Gallicissa

November Rain

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:56:00 +0000

The rains have returned to the dry zone, ending the withering drought it experienced for several months. I know this, because I am back from a 4-day trip, which took me to several National Parks in that part of the country. I bore witness to some of the pleasant changes brought about by the rains. A brief account below.

Grey-breasted Prinia at Udawalawe

One of things that I have experienced in our dry country is that, when it rains, it really pours, just as Elvis sang it decades ago, though he was not making any reference to Sri Lanka. It had started to rain properly just 3 days before my arrrival at Yala. I was surprised to see how quickly some of the waterholes had filled up. The Wild Buffalos, neck deep them, were visibly happy that the drought is finally over.

The shrubs, which had shed leaves to conserve water during the drought, spouted up fresh foliage almost before our eyes. It was springtime at Yala. This migrant, Brahminy Myna is sitting on such a deciduous tree, with one coming to life nearby.

The new growth in the vegetation, brought about happy times for herbivores. This Elephant, busy feasting on the succulent new-growth was not too bothered by our close presence.

This female Sambar held this pose long enough for me to bump up the ISO to attempt this shot in low light.

The Spotted Deer were back in the glades, grazing the new grass that had spung up. Suddenly there was water everywhere, and the rush-hour traffic, seen near water holes during the height of the drought last month was over.

Whenever there was a respite from the weather, bird activity went up, like the Colombo Stock Market during peace. I managed to get my first decent shots of Tawny-bellied Babbler at Udawalawe.

Courting Indian Peafowl males, displaying their gaudy trains were a common sight at all sites.

Even in rainy weather, you still could manage plenty of bird and wildlife watching in the tropics. If you are patient enough, that is. Like this Painted Stork at Bundala.

Silly stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:19:00 +0000

Have you got what it takes to survive on a deserted island, if you are marooned there for five years? Name ~~ten~~ four non-electronic/non-foodie thingies you would like to have with you, before you find yourself in such a situation.

I would settle for a Rambo knife, a waterproof matchbox, my binoculars, and a copy of The Song of the Dodo (preferably in hardcover).

Click here if you cannot see the above YT clip.

In flagrante delicto

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:47:00 +0000

These Stilt-legged Flies, were photographed in flagrante delicto in my garden at Bomiriya, 90210. They belong to the family: Micropezidae. They truly engage in marathon mating efforts, and are easier to photograph when thus occupied.

More hot news, this time birding: last Tuesday was an eventful day. It started very early with a vocal Common Hawk Cuckoo waking me up at 1.30 in the morning! Migrants of this bird species augment the resident populations during this time of the year. I presume the individual heard was a migrant on transit to more woodier interiors. It was a first record for my garden, so I had no complains, despite the nuisance caused.

At a more civilised hour on the same day, I found two hoped for migrants in my yard. The first was an Indian Pitta, which comes all the way from Himalayas. It was seen hopping at a corner of my garden (with dense undergrowth), especially designated for it. I am looking forward to photograph it later on - after giving it some time to settle down. The Indian Pitta is truly gorgeous bird, which explains why it's been featured in the front cover of Salim Ali's Magnum opus, "The Book of Indian Birds".

The second migrant seen was this Brown-breasted Flycatcher.

When I started birding, ~~way back in the late cretaceous,~~ it used to be known as Layard's Flycatcher - named after Edgar Leopold Layard (1824 – 1900) - a British civil servant, who succeeded in adding an astonishing 136 species of birds to Sri Lanka's list of birds. This achievment is phenomenal considering that when he started collecting, our avain inventory stood at 182. The scientific name of this bird is Muscicappa muttui of which, the specific epithet: "muttui" is to honour Muttu (more correctly, Muththu) - the Tamil (more correctly, Thamil) servant of Layard who collected this bird from Point Pedro in Jaffna - the northernmost area of Sri Lanka. Layard was full of praise for Muttu, and wrote that he has named this bird after him "to whose patient perseverance and hunting skill, I owe best of my birds".

The collection of the first Brown-breasted Flycatcher was made by Muttu in June, which suggests that the individual collected was a loiterer - a migrant that has over stayed the visa. The penalty it had to pay for that immigration delinquecy sure was flipping costly!

I am in the middle of doing some blog housekeeping, and I have started it off by changing the template.

Sanderling watching

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:43:00 +0000

Last Saturday, I got a detailed reading of my horoscope through a local Astrologer. It was done on my own initiative, for the record. One of the interesting things I learnt from that was that I have two lucky months. They are September and October, the latter apparently the luckiest. I was told that these months therefore, are 'auspicious' ones for me to begin new 'ventures'. And to buy things like cameras and lenses. Alright, this latter fact was revealed after I posed a specific question. Now, I must be honest here, that I had absolutely no knowledge of this when I got my first dSLR in Sep, last year, or when I got my Canon 100-400mm lens last month, or when I started this blog 2 years ago on a day like this. Wish me luck, ladies and gentlemen, today is my second blogoversary.

To mark this momentous day, I wish to share some pictures of a bird that I like very much, the Sanderling, a High Arctic breeding long-distant migrant that winters in sandy beaches, pretty much around the world.

It is an uncommon visitor to Sri Lanka and the sandspit near the fishing village at Chilaw is arguably one of the best places in Sri Lanka to see it.

Sanderling is a gregarious bird in winter. However, when there are not enough numbers at a wintering site, they can join flocks of other shorebirds, probably to seek safety in numbers. When they do that, they can be often seen in locations, well away from their typical sandy-shore habitats. Here's a case in point.

In the above, two Sanderlings (largely white & grey birds, in the left and middle) can be seen mixed with the migrant Lesser Sand Plovers, at the Bundala National Park. When found in habitats like this, Sanderlings are not at their usual bubbly selves.

I would also like to draw your attention to the wader flock in flight below, photographed at Bundala.

Alright, here's a close crop of the area that I want you to see. You should be able to identify two strangers in it.

The one that I want to point out is a Sanderling.

For none birders, it is the larger bird in lower middle. The other obvious stranger in this flock of Little Stints, is a Curlew Sandpiper, which is the one with a decurved beak, at the top left.

In Chilaw sandspits, there are enough Sanderlings to form flocks of their own during the migratory period. My first Sanderlings for this season were seen while birding alone at this site, on 1 Sep. In that, I saw 4 birds, and they appeared to me as if they had just touched down in the balmy Sri Lankan shores.

Sanderlings, when they are found in their typical shoreline habitats are absolutely pleasing birds to observe. This is mainly to do with their peculiar feeding actions. It is characterised by dashing runs towards the shoreline with each ebb, to frantically feed on any organisms exposed. Like this.

And soon turning back to run ahead of the breaking waves. Like mad. Like this.

Sometimes, those waves are too brisk for their comfort, and they are forced to take wing to take evasive action. Like this.

You really don't have to be a bird watcher to enjoy these avian tourists in their element. If you happen to pass Chilaw between now and late April, just pay a visit to the Chilaw sandspits to see what I mean. After all, these birds have arrived here after a long journey of 1000s of miles. So, why not make a short detour to see them?

