Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

Male and female Asian Paradise Flycatchers (Terpsiphone paradisi). Photos taken in our garden at Avissawella, Sri Lanka. They come to pick termites from an earth embankment. I also took a rather blurred video of the female yawning and stretching her limbs just like a human being. You can see this by clicking on the following web address:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hcb1w5kYK3g

An additional video for you to enjoy:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=som3Cn9Q74s

Tsunami Memorial, Yala, Sri Lanka.

When a Tsunami hit Sri Lanka in 2004 on the 26th December it caused severe devastation. A group of Japanese tourists who were camped at this place - Patinagala in Yala were swept away. The photo shows 'Patinagala' - the stony outcrop on the sea-shore. The vertical sail like structures near the foundations of the devastated building, is the memorial erected in memory of the dead. Photo by Queenie V

Pine logs from a plantation near Beragala, Sri Lanka.

Pinus trees were planted on a l;arge area close to the Badulla Highway from Belihul oya. These logs are harvested and transported to Colombo. You see the felled trunks by the roadside on this picture.

Waterbirds, Avissawella, Sri Lanka.

Inside the fenced off area of the Sithawaka Free Trade Zone at Avissawella is a pond, where swamp birds come to feed and build their nests, uninterrupted by humans. I took this picture there. You can see egrets, stilts, bitterns  lapwings, whistling ducks etc. Try and spot some of them in the two pictures.

Offering to 'Sani Bhagawan'

I took this picture on the perimeter road of 'Saman Dewale', Rathnapura, Sri Lanka. The crow is said to be the 'vaahana' of 'Sani Bhagawan' in the Hindu Pantheon of Gods. When 'Sani' or 'Senasuru' is said to be 'Neechcha' - inauspicious, in the horoscope of an individual at a period in his life all sorts of calamities could occur to him, according to the astrologers. They advice propitation of 'Sani' by offering food to his 'Vaahana' the crow. This is such an offering of balls of milk rice served on seventeen leaves left to eaten by the crows.