Gallicissa

Rare Bird Alert: Yellow-rumped Flycatcher at Tanamalwila

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +0000

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 are on a 14-day Absolute Birding tour, which came through Inezia Tours, run by my friend Pieter van der Luit.

Hearing an unfamiliar bird call, I ventured off the track a short distance to search for its source. In no time, to my surprise, I found a handsome, male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher—my first lifer for the New Year.

As it happens so often in moments like this, I had no camera with me; hoping to concentrate on just watching birds, I had left it in the vehicle. Soon after showing the bird to my clients, and I dashed like the Road Runner fetch my camera. And dashed back. Come to think of it, I forgot to uttter "mee mee."

But anyway, after an agonizing ten minutes, I found the bird again and was able take the record shot above. We were on our way to Nuwara Eliya, and had some montane birding planned for later that day. So I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to photograph it the way I like. But I guess this will do for the time being.

Its call reminded me of the more familiar highland special Kashmir Flycatcher, which belongs to the same genus as the Yellow-rumped Flycatcher. And at Nuwara Eliya later that day, we also the Kashmir Flycatcher; thereby, bagging two Ficedula species on a single day’s birding in Sri Lanka. Who would have thought that was possible!

Directions

Reach Tanamalwila.

Then in the A2, drive about a kilometer towards Lunugamwehera until you come across a police road block. A dirt track, which leads to the Lunugamwehera National Park, branches off left just there. Take that one. After about 130 metres, that track bends first to the right, and after a few metres, again to the left. The bird was found in between these two bends. It was found on both sides of the track during various times of our observation. Although you can drive right up to the site, I suggest you park the vehicle in the restaurant (“Thuru Sevana Buffet”) on the opposite side to the turn off. The owners there are very nice people and tolerate bird watchers. It will be courteous to buy a drink for using their gardens parking, after you have bagged the bird.

Further reading

The site consists of a secondary forest contiguous with the impressive riverine forest found along the Kiridi Oya. Some of the noteworthy birds that I have found here over the years include the Marshall’s Iora, Orange-headed Thrush, White-naped Woodpecker, Rufous Woodpecker, Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher, Sirkeer Malkoha, Jungle Owlet, and now, the Yellow-rumped Flycatcher.

Yes, it is one of my patches, and a good one at that.
The site has a fair bit of mosquitoes, and if you have to venture into the jungle, note that the understory is thorny.

Happy New Year!

Absolute Birding in November, 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:28:00 +0000

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, 78, became the oldest birder to survive my Absolute Birding tour.

Our final tally of birds stood at 231 species. We saw all thirty-three endemics extremely well. As usual, we did well in the night birding department, scoring ten out of the fifteen resident night bird species. These included seven owls. Brice had never seen that many owls on a single birding trip before, so he was really pleased.

The rain gods were kind to us: barring the first two days, we had beautiful weather throughout the tour. Several mixed-species bird flocks were seen in full swing at Sinharaja. These yielded all the flock-associated specials such as the Ashy-headed Laughingthrush. Which laughs alright, but never smiles.

This Sri Lanka Swallow didn't mind the wet weather at Kithulgala; it was collecting mud for nest building.

This Sri Lanka Wood Pigeon was fearless when it came to drink in a 'waterhole' on this tree at Welimada.
Right time, right place.

The Grey-headed Fish Eagle was sentinel at Bundala National Park in bright light.

It is only fair to say that we had an impressive array of non-feathered attractions.

One of them is this gleaming elephant in pretty light at the Bundala National Park. Unlike the ones at Yala, the elephants at Bundala are a bit grumpy. So you have approach them with respect and caution. It looks like the ones at Bundala seem to have some 'issues' with the local fishermen who are allowed to enter the park in bikes to engage in fishing.

This elephant made a roadblock to assert its dominance, keeping us, and a few fishermen ahead, waiting.

We had to wait for about fifteen minutes, until it decided to clear the traffic at its own terms!

A similar standoff happened outside the Bundala National Park on another day. This time, it almost cost a few birds for the trip. Regardless, we scored 100 plus species of birds on that day. A bloke from the wildlife department, who happened to use the same road, came to our rescue; he used a couple of fire crackers to 'neutralize' the situation.

At Yala, we saw five Leopards in just two game drives (one in the first and four in the last) all which posed well. On our first visit, some real-time ground intelligence led to this lone young female on a tree close to the Akasha-chaitya junction. We had it for a good fifteen minutes.

Our no.2 and 3 Leopards came together. And in the process, nearly took our breath away!

That was when these two big boys crossed the road in the Jumburagala road. The one that took the lead was blind in the left eye.

Too bad we were at the wrong side of the light.

Otherwise, I could have absolutely nailed them!

No, we photographers are never happy!

As our jeep driver correctly predicted, one of the Leopards, as it turned out the bigger one, settled on a distant rock to nap. Driving on from there minutes later, we had the One-eye, walking along the track marking its territory.

He was a grumpy old fellow. A walking-wounded of sorts. Every now and then it paused to pose. Even the point-and-shooters had a field day.

We were compelled to take a comfort break close to 5.30 p.m. While we were busy, we heard a deer alarm. Quite close! We were making our way out of the park, having had a superb day. Too close and precious to let go, we drove in the direction of that alarm. And minutes later, we found this female.

If not for that desperate leg-stretch, we would have not heard the alarm, which led to this beauty.
Which drove home a golden rule in the jungles: when you want to go, go you must.

Anyway, the female having noticed us, crossed the road and disappeared. Once again, our driver predicted that it may climb a rock nearby, and he made a beeline to that spot. Not even a minute passed by, and the female materialized on the rock in front of us, giving us a bemused stare, "how did you know ...?!"

Our jeep driver said he heard the female calling to its young. So we expected she will soon have some company. About five minutes later, this cute little female cub appeared on the rock!

But, before reaching her mom, she paused to check us out.

At her own pace, she joined her mom.

Some quality family time followed

The little one got a nice clean up, presumably before the evening activity. In the shade of a fig tree, this rock had a peaceful setting of a Buddhist temple. Two Malabar Pied Hornbills whooshed pass vying for their attention. It was nice to see how mindful the Leopards were—even watching birds! We left them there to make our timely exit and to end what a fabulous day with big cats.

While the above passed as our best wildlife day, our best birding day was day-thirteen at Sigiriya. It was significant because of a late afternoon birding session, which produced an avian bonanza consisting of eight new ticks for the trip.