Note: locals may not readily understand if you ask directions for "Chilaw sandspits" from them, for it is very much a term used by the small coterie of bird watchers, to refer to this particular site.

This is how to get there: When you drive along the road that leads to the beach, turning right near the Chilaw Resthouse (which you should be able to find easily, with its directions clearly marked), turn left when you come across a colourful Catholic church and then turn right again when you meet a small Catholic shrine, within sight of each other, at which point the sea will come into view. The road gets narrower from this point onwards with houses of the fisher folk hugging it from either sides. From here, you will have to drive slowly, very slowly, may I stress, as those children behave like children. And some of the adults tend to behave like children too. I usually advise my drivers not to toot the horn while passing this stretch (even if necessary), as the locals may find it 'disturbing'. This is a wise move, considering the amount of machetes and scimitars at work, anyway.

Generally speaking, the proletariat folk there are peaceful types (as long as unprovoked), and I have taken a fair number of bird watchers to this site, and none of us have returned home with any lost extremities yet.

Anyways, once you pass the narrow stretch, you come to an open area, with a graveyard on the right (ahem, the dead centre of Chilaw sandspits). There aren't any tombstones of bird watchers, relax!

They'd chop you into smaller pieces to feed the pigs. Muhahaha...

Having arrived there, drive another 100m or so and stop when you meet another Catholic shrine and walk towards the beach at that point. Scattered flocks of Sanderlings are usually found along this stretch. 6.00-9.00 a.m. is my preferred time belt to visit this site. Afternoons, at times, attract local visitors, who may not share the same level of passion in birds as you.

Once you are there, also look out for such goodies as Terek Sandpiper, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Western Reed Egret, and if you arrive on stormy weather, scarce seabird visitors such as Brown Noddy. This site is also great to observe a good array of tern species. These may include Whiskered, White-winged, Little, Caspian, Gull-billed, Large Crested, Lesser Crested, Common, and Bridled Terns.

If you visit this site after reading this post, please drop a comment here to let me know how you fared.

Blue-faced Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:52:00 +0000

This Blue-faced Malkoha tested my manual focussing skills during my last trip to Yala National Park. A cuckoo family member, it is not brood-parasitic as most of its other relatives, but builds its own nest. In Sri Lanka it is found in the more sylvan parts of the dry and intermediate zones.

Dear Lord

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:12:00 +0000

14 October, 2009

Indra,
The Lord of the Gods & Chief Rain Maker,
South Asian Affairs Division,
Heaven.

Rain to the dry zone in Sri Lanka

Dear Lord,

How are you?

It's been a while since I wrote to you. Pardon me for this slightly longish communication.

First and foremost, thank you very much for the new Canon 100-400mm lens! I have been thoroughly enjoying it, as you can see from the pictures embedded in this letter, further down. Although now, I am sort of beginging to admire the looks of the Canon 400mm f2.8 lens, its amazing curves and all that, I am not going to make any preposterous requests, anytime soon.

So, for heaven's sake, relax!

My Lord, why I am writing to you this time is for a totally different matter. I visited Bundala and Yala National Parks in the dry zone from 5-10 October, just by myself. As you are aware, that part of Sri Lanka is experiencing a severe drought right now. My previous local experiences suggest that you are extremely meticulous in ending this prolonged drought by the mid October. This being that time of the year, I just thought of writing to you to remind you about it anyway, what with you having to deal with global climatic distabilisation and all that. As you may have heard from many, rains are badly needed to the dry zone in Sri Lanka, which covers 2/3rd of this island.

I know that you are generous enough to bring rains to the wet zone too during this time of the year. Frankly, we have had plenty of rain where I live in the wet zone, so if you are like in a squeeze or something, please feel okay to direct all those rain clouds to the dry zone - the area with a more pressing need for rain right now.

Coming back to the aforementioned trip, the nearest reason for undertaking this twitching trip, pardon my birding slang, was a Pectoral Sandpiper that was reported by my friend, Chinthaka Kalutota, from the Bundala National Park. Despite making 3 visits to this magnificent RAMSAR wetland site, I drew a blank. I learnt from several other local birders whom I met at that area that they too had failed to locate it.

It's not like I did not try, my Lord. I walked for miles in hot, baking sun in the Bundala lagoon, barefoot, getting feet like this.

No, those gum-boots of mine just won’t work in our mudflats.

Just, where is that bird? I heard somebody mentioning that only God knows it. Hence the question, pardon me.

My dear Lord, Thank You for that Glossy Ibis. Gosh! I mean, God! That really was a consolation! It remained a bogey bird of sorts for me for many years, until you finally revealed it this time at the Embilikala lagoon. I thought that was very kind of you!

The Oriental Darter population is doing extremely well at Bundala. This one was doing a Usain Bolt and I thought you might like it, as it sort of would remind you of the weapon you wield, the thunderbolt, which you use to slay the dragon, who is like causing all this drought, by enveloping the rain clouds. Just an innocent attempt at imitative magic, that's all.

Those Oriental Pratincoles, which you revealed in flight, were also good, though you only gave me record shots.

Noteworthy migrants that formed larger flocks included Curlew Sandpiper, Lesser Sand Plover, Black-tailed Gotwit, and Little Stint. A single non-breeding Red-necked Phalarope and several Sanderlings were some of the other interesting ones. Here's the kind of flocks you revealed to me.

Did you know that Yala National Park, which is traditionally closed from 1 Sep to 15 Oct annually, was kept opened for visitors this year by the 'authorities'? That is right, no unofficial 'open season' for poachers this year! Taking advantage of this, I visited this premier National Park on four game drives.

Words cannot express my gratitude for you for finding this Leopard, just minutes after entering the park, on my first game drive.

It was just 3.30 in the afternoon. We had just arrived at a waterhole named, Palugas-wala No.1 - a popular Leopard hotspot at Yala. Suddenly, alarm calls of the Hanuman Langurs filled the air, indicating that a Leopard may be close by.

There were just two other jeeps at the site. Before I could even get my binocs to scan the surroundings, our sharp-eyed tracker, Sujith spotted that Leopard making its way towards the now dried up northern end of the waterhole. As you can see, it was a very sturdy-looking male. And I couldn't help going, “OMG!”

Did you hear my call? Hahaha...just kidding!

It turned out to be this individual rather meanly nicknamed by the local visitors as “Pottaya” – for it is one-eyed.

The cause for this injury is not clear. I bet you know why!

Anyway, it did a very measured circuit around the waterhole, walking very confidently in the open theatre-like conditions at the site. It was watched closely by a large Wild Buffalo chilling in the mud, which held its ground unintimidated, after reporsitioning itself, not to lose sight of the predator. During its stroll, the Leopard marked its territory by spraying urine to several of the trees, you know, like they usually do.

I observed this magnificent cat for a good 1 1/2hours, even though you were willing to give me a longer views, if I had wanted.

