MOVEMENTS OF WHISKERED TERNS

These Whiskered Terns may be about 20 in number are found eternally flying around and above the lake in Maharagama specially during the migration time from October to March but I have seen many even in other months as well.

BROWN WOOD OWL EXPERIENCE.....

I went to Welimada and visited the Surrey Bird Sanctuary  on the last weekend in November 2015  which is home to  the Brown Wood Owl  . As confirmed by many birders , that more or less it is guaranteed that you can see them unlike  in other places, I too came across  these wonderful birds and was able to photograph all 4 birds at will. I also came across the endemic Sri Lanka Wood Pigeon.

Endemic Sri Lanka Wood Pigeon

Velvet Fronted Nuthatch

WATCHING THE INAUGURAL SINGAPORE FORMULA 1 RACE IN 2008

Been an avid fan of Formula 1 , I went to Singapore with two of my close friends to watch the inaugural race in 2008.

The pit area of the circuit is located in an empty plot of land off Republic Boulevard and beside the Singapore Flyer. A temporary track leads from the pit area and under the Benjamin Sheares Bridge to Republic Boulevard and turns onto Raffles Boulevard. It then proceeds along Nicoll Highway, Stamford Road and Saint Andrew's Road around the Padang, past the City Hall.

The track then goes onto the Anderson Bridge, past the Fullerton Hotel and make a tight left turn to Esplanade Drive beside the Merlion Park. It joins Raffles Avenue and cut right after the Esplanade to the front of The Float at Marina Bay and return to the pit area via another temporary road around the Singapore Flyer. The track layout is unique in that in between turns 18 and 19, the cars race underneath a section of grandstand of the Floating Platform.

RESCUE ATTEMPTS OF A BABBLER. CHICK..............

I spotted this baby Yellow billed Babbler in the evening at around 5,45 on the 24th of October 2015 in front of the car porch. The whole day it has been drizzling and it was quite wet and could not fly.

The adults were still hovering and making noises and I kept it on the lawn .

  They tried hard but the little one could not fly and around  6 p.m the adults left the small one and the only alternative was to take it indoors. We kept inside a toilet on a piece of cloth and straight away it fell asleep.

 The following morning on Sunday I woke up at 5.40 and when I opened the front door and looked ,3-4 adult Babblers were perched on the electrical wire watching silently.It was  very heart warming to notice this natural phenomena  and after  I brought the baby and kept it on the veranda , the adults greeted it.                                        

 It thereafter hopped and went near the water meter next to a bush .

 The adults kept coming at regular internals feeding and the little one started loosening the wings.The most fascinating thing was that up to 8 members of the flock were coming and attending to the baby regularly.

flexing the wings....

crying hungry....

 Most of the time at least one adult was perched somewhere close by keeping an eye.

 Couple of times it tried to fly up but failed.

 Adults showed it how to flex and loosen the wings...

I kept it on the other side of the garden where there were many small trees and bushes to make it easy for it to perch and try flying and by afternoon it was on this tree.

 It also did his part  and the feeding took place all the time.

 The adults did everything possible to teach the baby to flap it's wings.....

 By 6 p.m on Sunday too the adults left the small one perched on this tree and again I took it inside and on Monday also at 5.40 in the morning the adults were waiting and after I put it outside they greeted it yet again.

 It again went near the bush .

 Then it got on to a branch a little high  up  and this is how it was when  I left for work after telling my wife and m.i.law to keep an eye on the little one.

When I checked around 11 .30 am I was told that a rat snake has been seen and it had been chased away. At 1 pm I got a call to say that the snake had come again and due to the noise made by the adults again evasive action was taken but then I heard one of the most  heart warming stories that depicts the" help and live in harmony"  motto.

After the snake was chased for the 2nd time the little one had hopped and gone to the garage and then a squirrel had come and guided it to the back side of the house where some bushes are . As there is a narrow passage from front to the back the adult birds had also hopped and followed it seems. It does not end there , the snake had come for the 3rd time but had been unlucky.
.
 I only hope that the small one would fly  and beat  the nature's odds.

Yes it managed to live another day but could not fly and we had to do the routine work in the evening again.

Day 4, Tuesday morning at 5.40 a.m. the same routine  took place and the small one changed the locations many times flying OK horizontally in short bursts but lacked the take off. I had to take and put it on different places also due to it's safety. We also had to chase the rat snake a couple of times as well.

Again at 6 p.m the adults would have said good night and  went and we put it  inside again. The 5th day morning the same old routine took place and we left for work after seen that it was getting comfortable again but the main challenge is for it to make it and also to escape any  attack from the rat snake.

Some good news . Though it did not fly away by 6 p.m this time around after making good progress it had flown on to this Pa-paw tree and when we looked it was perched at the highest level more than

 9 feet high.We left it  there as we could not reach preying that it would survive the night.