The goodies were Shaheen, Cotton Pygmy-goose, Orange-headed Thrush, Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher, Indian Blue Robin, White-rumped Shama, 'Fork-tailed' Drongo Cuckoo, Indian Pitta, Jerdon's Nightjar, Spot-bellied Eagle Owl (which was expertly spotted by Brice), and a one-for-the-road Brown Fish Owl.

In terms of numbers, our day-seven was the best with a whopping tally of 118 species.
Birds were superb alright, but I must say those leopards really took the cake on this tour.

Thinking about that day in Yala, I still can't wipe the smile off my face.

Leopards and Scrabble Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:53:00 +0000

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 "bucket list!"

She was able to achieve that on the first game drive itself—seeing not just one, but three Leopards. They were—surprise, surprise—the celebrity Rukwila cubs (two out of three) and their "supermom."

Born little over an year ago, the Rukwila cubs are too bold, too photogenic and too ignorant that they are Leopards. And as most Leopard cubs at Yala, they have still not come to realise that as Leopards they are supposed be shy and elusive.

The handsome one above was seen on our seventh and last game drive on 28 October. We drove along the Patanangala bungalow road from the seaside and found ourselves stopping behind a jeep that had arrived earlier. The one above was sitting in a roadside thicket first.

That was while its sibling was resting on the track farther away. It was out of photographic reach for us because the track ahead snaked just enough to obstruct a direct view. A few jeeps, which had come from the main road side, were behind that Leopard cub. Which to their dissatisfaction, faced away from them.

As more jeeps crowded the scene from the main road side, the lounging individual got up and ambled to towards the one sitting in the thicket near us. Soon, it veered off and retreated to the thicket.

In the meantime, the one near our jeep got up and walked in the opposite direction—that is, towards the jeep track in front of us.

It then sat there giving us jaw-dropping views!

It was almost as if it was rewarding our good behaviour—by that I mean us being not too under its nose. And from 6.21 to 6.41 a.m. we had it posing for us beautifully. It was such a sweet reward for our patience and field craft.

Soon, more jeeps arrived from our end, eventually forcing the poser in the direction of more intimate company.

After this superb sighting, Diane told me that she can finally die happy!

Dying happy, unfortunately, was not case for one of the Leopards at Yala in October this year. We learnt, to our sadness, that a female Leopard cub had been found dead by the main road. This had happened before we arrived at Yala. It was first rumoured to have been killed by a Wild Boar. We were told that the carcass had been taken away by the wildlife department to conduct an autopsy.

There is some confusion as to whether the deceased was one of the Rukwila cubs or a different cub that had been near their territory. This is because of a few alleged sightings of all three Rukwila cubs together since the incident.

But I have my doubts about those alleged sightings.

Diane and I visited the Yala park from 23–28 October doing seven game drives. When ever we encountered the Rukwila family, the maximum number of individuals seen by us did not exceed three. And when all three were seen together, they included a markedly bigger individual. Which appeared be the mother of the cubs.

In the meantime, I got to know after returning home through Namal that the autopsy carried out by the animal hospital in Udawalawe had concluded that the cause of death to be a result of it being hit by a vehicle. Apparently, it had suffered damages to its ribs and internal organs—with very little damage to its exterior! If that autopsy is accurate, this death marks the second such case this year. Very, very sad.

I fear this kind of incidents may happen again.
This is because jeeps exiting the park at dusk/evening are requested to keep their front lights switched off to "minimize disturbance to animals." As some jeeps try to hurry their way out to keep to the time of exiting the park, this kind of tragic accidents would be hard to avoid. Allowing front lights to be kept on in the vehicles (in a dimmed-state) when visibility drops, and having strict guidelines to avoid speeding inside the park at all times may help to avoid accidents like this in my opinion. Bringing the time to exit the park forward would be the wrong way to do things.

Coming back to our tour, we had about twenty sightings of Leopards involving seven individuals. Most of the sightings were of the celebrity cubs of Rukwila, seen in all sorts of postures!

And scurrying across the track, sandwiched between jeeps.

In addition to Leopards, we saw plenty of wildlife, which included Sloth Bear and plenty of Asian Elephants.

More tragic news, I got thrashed 3-1 at Scrabble!

Which, take my word, had not happened for a long time. I lost 280–292 in the first game and got totally steamrolled 280–362 in the second.

I came back to win the third 328–314 in a close battle, but she had the last laugh with a runaway 368–298 win in the final game.

Scarlet Basker

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:17:00 +0000

The Scarlet Basker has got to be one of the 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 of the quarry tolerate me trespassing it for my photo missions.

When I am chasing dragonflies, I rarely let other natural history distract me. With that single-mindedness, I just go flat out to get the results that I want. And that is dragonflies standing out in plainer backgrounds. Which do not compete for attention with the subject.

These were shot some time ago when I was using my Canon 40D. I coupled that with my Canon 100mm macro lens. The female above was shot at a privately owned wetland site near my place named Ketha, which is also famous for its juicy Rambutans.

I got less that a foot from these basking beauties to photograph them.

Skywatch Friday—A Canopy Giant

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:43:00 +0000

Click here to see what other sky watchers have posted.

A Primate Moment

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:00:00 +0000

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 them to breach my personal space and ready for some an interaction, I had already kept one foot forward on the pavement. That was partly to claim ownership to it. And to show that I am no pushover.

A curious little macaque paused near my foot. It rolled its eyes up to take me in and hurried away. A female with a baby clutching onto her belly walked swiftly pass me, giving just a cursory glance. Soon, another little one stopped by. It gave a teasing pat on my boot and retreated in haste. Perhaps it feared an angry reaction from me. I stayed unmoved and he too moved on. After that, another little one paused near me. He gave a more assertive pat on my boot, looking up to check my reaction. Too easy, he went a step further and came closer to sniff it. Continuing the march, he too moved along. Then came what looked like the dominant male of the troop. He paused near me to give a once-over, and sniffed the boot himself, as if to check what's all the fuss about. And he then got distracted by my lens dangling down my waist and tried to reach it. That was too much, sorry, and I held it close to my body to claim ownership to it. Just looky looky, no touchy touchy there please, the big male sensed my energy and moved on.

Seconds later, two more curious macaques stopped by. No threat from me may have been the word around as they both got much nearer. After the sniffing routine, the game changed to a more confident full-contact sport. They both gave the boot a thorough inspection, touching it much more confidently. This entailed an obligatory inspection to see whether it was edible! And that meant a tiny bite on to my boot. It was mainly out of curiosity than to make a meal of my boot, so I tolerated it.

