Is This the Katrina Kaif of Handmaiden Moths?

Handmaiden Moth Euchromia polymena (Linnaeus, 1758) (synonym : Euchromia elegantissima Wallengren, 1861) EUCHROMIINI , CTENUCHINAE , ARCTIIDAE. Photographed in my local wetland patch ('Ketha'), Bomiriya, Sri Lanka. This was photographed using Canon EOS 40D with Canon 100mm f2.8 Macro lens. Handheld and no flash. ISO160, 1/100, f5.6.

Masala

A masala post, bluuurp. Excuse me!

These days, there are regular sightings of Yellow Bitterns, and Black Bitterns at my local wetland patch . Their resident populations seem to have got boosted by migrant populations as it usually happens.
A new bird got added to my bathroom birding list. And it is is this lovely Black-rumped Flameback.


The bathroom birding list comprise of birds seen from the bathroom windows (and occasionally doors), when occupied variously in it. My bathroom takes the form of a decent bird watching hide because of its strategic position. Other birds to have made to this pretty exclusive list include Brown Hawk Owl (aka. Brown Boobook) and Orange-headed Thrush! (One bird photographer even called over to photograph the latter using my bathroom as a hide!).


Brown Hawk Owl vocalisations are a regular feature at the dusk soundsape these days. I observed a pair calling and chasing each other in what appeared to be a courtship ritual yesterday. I did not use a flash light, as it would disturb them. It’s the beginning of the breeding season for a lot of birds including this one.

BTW, the above picture of Brown Hawk Owl, shot at my yard, will appear in the Thayer Birding Software’s Gold Edition DVD – Birds of North America to be released on 12 December, 2008.

For your information, a Brown Hawk Owl was recorded by a tour guide named Jake Mohlmann at the rarity Mecca, St Paul’s Island off the coast of Alaska in North America in August, 2007. It stayed on untill September.

So, it’s officially now made its way to the ABA checklist.

Click here to see the pictures of the errant bird and to read the very interesting account written by Jake on this mega sighting. Also read this post by N8’s account at The Drinking Bird on the same.

The aforementioned DVD lists 2,850 photos, 708 songs, 551 videos ( including 493 new action videos), 837 abundance maps, thousands of variations of over 700 quizzes, 957 range maps ( including 695 new detailed maps), 957 birds seen in the U.S. or Canada (including accidental and extinct species), November 2008 additions to the ABA checklist; plus all features found in version 3.9.6. Click here to order this DVD.

Sorry to if I had given you more Christmas shopping!

I am expecting the construction work of my dragonfly pond to be completed before the end of this weekend. It’s taken longer than I expected. A female Asian Skimmer that dropped by for ovipositing at an inch-deep puddle of rain water in it as it was being built became the first dragonfly to officially lay claim to it first!

This was interesting as it was also a ‘first’ to my yard’s burgeoning dragonfly list. She appeared to be at a desperate breeding rush and had no decency whatsoever to wait until I declare the pond open.

I will be leading 15-day Christmas Birding tour in the last two weeks of this month. I’d like to break the radio-silence from time to time. Can anybody tell me how to do a ‘scheduled-post’ in blogger please? I searched blogger help but couldn’t find it.

My 32nd birthday is coming up on the 1 Jan, people. I accept greeting cards and gifts at 146 A, Pahala Bomiriya, Kaduwela, Sri Lanka from now onwards. As for gift items, birding and natural history related books, CDs and DVDs are appreciated, thank you.

I received a couple blogging awards recently. First of these were this beautiful award from the flowergirl at Madras Ramblings from India.
And the second was this award from the fishing guy from OH, US.


I'd like to thank both of you for these wonderful awards! It’s been a while since I received a blog award. So it is a good feeling to be recognized this way. I hope I will be forgiven for not complying with your full set of rules!

I got my first decent shot of a dragonfly in flight at the rain water pool that I blogged about in my last post.


It was this world famous Wandering Glider aka. Globe Skimmer Pantala flavascens, which is a globe trotting species considered as the most widely distributed dragonfly in the world. It is a known temporary pool breeder and is almost always found flying—which was what pressed me to attempt the above shot.

