Gallicissa

Macro Monday

2009-07-13T11:40:00.044+05:30

Among the numerous meanings of the word flush there are two to do with botany. The fresh growth of young leaves in trees and such newly emerged leaves are referred as flush (as a verb and as a noun). These are not commonly known even by native English speakers and some of them flush at times hearing it from me for the first time. I think this word is quite appropriate to describe the young leaves of the trees in the rain forest that appear in red or shades of red.

Nathaniel Dominy of the University of Chicago and his colleagues pooled existing information on the leaves of hundreds of tree and shrub species from Central America, Africa and South-East Asia and discovered that in as many as 62% of them, young leaves tend to be coloured anything from pale pink to deep red.

Red is a colour of warning in nature. The young leaves lack chlorophyll the green pigment found in mature leaves and are packed with toxins that are distasteful for leaf eaters. The bright red colours are therefore work as a warning to repel folivorous (leaf eating) animals from making a meal of them. This gives a chance for the young leaf to grow into a mature stage to fulfill its duties of photosynthesis and transpiration. The reddish hues are also capable of reflecting harmful UV rays of the sunlight, than absorbing them, protecting young leaves with such colours further from the effects of sun.

As the leaves mature they turn less red and more greener – often taking a yellowy-green and reddish-green hues. (It is those leaves of intermediate stages that folivorous animals such as Leaf-Monkeys with colour vision prefer for their diet).

A good example for such a tropical tree with reddish flush is Na (English: Iron Wood tree), which is botanically known as Mesua ferrea (formerly, M. nagassarium). This tree is native to Sri Lanka and is also named as the National Tree of Sri Lanka.

When we talk about plants and animals, we use the terms “native”, “resident” and “indigenous” generally to refer to ones that are found in country/territory as natural breeding populations but is also found in another country/territory the same way. The term “endemic” in contrast is used to refer when a plant or an animal is restricted to a particular geographic area – in our case, Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is blessed with over 3,600 flowering trees and plants that are termed as native/indigenous/resident out of which nearly 900 are endemic. I know it does not matter too much for world peace, but with such staggering endemism, I think we should have an endemic tree to represent as our National Tree. No?

In this respect, there is no better tree to be named a National Tree of Sri Lanka than Diya na – an endemic Ironwood beauty found in the lush valleys alongside streams in the rain forests in Sri Lanka, botanically known as Mesua thwaitesii (formerly, M. ferrea).

I have planted two Diya Na trees in my garden – one older and one younger (now aged 8 & 6 years respectively). The older one, which was about 3 feet tall when I bought it, was planted in a spot exposed to direct sunlight. The younger plant, which I got two years later, barely a foot tall, was planted in a shady spot. Most rain forest trees need shade at their early stages of growth. Proving this point, the younger plant has now grown very much taller & broader than the older one and looks in really good shape.

The picture at the top is an extreme close up (shot at 3 times the life size, if I remember right) of a young leaf of Diya Na, matured slighly to lose the deep purplish red hue seen in flush at early stages, as in the picture below.

The surrounding green represents the colour of the leaves when matured.

Note for native readers: The prefix “Diya” in Diya Na as you know refers to water – as this tree grows in riverine habitats. When you isolate the word “Na” I am sure you will agree that it gives a meaning approaching “bathed”. Combining these two meanings, I like the how the name Diya Na sounds in the literal sense as “bathed in water”.

When I glance at a Diya Na tree in late stages of flush for long, the dense, droopy clusters of its elongate leaves with their slightly scalloped margins and beautiful highlights created by the flush make the poet in me see them as long dangling (and highlighted!) hair of a brunette who has bathed at the nearby stream and has just wiped her curly hair clean.

These are the kind of things I think when I am marooned in rain forests with too many male bird watchers.

Macro Monday HQ is at Lisa's Chaos.

Monsoon Birding

2009-07-10T21:16:00.066+05:30

I guided three avid birders on a monsoon birding trip from late June to early July. The main organiser, Pieter van der Luit from Inezia Tours and his colleague, Teus (Dr. Teus Luijendijk) came from the Netherlands. They both were terrific birders and had over 3,138 and 3,777 birds in their respective life lists. Pieter won one of the books that I gave away at a quiz that I did in the “IATB #75” - Birding Blog Carnival.

The third person, Philip Johnson, was a client of Pieter. Phil is a Professor at the University of Alabama in the Department of Civil Engineering. He was determined to reach 5,000 birds before he turns 60, on the 30th December. Phil’s life list stood at 4,897 birds when he arrived in Sri Lanka after visiting 5 other countries in the Oriental region since May. He left Sri Lanka with a tally of 4,950. Pieter and Teus bagged 138 and 51 lifers respectively.

The monsoon really had a dampening effect at some of the key birding sites we visited. Nevertheless, we trudged along and achieved a tally of 194, which included 31 endemics and 8 of the 15 resident night birds. We missed out on 2 endemics, namely Sri Lanka Spurfowl and Serendib Scops Owl, which remained stubbornly silent.

We did quite well with mammals, seeing a total of 26-species including Sri Lanka’s big three: Elephant, Sloth Bear and Leopard. Being a target-driven world birder, non-birdie subjects to Phil were as unattractive as non-estrous female Gorillas to a Silverback.

Of course, he did not resort to chest-beating and grunting to show his displeasure but instead he conveniently lumped them in a catch-all category named NFF - No F***ing Feathers! And moved on to find his next life bird.

Despite his avowed disinterest, Phil kept on spotting some rarest non-birdie gems for people like us, at regular intervals. And he was nice enough to share them. The star among these serendipitous finds was, an adorable Grey Slender Loris that he spotted while it was moving slow and low in a thicket in the amazing, Sinharaja rain forest. This nocturnal endemic mammal is rather rare and everybody had crippling views of it. His next best exploit was chancing upon a Muntjak at Welimada, which is not as rare but cool nevertheless.

Moving on to birding specifics, our search for the Sri Lanka Bush-Warbler near a pool at the Cloud forests of Horton Plains National Park (2,100m) to me was the most memorable birding experience of the trip. It was in a very cold morning with temperatures in single digit ºC, when intermittent downpours and foggy conditions conspired with high gusts to spell very little hope for our cause.

Yet we stood there tenaciously, with bins firmly in our grips, ready to lift them at the slightest detection of a movement in the low-vegetation that stood before us. A movement that would betray the presence of this endemic LBJ – that can prove pain in the neck at elevations lower down. Our agonizing vigil was interrupted by my pep talk how I have shown cracking views of it at this site before on previous tours. And how we should not call off play, on account of the elements. And stay positive just like this Sambar.

Fifteen minutes on, there was no let up. And it was bitterly cold.

I then I decided to take a stroll with the team to see whether we could pick its metallic call in the low shrubs. No hope. Even the bubbly Yellow-eared Bulbuls remained obdurately silent. And the gregarious Sri Lanka White-eyes too seemed to be on a token strike, protesting the weather. Not even a Dull-blue Flycatcher sang its sonorous call – which would have been fitting for the moment. No, we didn’t need that Flycatcher. Phil spotted it the day before at Welimada to give great views for all of us. In fact, we had three individuals, which included a newly fledged one. One good view is just enough for hardcore birders. And then the name of the game is to move on to look for new birds.

With little success from the walk, I called that we should go back to check the pond.

Minutes after arriving back at the original position, our hopes were raised when Phil detected a movement of something birdie, in the low thickets, but lost it before he could find it in his bins. It was too misty and gloomy. Phil finds it a bit difficult to see things in low-light. And the optics gathered water droplets whenever we took off the protective covers to scan the surroundings, impairing our vision further.