While this was going on, the other one rudely lifted my trouser to check out what's inside. Prof. Foy walked to the scene roundabout that time to take the above picture. Sadly, a security guard of the park—a real Buzz Killington— walked in and disturbed the monkeys. More sadly, I have no photographs of this monkey business of myself because it all was too close for my lens.

But sometimes memories are worth heaps than a photograph.

Sinharaja in August

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 07:09:00 +0000

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. The work of her organization here is mainly to do with assisting Sri Lankan people involved in the treatment of mentally ill. Jane was a keen birder and the main purpose of her trip with me was to see as many endemic birds as possible. While working towards that goal, she also did not mind seeing a representation of natural history that Sinharaja had in store.

I thought all the good karma that Jane had accrued from her altruistic line of work had a positive effect on our trip: we saw forty-nine species of birds, including twenty endemics, most of which obliged to provide scope views; we encountered four mixed-species bird flocks in full swing, first of which was found just two minutes into our very first walk; we were able to find one of these mixed-species bird flocks engaged in a midday bath, with several of the high-dwelling specials, some of which are found in the forest's canopy thirty-five to forty metres above ground level, obliging to give superb views low down; in between birding, we encountered a superb array of natural history, which included nine individual snakes belonging to four species, over a dozen butterflies species, and several mammal species including two species of monkey.

I am sharing below some of the highlights that cooperated.

Red-faced Malkoha

Red-faced Malkoha

This attractive cuckoo family bird proved to be one of the top endemic lifers for Jane. This particular individual was spotted on day two, while it was basking in beautiful early morning light, close enough to provide frame-filling views through in my Swarovski scope at twenty-five times zoom—orgasmic!

Mountain Hawk Eagle (Legge’s Hawk Eagle)

Mountain Hawk Eagle

This rare forest-dwelling raptor was found close to the Morapitiya rain forest, rather serendipitously, during a leg stretching stop that we did on the way to Sinharaja. It was perched atop a roadside 40-metre canopy giant. My lens didn't have enough reach to capture this well, so this is just a cropped and dirty record shot. This was only the third time in which I had been able to see this bird of prey while perched, so I was very pleased, as was Jane.

Red-spot Duke

Red-spot Duke

The nymphalids were in force, especially at midday and this rare gem was seen twice.

Grizzled Giant Squirrel

Grizzled Giant Squirrel

This chose to ignore us and nibble away at a fruit of the Malabar Tamarind Garcina gummi-gutta (Goraka in Sinhala), which is a resident tree species in Sri Lankan rain forests. Its fruit is a regular curry condiment in cuisine in our part of the world. Which I think makes this squirrel is a curry muncher! Or a real Gorakaya, if you like.

Anyway, this squirrel is one of the favourite prey species of the Mountain Hawk Eagle. Detecting one of these eagles soaring above the canopy, it would make “a blood-curdling” alarm call, which is not a strange to people who frequent rain forests. As a matter of fact, I use that call as a reliable indicator to spot airborne birds of prey.

I have planted a Goraka tree in my garden. It has reached nearly twelve metres, but is yet to bear fruit.

Striped Bronzeback

Striped Bronzeback

This is one of the nine individual snakes we encountered, thanks largely to the superb snake-spotting skills of our local guide Dee. I have better shots of this snake taken on previous visits, just for the record.

Sri Lanka Keelback

Sri Lanka Keelback

We found three individuals of this water snake at two sites.

Cruiser

Cruiser, male

Here’s another pretty Nymphalid butterfly that we saw at close quarters. It is christened Vindula erota scientifically, presumably because of its erotic nature.

Blue Glassy Tiger

Blue Glassy Tiger

Although supposed to be "not found more than 20 miles from the coast" according to "The Butterflies of Ceylon" by Bernard d' Abrera, this butterfly is found at Sinharaja rain forest, which is more than 70 miles inland from coast.

Toque Macaque

Toque Macaque at Sinharaja

The Toque Macaques in Sinharaja are not forthright and confiding as those found in cultural sites, where they accost humans for handouts, and often commit snatch theft on anything that they see as food. The ones in Sinharaja are quite wary of humans, presumably because villagers have/are hunting them (in villages close to the forest) for bush-meat.

The Land Snail Arcavus superbus

The Land Snail Arcavus superbus

Here's a Gondwanaland relic land snail species in an endemic Nelu tree (Strobilanthes sp.) in bloom.

Apart from above specials, I also was able to photograph the Sinhalese Bushbrown—a butterfly lifer for me. And I got a decent sound recording of the Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush. Our birding highlights included Serendib Scops Owl and Sri Lanka Spurfowl, arguably two of the toughest endemic birds to see. And we saw a brooding male Sri Lanka Frogmouth in a nest.

Change of topics, who do you think will win the Rugby World Cup 2011? My money is on ~~Ireland~~ ~~Australia!~~ New Zealand!!

Purple-rumped Sunbird

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:56:00 +0000

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 throughout the day at regular intervals, with a clear combat peak at midday. Sunbirds, like their American cousins hummingbirds, are quite territorial and males have very little tolerance towards rivals in their patch. I feel pity for this bird, as it spends a considerable time of the day in this wasteful behaviour. I think I may have to cover the window from outside as a last resort!

The Yatala Stupa Fouteen Minutes Apart

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 08:00:00 +0000

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 persons. According to the book, "The Stupa of Ceylon" by the eminent archeologist Senarath Paranavitana, all stupas, including those built in modern times, are supposed to enshrine a particle, in most cases a minute one, of the corporeal remains of the Buddha, or a saint, from which they derive their sacred character.

The modern day Tissamaharama lies superimposed on the ancient capital city Magama of the Ruhuna Kingdom (of southern Sri Lanka), which was one of the three principal territorial divisions from 3rd century B.C. to 12th century A.D. This stupa was believed to be built 2300 years ago by King Yatala Tissa of the Ruhuna Kingdom in the place where his wife gave birth to their son.

In the classification of stupas according to their shapes, Yatala Stupa is believed to be a "bubble-shaped" one. The restoration work was undertaken in 1883, and during that, four relic caskets made of chrysoberyl, amethyst, clear crystal, and rock crystal were found in the debris around the stupa. They were all enshrined in the new relic chamber that was built during the restoration.

This year's provincial T20 tournament in Sri Lanka was won by Ruhuna who defeated reining champions Wayamba in a close game. By the virtue of this win, Ruhuna booked their place in the qualifier stage of the Champions League T20 Tournament to be played in India this year.

Absolute Birding in January, 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 10:21:00 +0000

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 Translate.

Jan was the keener birder and photographer of the two, while Britt tagged along giving moral support, and at times, dazzling us with her sharp spotting skills.