My Canon 40 D and Canon 100 mm f2.8 Macro Lens stopped auto-focussing last week when I was shooting dragons at the aforementioned puddle. I took them to the repair centre of the local Canon dealer. It turned out that it wasn’t the lens. So they kept the camera body for further checking. After a week or so they called me to say that it is working okay. Apparently the auto-focussing problem has happened due to humidity. All what they had done was to clean to contacts of the camera body with a soft cloth. The bloke there told me to repeat it if it happens again, but before doing that, to make sure that I remove the battery to prevent short-circuiting.

I guided and facilitated a photo shoot of leaves in my garden, to be used for a desktop calendar for a local corporate. They were after leaves of 14 species of native/endemic flora to select from them, 12 to go with each month. I found them about 16 with various hues and textures to surpass their requirements. The two ladies who came got a few leeches too. Which was more than what they bargained for!

Now, I know I have admitted that I do not have leeches in my yard in a comment somewhere in this blog. Things have changed, folks. A small leech population has established probably after an accidental introduction caused by yours truly, when leech socks and boots were brought home straight from the rain forests without de-leeching them at the forest!

And let me tell you that some people that I know of are not too amused by this. So it is official that my home garden is a safe heaven for home-grown-terror. The first person to get a bleeding bite was my mom.

My friend Java Jones has tagged me for a blogging game called "I never".

Okay here goes my reply Mr. Jones. I’ve never.

1. thought that I would switch from Lion to Carlsberg in this lifetime. Seriously.

2. eaten a better tasting Chinese chop suay rice (mixed meat/sea food) than at the ‘late’ Garden restaurant that used to be near the Liberty Roundabout at Colpetty. Does anybody know whether it’s been relocated, please?

3. ad better arm-chair birding in Sri Lanka than from the balcony at Martin’s Simple Lodge, Sinharaja.

4. expected that a full body massage at La Passion, Battaramulla 90210., would be so awesome after a good day’s manual labour (at the pond).

5. think that anybody in this country could give a better earth-shattering head and shoulder massage as Ananda at Vajira Salon, Bamba.

6. thought that St Peter’s would thrash Royal 41-nil at Rugby as it happened magically in 2007 in our own den.

I end this masala post with this beauty that I photograged at my local wetland patch.

It is an Oriental Scarlet aka Scarlet Skimmer Crocothemis servilia servilia. Apparently this is also found in outside the Orient despite the local common name; "Oriental Scarlet" suggested in the Sri Lankan dragonfly guide, which in my opinion ought to be revised. According to the “Dragonflies through Binoculars – A Field Guide to Dragonflies of North America”, it was “discovered in Miami in 1975, I has spread to Orlando by 1986….It now occurs in the FL Keys, Cuba, and Hawaii and in the Old World ranges from the Middle East to Japan and Australia.”

November rain.

brings about lots of pleasant changes in the environment. One of these is it creates temporary pools in most parts of Sri Lanka. This may sound bad news when you think about mosquitoes. But these pools also attract dragonflies, which come to find food and love. Aggressive predators, dragonflies in their aquatic larval stages feed among other things on mosquito larvae. Also at their free flying adult stage; they feed on mosquitoes, quite a bit. Therefore, dragonflies play an important role in controlling these harmful pests, which increase during wetter months.

While birding in a secondary forest patch close to my residence, I came across quite a cute little temporary pool with plenty of dragons. I found myself making two trips to this fantastic wetland reserve to attempt to capture some of its beautiful residents in camera. Here are a couple of dragon shots that I managed.

Blue Pursuer Potamarcha congener -- adult male.

Sociable Glider Tramea limbata -- adult male.

My birding highlights included Yellow-fronted Barbet - an endemic bird of Sri Lanka that is still holding a small population – probably the closest locality to Colombo in its distribution in Sri Lanka. This endemic is still not recorded in my garden yet; despite the latter being only a 1.5 km away as a Crow Barbet flies. The reason for its absence in my yard is probably is due to the fact that the intervening gap being somewhat heavily built-up. It just shows how habitat-specific some of these endemics are.

