Nature and Others on camera by Asiri: July 2020

Thursday, July 30, 2020

SECOND TRIP TO WILPATTU IN 2020.....

I again went to Wilpattu in the last week of July with my family , my wife's sisters family, a friend and a couple of relations and stayed in the Manawila bungalow inside the park for 2 nights. As usual I managed to photograph quite a few animals and birds. It was a very refreshing and a relaxing time coupled up with good food and good company.

Woolly necked Stork

Male jungle Fowl

Adjutant Stork

Gobbling down a Cormorant

Rabbit

Green Imperial Pigeon

Jackal

White rumped Shama

Indian Darter

Juvenile White bellied fish Eagle

A flock of Lesser Whistling Ducks

Black necked Ibis

White bellied sea Eagle

History states that on a full moon day in the month of May in 543 BC. Several earthquakes & cyclones had occurred in the land & ocean surrounding the Indian subcontinent as it was the day of Parinirwana of Gauthama Buddha. In such a storm, sailed an Aryan ship of outlaws to the north-western coast of Heladeepa, to the point kudiramale which has reddish-brown/copper colored soil even today, headed by the well known Prince Vijaya.

With the help of Kuweeni: a lady of the royal house of the Yakkha clan of Sirasawasthupura, whom he married, Vijaya killed the royals in a night ceremony at Sirasawasthupura including the Yakkha king, “Kalasena” and other heirs to the throne. This made the kingdom of Sirasawasthupura collapse into many tiny independent Yakkha and other native states, Aryan states & a considerably larger & more powerful Kingdom of Thammannawa by the infant royal house of Singha. Upathissanuwara was named the capital of Thammannawa.

Ruins En-route to Kudiramale

Turn off from the new manaar road

Kudiramale

Reddish brownish Copper coloured soil and rock formations

Malabar pied Hornbil

We saw this NELUM VILA MALE on the 2nd morning

It walked across the open area and went inside the jungle after about 15 minutes...

Stork billed Kingfisher

On our return trip to the bungalow for breakfast we again came across the same male walking along the road and we followed him for more than 20 minutes till it cut across just before Manikwila Bungalow. The best part was we en- counted 2 vehicles coming from that side and when we inquired whether the male emerged from the thicket, they said they waited and came along the road but couldn't find. after we passed them it didn't take even a minute to confront him....

There were 2 White throat-ed Kingfisher chicks inside this tree near the bungalow. We presumed that they were on the verge of flying out with the parents encouraging from a distance but sadly we found both dead on the ground the following morning...

Serpent Eagle

Majestic look..

Again we met the same male en-route to the bungalow in the evening around 6 on the same day.

It rained in the night of the 2nd day and continued in the morning also on and off...

An un-expected sight of a rare migrant:An Osprey as normally they are here from November to March.

Bush lark

Yellow Wattled Lapwing

A pair of Peacocks cleaning after the rains..

This was the highlight of the trip and was a real gift. The brown fish Owl must have got really wet for the overnight rain and as a result it was perched on a tree branch just few feet away from us at our eye level and gave a full show for more than 20 minutes doing all kind s of tricks and also preying on a crab.