With this being the state of affairs, seconds later, the bird rematerialised in a reedy patch at the edge of the pond, seemingly on transit. It was good enough for the Dutch duo to get their fills of this rare skulker. But, Phil was not on it, still struggling with his bins. And before we could get him on it, as expected, it flew off across the pond and disappeared into the bordering thickets. Only UTVs for Phil. That stands for Un Tickable Views – to say it will not be counted as seen. The rest smiled okay.

I alerted to stay focused as it might pop out again. Soon, as predicted, I picked up a slight movement across the pond and I got Phil on it this time. I could read its details just enough through my Swarovski EL 8.5 x 42. But then, Phil claimed he could still see only the dark blurry profile of the bird just to say that it looked like a Bush-Warbler but nothing beyond. That meant that it was still a UTV as far as he was concerned. Thinking on my feet, I then gave him my bins to try. Holy molly! That worked and he at once claimed to see its details much clearer! He and the Dutch were all sporting Swarovski EL 10 x 42 bins. Pieter and Teus too took turns to look through my bins at the preening individual to confirm what Phil observed. The superior light gathering ability of Swarovski EL 8.5 x 42 does have its uses in low-light forest birding!

Although the weather improved very little thereafter, birds however, began to come out as the day wore on. It seemed like they had resigned to the fact that things will not get any better. Raising our hopes, Sri Lanka White-eye, Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, Indian Blackbird, Orange-billed Babbler, Grey Tit, Dark-fronted Babbler, Sri Lanka Scimitar Babbler, Common Tailorbird, Dull-blue Flycatcher, all came in quick order as we pressed on in post Bush-Warbler glee.

A short respite from the rain, brought a couple of Sri Lanka Bush-Warblers to an eye-level perch for much improved views. Shortly afterwards, another one low-down, much much better. Cool!

Due to weather induced misfortunes, the Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush kept eluding us until our final morning at Nuwara Eliya when I gambled to check a new site. Luckily, it worked and the male Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush that I found for everybody not only gave jaw-dropping views, sitting on an open branch, but also entertained us with its song – which I heard for the first time. Teus and I got decent sound recordings of it.

Whistling Thrushes are ultra-elusive birds and seeing them involve a sound ‘technique’. I parted some tips in Finding the Malayan Whistling Thrush to Phil whose next stop was Malaysia.

Macro Monday

2009-06-22T13:41:00.010+05:30

This is a close up of a flower bud of the alien-invasive, Lantana camara in my garden. The flowers of this plant attract a lot of butterflies.

Macro Monday HQ is at Lisa's Chaos.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-06-10T09:05:00.003+05:30

Dawn of a Dropwing

2009-06-04T22:09:00.072+05:30

The front covers of the only two books dedicated to the dragonflies and damselflies of Sri Lanka has one thing in common. They both feature a widespread Oriental dragonfly, Dawn Droping Trithemis aurora. Sri Lanka is home to 117 species of dragonflies and damselflies out of which a whopping 53 54 are endemic. Some of these Sri Lankan specials are strikingly coloured too. How then can you explain this species of dragonfly being chosen to adorn the front covers of the said books? They say not to judge a book from its cover. I know this is a tough one.

I am happy to announce that my dragonfly pond has produced the desired results. These specifically are attracting more dragonflies to my garden, getting them to breed in the pond and opening up many photo opportunities for me in the process.

Of the numerous dragonflies that have shown interest at my pond, the Dawn Dropwing has shown a remarkable breeding success during April and May. Its emergence as most other dragonflies happen at night in the cover of darkness - typically at around 8.00 p.m., when I do not like anything to come between me and my TV.

Dragonflies and Damselflies lay their eggs in fresh water where their larva aka. nymph aka. naid grow. In order to transform into a dragonfly, the nymph should to leave the aquatic world and attach itself to a leaf, rock or twig near the water. In my pond, the cradle often takes the form of the outer wall of the raised rectangular rim.

This is how the nymph of Dawn Dropwing looks like when it has surfaced out to the open.

Would it ever make to a front cover of a popular natural history book on dragonflies? I doubt.

Most of these photographs were taken in April, which is the hottest month here. Even working at night made no difference as it was devilishly humid. This was made worse by the mosquitoes, which forced me to be fully clothed in outdoor wear to prevent them from causing havoc. From the moment the dragonfly nymph surfaces out of the water to the time it ends its metamorphosis as a teneral or a young dragonfly can take several hours. So, yes, these pictures were obtained in pretty sweaty circumstances!

Anyway, this is how it looks when the teneral dragonfly begins to emerge breaking the larval skin during the early stages of its final metamorphosis.

The sand particles sticking on the nymph's moist body give it a good camouflague by disguising its real profile against potential predators. However, the ghostly teneral that emerges is pale in comparison and could be easily spotted by predators. This is a critical stage of its metamorphosis. As the helpless teneral emerge, it becomes easy prey for predators lurking near the water. Look how the ants gang up against one sorry teneral Dawn Dropwing to which dawn never dawned. (Kim, it was too late when I found this)

Post-mortem: the ants have punctured a hole the young dragonfly's body in the thorax as its blood (hemolymph) was being pumped during the process of metamorphosis. This drained vital supplies needed for its body to expand and halted the process of growth. Click on the image below to view a large image to see a drop of its blood in the back of its thorax clearly.

Eventually, the ants succeeded in inflicting a slow death on the teneral through this fatal bite and they marched away with their prized catch soon after.

Coming back to regular cases of metamorphosis, as the nymph works its way out of the exoskeleton the end of the abdomen remains inside the exoskeleton. The dragonfly then flips itself upward by a move that is similar to an upside down sit-up. It then grabs onto the lifeless exoskeleton and pulls out the remainder of its abdomen. After a while it looks like this.

The wings, when the dragonfly first emerges, are shriveled and opaque. The wings are pumped full of fluid to expand them and when fully expanded, they harden and finally become transparent.

Here's a different angle of the above.

The young male Dawn Dropwing obelisking below looks similar to the female in colours. It takes several days before it assumes the guady colours of the adult males as in the very first picture.

By the way, this water lily species (?a hybrid of Nymphaea nouchali) is doing very well in my pond. Here's a close up of its anthers.

I conclude this post with an abstract of a male Dawn Dropwing, photographed sometime ago. It doesn't show its real life colour though, which is why it is an abstract! I am looking forward for more captures of the adult showing its real life colours. The one shown at the very top was taken in the ancient history.

Related posts:

The Pond

Dawn Dropwing

Insex

2009-06-01T12:02:00.006+05:30

Macro Monday HQ is at Lisa's Chaos.

Ripleys, believe it or not

2009-05-22T15:39:00.033+05:30

had a very good time in their 4-day natural history trip with me last month. We are talking about Dave and Rose Ripley from Wales and their girls, Celyn and Ceinwen, aged 13 and 12. Before the tour, Dave wrote to me “My wife and I enjoy birdwatching, the children not so much...”. And he added “...they would certainly enjoy elephants, snakes, lizards, insects, and birds in moderation.”

We agreed to combine the best of dry and wet lowlands by visiting the Udawalawe National Park and the Sinharaja "World Heritage" rain forest, with more emphasis on the latter.

Our dry zone leg gave plenty of the hoped for Asian Elephants. With Elephants found year-round, in their 100s at times, Udawalawe was a sure bet for seeing them. Additionally we saw Wild Boar, Wild Buffalo, Spotted Deer, Hanuman Langur, Jackal and Ruddy Mongoose. Land monitor, Flap-shelled Terrapin and Mugger Crocodile were some of the reptiles seen at the first leg.

~~With my 'oozing coolness' ,~~ I got the gals in my side and soon witnessed them actively getting involved in spotting birds, with enthusiastic support given by their parents. This resulted in us raking in nearly 100 species of birds on our day 01. These included Malabar Pied Hornbill, Lesser Adjutant, Grey-headed Fish Eagle, Blue-faced Malkoha, Sirkeer Malkoha, Pied Cuckoo, Plum-headed Parakeet, Crested Treeswift, Orange-breasted Green Pigeon, Sri Lanka Green Pigeon, Green Bee-eater, Barred Buttonquail (many), Indian Pitta and Indian Jungle Nightjar.