I also saw my first White-browed Fantail in my local area. Primarily a dry country bird, it occurs in the wet zone where vegetation has been cleared and secondary growth has taken over. Therefore, in my opinion, it’s a good indicator species about dryness that is creeping into parts of the wet zone due to increasing human activity.

Fellow blogger; Java Jones lamented once that he doesn’t get to see White-browed Fantail in the garden of his highland retreat anymore. I asked him whether his land has got ‘wetter’ than before. His answer was, a ‘yes’. He had planted a lot of trees for habitat enrichment over the years, which have turned his garden greener and consequently too wet for White-browed Fantail! He mentioned that it is found in nearby tea fields, which are open and sunny but not in his backyard anymore.

Indian Rockdweller

Last month, I explored an abandoned quarry just 70m as a crow dragonfly flies from my place. There are two natural rock pools there, and I found 6 species of dragonflies not recorded in my garden! This Indian Rockdweller Bradinopyga geminata female is one of them. I have shown the original shot I took and 3 crops I made from it to reveal this cryptically coloured dragonfly. A post about other dragonflies of this 'new patch' will be done later on.

Lately in my garden

I was going to do a butterfly post, instead I changed my mind to do a garden post involving butterflies.

We are in the early stages of the North East monsoon now, which brings rain and migrant birds to the entire country. Speaking of migrants, the much talked about Himalayan avian jewel, Indian Pitta Pitta brachura has arrived and my mother reported hearing one early morning today.

It usually calls at around 6 a.m. and again at 6.00 p.m., which has earned its local Tamil name: Arumani Kuruvi meaning the Six O'clock-bird! I was fast asleep at the unearthly hour that my mother had heard it.

Well, now that I know it is here, I will make an exception and look for it. Soon.
I have been trying to capture a certain angle of it for the last 4 years to complete an article about its plumage. I hope I would be get it this season.

My first Brown-breasted Flycatcher aka. Layard's Flycatcher Muscicapa muttui for this migratory season was seen on 12 Oct (Sunday).

I welcomed it by doing a customary migrant welcoming dance. For those who are not familiar with this obscure Sri Lankan birding ritual, it is very similar to the dance performed by some of the US birders when a life bird is seen, as demonstrated by Susan Williams, except that in this version, you do figure 8s from your hips 3 times before moving the hands in the air like you just don't care.

The species name of Brown-breasted Flycatcher: muttui is to honour one Mr. Muttu (pronounced muththu)– the Tamil cook who served its discover, Edgar Leopold Layard (1824-1900), who was a British civil servant (1839-1848) with a passion for birds and natural history. Layard came to Sri Lanka with just £17 in his pocket with his wife Barbara Anne Calthrope after whom the species name of the endemic Layard's Parakeet Psittacula calthropae was named.

I heard the unmistakable call of the regular migrant Bright Green Warbler Phylloscopus nitidus on 1 October, and saw one the following day. Two more migrants, Barn Swallow and Brown Shrike were also seen for the first time for this season a few days ago at my local patch.

Butterflies:
I have started to photograph 'blues' again, with renewed enthusiasm after getting my new camera. All these targets were acquired lying flat on the ground—commando-style—at early morning (defined as 7.30 a.m., thank you) when they weren't too active.


Indian Cupid Everes lacturnus


Their relative inactivity also allowed me to narrow down the shooting distance to less than a foot, which is required to get good close ups with my Canon 100mm Macro lens. In these pictures, you can see its conspicuous double orange spot on the tornus of the hind wing verso, which is a reliable diagnostic to tell this species.

Here's the same with in a more orthodox posture but with the light coming from a different angle.


Here is the same with the wings open showing why they are popularly referred as 'blues.'


Here's another shot of the same.


Most of the 'blues' are quite small and look identical, which explains why they pose ID challenges of the highest magnitudes. If you are not comfortable in capturing them to identify down to species level as deemed necessary by some experts, I think the next best way to identify them is to photograph them! And that is half the battle, of course.

I employ this second method, which works for me. Your mileage may vary.

Lime Blue Chilades lajus

Here’s one showing the recto of the same. Note how similar it is to the first one above.

