A TRIP TO MINNERIYA AFTER 3 YEARS.......................................................

 I was in Kandy with my family for the weekend in the 4th week of September and as my wife and the daughter was helping out my SIL due to a bad fall she had, I worked out a plan to go to Minneriya on Saturday morning to be there in the afternoon with a close aunt and her husband.

Although we didn't get a chance to witness the great elephant gathering happening around this time and missed the chance to see the newly born twins, we managed to see up to 90 elephants.

Juvenile White  bellied fish eagle

Green bee-eater

Showdown in the sky

Pelicans practicing dentistry.

Lesser Sand plovers in flight...

THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TRIP TO YALA ...........

 I went to Yala on a Friday in the first week of September 2020 with a friend and stayed  2 nights and made 5 trips altogether. It was by far the best trip I had for photography with at least 6  different Leopards and ample photo sessions as we were able to observe their movements for longer periods of time.

We came across probably Julius  around 6.15 on the first day soon after we entered the park

We were stuck helping a fellow visitor who had a punctured Tyre and was late in spotting the 2 cubs of    Jambyuragala playing along the road and got only a glimpse.

One hour later we found one of the cubs around 8.30 .

It went inside around 9

Again around 10 it appeared and this time around it was in full flow till it climbed a tree at 11.30

running scared...

Common kingfisher

Again later in the evening around 3.30  may be the same cub came to drink water but went away around 3.45  because 

firstly the buffaloes were in and then the elephants came

Asian Paradise flycatcher bathing 

Again around 5.30 pm it walked back and spent about 10 minutes going round the water hole without  drinking till 5.40 which was surprising

On our way back around 6.10 pm we again confronted Julius

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Julius on the rock early morning on the 2nd day

Much endangered Black necked stork

Eurasian Spoonbill

This is a saga of a courtship between Lucas and Astar and when we found them it was around 7.15

On a tree and getting down and up mainly by Astar

Finally Lucas getting down

Astar trying all her tricks to lure Lucas who is quite oblivious

Lucas taking a break by drinking water

Astar didn't drink water but making every effort to get Lucas interested

After their show they went inside and it was around 9 and we went a little further and stopped to have breakfast and when we turned back after B'fast  around 9.30  they were like this

started walking along the road

Finally went inside still together around 9.40

A mongoose drinking

Sri Lanka Wood Shrike

Eating Nelum flowers and leaves

Only the face up and waiting

Sunbathing

This was a treat by this matured and huge Elephant

Green Bee-eaters

A fan tailed flycatcher bathing

Bushlark

Blue faced Malkoha

Could be Julius coming to drink water in the evening on the second day

He drank for ages but made sure that it was covered by this huge tree and no one could take pictures 

........and re-treated.

Picturesque sunset

The final day morning we found Hanns on this rock at RUKVILA around 7

Went down a rock and disappeared around 7.30

On our way out close to the entrance we saw this Leopard who  had made a killing of a  Giant squirrel.and We felt it was a matured one though the driver was of the opinion that it was one of the 2  cubs of JAMURAGALA.

Crested Hawk eagle

Nesting

Out side the park we came across this Pied kingfisher

An Indian roller

we had to lie-down on the ground to take a photo

Pied Cuckoo