We also saw a large dragonfly named Elephant Emperor Anax indicus, which was my top highlight for day 01!

Our rain forest leg called for a different approach to get the girls involved – as it entailed exploring the forest on foot. I gave my Swarovski Binocs to Celyn, which she liked a lot.

And I taught young Ceinwen how to do macro-photography using a point and shoot digital camera, which kept her constantly lagging behind. Both girls were sharp-eyed and got involved actively spotting things, which made my job a lot easier. They proved very good companions to have on a rain forest walk. Ceinwen spotted this critter, which was barely 12 mm in length.

I was conveyed a joint communication by the girls that they’d love to see rain forest snakes. This request was met with enthusiastic support and we ended up seeing 9 snakes with 7 of them being found by yours truly. They belonged to 5 species out of which 3 were endemic. They were:

Green Pit Viper Trimeresurus trigonocephalus One lazing individual was found by me in the undergrowth by the roadside. Heard the girls going "awesome".

Green Whip Snake Ahaetulla nasuta – 2 individuals gave amazing views.

Barnes’ Cat Snake Boiga barnesii– A couple of this scarce endemic was found by me in a courtship behaviour. They are called 'cat snakes' due to their vertically elliptical pupils similar to those found in cats. This is a smaller relative of the infamous Brown Tree Snake Boiga irregularis, which caused avian carnage almost wiping out all the native birds of Guam, where RD is known to be working these days.

Common Bronzeback Tree Snake Dendrelaphis tristis - The individual that Ceinwen spotted first of this snake eluded me but this one that I found posed well for everybody.

Sri Lanka Keelbacked Water Snake Xenochropis asperrimus – 2 individuals at the usual spot. Endemic.

Our birding specials included 2 animated Chestnut-backed Owlets – the first of which was spotted by Dave at dawn.

With several decent mixed-species bird flocks, we saw almost all the specials expected to be seen at Sinharaja such as Sri Lanka Blue Magpie, Red-faced Malkoha, Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush, Malabar Trogon, and Crimson-backed Flameback

We also saw a brooding male Sri Lanka Frogmouth in a nest built on a tree branch above a trail. Observing it in the scope we noticed a ready-to-fledge chick. The angle of light did not allow good photography. But you can click here, here and here to see my previous photographs of this species.

We saw plenty of beautiful butterflies, which included this Rounded 6-Lineblue Necaduba berenice ormistoni.

Dragonflies too were out in good numbers. My top highlight was this pair of Sri Lanka Sabretails Megalogomphus ceylonicus in wheel position. This was a dragonfly-lifer for me.

Additionally we saw Amber-winged Glider, Rapacious Flangetail, Dawn Dropwing, Spine-tailed Skimmer, Asian Pintail and Marsh Skimmer.

We saw three species of Robber flies and the best-looking one of them is shown below. The body length of this excluding limbs was about 6 cm as you can judge from scale of the Clidemia hirta leaf on which it is resting. It looked formidable enough to tackle even a Sabretail!

We also saw plenty of amphibians. They'll have to wait for another post as this has already swollen a bit.

Macro Monday

2009-05-18T02:01:00.006+05:30

This Robber fly was captured by me at 3 times the life size in my garden. No tripod was used. I got a person to hold a sheet of A4 paper at the background to prevent it from being dark as in these pictures.

Macro Monday HQ is at Lisa's Chaos.

Macro Monday

2009-05-11T00:06:00.016+05:30

I shot this one to be used one day,

in a themed post named ‘Macro Monday’.

One of the good-looking Rhacophorid members,

Common Shrub-frog is found in big numbers.

Frogs cannot get sweeter than this, can they?

Macro Monday HQ is at Lisa's Chaos.

Bagging the Blue Whale

2009-05-08T01:17:00.047+05:30

Sri Lanka is one of the best places to see the Blue Whale Balaenoptera musculus in the entire world according to the marine biologist, Dr. Charles Anderson. He is based in Maldives since 1983 and his research on whales in the Indian Ocean led him to believe that Blue Whales should be present off the south coast of Sri Lanka in April, a hypothesis which he confirmed with pelagic trips done in April 2007 and 2008. In the last of these trips, he has had Blue Whales on all 14-days he spent looking for them, with an average of 4.5 sightings per day!

Sri Lanka as you are aware is a continental island, which had been connected to India for much of the geological past through episodes of lowered sea levels. The continental shelf that it sits on begins to slope after 3 nautical miles off Dondra, the southernmost tip of Sri Lanka, which is also the southernmost point of the whole of Indian subcontinent. Due to this oceanographical reality, ships plying between east and west have to circumnavigate Sri Lanka, passing by Dondra instead of cutting across the Northern Sri Lanka where seas are shallow. According Dr. Anderson, the cetaceans migrating between feeding areas in the east and west of the Indian Ocean also take the same route as the ships. This according to him happens between December to April, with clear peaks in December and April.

With this beging the state of affairs, Peter Kaestner who at present is the world’s 7th ranked birder came to Sri Lanka on a 9-day holiday with his family in early April - with seeing Blue Whales being on top of their agenda. According to the latest numbers listed in Surbirds.com, Peter has seen a whopping 8,180 species of birds, out of 10,000 or species found in the world. In 1989, he was fortunate to discover a bird species entirely new to science, from Columbia, which came to be known as Cundimarca Antpitta Grallaria kaestneri.

This was Peter’s second trip with me. The first was in Sep, 2007 when he came on 3-day weekend birding trip wanting to clean up 8 Sri Lankan endemic birds missing in his world bird list. Before this, he had been on a solo birding visit to Sri Lanka in 1981 – round about the time when I was getting ready to go to the kindergarten.

In the 2007 trip we managed to see 7 of those 8 targets, namely the Serendib Scops Owl, Ashy-headed Laughingthrush, Red-faced Malkoha, Sri Lanka Spurfowl, Green-billed Coucal, Sri Lanka Bush Warbler and Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush – arguably the toughest members of the endemic clan, with two of them being in the “endangered” club. The one we missed out was the not-so-elusive, Brown-capped Babbler. This miss was because some of those rare species we sought were found in two ecological zones – the lowland wet zone and highland wet zone respectively and because some of them being rare birds demanded time. And because, we encountered foul weather throughout in this particular tour due to the period of travel coinciding with a monsoonal high.

We commenced our 2009 trip in the southeastern Sri Lanka with 2 game drives to the spectacular Yala National Park hoping to go 1-nil with the Leopard. Unfortunately we drew a blank with this elusive cat this time. However, I managed to find the Brown-capped Babbler at one of my sites near Tissa to make amends.

Next came the pelagic leg of the trip to see our main quarry, the Blue Whale. Having started from Mirissa at 7.15 a.m. on 5 April, we had evidence of our first Blue Whale after travelling 4 nautical miles towards Antarctica! It was a distant but unmistakable view of a characteristic high vertical blow. Tickable views were obtained around 5.5 nautical miles off. We had at least 4 good sightings of just an individual after we reached the hotspot and started looking intently. We knew it was the same one as it had a characteristic white marking in the tail, which showed up clearing with each surfacing. Here's a crude video of our Blue Whale.

At one point it was seen as close as 20-30m from our boat as it surfaced to breathe, almost taking our breath away. It performed well for us as well as for people aboard 3 other boats that converged at this hotspot for the same purpose. One of those was full of familiar faces with members of a local nature club. They at one point were very lucky to get a pretty close sighting. By the way, the terra firma you see in the picture below is Sri Lanka, just in case if you are wondering whether it is Antarctica.

