala while guiding Dr. Wilf Powell and his wife Mrs. Julia Powell on a 14-day Absolute Birding tour. I am always careful when typing the name of this bird to avoid the embarrassing misspelling: Chestnut-baked Owlet! ...
Two days after hatching, the chicks of the Blue-throated Bee-eater, several feet down in their dingy nest burrows, begin to develop a hook in the tip of the upper mandible. It turns needle-sharp by day four, before disappearing altogether by around day thirteen. During this time, the sharpness of this hook is such that if you unearth a chick from ...
"... When the nesting time arrives, a hollow tree or branch is chosen—preferably one with a long, narrow, nearly vertical cavity, and a narrow entrance at the top. Then the female builds her nest, which consists of strips nibbled from the edges of green leaves. Having cut a strip, she inserts one end of it under her scarlet rump-feathers, ...
Meet the urber-cool caterpillar of the Fruit-piercing Moth Eudocima homaena (Hubner, 1823) that I photographed at the Sinharaja rain forest, early this month. The winged adults of this moth pierces fruits, most notably of Citrus types, to feed on their juicy rewards; and are regarded as agricultural pests because of that. It's feeding on a tender egde of the ...
This is Yatala Stupa at Tissamaharama as seen at 6.07 p.m. on 25 January, 2011. I photographed it while birding at the vicinity of this stupa with Jan and Britt last January. This is the same fourteen minutes later at 6.21 p.m. A stupa is a
In January 2011, I guided Jan Henriksson and Britt Marie Skoglund from Sweden on a 16-day Absolute Birding tour. We saw a total of 255 species of birds, including all endemics and other usual suspects. Jan has done a brief report in Swedish, and just so your Swedish is not up to scratch, you can get it translated using Google ...
The Monkey Puzzle is, like, now in my garden's expanding butterfly list. And I am, like, totally, happy. First time I saw this rare beauty was like an year ago, close to Kebithigollawa. It is named Monkey Puzzle because its "prickly" caterpillar looks like a leaf of the South American conifer Monkey-puzzle. Today, ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 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 ...