You were so lovely to have punctuated this prolonged Leopard sighting with plenty of non-feline pleasures. This Green Bee-Eater that sat nearby was just one of them.

Again, you were terrific in giving me interesting compositions of the Leopard and the aforementioned Wild Buffalo, who simply stood his ground.

Here's a crop of the feline half, and showing its better half.

After a while, a Wild Boar male arrived to quench his thirst, thereby forming this tense triangle.

It was like finding RD, DB, and NB in the same bar.

As the Leopard went into a marathon lounging session., it was behaving more like our pet cats. And by 5.00 p.m., I've had enough of this view.

I think it was indicating us to just get lost!

While Sujith suggested that we stayed to see whether it would come to drink at the waterhole nearer to us, with a huge Wild Buffalo laying claim to it, I thought it may not happen too early. Therefore, instead of lingering on at that site, I suggested to move on to explore other sites good for Leopards, as the time was just right for them. This turned out to be a good move as minutes after entering the main road, that's like at 5.40 p.m., we saw a Leopard crossing the road. Two jeeps that arrived at the junction at that very moment, however, missed that brief crossing episode, but we shared the information anyway. While that saw them making a beeline to the point where the said crossing took place, Sujith came up with a battlefield manoeuver and commanded the driver to take a different road to outflank the Leopard. Having done that, he then got the driver to kill the engine and bring the jeep to a gradual stop at a certain point. And then, he urged everybody to keep an eye on a particular area. Expecting the low light conditions, I had my camera ready with appropriate settings to take the target before that. Seconds later, a Leopard materialised slowly from the thick shrubbery, and Sujith beat me again, spotting it. I managed to get a burst of shots of this glance, which it held for about 20 seconds, clearly looking bemused as to how we had managed to zero in on it!

What brilliant field craft by Sujith!

Returning to my hotel after this exciting game drive, I learnt from those who hung around near the first Leopard site that it had not come to drink but instead vanished to the jungle few minutes after we left. God! You really work in mysterious ways. Don’t You?

Although the three game drives done after this, yielded just 2 Leopards between them, they gave us plenty of other interesting wildlife sightings.

One of them was observing a bask of over 90 Mugger Crocodiles in the dried beds of Buttuwa Tank.

It was a veritable croc farm.

On my last game drive I found this dead Wild Buffalo there, surrounded by, you know who. Need I remind you of the severity of the drought?

God! I should stop now. One last request; could you please go easy on lightening this time? I just don't want to lose another modem.

Thanking you,

Respectfully yours,

Amila Salgado

Focusing problems

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:39:00 +0000

I am experiencing focusing problems in my new lens, when photographing birds in flight. This Brahminy Kite was shot at Yala National Park last Tuesday.

And this Rose-ringed Parakeet was captured on the same day, soon after.

As you can see, both are terribly out of focus. More about these focusing failures later.

Quote, unquote

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 18:13:00 +0000

The treatment, arrived last Monday. Since then the weather has turned lousy for bird photography, with heavy monsoon rains and high gusts not helping the cause. This Yellow-eared Bulbul was in a small feeding party of birds led by Sri Lanka White-eyes at the Victoria Park in Nuwara Eliya, where I found myself on the first outing with my new toy.

If you are new here, we are talking about the Canon 100-400mm lens, "the treatment" I sought to cure APOBPS, the critical condition that this blog was diagnosed with. This is my first "L series" lens and won't be the last. For the record, it was a brand new one and it put me back by Rs. 185,000 (US$ 1,623). I got it through the local Canon dealer after months of waiting.

The results so far may not relfect those of a 185,000 buck lens yet, but I am sure will get there. This Scaly-bellied Munia was feeding on some seeds, not too far from the aforementioned feeding party.

This Crested Hawk Eagle found close to Kithulgala was too far for my lens and I had to resort to digiscoping to get this one.

Although the weather has not been too favourable for bird photography, it has been not too bad for macro. The quote, unquote critter above, with a face only a mother can love, was found on my neighbour's live fence. It is a Tree hopper (family: Membracidae). Here's a lateral view of it.

The winds have brought about some pleasant changes in the environment. These include the arrival of migrant birds in search of warmer weather. Noteworthy ones seen by me so far include Grey Wagtail, Forest Wagtail, Blue-tailed Bee-Eater, Barn Swallow, Bright Green Warbler and Common Sandpiper. I am very much looking forward to the Sri Lankan 'birding season', which spans from mid October to late April.

ID challenge-2

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:20:00 +0000

Name the family of this critter. The winner will receive a printable electronic copy of this.

Still no cure for APOBPS.

Kithulgala

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:23:00 +0000

Early this month I did a 2-day trip to the wet lowlands of Kithulgala with Dr. Chandanie Wanigatunge and her son, Lahiru. This was my second trip with this duo, the first one being a 2-day trip to Sinharaja rain forest, sometime back. We ran into a lot of rainy weather, again. Undaunted, using our vehicle and various wayside shelters available to make hasty retreats, we squeezed in some decent birding during brief breaks we had from the elements.

Some of the noteworthy birds for Lahiru the bird watcher included Chestnut-backed Owlet (a vocal pair), Layard’s Parakeet, (approximately 50 noisy individuals, easily the biggest aggregation that I have seen, also observed their courtship behaviours), Gold-fronted Leafbird (in song), Dollarbird (a boring immature), Green-billed Coucal, (jaw-dropping scope views, old record shot below), Black-headed Cuckooshrike (a pair in a mixed-species flock) and a Lesser Yellownape (long views). The above Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher was the only bird that I digiscoped on this trip.

Moving on to ‘other things’, our most exciting find was a butterfly named Autumn Leaf Doleschallia bisaltide (Family: Nymphalidae), which remarkably takes the shape a decayed leaf when perched (recalling a smaller Blue Oakleaf). A butterfly lifer for all of us, it was spotted by yours truly while having lunch at Rafter’s Retreat’s restaurant. Unfortunately, it was perched too high for my photographic reach.

Our next top butterfly highlight was a male Duffer Discophora lepida, which is a scarce resident in Sri Lanka. It paused long enough to afford a photo opportunity for Chandanie.

Despite not looking for them specifically, we encountered two amphibian species, which were special. The first was Sri Lanka Rock Frog Nannophrys ceylonensis (Family: Ranidae). A record shot below.

And the second one was Kelaart’s Dwarf Toed Adenomus kelaarti (Family: Bufonidae).

Here are 5 random facts about these two interesting species.

1. Both were named by Albert Günther (1830-1914) whose name is synonymous with a fair number of Natural History in Sri Lanka.
2. Both genera are endemic to Sri Lanka.
3. Both genera comprise of 3 species each.
4. They both comprise of one species each of which the current conservation status reads as "EXTINCT". Okay, not in such larger font, but you get the picture.
5. One of these extinct species, Kandy Dwarf Toad Adenomus kandianus was described by Günther in 1872.
6. The other extinct species in question, was named in honour of Günther, as Nannophrys guntheri (Gunther’s Rock Frog).