I did not take my dSLR for this trip as I wouldn't have found much use of it with my macro only lens set up(Canon 300mm, I am thinking about you). So, all these pictures shared here were taken by my trusty Panasonic Lumix FZ-18, which is also the model that Peter uses as his carry on camera on his globe-trotting birding adventures. I bought mine after seeing this amazing shot he got by photographing the Serendib Scops Owl at night using an older Lumix version.

A day trip we did following this to Sinharaja rain forest to see Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush and Crimson-backed Flameback was successful. The former responded aggressively to my rendition of its contact call by flying straight towards my head, indicating it may be busy nesting. These two birds together with Sri Lanka Woodshrike and Common Hawk Cuckoo seen on this tour by Peter went as ‘bank birds’– ones which do not get added to his bird list immediately as the ‘Clements checklist’ that he uses to keep track of birds species has not yet accepted these recent taxonomical splits/potential spits (announced in various ornithological literature) as valid or ‘full’ species of birds. Now that he has seen these birds they would increase his tally once they are accepted as valid species in the future by everybody.

I nearly forgot, Peter became the first birder to see my garden's roosting Brown Hawk Owls.

Related posts:

Finding lifers for Peter Kaestner

Nannophrys ceylonensis

2009-05-01T22:48:00.003+05:30

What is your binocular?

2009-04-23T14:00:00.041+05:30

I used to be a Leica Trinovid 10 x 42 user. Its current price in Adorama is $1,395, but if you shop around you can find cheaper offers.

I paid Rs. 65,000 for it in April, 2002. Yes, it was a used one, but I didn't mind that as a brand new Leica Trinovid was beyond my reach. Before this, I had 2 binoculars - Bresser "Shark" 7 x 24 and Bresser 7 x 50 "Action" - both received as b'day gifts. Sadly, both of these didn't stand my abuse under (tropical) field conditions for too long. So, I found myself in the market for a pair of binocs soon.

For much of my early years as a budding bird watcher, I used no optical aids, for reasons beyond my control. A proof for this is this picture taken on 11 May, 1990 on my first trip to Horton Plains National Park. (I am the sweetest one of the lot).

This highland trip was led by the bloke in shorts, one Kelum Manamendra-Arachchi, who as this picture ~~testifies~~ shows, was at the prime of his youth.

Kelum (ayya) is a celebrated Biologist in Sri Lanka now. He has discovered and described countless number of vetebrates new to science from Sri Lanka and have gone on to author and co-author papers such as this, this, this, this and this.

By the way, today marks 19 years since my first trip to the Sinharaja rain forest. It was with the school's nature club from 23-25 April, 1990. I will be making a private trip to Sinharaja to celebrate this special anniversary, later this month. You are invited to join me!

Coming back to binocs, in late February, 2009, I treated myself for a Swarovski EL 8.5 x 42.

Being a top of the range binocs, it came at a big price tag of $1,660.(It was actually $1,825, but I got this special deal thanks to Ben Allen). However, its superior light gathering power - helpful in low-light conditions, increased depth of field and jaw-dropping overall optical quality amply justified the premium price that I paid for this toy.

As a Naturalist Guide, I often find myself birding in dense and dimly-lit rain forests conditions. I have experienced that the visual clarity of this binocs is markedly better in dimly-lit conditions compared to my previous model. This was really evident when I trained them on the cryptically-coloured Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush at the Sinharaja rain forest during a recent tour. It looked a better looking bird!

In early this month, having arrived early at Haputale to pick up a few bird watchers to start a tour, I found myself birding in their hotel gardens. There, I picked a pair of Tickell's Blue Flycatchers down a ravine. When I focused on one of them, I was simply blown away by the vivid colours that I was seeing. I have seen this bird for many years but it has never occured to me before that it has such a gorgeous blue patch in the forehead. At least, I'd never seen this feature so vividly before.

According to the specs, the Swarovski EL binoculars allows a minimum close focusing distance of 8ft, which is ideal for odonatoholics like me. This excellent review , says that you can achieve a minimum focus of 7 feet, which I think is probably right - although I have never measured it precisely.

If you are an avid bird watcher who is in the market for a pair of binoculars, prefer nothing but the best and don't mind paying a premium price, go for these. The cracking visual treats of the birds you are going to see will amply justify the heavy price tag, believe me.

I like this comment mentioned by a reviewer in Amazon:

"Looking through these things is like ingesting some kind of powerful drug. One is transported into a new reality, one in which even mundane objects become endlessly interesting..."

So, what is your binocular?

I breathe from my rectum

2009-04-21T12:52:00.019+05:30

I have for most parts, a watery existence. I can propel in the water by forcing out water that I have sucked in from my rectum. Yes, you guessed right, I have a multi-purpose rectum. In order to prevent fecal matter from contaminating the rectal cavity and messing up my oxygen intake, I excrete them in carefully processed packets. So, you squeamish types, relax.

I have an enlarged and a ‘teethed’ lower lip that I can shoot out at 1/100th of a second to as much as 1/3 of my body length to catch prey. This remarkable speed is achieved by internal hydraulics in my body. I have a voracious appetite and I am labelled as one of the top carnivores in freshwater habitats. Eventually, I transform into a beauty totally different to my rough looks and questionable ways of life.

Just who am I?

Answer this correctly and win a signed printed copy of any of the images in this blog. Multiple correct answers may necessitate a draw.

On other matters: I made a mistake in my previous post. That image was not shot at 5 times the life size. The one below was. It is uncropped image as the previous one.

Macro Monday

2009-04-20T09:24:00.008+05:30

This is a head-on shot of the one shown in my previous post. I photographed it yesterday at 5 times the life size. I am still awaiting a verdict on its ID, so don't ask me what it is. We do not have a guide to these types in this country still. So, I have sought ID help from an 'informed source'.

I did two tours in April. The images of the first of these were downloaded to my desktop computer and it has gone in for repairs. It should take about a week for it to be back in working condition. Due to this, my April trip reports will take a while to appear here. In the meantime, I promise to do a post on my dragonfly pond and brief you of its progress.

Spidery Sunday

2009-04-12T22:35:00.004+05:30

Birding in style

2009-04-01T20:51:00.057+05:30

I did an 18-day ‘birding in style’ tour from 24 February to 10 March. It was with 4 bird watchers from Australia and England. This was my first birding in style tour. It was put together by Ben Allen from Perth. He was joined by his wife Fiona, her mother Shirley and their birding friend, Sybil Sassoon – the latter two Brits, both born in 1932. This was the first trip to Sri Lanka for the first three, but for Sybil it was the fourth – having led tour groups in what sounded to me like in three generations - in 1973, 1982 and 1994! She remembered seeing Leopard and Sloth Bear very well at the Wilpattu National Park in her previous visits and was very pleased when we found this massive Leopard – one of the two we had at the spectacular Yala National Park. Sybil and the African specialists in all of them noted that this was the biggest individual they have seen. We found it when we were leaving the park and it just kept walking...

...pausing briefly

..to check us out before disappearing.

My ‘birding in style’ tour uses swanky accommodations, which include 5-star nature resorts and boutique hotels - with impressive garden birding. It is operated at a much slower pace compared to serious birding tours, in which we aim to see as many birds as possible. This relaxed pace is set to leave us with enough time to enjoy no-nonsense arm-chair birding, which is an integral part of this holiday. Very importantly, it also leaves us enough time to experience such guest facilities as spas and infinity pools in the posh accommodations we use. Special dining experiences also mark another crucial element of this tour with international buffets, fine dining and a good mix of Sri Lankan cuisine for those who are adventurous enough.

One of the trappings of being a tour guide, is that I too get to experience the same facilities and experiences as my guests, more often than not.

