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 ...
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 ...
This Purple-rumped Sunbird male comes regularly to sit outside my room's window. After doing so, it would deliver a low, rhythmic call for a while. (That's when I go to grab my camera.) Soon, it would start a fight with its own reflection. It does this by pecking at the window while hovering. This would go on and on ...
"... 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 ...
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 funerary monument built to enshrine bodily relics of the Buddha and such important Buddhist ...
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 ...
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, I am heading to Kandy for ...
I hope the birds and the beasts may not get too frightened! Shenal Dias (2.12, 2.15, and 2.53 in the video)—the 6'5'' lock of the champion rugby team of St. Peter's College of 2010 will be representing Sri Lanka in the Rugby Sevens in the Commonwealth Games on Monday, 11 October, 2010. Shenal, the captain of the Sri Lanka's ...
For its number of ridiculously easy photo moments of not-so-easy birds, a 14-day Absolute Birding tour that I guided in March, 2010, will always rank high on my mind's list. I mean birds like this Dull-blue Flycatcher that sat on a fern stem and forgot to fly. Like this Sirkeer Malkoha, which accosted ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