Did you know that Sri Lanka holds the world record for the highest number of global amphibian extinctions? That’s right, out of 130 cases of amphibian extinctions documented in the world, Sri Lanka accounts for 21 cases, which is not a feat we can be proud of.

The tadpole that I posted for an ID quiz early this month was photographed on this trip. Here's a more revealing shot of it.

It was of the Sri Lanka Rock Frog, which lives on moist rock surfaces, often hiding inside crevices during daytime. For this it is quite well adapted, with a shape recalling more of a frog run over by a car.

This frog lays eggs in the same habitat it lives and so, the tadpoles when hatched have no free swimming life stage as most tadpoles do. Instead have a terrestrial existence on moist rock surfaces before metamorphosing into adult frogs.

Here’s how I had looked when I shot the above tadpole.

And here’s a crop highlighting the subject, which really proves how small it was.

My APOBPS treatment has got delayed for reasons beyond my control. Hopefully it could be administered in this week.

Description of Acute Paucity of Bird Posts Syndrome (APOBPS), its diagnosis, treatment and stuff like that in relation to a bird blog in Sri Lanka

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:12:00 +0000

By Amila Salgado

Abstract

Acute Paucity of Bird Posts Syndrome (APOBPS) is described for the first time. Notes on its diagnosis, complications, implications and possible ramifications are discussed in relation to an affected bird blog in Sri Lanka. Results follow a prospective observational study over 1 year to formally characterise this condition. A possible treatment is suggested in relation to the Sri Lankan case, based on positive results seen in pre-clinical evaluations and prospective studies.

Plate 1 A Positive symptom: This is a Large fly (Order: Diptera) in my home garden 11 Sep, 2009.

Keywords: Digiscoping, Digiscopy, Blogosphere, Birding, APOBPS, Bird Blog, Canon 100-400 f4.5-5.6L Lens, Macro Photography.

Introduction.

A bird blog is an online journal of bird and birding related stuff of a birder (Salgado, 2007). Bird blogs that strictly discuss birds and birding related matters are essentially rare these days. This is evident from the fact that even the top bird bloggers leaving room to discuss non-birding matters in their blogs (Bergin et al. 2007).

Therefore the modern attitude seems to suggest that a certain amount of non-birding content is not too unhealthy for a bird blog after all. This seems reasonable given the diversity of 'other things' a birder confronts during birding explorations.

However, a prospective observational study and other clinical observations have shown that certain bird blogs seem to constantly deviate from posting bird and birding content, leading to the condition identified here for the first time as Acute Paucity of Bird Posts Syndrome (APOBPS).

It is characterised by gradual drop in bird posts in blogs that are portrayed to the outside world primarily as bird blogs.

Symptoms & diagnosis.

You open a bird blog and see a frigging dragonfly first, or such thingies that have absolutely nothing to do with birds.

Plate 2: A positively positive symptom: Elusive Adjutant Aethriamanta brevipennis brevipennis young male in my home garden, Kaduwela, Sri Lanka.

Other such deviations include posts dedicated to grasshoppers, garden spiders, beetles, shrub frogs, butterflies, snakes, stick insects, robberflies, Leopards and even Blue Whales, for crying out loud!

Plate 3: An advanced symptom: Robber fly (Order: Diptera) feeding on a tiny fly (Order: Diptera) in my home garden, Kaduwela, Sri Lanka.

Basically, any bird blog that has less than 65 % of bird and birding-related posts can be taken as APOBPS positive cases.

At the onset of the APOBPS, bird blogs show a high frequency of recurring theme posts such as Macro Monday (Salgado, 2009b), Wordless Wednesday (Ciccone, 2009b) and Sky Watch Friday (Tabib, 2009) in an obsessive compulsive sort of way, with very little or no birding content. Note: the latter used to be called Tabib's Bird Blog when I discovered it.

In extreme cases affected bird blogs carry dedicated non-bird posts in serial-post style (Salgado, 2009c).

Initial investigations confirm the prevalence of APOBPS symptoms increasingly in bird blogs that are linked with affected blogs (Ciccone, 2009a), raising new fears whether APOBPS could grow into pandemic propotions. Studies are currenly under way to ascertain this.

Ramifications.

If untreated, APOBPS results in an affected bird blog to transmogrify into one other than a bird blog. i.e. a Natural History Blog. Its overall implications, Tragectory Internal Transmutation Sensitivities (TITS), and visitor traffic needs to be assessed further.

A prospective observational study (or something like that).

Digiscopy has been my preferred method of photographing birds since time immemorial. That's like since 2004. It basically involves the attachment of a digital camera to the eyepiece of a spotting scope, using a homemade adapter or mount and shooting through the lens of the spotting scope to take cracking photographs (Poh, 1999).

This in my case is currently achieved through a Kowa TSN 823 telescope (with 20-60 x zoom eye-piece) with Nikon Coolpix 5100 camera - coupled together with custom-made adapters.

So, in other words, if I have a bird to photograph in the wild now, I would reach for my digiscoping gear rather than my point & shoot, Panasonic Lumix FZ-18 camera, although the latter has the capacity for achieving decent results as shown in Plate 4.

Plate 4 Serendib Scops Owl Otus thilohoffmani photographed at night time. Aug, 2008.

Over the years I have taken some decent shots by means of digiscoping (Plate 5 and Plate 6 - using Nikon Coolpix 4500). Some of them have featured in articles authored and co-authored by me (Salgado, 2006 and Goodale et al. 2008) and authored by others (Lord, 2007 and Ritschard and Schweizer, 2007) in both local and overseas journals and magazines.

Plate 5. A Red-faced Malkoha Phaenicophaeus pyrrhocephalus with a Giant stick insect Phobaeticus hypharpax prey in the beak at Sinharaja 'World Heritage' rain forest, Sri Lanka. This image was used in an article by me in Forktail - The Journal of Asian Ornithology.

Plate 6. Chestnut-backed Owlet Glaucidium castanononum Digiscoped in Jan 2007 at Sinharaja 'World Heritage' Rain forest. This image was used by Ritschard and Schweizer in 2007 for an article in BirdingAsia 7.

However, as of recently for multitude of reasons I have not been motivated enough to do digiscoping of birds much. In all honesty, I would have loved to have photographed some of those birds seen. But, I simply have lacked the inner drive, the hunger, the killer instinct to bag a photograph of a bird by means of digiscoping.

This accounts for the drought of bird images and bird posts, which has gradually pushed this blog to a APOBPS postive one.

Let me be honest; birds were my first love – the very reason why I fell in love with nature that is. It will always be like that. So, I always like to portray myself as a birder although with time I have acquired broader interests in natural history.

Okay, without getting too emo, let’s dig deep to the reasons, which have led to APOBPS in Gallicissa one by one.

1. Realisation that digiscoping & 'point and shoots' cannot achieve crisp images consistently as one can using dSLR photography.

Since converting to dSLR (with the aim of doing macro photography) in Sep, 2008, I have been convinced of the sheer capabilities and merits of dSLR photography. In simple, dSLR photography has raised my standards and expectations as a photographer and has opened my eyes to understanding photography a bit better.