With a day like this in Heritance Kandalama: a hour and half of morning birding - starting at 7.00 a.m., breakfast buffet, 40 minutes of post breakfast arm-chair birding near the hotel's rock pool followed by an extended time at leisure to do our own thing - which for me included a bit of bird-sound recording, watching cricket in the TV, volunteering to sample a complimentary spa treatment that Ben didn't want to do, lounging by the pool with everybody - checking out a nearby fig tree in fruiting with a 625-ml Carlsberg as an observational aid,...another C before a buffet lunch...., a post-lunch power-nap, two and a half hours of absorbing late-afternoon birding in the hotel gardens, a shower, checklist over a piña colada, a ‘Mongolian night’ buffet dinner, more TV before finally retiring for the day – this job, guiding can take a lot of you, seriously.

Such pure pampering and holiday spirit notwithstanding, we managed to see 230 species of birds on this tour, which included 30 of the 33 endemics. The endemics we didn’t see were the very endemics we didn’t bother to look for – the Serendib Scops Owl, the Sri Lanka Bush Warbler and the Sri Lanka Spurfowl - a troublesome trio, which usually demand a bit more 'application'.

Our final bird tally included 6 of the 15 resident night birds. We also scored 27 mammals on this tour including all four mongooses (btw, why isn’t it mongeese?) found in Sri Lanka. This included a species that is getting rarer, the Stripe-necked Mongoose, which was spotted by Sybil close to the legendary Rawana Falls.

While there are usually many highlights on a tour such as this spanning over 18-days, some stay in memory for very special reasons. They are as follows in no particular order.

(a) A White-throated Kingfisher beating the hell out of a 'Tawny-bellied Babbler prey', shown in the crude video below.

(b) A Chestnut-winged Crested Cuckoo that came to a frutting fig near the natural rock pool at Kandalama minutes after settling to do some arm-chair birding.

(c) A flock of 21 Greater Flamingos flying over at Malala lagoon at the Bundala (RAMSAR wetland) National Park, which was spotted by yours truly. According to the local park guide, these were the first for this migratory season and first GFs after a lapse of several years in Bundala. Check this out to find why.

(d) Four sightings of Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush - three in the morning and one in the afternoon at Nuwara Eliya.

(e) A Slaty-legged Crake spotted by me in the forest floor from a moving vehicle while driving along the road leading to Heritance Kandalama. It proved an addition to the hotel’s bird list, which increased to 173-bird species. This was seen again at Nuwara Eliya.

(f) Two puddle birding sessions that saw us raking in a high profile communal bathing party that included Indian Blue Robin (4), Orange-headed Thrush (4), White-rumped Shama (2), Brown-capped Babbler (about 3), Emerald Dove (1), Indian Pitta (1) and Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher (about 2). The lighting was poor but this video gives a taste of what we experienced.

(g) Observing a full-blown mixed-species bird flock while seated in arm-chairs at the Research camp at Sinharaja.

Apart from the endemics and other birds mentioned specifically above, some of our other avian specials included Kashmir Flycatcher, Pied Thrush, Sri Lanka Frogmouth, Watercock, Sirkeer Malkoha, Blue-faced Malkoha, Marshall’s Iora aka. White-tailed Iora (2 sightings in two locations), Fork-tailed Drongo Cuckoo, Lesser Adjutant, Common Hawk Cuckoo (not common – and a potential split), Malabar Pied Hornbill, Indian Blackbird (potential split), Small Pratincole (nesting on the road at Bundala), Yellow-fronted Pied Woodpecker, Indian Pygmy Woodpecker, Brahminy Myna, Brown Fish Owl, and Barn Owl, which is a locally uncommon bird.

Oh! we also had a nesting Red-vented ~~Vermin~~ Bulbul at the reception of the Heritance Kandalama. This eccentric mother was brooding with a ready to fledge chick by the side of her unusual nest.

Here's Sybil getting her daily dose of arm-chair birding...almost.

Ben was kind enough to do some important shopping for me before coming to Sri Lanka. He and the 'party' presented me with two superb books, one on ‘close-up photography’ and the other on ‘night bugs’, which I am eagerly consuming at the moment. Thank you all for such a superb trip – one of my best.

Daylight robbery

2009-03-20T13:08:00.033+05:30

Since yersterday, I have been an eye-witness to a robbery taking place in my home garden in broad daylight. A pair of robber flies has taken residence on some of the sticks that I have erected to invite dragonflies to land. Using these facilities, they have been on rampage robbing many insects of their lives.

Thanks to their amazing vision with two large compound eyes and three simple eyes situated in the depression in betweeen, hardly any fly in the vicinity goes unnoticed to these vicious predators waiting in ambush. On several occassions I observed a perched individual fly in the opposite direction to take insect prey in mid-air. This particular species of robber fly, measured barely a centimetre in length was a pretty amazing killing machine.

Once the victim is caught in mid air, it returns to the perch to 'process' the meal. First it uses its short proboscis to inject venom - its saliva containing neurotoxic and proteolytic enzymes to paralyze and digest the insect's inner parts. Thereafter, puting its proboscis to use again, it cold-bloodedly sucks the liquified meal like a milkshake. Once it is done, the victim's outer casing is discarded, like a used satchet.

Robbers belong to insect order: Diptera to which 'true flies' belong. They possess a single pair of wings. All Robbers belong to the family Asilidae. Their quite impressive prey menu includes other Dipteran flies, beetles, butterflies, moths, bees, wasps, spiders, dragonflies, damselflies and grasshoppers!

Related posts:

Macro Monday

Leopards galore

2009-03-16T07:17:00.032+05:30

I am a firm believer that for getting ‘tickable views’ of rare species on tours that are usually limited in duration, you need lots of good luck. You can be a birder or a naturalist with good field craft & have all the latest tools in the trade, but if you don’t have enough luck, you are bound to head back home empty-handed.

Over the years of guiding birders and naturalists I have met persons of varying levels of field craft. Some of them were extremely skilled naturalists but they just lacked that luck factor while others were average as far as field craft went but brought with them lots of luck to the equation. Naturally, with the latter types, we end up seeing lots of specials, surpassing expectations. No other person that I have guided so far had bought field craft and luck in equal high measures as Dr. Andreas Prevodnik of Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.

I had the fortune of guiding him on what turned out to be a high-adrenaline ‘Bird and Natural History’ tour from 10-17 Feb. This tour came to me through Red Dot Tours, a British Tour Operator to which I freelance in between my tours. It turned out to be an absolutely fantastic trip in terms of both numbers and quality of sightings. We both worked tirelessly and ended up bagging a whopping 216 species of birds including 31 of the 33 endemics currently recognized, which was quite something given the short duration of the trip. We missed out on the Sri Lanka Wood Pigeon and Sri Lanka Small Barbet. Our best efforts to see them failed, driving home, another crucial fact - you sometimes need time too!

Our final bird tally included 6 of the 15 resident night birds, which included Serendib Scops Owl, Chestnut-backed Owlet, Brown Wood Owl, Indian Scops Owl, Indian Jungle Nightjar & Sri Lanka Frogmouth – another brooding male shown below cooperating to offer stunning views.

A special natural history highlight of the trip was seeing 7 Leopards in 2 game drives at the amazing Yala National Park. Four of these were recorded on the first game drive. We just couldn’t stay away from Leopards at Yala on this tour as they turned up every time we were after other targets. I hate to admit this, but Leopards were a big distraction on this tour!

The first of the Leopards to grace our visit to Yala (shown at the top) settled under the shade of a tree by the roadside at the beginning of the Uraniya road and gave us stonking views just, 2.5m away from our safari - after 30 minutes from entering the park.

Our second Leopard found at an area casually named as ‘Ahelagas-wala’ at the famous Leopard zone, Meda-para was this stubborn cub, who refused to give us any decent look at it except a bum view.

Our third Leopard only offered a fleeting glimpse as it crossed the track a bit ahead of the location where the above ~~brat~~ cub was 'misbehaving'. Our fourth and final Leopard was sighted in full view close to Uraniya road when it came down to the ground from a Palu tree when we were exiting the park.

