Monday, January 3, 2011

Black-rumped flameback wood-pecker

I spotted this beautiful bird going up and down the trunk of a pinus tree picking up larvae. I saw this at Nawalapitiya Sri Lanka. It was about 150 meters away and I had to use a maximum zoom of 20X on my Fuji Finepix S1500.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Sri Lankan Paradise Flycatcher

I took this picture of a 'Sri Lankan Paradise Flycatcher' in our garden at Avissawella, Sri Lanka, yesterday. This is a male and has a long tail which trails beautifully, during flight. The female has not got a long tail. It has the Sinhalese name 'Siwuru hora' meaning one who steals the ochre colored robes of Buddhist monks. They have a propensity to carry bright coloured clothing to build their nests.
There is an all white variety, which is called the 'Asian Paradise Flycatcher'.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

The dentures


My elder Grand-son had a toy windup set of plastic teeth, bought while in the UK. He had lost it. He wanted a replacement. We searched high and low in the toy shops in Sri Lanka to no avail. My wife had a coronary by-pass. When she was recovering, my grand-son who knew that she was wearing dentures, told her that if she passed away, that he wanted her dentures. Eventually came Christmas and he wrote a letter to Santa Claus where he mentioned the dentures. Ultimately his 'Baappa' and 'Punchi' got this for him for Christmas. You can see him proudly holding the dentures in his hands last Christmas day.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Red vented Bulbul couple.

Whispering 'sweet nothings' to its mate while perched on a TV antenna.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Away in a manger

Another beautiful Christmas song composed in the 1950s

Two versions of 'Away in a manger'. Click on each of the links below separately.

Away in a manger – Celtic woman
Karaoke version