After comparing my bird shots with stunning bird images taken by bird bloggers like Stuart Price at Hakodate Birding, I have increasingly realised that digiscoping cannot achieve the same high standards as through dSLR photography.

Lately, this has discouraged me from spending a lot of time over digiscoping birds.

2. Limitations of digiscoping.

During a shorebird trip to Chilaw last month, we encountered a Brown Noddy, a rare seabird that visits the Sri Lankan coasts in bad weather. It was flying low over the rough seas, quite close to the shore. I would have loved to have got a record shot of this rarity. However, such constantly moving subjects are nearly impossible to capture crisply through digiscoping for Noodys like us. This explains why I have got no flight shots of birds on this blog.

But take a look at what Stu has achieved below of a bird in flight.

Plate 7. Eatern Curlew Numenius madagascariensis in flight by Stuart Price.

I seriously doubt any digiscoper can match the sharpness of a bird in flight like that. Or for that matter stills like this .

3. Enjoying bird watching in its purest sense and not bothering to blog about it.

Since getting my Swarovski ELs (Salgado, 2009a), I think have become more of a watcher than a shooter in my birding habits (which I deem as healthy for me as a birder).

Gallicissa is not a photo blog sensu stricto. However, I do like to associate a photo or two with my posts, which explains why there is hardly any text-only posts in this blog. For some reason, I do not feel like doing text-only blog posts. So, with no new bird images at hand, my bird blogging has suffered a considerable setback over the past year or so. (On the positive, my macro capabilities has improved, but that is off topic)

Perhaps my attitude towards doing text-only blog posts may change in the future as I mature as a writer, say as Rhythmic Diaspora who hardly includes images in his posts, but simply uses his spellbinding prose and sheer class to create vivid mental images.

Treatment.

Pre-clinial evaluaions have shown the Canon EF 100-400mm Lens (Plate 8) to be a very effective remedy to curb APOBPS. However, with a price tag of over ~~$1,650~~ $1,700 this treatment remains quite steep. As things stand and as per prospective study results, it may be the only cure for the affected Sri Lankan blog in question, until future evaluations show otherwise.

Plate 8 Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens.

Conclusion.

Early diagnosis, timely treatment and rigorous field birding may be the only cure for APOBPS positive bird blogs. With proper care they can bounce back to normalcy, of course leaving room for the odd non-birding post or two. Or three.

Acknowledgements.

I would like to thank Stu for lending his image and for his continuous encouragement to seek treatment. As always I am very thankful for all the readers and commenters. Normal service will resume very soon.

References.

Bergin, M., Moores, C. and Finger, C. (2007) About 10000 Birds. 10,000birds.com.

Ciccione, C. (2009a) Twelve-spotted Skipper. Picus Blog Aug, 2009.

Ciccione, C. (2009b) Wordless Wednesday. Picus Blog Sep, 2009.

Diaspora, R.(2009) A***-wiping and Java’s B***s of steel. London Lanka and Drums Sep.2009.

Goodale, E., Salgado, A., and Kotagama, S.W. (2008). Birds of a different feather. Natural History 117:24-28.

Lord, M. (2007) Pioneers of Asian Ornithology: Colonel W. Vincent Legge. BirdingASIA 8: 84-89.

Poh, L. (1999) What is Digiscoping? Laurence Poh Digiscoping.

Redzlan, A. R. (2009) Belalang kunyit and sky. Tabib's Bird Blog Sep, 2009.

Ritschard, M and Schweizer, M. (2007) Identification of Asian Glaucidium owlets. BirdingAsia 7:39-47.

Salgado, A. (2006) Some observations on the diet of Red-faced Malkoha Phaenicophaeus pyrrhocephalus in Sri Lanka. Forktail 22:122-123.

Salgado, A. (2007) What is a Bird Blog? Gallicissa. In a comment somewhere, 2007

Salgado, A. (2009a) What is your binocular? Gallicissa Apr, 2009.

Salgado, A. (2009b) Macro Monday Gallicissa July, 2009.

Salgado, A. (2009c) Dragons in my garden Part 3 Gallcissa Aug, 2009

Citation: Salgado, A. (2009) Description of Acute Paucity of Bird Posts Syndrome (APOBPS), its diagnosis, treatment and stuff like that in relation to a bird blog in Sri Lanka. Gallicissa, September 2009.

Russell's Viper

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:22:00 +0000

Last Monday, I got a call from one of my neighbours, asking to come and inspect a snake that he had found. This man is not a big fan of snakes (just like many of you) and he often kills them first before calling me. And at times the snakes are beaten up so badly like some men in those gangster movies that they are beyond recognition. However, on this instance, it wasn’t too bad and the specimen was quite intact, by and large.

It turned out to be a deadly venomous Russell’s Viper, which is responsible for a very high number of human fatalities in our part of the world.

Although it does not have a pit (situated between the eye and the nostril or loreal region) possessed by ‘pit vipers’, which is an external opening to a heat detecting sensory organ capable of detecting warm-blooded prey even in complete darkness, this snake is still able to react to thermal cues.

This specimen was about 20 inches long. I went macro getting less than a foot from it to take the picture shown on top here. Of course I confirmed for myself that that it was fully dead. I did not want it to raise its wounded head to deal one lethal strike at me before breathing its last, like bad guys do in the movies.

Now that would have been so not cool.

Critters like this is why I am partial to Wellington Boots when exploring wilderness areas by foot. And that seriously includes my home garden and the immediate vicinity.

ID challenge-1

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:13:00 +0000

This is a

A. fish

B. tadpole

C. gecko

D. snake

E: nymph of a dragonfly

The first person to comment the correct answer will receive a MP3 audio recording of the song of the Spot-winged Thrush, which can be used as a ring tone in your mobile phone.

Macro Monday HQ is at Lisa's Chaos

Bootilicious

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:16:00 +0000

I am referring to my liking for gum boots, hiking boots and the likes. The picture below shows various species of them in my collection.

Of these, I am partial to gum boots for my wilderness walking. The main reason for this is to protect myself from snake bites. We have 5 deadly-poisonous inland snakes and several other venomous snakes, which can cause “considerable discomfort” to put it mildly. In Sri Lanka the annual death rate due to snake bite envenoming is one of the highest in the world with 6 deaths out of a population of 100,000. In 2008 alone, there were 33,000 snake bites in this country. This number comes from reports generated through hospitals and do not take into account of patients resorting to traditional type of treatment. So, the actual figures should be higher.

My secondary reasons for preferring wellies, as gum boots are affectionately called, are to enable me to cross shallow streams without getting my feet wet and to keep off leeches (you have to wear them with leech socks to be effective).

Wellies have a bad reputation for being cumbersome and downright uncomfortable. This explains why most people dislike them. This was true for me too. With time, however, I have got used to them. As I use them heavily these days, their wear and tear is high. And I find myself in a difficult position when I have to replace them in this country. As I like to try them before purchasing, ordering them online is not a viable option for me.