Jan works in a prison in Sweden. He told me that it was a stressful job, having to deal with bad guys on a regular basis. And birds and photography were his "releases" from all that. He was a demure person, and often chose to enjoy birds silently. Britt on the other hand, was quite expressive, and was the official go-between on most matters. Oh, and Jan was a huge fan of Two and a Half Men; he said he had all the 8 Seasons of it in DVD with Swedish subtitles!

Some pictures from our trip:

Indian Roller

Our vehicle came to an abrupt halt after seeing this on a roadsides post at Udawalawe. We used our vehicle as a hide to get close to it and shoot this at point blank range.

Red-wattled Lapwing

For this, we used a safari jeep as a hide at Bundala National Park, where we had beautiful morning light.

Yellow-eared Bulbul

This stayed frozen at Nuwara Eliya in a cool morning. It was too lazy to fly despite us approaching it close. In 2000, I went for a job interview of a nature tour company, and one of the questions thrown at me was to name the Latin name of Yellow-eared Bulbul! I rattled off Pycnonotus penicillatus, and if I remember right, murmuring a dah, after that.

I was selected.

This is the bird that appears on the new Rs. 5,000 currency note, so it is by no means a cheap bird.

Sri Lanka Frogmouth

Beej once commented here, "The Frogmouths always wear a precious expression—bedraggled and slovenly but infinitely adorable."

We found this adorable pair of Sri Lanka Frogmouth at the Sinharaja rain forest. When found in day roosts, this bird is almost always found in low-light; I shot this bumping up the ISO to a crazy high—of 4000. There was a nest of another individual quite high up.

Painted Stork

We had a mustering of Painted Storks foraging close together at Bundala National Park, which I find a peaceful place for bird photography (compared to the melee that is Yala N.P.) I photographed this one when it strayed from the rest.

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater

This one too obliged at the superb Bundala National Park. A very small population of this species is found in my village in the lush valleys of the Kelani River.

Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher

This one appeared as if was dressed to go to war, sporting what looked like an iron helmet. I like to freeze birds in such poses, when they appear to look straight at me. This one was real a hyperactive little fellow, rarely staying still for long. We photographed it at Hakgala.

Little Indian Nightjar

It was trying to pass as a rock. Here's a close crop of it looking all sleepy.

We found this at the Udawalawe National Park, very close to a track.

Dull-blue Flycatcher

Patience pays off when it comes to dealing with the endemic Dull-blue Flycatcher. This is the bird that appears in the new Rs.50 currency note—a rather cheap denomination for such a pretty bird, if you ask me. Especially considering that it is already insulted scientifically as a sordid bird in Eumiyas sordida.

The Monkey Puzzle, and I Am Like.

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 04:01:00 +0000

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 the big rugby match between Kingswood and St. Peter's. At this moment, I am, like, in need of a pump up song ahead of this clash. So here it is.

The inspiration to use the word "like," except, where it was genuinely needed as a word, came from this post of London, Lanka and Drums.

The Weaver Ant-Mimicking Jumping Spider Up Close and Personal

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 09:42:00 +0000

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 vanilla ant. The elongate body size meant it was a male of this jumping spider.

Contributing to its elongate design was its long protruding spatulate “jaws”—the ends of which were fitted with a pair of needle-sharp fangs that could deliver a fatal stabbing to its victims.

The males, having gone for this extravagant secondary sexual adornment of looking front-heavy to impress the gals, and to intimidate rivals, have dispensed with venom in the fangs altogether.

So with no venom, they use their heavy machinery in front to overpower their prey first, before stabbing them repeatedly with their needle sharp fangs to suck their juices. Often while the victim is still alive.

The females of this species, on the other hand, having settled for a simpler body design—looking strikingly similar to a typical Weaver Ant Oecophylla smaragdina ("Dimiya")—have retained potent venom in their fangs. And they inject it to incapacitate their victims first, before drinking the liquefied juices thereafter, the regular way.

Those gleaming cute eyes that you see at the proximal sides of the male’s oversized “jaws” are fakes to make it appear like an ant.

It’s real jumper eyes—four pairs of them—are situated further back, where its actual head is placed.

The appearance of the male looks remarkably like a larger Weaver Ant carrying a smaller cousin. Which in real Weaver Ant world is a done thing, with major workers transporting minor workers in their complex social structure to fulfill various daily duties. So this physical appearance of the males also copies a vocational behaviour of the Weaver Ants in an ever so clever way.

This jumper was found in an endemic "Wal-idda" tree, which is peculiarly named in botany as Walidda antidysenterica. This tree had a fair number of Weaver Ants that this jumping spider was trying to copy.

Underneath the leaves, this tree also had a fair number of scaled insects, which feed on plant juices, sucking them directly from the plant's vascular system. After doing that, they pass out a honeydew—a sugary excretion, which the many species of ants, including Weaver Ants, find irresistible.

So this explains the presence of Weaver Ants and the Weaver-Ant-mimicking jumping spider on the same tree. As many other species of ants, Weaver Ants mainly prey on small insects, and turn to honeydew offerings of leaf-dwelling insects to supplement their diet with more carbohydrates. These sugar addicts drawn to trees infested with scaled insects in return give these defenseless insects with much needed protection from their natural predators such as lady bugs and hover flies.

The "Wal-idda" tree in question had no Weaver Ant nests. As a result, the ants were less temperamental and gave me no trouble. Of course there were warnings given by the odd individual with its "cutting edge" mandibles agape to intimidate me.

Photographing jumpers is challenging business because they are too jerky and jumpy, resulting in pictures with the subject badly composed, blurred, or missing altogether! The other thing is they jump on to the lens and the flash heads when you get too close.

Compared with all of them, I found Myrmarachne plataleoides incredibly easy to work with because it was very calm in its disposition. It was slow and confident, just like an undisturbed Weaver Ant.

Masala

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:36:00 +0000

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 my home garden. It was found sunning after a heavy thunder shower. Its host plants are of the family Lauraceae; I have as many as five species of them thriving in my garden, including a sizable Cinnamon. So I guess its arrival is not entirely surprising.

In what can only be described as a serendipitous discovery, a Sri Lanka Junglefowl—the national bird of Sri Lanka—was found in my home garden on 12th May. It was not only a garden tick, but also a local area tick! It was found by me accidentally when my mother called me to show an Emerald Dove—a rare visitor to my garden—that she had spotted. Materialising from a thicket moments later, this wild chicken vied for my attention. It didn't have a fully developed comb, which meant it was an adolescent. I had no more sighting of it.