Our 5 & 6th Leopards were spotted together on our second safari, guarding over a Water Buffalo kill from a safe distance. Despite their intimidating presence near the carcass, a Golden Jackal, and a Wild Boar and several birds crashed the party and helped themselves for a quick McBuffalo meal. Here’s what happened, shot from about 70m away.

When we were observing this, news arrived that a male Leopard is out in the open at the nearby Palugaswewa No.1. We wasted no time in going for it to find this beautiful Leopard. (note: the colours are wrong.)

It was well worth it as this male really put up a show for us with a curious male Sri Lanka Junglefowl also playing a support role. Check this out.

We also chanced upon 2 Jungle Cats outside the park while returning to our accommodation on the 2 days that we visited the park. Andreas photographed one of them at point blank range.

Apart from the endemics, our other birding highlights include Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher, Malayan Night Heron (adult in clear view – easily my best sighting ever), Painted Snipe, White-cheeked Tern, Western Reef Egret, Western Marsh Harrier, Ruddy-breasted Crake, Watercock, Black-necked Stork, Pied Thrush, Fork-tailed Drongo Cuckoo, Small Pratincole, Broad-billed Sandpiper, Red-necked Phalarope, Malabar Pied Hornbill, Blue-faced Malkoha, Indian Pitta, Indian Blue Robin, Rufous Woodpecker, Marshall’s Iora, Black Bittern, Yellow Bittern & Streaked Weaver.

Birding with Keith and Julie Ellis

2009-02-21T14:03:00.037+05:30

I led an 18-day birds, wildlife and culture tour with Keith and Julie Ellis from Kent, UK from 23 Jan – 9 February. Keith was a serious birder with over 3,000 world birds in his life list. He knew most of the species that he wanted to see by their scientific names and was a sharp birder. Julie had broader interests, which included culture. A cultural extension added to the tour to please her took us to several UNESCO World Heritage Sites that included Anuradhapura - the first capital of Sri Lanka from 4th century B.C to early 11th century AD, Polonnaruwa - the medieval capital from 11-13th century A.D, Sigiriya – a pleasure capital of a single king named Kashyapa in the 5th century A.D and Kandy - the last Sinhalese capital from 16th to 19th century A.D, which is home to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic where a Sacred Tooth of the Buddha is encased in jeweled caskets that sit on a throne. In Anuradhapura, we also visited Mihintale – the cradle of Sinhalese Buddhist civilization and birded in the world’s first declared wildlife sanctuary, announced as early as in the 3rd century B.C.

We were quite lucky with the weather and experienced nice dry conditions throughout the tour, which was perfect for birding. In total, we bagged 253 species of birds including all 33 endemic birds currently recognized. 19 of these endemics were bagged during our first 2-days at Kithulgala - in the ‘power play’ phase of the tour, which reduced the ‘asking rate’ during the rest of the tour considerably! Some of the high-profile endemic targets bagged at Kithulgala included Serendib Scops Owl, Sri Lanka Spurfowl, Crimson-backed Flameback, Red-faced Malkoha and Sri Lanka Blue Magpie.

The latter two species are usually considered as Sinharaja specials, but we made good ground by bagging them in advance to free up time to look for bonus birds. Our last endemic to be seen on the trip, Sri Lanka Bush Warbler was the one that gave us the hardest time. As it was proving elusive at my regular sites at Nuwara Eliya, a pre-dawn visit (after waking up at 3.30 a.m.) was undertaken to the cloud forests of Horton Plains National Park just to see it. The temperature at Horton Plains was just about 3 degrees centigrades at the site we mustered our courage to look for this elusive Warbler. It had ground frost visible, as it is typical for this time of the year. After 45 minutes of searching, I managed to spot one Sri Lanka Bush Warbler skulking in low bamboo thicket, thus making a clean sweep of the endemics. I suspect the reason for its inactivity at elevations low-down probably may be due to the very dry weather experienced at those sites.

Painted Stork

A special highlight of the tour was seeing 10 of the 15 resident night birds, with most offering multiple orgasmic views!! This figure comprised of 7 Owls, 2 Nightjars and 1 Frogmouth. This night bird number bettered a previous high recorded on my tours of 9 - seen in a 15 day birding tour in February, 2008 with 4 super-hardcore British birders.

Touching in the specifics of the haul of night birds & other things, our first Owl of the trip, the expected endemic, Chestnut-backed Owlet (shown below) was spotted by Keith while it was feeding actively at daytime close to our accommodation. The same species was seen moments later in another patch close by, with its characteristic call betraying its hide-out in the dense vegetation.

Our second species of Owl for the trip, a roosting Indian Scops Owl was picked by me quite by chance moments later, when I was looking for the skulking endemic, Green-billed Coucal in a thicket. We got decent views of the hoped for Coucal and as dusk approached the Scops Owl cooperated at a more open branch to present us full view of its profile. Indian Scops Owl was recorded again at a nest hole towards the tail end of the holiday (ahem, work for me) at Anuradhapura during the cultural leg.

Our day 2 at Kithulgala saw us getting cracking views of the highly-sought-after endemic, Serendib Scops Owl. This rain forest owl was discovered in 2001 and is one of the 2 ‘Endangered’ endemics (which I believe should go up to 3 with Sri Lanka Bush Warbler added to it). The other endemic bestowed with this threatened category, Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush gave an untickable view on our first dusk vigil, but did not disappoint us on our second attempt when a female showed up over 10 minutes. A change of strategy adopted by me did the trick for us, in which Keith and I occupied two different spots several metres apart covering two vital angles. Both of us got it almost at once when the bird emerged, silently.

Our fourth Owl species for the trip and second for day 2 came in the form of a vocal Brown Fish Owl in flight. The same species gave cracking views at Nuwara Eliya, Sigiriya and Anuradhapura – the last at daytime courtesy of a mob of smaller birds harassing it.

Our fifth resident night bird for the trip came in the form of abrooding male Sri Lanka Frogmouth in a nest (shown below & at the very top) at Sinharaja on day 3. Rather sadly, we learnt the on the following day from Ranjaka, our local guide that this nest had been ‘predated’ under mysterious circumstances. A Human involvement was suspected, which if true was very very sad.

The day 3 also brought us the ultra-elusive Brown Wood Owl, which was our fifth owl and sixth night bird for the trip. We manage to see the same species on the following day too courtesy a mob of short-tempered Sri Lanka Crested Drongos. They dive-bombed it with no mercy at dusk pin-pointing us of the exact location!

Several Indian Jungle Nightjars seen at Udawalawe on day 6 proved to be our seventh night bird for the trip. This species offered very good views at close range at Yala too. Our eighth night bird and sixth Owl for the trip seen at Sigiriya saw us cleaning up all 3 Scops Owls of Sri Lanka, when Keith expertly zeroed in on an Oriental Scops Owl on day 13. It was calling teasingly close for over 15 minutes and its location remain hidden in the dense foliage for most angles available. When we found it, we had to make do with unsatisfactory back views of it due to the location of its perch. The following morning saw us making a return visit to this site for it. After a bit of hardwork, I spotted a pair of this cute little Owls at dawn to give absolutely stonking views within 3m. Sadly, we had no camera with either of us to record this moment of magic.

Crested Hawk Eagle

Jerdon’s Nightjar seen on a snag high up by Keith became our ninth night bird of the trip. That was again seen on day 13. A prolonged sighting of the same species in a low perch bettered this sighting three days later at Anuradhapura. Our last night bird for the trip was Common Barn Owl – a pair of which was recorded in a stake-out inside shrine in Polonnaruwa.

Concerted attempts at seeing Spot-bellied Eagle Owl, Brown Hawk Owl, Jungle Owlet and Sri Lanka Bay Owl failed on this tour. However, we came agonizingly close to seeing Sri Lanka Bay Owl twice but it just did not show up being vocal but staying uncooperatively hidden in dense foliage despite our best efforts to obtain an angle of view. This ultra secretive owl caused a mega twitch in Sri Lanka when it turned up in a daytime roost at Sinharaja in 2007. It is in public domain that at least one local bird watcher took a tuktuk tour all the way from Colombo to see it.