Despite being a rubber producing country (and not to mention us topping the list of deaths due to snake envenomation), the types of gum boots made in Sri Lanka (in Arpico and DSI) are not designed for field naturalists like us, in my opinion. I will explain.

1. Most of them are too short – Apart from increasing exposure to snake strikes, this shortcoming make them unsuitable for crossing shallow streams especially in rain forests here. Gum boots got to be at least 15-17 inches tall to make them suitable for people like us.

2. The lower back of most of the boots in the market are too rigid making them less flexible. This part of the boot needs to be flexible to alleviate discomfort during longer walks.

3. Sole is 'wrong'. This causes leg pain during longer walks. Makers should do some sole searching and take a look at international brands to correct their basic design flaws.

When I want to go gum boot shopping, I visit the Malwatte Road in Colombo Fort. When you enter it from the Fort Railway station side, the shops on the left side sell the wrong type of product, explained above. The ones suitable for people like us are available at the more informal shoe stands on the right and that is where I rightly go shopping.

These vendors get quality “imported” ones delivered to them in small quantities from various “informal channels” especially with the Colombo Harbour also being not too far away. The prices are generally reasonable here and there is a lot of room for bargaining. Last week, I was quoted Rs. 2,500 for an “Auda” safety gum boot. With fifteen minutes of creative negotiations, I walked away with it, paying just 1,650 bucks.

I hope people at DSI and Arpico will address the shortcomings mentioned here and improve their existing product range and very importantly improve their marketing – after all we have a very good target market.

Wordless Wednesday - Yellow Waxtail

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:27:00 +0000

Dragons in my garden Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:44:00 +0000

Troy Mullens from TX, USA posted an ID challenge in his high-octane nature blog, ICU Nature with the following image.

The correct answer was commented by only one person, who happened to be yours truly!

The dragonfly in question, Red Saddlebag Tramea onusta does not occur in Sri Lanka. However, we do have two related Tramea species here.

The name “Saddlebag” is given for dragonflies belonging to the genus, Tramea considering that they have a dark band at the base of their hindwing reminiscent of saddlebags on a horse’s saddle. The Sri Lankan representatives have not been given this peculiar name by the authors of our popular dragonfly guide. Instead they are referred as “Gliders” – which is another named used for species belong to the genus Tramea due to their ‘gliding’ flight habits. (Note: Not all Gliders are Tramea species)

In late April, I was able to observe the emergence of the Sociable Glider Tramea limbata in my dragonfly pond. This is how its adult male looks.

Most dragonflies emerge under the cover of darkness in order to escape predation – especially from birds. In my pond, the nymphs come out of water to begin their transformation into winged dragonflies typically at around 8.00 p.m. And it can take several hours until the final winged insect appears.

The nymph of Sociable Glider shown below was seen climbing the vertical wall of my pond in its deepest section (4 feet) just pass 9.00 p.m. on 29 April. After coming out of the water, the nymph found it difficult to negotiate the last few inches of the vertical wall. And in trying to push itself, it 'slipped' and fell back into the water. I then quickly collected it and placed it on the outer wall of the pond, which serves as the cradle for most of my dragonflies.

The the most crucial episode of this emergence drama unfolded pass midnight in what was a pretty sleepless night for me with a couple of Dawn Dropwings also emerging. Here are some of the shots of this dragon birth.

This was fired at 0004 hours on 30th April.

At 0009 hours.

At 0022 hours. It has now done an upside down hanging crunch to grab its empty outerskin.

A side on view at 0032 hours.

Call me a dragonfly fanatic, but this newly emerged dragonfly (teneral) was taken at 2.41 a.m. I had some rest in between.

And finally this at 2.47 a.m. before calling it a day!

You can make out the 'saddlebag' in this.

Related posts

Dragons in my garden Part 1

Dragons in my garden Part 2

The Pond

Dawn of a Dropwing

Scrabble and dragonfly tips

Bird rescue

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:36:00 +0000

I heard a distress call of this immature female Black-rumped Flameback. It was there in a flash to see that it was under attack by an Indian Jungle Crow (Large-billed Crow if you do not like this name). The crow was trying to carry it away. But with my sudden appearance at the scene and screaming, it had to abandon its plans. The crow dropped its would-be-prey on the lawn and I was able to collect it. In breeding times, crows do opportunistically take larger prey to meet increasing need of protein the hungry young require. This immature woodpecker almost became an avian prey for it. Its parent birds were calling frantically trying to provide close air support during the commotion.

After rescuing it, I let it calm down a bit before realising it - when the threat level came down from red to sort of bluish.

In return to my favour, I got it to pose for a couple of record shots. When I took these pics, it was quite excited as you can see from its wide open beak and raised crest feathers. It was quite okay after a while.

As some the regular readers of this blog may know, the Black-rumped Flameback is one of the birds in my bathroom birding list.

You know you are a birding fanatic when you

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:53:00 +0000

keep a bathroom bird list complete with scientific names in taxonomic order.

know some of the birds outside your country by their scientific name.

get asked about various birds first by your doctor.

visit a rain forest in a tuktuk spending 4 hours on the road to see a single bird. Twice.

feel it is perfectly okay to ask your friendly public bus driver to drive a bit slowly when going pass your favourite roadside wetland patch.

have no problem whatsoever to sit on the rain forest floor to see a ground bird that is coloured like decaying leaf litter.

always make comfort stops on jungle trails, strategically near fruiting trees.

have been bitten in all vital parts of the body by leeches while birding except in the eyes.

have no issues in standing near a stinking sewage canal with all forms of vicious biting things hovering around you to see a drab bird that doesn’t even sing.

carry your binoculars, checklists and field guides to bars & restaurants at dinner time during bird tours and feel perfectly okay about it.

are inordinately fond of garbage dumps to look for rarities.

keep a list of birds seen in your dreams.

have spent a better part of your life looking like this:

...and like this:

always prefer to buy clothes that are green, brown, grey and birdie.

have named your blog after a mythical bird that you have made up, which not many people can understand or pronounce properly.

feel like it is your duty to comment in blogs of non-birders who cannot tell a coot from a duck, whenever they post about birds.

wake up at 3.45 a.m., leave the hotel at 4.15 a.m. and reach a cold and dreary spot before crack of dawn to see a dark bird that mostly reveal in silhouette.

go on bird trips using public transport wearing binoculars, gum boots and leech socks. Oh, and a hands-free umbrella.

have nicknames and pet names from school days that are bird-related.

bump into a female bird watcher and check out her pair of binoculars first.

Okay, I may I have stretched things a wee bit here and there. But these remain largely true.

Let’s hear your contributions.

Corona

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 10:39:00 +0000

I was in the market looking for a decent headlamp to spot night birds and wildlife. After doing some research, I found the perfect one, the Corona LED Headlamp from Outersports.com. It is a product of Princeton Tec, the makers of high quaility light products.