While birding at Elkaduwa with Mike Pope, several Plum-headed Parakeets presented pleasing views. To photograph them, I used manual focussing because of swaying grasses causing auto focussing problems. And I also used the full stealth mode, which is not a feature in my camera.

Here's the lady first.

And the handsome Mr. Plum-headed Parakeet.

This was how the sky over the Udawalawe National Park looked in November last year by the time we finished a game drive. Soon, it turned a wee bit rainy.

On a related note, a weather station (granted by the Japanese government) inside Sinharaja rain forest had been damaged by some rogue elephants during a nighttime raid. According to a reliable source, there are four wild elephants roaming inside Sinharaja. And occasionally, terrifying people living at the bordering villages. According to the same source, this group comprise of three females and one absolutely massive male.

The latter is known to have some anger issues.

25 Endemics in 2 Days with Paul Brown

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 07:43:00 +0000

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 preferred to read her book, leaving the boys to chase after the endemics. We did extremely well in the latter department, raking in a whopping 25 out of the 33 endemics in record time—of just 2 days! Fresh from leading several birding tours, I was in fine form, and that I think contributed to such high success.

A pair of Sri Lanka Frogmouths Batrachostomus moniliger at a day roost.

My most rewarding find was the Sri Lanka Spurfowl—a male accompanied by two females which walked on a arc that I predicted they would take. Having our binoculars prefocussed on exactly that, it was all too easy to get splendid views of this ultra secretive endemic. All this and more are revealed in a report done by Paul.

Layard's Parakeet Psittacula calthorpe, formerly known as Emerald-collared Parakeet. The species name honours the maiden name of Layard's wife, Barbara Anne Calthrope.

I didn't do much photography as I was too busy finding birds.

Brown-capped Babbler Pellorneum fuscocapillus

Some entomological delights obliged too, and these included the commoner fair.

Common Rose Pachliopta aristolochiae

Glad-eye Bushbrown Nissanga patnia

Dull-blue Flycatcher

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Sat, 28 May 2011 18:15:00 +0000

Let's get one thing straight: this is Dull-blue Flycatcher, not Dull Blue Flycatcher.

Brown Hawk Owls Sharing a McSunbird Meal

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Wed, 25 May 2011 07:48:00 +0000

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.

As it started to feed on its prey, it was joined by its mate, seen on the left.
After opening up its prey and biting it heavily—probably to tenderise the prey—the owl with a mouthful presented its meal to its mate next to it to the clatter of Canon Mark 4s.

Here's a close up of this interesting behaviour.

Sadly, I could not photograph it as I was acting as the torch bearer to illuminate the scene. (I don't use a camera flash, so I couldn't have photographed this anyway because this was at nighttime.) These photographs are thanks to Gary Bellingham.

Brown Hawk Owl is a regular in my home garden. It sometimes turns up in daytime roosts, looking smart like this.

My mother is quite fond of this owl. She's often asked me why smaller birds harass it so much when it seems to mind its own business. She's right in way— whenever this owl reveals itself those smaller birds really give it a tough time, mobbing it with no mercy. So much so, they often succeed in chasing it away from its roost and from their sight.

Thanks to Gary's pictures, I have now been able to convince her why smaller diurnal birds such as sunbirds direct so much anger towards the Brown Hawk Owl!

Owls, Leopards, Blue Whales, and Rapacious Flangetails

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 09:53:00 +0000

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 Canon EOS 1D Mark 4s and lenses that ranged from 100mm macro to 500mm telephoto.

They came to me through a referral by Barry’s pal David Clugston—an avid birder and a worldlister with nearly half the world birds in his tally; he did an Absolute Birding tour with me in November, 2009. David was a pure birder, and did not do any photography while in Sri Lanka, opting just to watch birds and finding more of them. This explains why were able to rake in a massive 14-day tally of 252 species of birds, including all endemics.

The Brown Wood Owl Strix leptogrammica that I discovered thanks to a mobbing party of birds at Welimada.

Coming back to this tour, it was designed to focus on four aspects: birds, Leopards, Blue Whales, and other natural history.

After arriving in Sri Lanka, Barry, a former wildlife tour leader, wasted no time in briefing me that he and his group were not like their good friend back home! And that they certainly did not need to end up with a huge triplist. So, for them the success of the trip did not depend on making a clean sweep of special birds that most birders come here to see.

One of the main reasons why my visitors chose to visit Sri Lanka in April was to improve their chances of seeing the Blue Whale, as it is arguably the best month to see it, with almost a 100% success rate reported by whale watching operators. April also happens to be one of the best months for observing dragonflies and butterflies in Sri Lanka, as it sees most seasonal specials taking
wing. Being the tail end of the migratory season, April is not bad for birds either. And April is certainly not bad Leopards, which can be seen year round at Yala. So, the timing of the visit fitted perfectly with the broader requirements of the group.

So, with this rambling preamble, you may want to know how we fared.

Not too badly.

We ended up seeing 223 species of birds.
These included all 33 endemics and 10 out of the 15 resident night birds. And we bagged four Leopards at Yala, and four Blue Whales in the big pond 12 nautical miles off Mirissa.

Yes, it was real bagful!

As it is usual for April, we had good “viewing and photographic weather” in the first half of the day, with rains experienced during most afternoons. Which gave a lot of siesta time. This provided a nice balance because we found ourselves getting up early to take advantage of the conditions. And chill indoors during afternoon rains. Daylight was early, with the dawn chorus begining roundabout 5.30 a.m. At Sinharaja, the Blue Magpies coming to clean up the moths under lights at our lodge were punctual at 5.45 a.m. on both mornings we were there.

Gary wrote to me after the trip to say that he downloaded some 80GB of photos! I am sure others were not too far behind.
I too clicked a few here and there. Some of them are shared below.

Serendib Scops Owl Otus thilohoffmanni

I found a single bird in a day roost on day 1. Which, needless to say, got the tour to a terrific start. On day-2, there were two birds in the same roost, presumably male and female, and the picture above shows that.

The iris colour of the males of this owl is orangey, and yellowy in the females. After studying a picture taken by Andy, which he shot when the birds had briefly revealed a bit more of their eyes, I came to the conclusion that the top bird was probably a male, and the other, probably a female. The latter, as captured in this picture, was a bit more darker than the top one in real life too. Other than the eye colour, and differences in vocalisations of the two sexes, published literature on Serendib Scops Owl do not reveal of any diagnosable morphological features proving sexual dimorphism in this species.