Great Thick-knee

Our other birds of note recorded during the trip included Grey-headed Lapwing (vagrant & lifer for me seen at Yala thanks to US of Ceylon Bird Club who conveyed the news), Western Reef Egret (white morph one picked skilfully by Keith at Bundala, shown below), Legge’s Hawk Eagle (formely Mountain HE, great overhead views at Sinharaja), Chestnut-winged Crested Cuckoo (a lone individual outside a flock at Sinharaja), Fork-tailed Drongo Cuckoo (spotted expertly by Julie at Kithulgala), Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher (seen & photographed at point black range at Kithulgala), Indian Reed Warbler (in song at Bundala), Slaty-breasted Rail (Scarce resident with possible migrant populations supplementing resident populations during migratory season, seen at Tissamaharama), White-naped Woodpecker (punctual!), Kashmir Flycatcher (at least 4 sightings with the first being of an adult male), Pied Thrush (great views at Nuwara Eliya) Common Ringed Plover (a scarce migrant, not too exciting to Keith), Dollarbird (seen thanks to G. de Silva Wijeyeratne at Kithulgala) and Eurasian Collard Dove (a scarce resident in Sri Lanka seen at Annaiwilundawa RAMSAR wetland, not too exciting to Keith). A Slaty-legged Crake at Sinharaja seen only by me was the only bird species that eluded Keith.

We had exceptional views of the ultra-elusive Sri Lanka Spurfowls when a female followed by a male were seen over five minutes, walking in the dimly-lit forest floor, totally unaware that we were observing them from a ridge higher up. Such heart-melting sightings of this gamebird are very rare and this was one of the best views that I have had of it for quite a long time guiding an overseas birder. Before that we had brief view of it at Kithulgala, which was tickable.

Moving on to non-birding matters, the Leopard shown below (same individual as in the previous post) was clearly our top non-birding highlight. We were the only jeep at the site when we found it. It was first sighted at 5.30 p.m. while resting in a shady spot near a water hole named rawung-wala (‘circular water-hole’) at Meda-para at the Yala National Park – the premier site for Leopards in Sri Lanka. It was about 25 m away when we found it first. Soon after we killed the engine of our jeep to observe it, it stood up and walked towards the road ahead of us. It then continued to walk along it for a while like this, soon going out of view in the bend ahead.

We then approached it to find it again, this time within 5 meters or so from it, enabling us to photograph it. Finally, after giving a good long glance at our jeep, it retreated into the jungle and disappeared out of radar like this.

A close second to this Leopard in terms of non-birding highlights was a pair of Barking Deers (Indian Muntjak) seen at Welimada. My previous sightings of this deer species has always been at the massive Wilpattu National Park. We exchanged glances with a pair of these before they retreated to the woodier interiors. More highlights will follow.

On tour

2009-01-31T21:20:00.006+05:30

I had this Leopard at the Yala National Park yesterday. We had it for a good 5 minutes before it disappeared into the jungle at Meda-para.

The pond

2009-01-19T00:12:00.072+05:30

I have built a backyard pond to attract dragonflies. My ulterior motive is to photograph those winged beauties that come in search of food & love. My pond basically is a boring rectangular tank almost like a large communal well. Its dimensions roughly are 17 x 7.5ft with the depth varying from 9 inches to 4ft. It is a concrete structure and I used over 1000kg of cement for it. The whole project costed little over US$ 400.

I have added roughly 6 inches of soil at the bottom to provide the habitat necessary for most dragonfly larvae to thrive. In certain sections, I have added pebbles to the bottom for further habitat enrichment. I have added some aquatic plants in keeping with the spirit of a dragonfly pond. Sticks have been erected at various places in and out of the pond for dragonflies to perch - strategically in spots favourable for my photography!

The pictures above and below are of a male Dawn Dropwing Trithemis aurora that visited my pond last Saturday. It was shot at midday when it was obelisking a lot.

BTW, did you notice a tiny parasite on the veins of the left hindwing of the above dragon?. Here's a closer look. What's your guess, a midge?, a wasp?

I have jammed several images into the 'contact-sheet' below showing the process & progress. Click on it for larger view.

As you can see it is not the most aesthetically pleasing pond in the world! What matters for me is its functionality to suit my style of dragonfly photography. The elevated rim of the pond was made to prevent siltation due to high rainfall in the 'wet zone' that I live in and to support myself while shooting dragons. Once this outer wall has darkened with time, I hope it will draw this amazingly camouflaged Indian Rockdwellers Bradinopyga geminata that are found nearby.

I have introduced some vegetation around the pond for dragonflies as well as butterflies. In most sections around the pond, I have let nature take its course.

Here's a Red Water Lilly Nymphaea pubescens in bloom.

Before I built this pond, my yard had a tally of 22 species of dragonflies and damselflies. That was with a small pond teeming with fish that was done by my farther. After I did mine, our dragon tally has gone up to 24. There are 4 species that are recorded in an abandoned quarry with natural rock pools just 70 m as a ~~crow~~ dragonfly flies from my yard, which are not represented in my yard’s dragon list yet. This figure used to be 5, but after I declared the pond open, this male Blue Pursuer Potamarcha congener became the first to defect to my side from this neighbouring patch, where the pools are seasonal. I hope the word gets around and I will see those other four turning up in my yard soon! Anyway looking at my local area numbers, which are higher than my yard and neighbouring rock pool tallies combined, I am confident that my yard list will imporve in the fullness of time.

Here's a close crop of the same. Note: another parasite on the wing.

Here's a better view of it. Any idea what it could be?

This Pink Skimmer Orthetrum pruinosum neglectum male was one of the first dragonflies to lay claim to the pond.

I have added a few smaller resident fresh water fish to keep mosquitoes at bay, which is an important consideration here in the tropics. These include four Cyprinids, Horadandiya Horadandiya atukorali – a good mosquito larvivore, Slender Rasbora Rasbora daniconius, Scarlet Banded Barb Puntius amphibius & Malabar Danio Devario malabaricus. In their company are shoals of Dwarf Panchax Aplocheilus parvus (Aplocheilidae) -another good mosquito larvivore & Common Spiny Loach Lepidocephalichthys thermalis (Cobitidae). I doubt any of these fish will pose a serious threat to dragonfly larvae. On the positive side the larvae of these fish will also serve as food for dragonfly larvae to set the food chain in motion. I think the pond will have plenty of hiding spots for the dragonfly larvae to avoid the fish. They are known to be pretty smart operators.

After a brief absence, Elusive Adjutants Aethriamanta brevipennis brevipennis have started to show up now. Here's a fetching female of that.

In addition to dragonflies, my pond is attracting a fair number of non-odonate visitors to bathe, drink and find food. Most annoying of all the non-dragonfly visitors other than mosquitoes (which aren't too much of a probelm yet) is White-bellied Drongo, which seems to be profiting from the open and well lit area to target and dive bomb the dragonflies at the pond. One of them attempted to catch a dragonfly that I was photographing inches away from me! Thanks to its amazing vision that focal individual got away.

Here's a mug shot of this avian culprit. Don't be fooled, he is not as innocent as he looks!

I'll take your questions.

Think Orange!

2009-01-17T22:15:00.007+05:30

Dawn Dropwing Trithemis aurora male photographed at my dragonfly pond today. A post about this pond will be done in a few days time.

Fulgoroid Friday

2009-01-16T15:01:00.010+05:30

That's what it is. This planthopper was photographed during a frogging session at Sinharaja 'World Heritage' rain forest during my Christmas birding tour. It was barely 3 cm in length. For you inquiring minds, its classification is as follows.