For spotting nocturnal birds and wildlife, it is important that the source of light that you use for it is held as closer to your head as possible in order to detect their eye-shines. Corona fills your entire field of vision with an even distribution of light simulating daylight conditions and achieves this task spectacularly well. The wide beam of light it produces prevents the need for your eyes to adjust quickly from very bright to dark areas and eliminates eye fatigue. The wider beam also eliminates the need to move your head too much – a real pain in the neck with previous headlamps, which offered narrower field of view.

Corona uses eight permanent high-power 5mm white LEDs (producing white light) and you can selectively light eight, five, three or one of them depending on the scene you want to illuminate. Once the number of LEDs have been turned on like this, you can further dim them or get them to flash continuously. I do not require using the latter feature much, but the dimming function helps a lot to observe animals that are wary of brighter lights.

Proving this point, a few days ago, I spotted a family of Asian Palm Civets in my yard with my Corona. I observed them with all 8 LEDs on in dim mode – just to be on the safer side. The Palm Civets just went on with their normal behaviour, in foraging at distances of 10-15m and they did not appear to be too bothered by my headlighting them. Eventually, I left the scene leaving them where I found them.

The angle of the light source of this headlamp can be altered to get the light coming at a downward angle from the forehead to illuminate the subject just perfectly for binoculars and/or cameras to focus upon simultaneously. With a hand-held torch it was always a difficult task to hold it in one hand and try to focus on the the subject with the binoculars from the other hand. (Yes ladies, we men are hopeless at multi-tasking). I found the eight LEDs in full brightness quite sufficient to identify subjects about 25m or so, which is really enough on most situations on jungle walks.

The Corona LED headlamp requires three AA Alkaline or Lithium batteries. The burn time varies between 70-30 hours depending on the intensity and mode. Corona uses current regulation so the light source chosen will remain at a constant brightness as long as the batteries have sufficient voltage to run them. It has very good power-saving options. The Dim mode is known to produce 40-50% of the maximum light of high mode with as little as 25 % of the battery power as on high mode.

For night birding, I prefer a light source that produces white light as opposed to yellow light. This is because the yellow light casts a tawnier hue on otherwise none-tawny night birds. Take a look at this male Sri Lanka Frogmouth that was digi-scoped at a daytime roost with the available low-light.

Now look at the same bird photographed with a torch producing yellowy light.

The photogaph below is the same bird photographed by a friend named Riza (not the drummer) using a dSLR camera and in a different angle.

You can see that the real ground colour of the bird is grey. In the picture taken with a torch with yellow light, the male appears tawnier and therefore very much like a typical female of this species (well, there's also a colour morph of the male that is more rufous-brown and approaching the colour of the female). Corona LED Headlamp will avoid you falling in such visual pitfalls and you will be able to see the colours of the birds closer to what you will see in daytime. BTW, click here to read detailed article by me about the plumage of this interesting-looking bird.

I tried the Corona as the light source (for focusing and clicking) for night time macro photography too. However, it is not used as a headlamp but as a hand-held lamp. This is because you cannot wear it on your head and find the subject in the view finder as the big macro flash that I use (Canon MT-24EX) blocks the fore-head area where the light source of the headlamp would be placed. This Common Shrub Frog in my yard was photographed with Corona hand-held together with the camera. I used three LEDs on in dim mode for this.

The outersports package arrived in air-mail direct to my house and I did not have to waste time at the ‘big post office’ in Colombo and go through custom procedures as in previous such deliveries.

Disclaimer: Directing light sources at the eyes of the nocturnal animals can be harmful for their vision, so please dim the lights/use brightness-reduction methods when viewing them. And never overdo it.

A dragon by any other name

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:45:00 +0000

My monsoon birding tour participant, Phillip Johnson has bagged the outrageously beautiful Wilson's Bird-of-Paradise in West Papua as his 5,000th lifer. I would like to congratulate him on this amazing achievement! He should be feeling very happy to have reached this memorable milestone, seeing such a crippler.

Wouldn’t it be nice to read about his birding adventures in a book one day? I think he should start chipping in, while chasing after the remaining half of the birds of the world. And if he does so, I hope he will not ignore all those NFFs! (catch all category that Phil lumps non birdie subjects in, standing for No #@*!ing Feathers). Phil is a teacher and a terrific storyteller. I am sure such a book filled with his anecdotes will prove interesting reading for many of us.

Last week, I stumbled upon a few NFFs myself on two trips to two rain forests. Special among them were four Hump-nosed Lizards. This is a scarce reptile found in moist rain forests in Sri Lanka, distributed up to altitudes of 1,650m. I don’t know about you, but my heart beats faster whenever I stumble upon one of these amazing reptiles. May be it’s because it reminds me of those ancient reptiles, famously celebrated. Some of those first feathered reptiles evolved to become the earliest birds. May be it is due to that. I wonder what Phil will do if he accidently spots such a feathered reptile now. Surely he cannot ignore it as another NFF?

Coming back to reality, the last of those four individuals that I found was a mature male. It was the most strikingly coloured of the four, the reason why I have promoted it to the very top. The gular pouch which it uses for displays when threatened and courting to pose an apparent increase in size, is well developed in both sexes but is more pronounced in the males. When threatened it also opens the mouth to display its red interiors as shown here, which to me appears like a fiery mouth of a mythical dragon.

There are 18 species of lizards belonging to the family Agamidae (for which reason they are commonly termed as 'Agamid lizards') in Sri Lanka out of which a whopping 15 are endemic. The Hump-nosed Lizard is one of the earliest animals to be described from Sri Lanka, named in 1758 by none other than the farther of modern taxonomy, Carl Linnaeus. Its present scientific name is Lyriocephalus scutatus. This generic name translates to 'Lyre-shaped head/face', which can be seen well in the first image. It earns its most often used vernacular from the globular knob of the snout in the adult, which is absent in the juveniles. Lyriocephalus is a monotypic genus, which means it contains only a single species, which in this case, is endemic to Sri Lanka.

My reptilian brain says that this species should be called as "Lyre-faced Dragon" as opposed to its rather lame sounding popular name used at present. Having said that, my primate brain says that it is best left unchanged as ‘dragon’ is likely to attract too much unwanted attention detrimental to its well-being.

Do you have different parts of your brain talking to you like this?

This immature was found close to the above individual and was the 3rd in the order seen by me. This lizard is capable of changing its colour quite remarkably and when I first found it in the evening before (when I carried no camera to be a better bird watcher) it was coloured similar to the green and yellow adult above.

I got the above photograph after returning to its site in the following morning. It was then that the above adult caught the eye.

Hump-nosed Lizard is an iconic species in Sri Lankan herpetology, with the country's leading herp. journal being named after its genus.

Here’s the second individual found – a record shot. It first appeared like a stump coming out of that tree. This one has almost completely shed its old skin, and the bits that remain attached it is lower body gives it a disguise as lichen patches of a tree.