Leopard ("Sri Lanka Leopard") Panthera pardus kotiya

Our first sighting was of two adults guarding over a Sambar Rusa unicolor carcass. By the time we visited the park, news of these two Leopards seem to have spread fast, judging by the traffic of safari jeeps. The Leopards were very much hidden in the vegetation and were not too photogenic. Shown above is one of the two Leopards taking us in amidst all the commotion created by the jeeps muscling for better viewing positions.

Soon, we wisely left the big traffic jam to look for other things.

With no local guide available because of new year holidays, I moved to the vacant front seat of our jeep. After finding Brown Fish Owl in a day roost, we arrived at a spot named Gonalabbe Kalapuwa, where Gary spotted a distant Black-necked Stork. After that we drove around for a while stopping frequently for various subjects.

And about an hour later, we found ourselves back at the site we saw the big stork.

Pausing there, we hit gold between 5.19 to 5.21 p.m. This was when Garry expertly spotted a Leopard ambling through the low vegetation towards the road where we were parked.

We backed off a little to get a clearer view of it. There was not a single jeep nearby, and we had this Leopard all to ourselves in the first minute or so.

It was our Leopard!

When it looked as if it was just about to cross the road behind our vehicle, a jeep came rushing behind us, apparently unaware of the big cat. The team wisely signaled to that jeep and brought it to halt just in the nick of time, before it could get too close to disturb the animal.

Everything seemed to work really, really well.
Seconds later, as expected, the Leopard nochanatly crossed the road between the two jeeps.

A moment of magic!

Had our four Mark 4s fired live GPMG rounds, this Leopard would have ended up in a pretty bad shape!

That’s why I like photography; it is such a bloodless sport.

Blue Whale Balaenoptera musculus

Travelling 12 nautical miles into the deep blue seas off Mirissa in beautiful weather, first signs of a Blue Whale were detected when we saw their diagnostic vertical blows. (On the whale watching trip done in April, 2009 with Peter Kaestner, as blogged by me before, we had first signs after travelling just 5.5 nautical miles.) After approaching this sighting, we detected two individuals moving together. Only one of them was noted by to lift tail fluke in its diving sequence.

The above shows the two individuals seen closely. Two more were found farther away at the same time.

Compared to their massive body size, the Blue Whales are endowed with puny dorsal fins, which can be seen above. They are located roughly about three-quarters along the length of the body, and are visible when they are diving to reach deeper waters after breathing near the surface.

Indian Fritillary Argynnis hyperbius

We encountered this thirsty highland butterfly at Hakgala. It was very pretty in the underside.

Rapacious Flangetail Ictinigomphus rapax

I spotted this large dragonfly at the Bundala National Park in a patch quite far from freshwater. It was very much distracted by its large prey. Taking advantage of that, we photograpjed it from our safari jeep.

Sri Lanka Tree-climbing Crab Perbrinckia scansor

Katrina spotted this one and only tree-climbing freshwater crab at Sinharaja in a spot not too far from where we found the same species in the Absolute Birding tour that I guided in April, 2010 with Dr. Gil Ewing from the USA.

More posts of this tour will follow.

Sri Lanka Bird Tour Report—March, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:55:00 +0000

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 saw us bagging 230 species of birds including all 33 endemics. The report weighs 26MB! (Please drop me a line if you cannot open it, so that I can e-mail it to you. My e-mail is gallicissa AT gmail DOT com )

Photographically speaking, this tour was a big learning curve for me, as thanks to Chris and Dave, I got introduced to the art of low-light bird photography.

On other matters, I am really looking forward for the Cricket World Cup Finals tomorrow between India and Sri Lanka. Although I earnestly want Sri Lanka to win, my prediction is Indians, with blessings of 1.21 billion people—17% of the world population—will score a hard-fought victory over the Lankans. I shall be happy to be proven wrong!

Endemics Clean Up

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:23:00 +0000

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 days, I did a “big day” on day 3, by squeezing in a few patches around Tissa, which were not on the original itinerary. This was before reaching Udawalawe for overnight stay. This yielded 130 species in just one day—nearly 60% of the birds of the total trip list!

Of the endemics, only the Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush made us work hard.

Really hard.

This was particularly true for one of the visitors—the 2-metre-tall Robert Keizer, whose towering height proved a real handicap, when everybody else saw this cryptic thrush, when it first materialised through the undergrowth! This “miss” resulted in a massive search operation to find this elusive bird for Robert, and very importantly, to bring him in sync with others. During this a pair responded to my high-pitched rendition by calling agonizingly close. However, the birds stubbornly dodged our detection, prolonging our misery. During this I had several fleeting glimpses of it, and every time I tried to get Robert on it, I think some bad spell prevented him from locking his eyes on this bird!

After many attempts, finally, a Sri Lanka Scaly Thrush obliged by perching on a dead stump about 10m away; Robert’s eyes were very much on ground level that time. And glowing as in this Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher that we found at Kithulgala.

I found the Serendib Scops Owl—the most sought-after endemic—on two locations. The last sighting was at a day-roost, which yielded absolutely jaw-dropping views like this.

Erik delivered some gifts sent to me by fellow countryman Max Berlijn whom I guided before his tour. These included a spankingly new copy of the Owls of the World by Claus Konig and Friedhelm Weick. Would you believe, the Serendib Scops Owl in it is described as an 'earless' scops owl!

Our other noteworthy specials were Pied Thrush, Kashmir Flycatcher, Slaty-legged Crake, Sykes’s Warbler, Indian Blue Robin, Indian Pitta, Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher, Sirkeer Malkoha, Marshall’s Iora, Rufous-bellied Hawk Eagle, Rufous Woodpecker, Sri Lanka Frogmouth (three sightings including one of a brooding male), Temminck’s Stint, Jungle Owlet, Brown Wood Owl (a pair at a day roost), Brown Hawk Owl, and Shaheen.

Here are some of these in vivid detail.

Sri Lanka Frogmouth.

We saw this female at a day roost at Sinharaja, where before this, we also had a brooding male in a nest. And I found another male at Kithulgala.

Sykes's Warbler

I am extremely pleased to have photographed this LBJ.

Here's another one of the same individual.

Pied Thrush

The best site to see this Himlayan delight in Sri Lanka, the Victoria Park in Nuwara Eliya, is full of garbage.

A Tour Report has been promised by Eric and co., and I shall update this post when it is posted online.

In the meantime, Mike Pope whom I guided in last December has posted a report of the trips he did with me with his superb photographs. You can see it here.

Birding with Max Berlijn

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 07:25:00 +0000

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: a passionate birder who likes to see birds found in the Holarctic region, and proceeds to travel the world for that objective while meticulously maintaining a list of such birds seen.