Kingdom:Animalia, Phylum: Arthropoda, Class: Insecta, Order: Hemiptera, Suborder: Auchenorrhyncha, Infraorder: Fulgoromorpha, Superfamily: Fulgoroidea, Family: Dictyopharidae.

The Biologist, Dr. Priyantha Wijesinghe whom I consulted for this had crosschecked its identification with an expert on a related family and fowarded me his reply. It said "...I reach the same conclusion as you: probably close to Centromeria viridistigma (or maybe it is that species) but as I am not a Dictyo specialist, I really cannot tell you more..."

Top 10 Natural History highlights - 2008

2009-01-13T22:11:00.035+05:30

Following are the top 10 Natual History highlights that made me tick in the year 2008. I'd like to thank Duncan Fraser at Ben Cruachan - Natural History for his invitation to do this post.

1. Elusive Adjutant Aethriamanta brevipennis brevipennis-- adult female in my home garden. Winner of Best Dragonfly Moments Macro Capture of 2008. Click here to see all the entries and the voting process and here to see the winning shot of mine announced.

2. Serendib Scops Owl Otus thilohoffmanni -- Photographed on tour with Thiery Becret, Marie-Andrée Becret and Michelle Gerner from France at Sinharaja 'World Heritage' Rain forest in Aug, 2008. This bird was discovered new to science in 2001. Click here to read more details about it. It is one of the 2 "Endangered" endemics in Sri Lanka and the reason why I bought my Panasonic Lumix FZ-18, after seeing amazing results of a Panasonic Lumix used by Peter Kaestner, who shot this photograph of this rare forest owl on tour with me in September, 2007. Peter is currently placed 6th in the 'world rankings of birders with 8,197 bird species seen out of 10,000 or so species in world.

3. Leopard Panthera pardus kotiya. Another one of the many highlights of the aforementioned tour in Aug, 2008. As blogged here, it amply rewarded our persistence. Leopard is the apex predaor in Sri Lanka and day time sightings are regular at Yala National Park's block 1 (141 sq.km) where there is a healthy population of around 40 individuals.

4. White Four-ring Ypthima ceylonica -- a garden delight. I was flat on the ground commando style when I shot this. This is quite a common species but photographing them is really a pain in the neck as they always quite low down.

5. Elusive Adjutant Aethriamanta brevipennis brevipennis -- Duncan never told me that you cannot repeat a species. This juvenile male was shot in natural light hand-holiding the camera as I usually do. This dragonfly species is very much my 'test' dragonfly that I use to learn close up photography.

6. Long-horned Grasshopper "Robust Zumala" Zumala robusta -- Photographed on tour with the three French photographers mentioned above. This was my top non-birding highlight of that tour. It was identified by Biologist, Dr. Priyantha Wijesinghe- - one time Entomologist in the National Museum of Sri Lanka. He wrote "...your photographs are excellent and I was very glad to see them, not having come across a live specimen of Zumala myself". I blogged about this here.

7. Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher Ceyx erithaca -- As blogged the previous post, this was bagged during my Chirstmas Birding trip with Richard and Anne Bishop from Kenya in Dec, 2008. This was scored at Kithulgala and was the first bird we raised our binoculars to watch on this tour!

8. Purinosed Bloodtail Lathrecista asiatica asiatica -- young female photographed in my yard. I bagged her just three days after getting my first dSLR and she put a smile in my face for that reason. And I put a smile back in her face in celebration of my first blogoversary.

9. "Ornate Rakwana Grasshopper" Rakwana ornata.-- Another one of the top highlights seen on tour with the French photographers in Aug, 2008. Read comments on this post for details. This was shot using my old Panasonic Lumix-FZ-18 and ultra stealth mode. Dr. Wijesinghe who identified this for me was very happy to see its image too. He wrote to me "Although this species lacks wings and is flightless it has extremely good jumping powers and very acute vision (note the very large and prominent eyes), so it is very hard to approach both for capture and photography."

10. Common Hourglass Frog Polypedates cruciger -- This female was shot at night in my home garden.

So, what is your pick?

Masala – 2

2009-01-10T17:47:00.040+05:30

It’s time for another masala post.

As promised, I am sharing some of the non-birding highlights recorded on the Christmas Birding tour that I led last month. Let's start off with amphibians. We did several frogging walks at the Sinharaja rain forest. It produced a few goodies.

One of the top findings was this strikingly coloured endemic shrub frog described in 2005 as Labugama Shrub Frog Philautus abundus.

Its discovery was published in this paper in the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 2005 Supplement No.12 that announced 27 new species of shrub frogs of the genus Philautus. This paper was authored by the indefatigable Biologist duo, Kelum Manamendra-Arachchi and Rolex Award laureate, Rohan Pethiyagoda, who have put Sri Lanka on the global map of the amphbian hotspots with the discovery of 100 species new to science!

I presume this is an Orange-canthal Shrub Frog Philautus stictomerus. We didn't handle any of these but merely tried to put names looking at their externally diagnosable features without disturbing them. Some of them are difficult to tell without handling as their diagnstics are not all visible in casual view.

Here’s a Common Paddy field Frog aka. Cricket Frog Fejervarya limnocharis . This colour morph with a bright orange mid-dorsal stripe is more attractive than its other drab-coloured morphs.

I found this endemic Bronzed Frog Rana temporalis on a shrub.

To change the topics completely, have you heard any rumours about the new Nikon D3x? It looks like a pretty awesome camera to me. You need to have pretty deep pockets to get one of those though. Sadly it is out of reach for me and a few people I know including this bloke, Hitler. Check this out.

Moving on to invertebrates, this endemic Long-horned Grasshopper, was my top non-birding highlight of the trip. It was identified by Dr. Priyantha Wijesinghe to be Temnophylloides astridula . It was found by yours truly at Sinharaja in an afternoon walk. According to Priyantha, this was described by G.M Henry in 1939 in the following paper:

Henry, G. M. 1939. A new tettigoniid genus and species from Ceylon. Spolia Zeylanica [=Ceylon Journal of Science Section B Zoology and Geology] 21(3): 229-232, pl. XX.

The genus; Temnophylloides is a monotypic one meaning that there is only a single species representing it, which in this case is endemic to Sri Lanka. We encountered it on the way back too, frozen in the same posture, at the same spot. It started to drizzle a bit then when I attempted this picture. I presume it is a nocturnal insect as when we passed this spot during the frogging walk at night it was gone.

Click here to read report of a similar looking Zumala robusta photographed in Aug, 2008.

No masala post is complete without a tagging game. And Christopher at Picus Blog has tagged me for a yet another tagging game named Six Random Things. Here are 6 random things...

1. My favourite daytime drink is Fresh Lime Soda.

2. My cultural book collection is bigger than my bird and natural history one.

3. I am a pretty amazing bathroom singer.

4. I had 2 US birders from NJ cancelling their 16-day Sri Lankan bird & culture tour schuled for Aug, 2009 soon after the Mumbai Attacks. They booked it in Aug, 2008.

5. I hope to get a new lens and some other camera accessories soon.

6. I consider “Step Brothers” as the funniest comedy movie of 2008. What? You don’t like it? Okay tell me a good one then!

I saved the best for last. Yesterday, my blog was picked as the “Best Photoblog of 2008” in the 2008 Blogging Awards by the irresistible London Lanka and Drums, the popular life-style blog that rocks the Sri Lanka blogsphere and beyond. Click here to see the amazing nominees and here to see the continuation of the very encouraging speech done by the Guest Judge –- photographer extraordinaire, Dominic Sansoni, who is one of the Three Blind Men in Sri Lanka. I’d like to say a big thank you to both RD and Dom for this very special honour! It feels very special to be recognized this way.

In the 2007 Blogging Awards, Gallicissa was picked as the “Best New comer” See the star-studded award ceremony here.