Horton Plains National Park As I Saw Last Sunday

I  visited Horton Plains National Park with  two of my colleagues and our families last Sunday, traveling from  Kurnegala to Kandy, then Nuwaraeliya and Horton Plains.

These are some glimpses of what you  can see on the way to the park's entrance.


Mount Sri Pada(Adam's Peak) viewed from distance
 

                                                       Kande Ela Lake

Inside the park, you get mainly get to see "pathana" grassland and montane rain forest , with a variety of interesting plants and animals.

                         

                                                        Chimney Pool

                                               

                                                         Baker's Falls

                                            


Flora And Fauna  

 

 

This plant is the endemic Maha-rath-mal (Rododendron arboreum ssp.zeylanicum)











And here are the animals I happened to  observe during this trip.

                   Sambar Deer(Rusa unicolor)

This particular fella used walk right up to the    travelers, looking for tidbits. I'm personally against feeding these wild animals. 

 

 

                                                                     These I couldn't identify

 

I'll try my best to pin identifications  on the plants and critters that I didn't name in this post, and be grateful if any of you folks could help me with it. Enjoy this video till then!


 

Jerdon's Bull Frog (Hoplobatrachus crassus)

I saw this frog in  Shan's garden about two weeks ago, and got him to take a few snaps for me. I had never seen one of those before, so I uploaded this photo here and requested an identification. My friend  Ruchira then confirmed it was a  Jerdon's Bull Frog (Hoplobatrachus crassus).
Shan, Ruchira, Thank you Guys!

Another Beautiful Flutterer

It feels so good to make a post after along time! This Yellow Orange-Tip(Ixias pyrene cingalensis) was photographed my good buddy Shan, who told me I could post it here.  I have news for you guys, very soon I'll have a new camera(nothing fancy though) and be back to posting all the interesting critters I see around! :-)

Today In The Garden....................

Hi all, it's been some time since my last post, for my faithful point-and- shoot is no more. :-(  It'll take some time to have a new toy. I'm doing a bit of wildlife gardening till then. Here are some critters that I captured in the garden today with a cam a friend of mine lent me. I've mot identified some of them, and let you know if I do.  I'll be grateful if you could help me there too.

Yellow-Billed Babblers(Turdoides affinis)

  Three-stripped Palm squirrel

 

Variable Flutterer Dragonfy

 Chocolate Soldier butterfly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Moth In A Combat Uniform!

            I have had to part with my camera for a while, and not been able to make a post to this blog so. During this time I had close encounters with few very interesting butterflies that I have never photographed before ans also observed a Small Civet(Viverricula indica) for the first time in my very neighborhood. This really unusual looking moth was spotted by one of my workmates  at our hospital today. When he showed it to me a bell ranged in my head. Another specimen of the same weird bug was observed at a hospital in the southern part of the island and a photo was published on a local news paper a week two ago, but no identification of the critter was given in that article. I just burrowed a cellphone from another friend to take this photo, so quality is obviously poor.

Image by roosterfeather via Flickr

Variable Flutterer Dragonfy- Female

Variable Flutterer is (Rhyothemis variegata) another common resident dragonfly of Sri Lanka.  I observed and photographed  this female specimen in my own garden, like most of the dragonflies that appear on this blog.

When Your Subjet Really Decides To Cooperate..................

Today I arrived home around noon, very exhausted after running some errand in Kandy. I was gonna have a quick shower and hit the bed for a nap, but this Scarlet Basker Dragonfly Urothemis signata signata ,that  caught my eye the moment I entered the garden,  made me change my mind. The next thing I remember doing is grabbing the camera and clicking away madly at the dragonfly, oblivious to my wife's fuzzing over my lunch getting cold. But it was all worth the trouble, for this particular Scarlet Basker literally posed in front of my camera!  The whole garden was flooded with blazing sunlight, and this critter was on a twig,calm and contempt, obviously enjoying the hot sun.  This proved the fact that Scarlet Baskers love sun bathing, the habit that has given them their name.      

Blue Persuer Dragonfly(Potamarcha congener)

Here's another product of my walks home after work. First I confused it with an Asian Skimmer but the difference of the tail color pattern made me search further till  I found this blog post by my blogger friend Amila Salgado, which allowed me to identify this one correctly.

The Dragonflies of Sri Lanka

Grey Pansy Butterfly( Junonia atlites)

This Grey Pansy butterfly that I photographed in my garden today was a very operative subject. Apparently it liked the prospect of appearing online for the world to see. There was too much sunlight though, it was nearly noon.   The pics were some what over-exposed and I used Picnik's auto fix tool on that.

Common Sailor Butterfly( Neptis hylas)

I photographed this Common Sailor two days ago.  You can view a short video that I made on this old post here.

Blue-eared Kingfisher, (Alcedo meninting)

There were three of these birds at the dirty canal I talked about earlier. They were extremely vary of me at first and took flight when I got barely close enough for a video. But I observed that they came round every time.   Then I realized why. They were feasting on  Thilapia  Juveniles which were swarming that part of the canal. So I decided to hang around a little, hoping they would get used to me,and they did. Eventually, I was able to get as close to them as teen feet, roughly. But these kingfishers being quite small, even that wasn't close enough for my camera to make a well zoomed and focused footage, but this turned out a little better than my earlier video of the same species. I 'll keep trying, with them as well as White-breasted Kingfishers.   

Peculier Luminous- Green Bugs

There were three of these shiny green bugs on a Manioc plant near my house this afternoon, a copulating couple and another probable male playing the bad guy trying to push the lover off the female bug's body. I don't recall ever seeing these critters before. They were on an impossible spot for a still, so I opted for a video. It's a pity that my camera is not the kind of toy to video them hovering. They do buzz around like bees, that's quite a site. I need some one's help to identify these too.   

Know what this spider is?

I took this photo yesterday. This spider was on a  really impossible place by a roadside, on a web spun among some grass. However I tried, I couldn't make a well focused shot at this one. I couldn't bring myself to discard all those images though. I chose one of the least crappy ones, had a go at it with Picnik's auto fix tool. Then I did some tweaks to the background with my favorite Gimp, and here's the result. I've uploaded this image here on Lakdasun forum for possible identification. Pleas do tell me if you know what this species is.