According to Max, one of the reasons for narrowing down his birding focus to Holarctic region was because the Holarctic birds are more likely to turn up as vagrants in his country, the Netherlands. And to slice the world into a more “manageable chunk” for birding.

Although Sri Lanka does not fall within the Holarctic region, some birds found in this region could be seen in here. Therefore, the purpose of Max's visit to Sri Lanka was to see those Holarctic birds, still missing in his list. These, informed to me before the commencement of the tour, included six species: Slaty-legged Crake, Brown Fish Owl, Small Pratincole, Great Thick-knee, Pied Thrush, and Kashmir Flycatcher.

I showed them all.

The Slaty-legged Crake, as expected, proved tough using up a lot of our time budget at the Sinharaja rain forest, which is where I chose to look for it. After four hours of tracking, Max was rewarded with a preening individual in a thicket for a good five minutes!

Five additional Holarctic species, which were not on Max's original target list was bagged, taking the total Holarctict ticks on this tour to 11. These were Indian Blue Robin, Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher, Black Bittern, Jacobin Cuckoo, Grey-bellied Cuckoo and Besra. All of these obliged without much drama.

With all that Max's total Holarctic Life List now stands at 1741 species of birds. He is currently the No.2 in the Holarctic Life List page as per Surfbirds.com.

I am more used to guiding birders whose main focus is to see 33 or so endemics. This tour was different in that Max did not want to see the endemics; he considered them as “non-migrating rubbish!”

However, in a bid to transform Max into a world birder, I secretly was determined to show him all our 33 endemics! With a Green-billed Coucal shown at Kithulgala on the day 7, I achieved just that. This was done while not compromising on any of Max's Holarctic wants. And he quite liked some of those "non-migrating rubbish," especailly the Serendib Scops Owl, which was showed at Sinharaja and Kithulgala—the latter at a daytime roost. In the end, we managed to rake in 230 species of birds during this 8-day tour, which was a pretty neat tally for such a short tour.

Some of the noteworthy “other” birds included (sites in the order of visited) Legge’s Hawk Eagle, Brown-throated Needletail, and Plum-headed Parakeet at Sinharaja; White Wagtail ( local rarity), Pallid Harrier, and Little Indian Nightjar (at a day roost) at Udawalawe; Chestnut-winged Crested Cuckoo, Sirkeer Malkoha, Eurasian Oystercatcher (a southern SL rarity), and Temminck’s Stint at Bundala National Park; Watercock at Tissa; Marshall’s Iora, Jungle Owlet, Rufous Woodpecker, Indian Pygmy Woodpecker, and Large Cuckooshirke at Tanamalwila; Sykes' Warbler at Nuwara Eliya (An LBJ that got Max really interested!); and Lesser Yellownape at Kithulgala.

Max was a very sharp birder, and very pleasant person to go birding with. So we got on quite well—so much so that I even introduced to him the Modern Family! We watched it on my laptop during our non-birding breaks! His favourite star of the cast was Gloria, allegedly because of her unique accent. :)

Some of our trip pictures are below.

At Bundala, Max spotted this Temminck's Stint, which was chased by a Little Stint.

Here's Max observing some Small Pratincoles at Bundala.

A "non-migrating rubbish" Chestnut-backed Owlet at Kithulgala. We also saw this species at Sinharaja. Asked whether he would see such a pretty owl instead of a drab Holarctic Warbler which he'd not seen , Max at once said he would rather see the latter. Dah!

A Tickell's Blue Flycatcher at Kithulgala.

A Jacobin Cuckoo at Bundala National Park.

A grumpy looking Sri Lanka Hanging Parotat Sinharaja.

A male Kashmir Flycatcher at Nuwara Eliya.

Chasing Shaheen

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 10:32:00 +0000

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 trails around this hotel: Simpson's Trail, and Shaheen Trail. The latter leads to "Shaheen Peak" (1,043m), which I named after a particular bird found on top of it named Shaheen, which is the local race of the Peregrine—the fastest member of animal kingdom reaching speeds upto 320km/h.

Hiking nonstop from the hotel, the trek up to Shaheen Peak takes 40 minutes for people like us. That's to say with the odd birding stop or two. The first half of this hike winds through an uphill, narrow, and leechy trail. The second half of the hike falls through an open grassy terrain interspersed with the odd pioneer tree. The trail is good for most parts; some sections are slippery, so it is better to take the off trail grassy approach.

Mike and I weren't initially going to do it—not just for one bird, and because sometimes it proves elusive.

But, our plans took a swift change.

This was when I scoped a Shaheen from the hotel gardens while it was perched at the eerie precipice of the Shaheen Peak, a good kilometre or so away. A snap decision was made to extend our pre-breaklfast birding session to hike to the top of the Shaheen Peak to see this impressive raptor at close quarters while the family was still enjoying a lie-in.

Reaching the top, as expected, we were rewarded with absolute cracking views of our quarry when this handsome Shaheen was found perched on the Pines on the peak.

Shaheen Falco peregrinus peregrinator

And here's Mike perched on top of the Shaheen Peak.

The bird soon took wing on a foraging mission. Mike with his Canon 50D and 400 f5.6 L lens got a pretty good flight shot. I wasn't so lucky though. Let's say it was a good learning curve for me, as I found that tracking such a small (because of the distance) and fast subject with Spot Metering Mode wasn't easy. I'll know better next time, thanks to Mike.

Here's a cross section of the habitat of the Shaheen, where it had nested several times.

Here's a close up of the above picture.

The eerie view of the world below. Look how lilliputian the coconut trees look!

And the snaking road that leads to Elkaduwa and Ukuwela holds very good birds such as Chestnut-backed Owlet, Brown Fish Owl, and Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher.
.

At the top, I also found a bonus bird for Mike in the form of a male Kashmir Flycatcher—a Himalayan delight that winters in the highlands of Sri Lanka.

Mike's account of the first leg of the trip involving birding around the Hunas Falls Hotel can be seen here.

Have a great weekend all!

Announcing a Name Change of a Planthopper

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 18:00:00 +0000

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 species that belong to it, which is T. viridistigma.

This revision appeared in Zootaxa 2740 in 2011 (in pages 24-34), under the title, "Two new genera and two new species of Oriental dictyopharid planthoppers (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Dictyopharidae) from Sri Lanka and southern India." Here's a preview of this paper.

The above photograph is published in it with due credit to yours truly.

According to this paper, the new genus name is a combination of latin “truncat” plus the suffix “meria”, which means the head is more or less truncate at apex.