And lastly, here’s the very first Hump-nosed Lizard that I stumbled upon during last week. It was crossing the road at Gilimale. I hurriedly escorted it to the forest before a bus came our way. That was not before I took this record shot, showing how it tries to hide from me, cleverly assuming the tones of the tarred road. Not bad for a reptilian brain, eh?

Hump-nosed Lizard is the only Lizard species that I have seen in a dream. In that, I found it in my home garden.

Related posts:

In search of a Drongo

Israel chasing targets in Sri Lanka

Macro Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:00:00 +0000

There is a small patch of rain forest just an hour’s drive from my place, named Meethirigala Forest Reserve. This forest has been spared thanks to a Forest Buddhist Hermitage situated in it. I did a half a day trip to this secondary rain forest yesterday with some bird and bug friends namely, Ayanthi (organiser), Cheryl, Rohantha and Sandaruwan. I was hoping to focus just on birds (determined not to take the camera gear out of the bag), but soon had to abandon this idea as the majority favoured photography and it was too hard to avoid copying their compulsive behaviours. The insects were sluggish due to overcast and early morning conditions. This made their photography more profitable. I am sharing here some of them that cooperated.

I have no idea what this is and if you do, please let me know.

This looks like a type of a builder wasp

I was crawling on the ground when I shot this fly and got a leech on my belly.

A solider beetle.

God knows what this is!

All of these were photographed at life size or above life size. Most of them were spotted by Cheryl who had a good eye for bugs. She also impressed me immensely with her ability to share fish sandwiches and chilled drinks at regular intervals.

Our top birding highlight of the trip included Common Hawk Cuckoo, which was picked by Ayanthi. This bird is not common here as the name suggests. A female Black-naped Monarch nest-building by the roadside was also nice. A Green-billed Coucal was heard.

Our top butterfly highlight was the Southern Duffer, which was expertly spotted by Rohantha while being glued to a Veralu tree Elaeocarpus serratus, drinking its sap that was oozing out of a wound in the bark. Later on, Ayanthi announced the second Southern Duffer and a third Southern Duffer joining in there while we were getting on with other things. It turned out to be an all-male drinking party. It was quite a good sighting of this rare butterfly found in forests with bamboo undergrowth. A Common Evening Brown was also seen there at the start. Ayanthi took good pictures of the Southern Duffer and Common Evening Brown together. A perched Banded Peacock spotted inside a bamboo thicket by me was too difficult to photograph but a good one for the trip.

The three males thought it was fit to copy the sap-seeking behaviours of the Southern Duffers and broke at the Hanwella Resthouse for some Arrack. The rice and curry that followed tasted good.

Macro Monday HQ is at Lisa's Chaos.

Not a cat post

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:10:00 +0000

One of our senior cats gave birth to a litter of three, weeks ago. The weaning process of the kittens has begun now. Indicating this and in a bid to get our approval, she has strategically moved her babies closer to our kitchen for all to see. Yesterday at 10.30 p.m., my mother alarmed at seeing a late delivery brought to the kittens. I was there in a flash, to see that the victim was a bird. I immediately snapped the lifeless bird placed before these hungry eyes.

To my utter surprise, it turned out to be a male Barred Buttonquail Turnix suscitator – a bird species not only new to my garden but also new to my local area! Here’s the hapless victim.

Buttonquails are peculiar birds in that their sex roles are reversed. The girls are generally larger and strikingly coloured and therefore are better looking compared to the boys. They are also vociferous in their courtship rituals and take the lead in initiating love. There is stiff intrasexual competition in the girls to win over the boys who they treat like toys. It is the boys who are burdened with brooding and caring of the babies. The girls take female emancipation to its shameful extremes and walk away from all parental duties after sex. And go looking for more subservient males to burden with her babies. Yes, Buttonquail females are polyandrous.

Is it all bad news for boys? Luckily no. The chicks in buttonquails are precocial meaning they can walk and run soon after birth to follow the farther to find food. So, the boys are not too stressed.

Buttonquails are secretive terrestrial birds occurring in dry grasslands and scrub jungles. They prefer to escape by walking and scurry through the low vegetation rather than flying which they do reluctantly. When they take to the air, the flight is never persisted for too long and they quickly drop to cover almost as if been shot dead. After that you can almost never find them again and they simply melt away!

Barred Buttonquail is widespread in the Oriental region where 18 sub-species of it are recognised. In Sri Lanka, it is represented by an endemic sub-species, leggei living in the dry zone.

This was my first record of this species in the ‘wet zone’. I remember reading a report in Ceylon Bird Club Notes sometime ago of a sight record of this bird from Pittugala close to Malabe. This area is just about 5 km as a ~~crow~~ Buttonquail flies from where I live. So, its occurrence in the wet zone for me was not entirely surprising. Parts of my garden are left to grow wild and there are sections of it overrun with tall grass.

The dry zone has reached its driest phase now, which usually lasts until the onset of the North East Monsoon, which starts in October. Could there be inter-migration of Barred Buttonquails between dry and wet zone during the direst months? This point is worth investigating.

Buttonquails (aka. Bustard-quails) despite their superficial resemblance to Quails are not closely related to them. They are categorised in two entirely different bird families; quails in Phasianidae together with partridges and pheasants and buttonquails in family of their own named, Turnicidae. Furthermore, they were traditionally included in the orders Gruiformes or Galliformes but DNA studies have shown enough evidence that they in fact should be included in the order Charadriiformes to which shorebirds belong.

Here’s the Buttonquail slayer.

Her past avian catches include an Indian Pitta, which survived thanks to my mother's intervention.

Here's another brat.

Absence of hind toe in Buttonquails is another diagnostic that seperate them from Quails, which show this feature.

This is my contribution to My World.

Sewage birding

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:45:00 +0000

Early this year, news reached me through a Ceylon Bird Club source about a Ruddy-breasted Crake near the Lunawa Lagoon at Ratmalana. Crakes are secretive birds that are usually difficult to see and bird watchers have a special liking for them due their rarity.

I visited this site one balmy afternoon with my trusty tuktuk companion, Sarath. Directions were provided over the phone by my friend, Namal Kamalgoda who had been there earlier to check the site but not seen the bird. After reaching the site I was further guided by the owner of the house in front as to where I should stand exactly if I have any desire to see the bird.

And, this was what stood before me after heeding his advice – a sewage canal. Not a pleasant sight! But Crakes are indifferent to such insalubrious sites.

The man was dead right. I hardly had to wait for 2 minutes before I set my eyes on a Ruddy-breasted Crake wading in the sewage water. This was easily my best view of this scarce bird.

The resident populations of Ruddy-breasted Crake are boosted by migrants during the winter and therefore its status is best described as “Scarce resident and migrant”.

I had my second Ruddy-breasted Crake for the 2008/2009 bird watching season while guiding Andreas Prevodnik in February at Bundala National Park from a safari jeep.

Macro Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:10:00 +0000

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 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 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 yellowy-green and reddish-green hues. (It is those leaves of intermediate stages that folivorous animals such as Leaf-Monkeys pick 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 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 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

noreply@blogger.com (Gallicissa) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:46:00 +0000

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 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.