I photographed this planthopper in December, 2008 at the Sinharaja rain forest while guiding Dr. Richard Bishop and his wife Anne Bishop from Kenya. Its identity was narrowed down with a question mark as Centromeria viridistigma with the help of Dr. Priyantha Wijesinghe and Jerome Constant of the Department of Entomology, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, an expert on Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha. This helped Dr. Song to find my image in the web. He then sought my permission to use this image for his article announcing this revision.

It is my first photograph to be published in this top zoological journal.

(Edited on 5 January, 2012.)

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 18:35:00 +0000

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!

I first heard mobbing calls smaller birds, typically made when a predator has been spotted. Scanning the centre of this commotion, I found this owlet, clearly startled by the abuse. When this species of owl is sighted front on, you often do not get to see its beautiful chestnut back. With its chestnut back to us, it rotated the head to look back at us. A really neat view.

This was our second Chestnut-backed Owlet for the trip. I shot it at 1/250 at ISO 4000 using Canon EOS1D Mark iv and Canon 100-400mm lens. I removed camera noise using Noiseware Professional.

1 Jan., 2011 marks my 34th birthday.
And, as usual, gifts are accepted at 146A, Pahala Bomiriya, Kaduwela, Sri Lanka.

Absolute Birding—November, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 18:22:00 +0000

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 its subterranean confines, and rub the beak on human skin, it could actually tear it.

So, why such a hook?

Well, it is a weapon that the older chicks have got it to stab younger siblings to death; thus, ensuring it gets all the food delivered by the parents. Fatally stabbed, the younger siblings are unceremoniously cornered few inches away from their cradle, never to see the light of the day.

This developmentally temporary siblicidal weapon of the chicks of the Blue-throated Bee-eater, and their macabre siblicidal behaviour were discovered and documented to science by a British Ornithologist named David M. Bryant and a colleague of his, following a study carried out in Malaysia.

I was extremely glad to have guided David M. Bryant and his ecologist wife Vicki Bryant on a 14-day Absolute Birding tour from 20 Nov. to 3 Dec., 2010. This turned out to be the first guided birding tour he’d undertaken lasting multiple days. Except for an a couple of day-trips; in all his other world birding trips, he’d not sought services of a local guide, preferring to find birds under his own steam.

A professor in ornithology, David had been the supervisor for more than 50 Ph.D students. Listening to his scientific research work, and birding anecdotes was an amazingly enlightening experience. David was a very sharp birder; I could see why he’d not wanted guides all this time!

We were able to rake in a whopping 252 species of birds. We found all 33 endemic birds currently recognised. Our tally included 10 out of the 15 resident night birds. The Black-capped Kingfisher and the Whimbrel found pre-tour by David at Waikkal were not reported on the main birding tour he did with me. David has done a brief trip report and posted it at the Travellingbirder.com. Please have a look to see his views and our complete bird list.

Coming back to birding specifics, my top 10 birds of the trip were Serendib Scops Owl, Slaty-breasted Rail, Sri Lanka Frogmouth, Greater Sand Plover, Great Knot, Cinnamon Bittern, Sri Lanka Whistling Thrush, Rufous-bellied Hawk Eagle, Plum-headed Parakeet, and Sri Lanka Spurfowl.

I am sharing a few specials that cooperated.

Orange-billed Babbler Turdoides rufescens
The mixed-species bird flocks of low to mid-elevation rain forests of the wet south-west Sri Lanka are centred around this gregarious species. According to a research carried out by the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka in the 80s and 90s in the Sinharaja "world heritage" rain forest, Orange-billed Babbler is present in c.90% of the flocks. These flocks average 41 individual birds (comrpised of several bird species), and in them, this babbler averages little more than 16 individuals per flock. Therefore, it is regarded as one of the "nuclear species" of the flock.

Sri Lanka Spurfowl Galloperdix bicalcarata
This is easily my best shot of this ultra-secretive forest dweller. It was captured at the Sinharaja rain forest. Not living upto its reputation as an elusive ground bird, this vocal, male Sri Lanka Spurfowl gave us exceptional views for nearly a half a minute. I photographed it with manual focussing, as the scene was too leafty and twiggy. A friend of mine finds it difficult to pronounce the English name of this birds, saying, Sri Lanka Superfowl!! Well, it's a super bird; I'll give him that!

Sri Lanka Bush Warbler Elaphrornis palliseri
This scarce montane endemic is very difficult to photograph because of its skulky habits at times. I am very happy about this. It is a treatened species because of habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, high pesticide use and pollution. Like most endemics, its ecology is poorly known.

Moving on to non-birding subjects, we also saw over 40 species of butterflies, which the Bryants appreciated. This Centaur Oakblue Arhopala pseudocentaurus that we found at Kithulgala was my top highlight, as it was a lifer for me. It had an amazingly beautiful blue on the upperside.

Red Helan Papilio helenus This large swallowtail was spotted by Vicki, who had an eye for prettier things. (No, she certainly didn't do pipits and other LBJs.)

Common Jazebel Delias eucharis
Another butterfly that Vicki liked. The flower that is nectaring on goes as Wal idda in Sinhala. Its botanical name curiously is Walidda antidysenterica.

p.s. On a recent visit to Sinharaja, I discovered that the Forest Department had done postcards using two of my bird images without seeking my permission! And they were selling them! I protested, and they stopped selling them. Because of such severe copyright violations, I am reluctantly forced to include a watermark touching the subjects.

The Backpacker

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 08:26:00 +0000

"... 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, apparently digging it well into the skin; this does not however, prevent a large proportion of the strips from falling out. When a rumpful of strips is collected, she flies off to her nest-hole and deposits them, accumulating a large mass, on top of which the eggs, two or three in number, are laid."

—G.M. Henry about Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot in A Guide to the Birds of Sri Lanka, first published in 1955.

Friday, 10 December, 2011. A respite at last after days of deluge. I came out of my house to enjoy the first rays of sunlight after days of gloom. Well, actually, to put my towel out to dry. Soon, a familiar call drew my attention to the Cinnamon tree in front. It was a Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot—an endemic bird that is more than an occasional visitor to my yard. In all honesty, I wouldn't have noticed it had it not betrayed its presence, for it was merged into the foliage like a traffic policeman in a dark roadside corner.

I ran back to my house get my camera to photograph it, after noticing what it was doing—tearing leaf strips, and tucking them inside its lower back, which is also known as the rump. Knowing that I do not have a lot of time to adjust the settings, I fired some record shots, and the above was the best out of the lot. This was the first time observed this "backpacking" behaviour described so well by the late G.M. Henry, whose book mentioned above was my first guide to birds.