A garden post without dragonflies?

No bloody way!

I had a brief but a good sighting of a male Pruinosed Bloodtail Lathrecista asiatica asiatica last Saturday, soon after waking up from a 3-hour power-nap at late afternoon. The last sighting of an adult male this uncommon dragonfly was on 6 Sep, 2004 when a male visited my home garden presenting my first views. Click here to see a young female of the same. An Amber-winged Glider Hydrobasileus croceus was seen today in flight, of which the first record was when I saw this individual on 17 Oct, 2004. This seem to be the time of the year when it visits my garden. This species is one of the two Libelluids that is not represented by a colour photograph in the 'photo guide to dragonflies of Sri Lanka,' as I blogged here I have now got both these species.

I conclude this post with this female Variegated Flutterer Rhyothemis variegata variegata, which is the Sri Lankan version of the Halloween Pennant found in North America seen in this post by Ecobirder.

Macro Monday

Asian Pintail Acisoma panorpoides panorpoides—adult female.

This was photographed in my local patch a few days ago. It is often found quite low down among the vegetation. So it is not the easiest dragon to photograph.

By the way, one of my dragon shots emerged the winner as the Best Dragonfly Moments Macro Capture of 2008—in a contest in Flickr. Click here to see all the entries and the voting process and here to see the winning shot of mine announced.

A momentous day for mankind!

Migrant update

Migrants have begun to arrive. I heard my first Blue-tailed Bee-eaters on 23 Sep., over my house and saw three of them the following day at my local wetland patch. An Asian Brown Flycatcher was heard in my backyard three days ago. Yesterday, I had my first Forest Wagtail walking gracefully in a woody corner. Now, that is one bird I need to photograph. But, the question is—how to do it—as it never seem to wait long enough for digi-scoping. May be I'll try one with my Lumix. The Brown-breasted Flycatcher and the Himalayn avian jewel, Indian Pitta are due soon. I 'maintain' a patch in a corner of my yard in a pretty wild state to invite in the latter, which is a high-profile migrant (for me).

I am pretty sure it will accept my invitation this year too. It will be in good company with the endemic Clubtail: Sri Lanka Forktail. I didn't include any images in this post as images are already in this blog for most of the 'things' mentioned here. Please click on their names if you would like to see how they look.

Macro Monday

This beautiful Robber fly was shot in my local wetland patch.
Robber flies are extremely skilful hunters and their menu includes among other things, dragonflies.

Wordless Wednesday

Sex on the move – a blunt approach.

As in most birds, the males in dragonflies appear more colourful and are dressed to impress. On the other hand, their females are differently-coloured. Take for example the Scarlet Basker Urothemis signata signata that I photographed at my local wetland. This is the male, which is rather gaudy.

The female, shown below, is less showy, but has a better 'dress sense' in my opinion. As their name implies, Scarlet Baskers love to bask in the hot sun. When they do it, during the warmest times of the day, they are often quite approachable for photography (you need a bit of technique, of course).

Scientists assume that wing patterns, body size and colour all help the male dragonflies to recognize the females of their own species. Females of some species may closely resemble females of another species, and if the two species share the same habitat, males may grab any female they can. At times males will even grab other males only to realize their mistake later on. Just like this male found out.


This is hardly surprising as some dragonfly males are almost identical to the females in their looks. Take a look at this post to see how similar the two sexes of the Sri Lanka Forktail are.

As I explained here, to initiate sex, a male dragonfly grabs a female by the head—often in mid-air, using special appendages at the end of their abdomen. This vital part of male anatomy will only fit to perfection with females of the same species. If the fit isn’t quite right, the female will not be impressed and will not cooperate in connecting her genital openings with the male’s copulatory organ, which is at the second segment in case of the dragonflies. When that happens, the male will soon let go to hook up with another—in all good sense of the phrase.


So, although dragonfly sex appears forceful especially with their submissive aerial manoeuvres, the female dragonfly has the final say in “choosing” her mate by this act of non-cooperation.
Most dragonfly males remain focused on mate-guarding at pre-copulatory, and post-copulatory stages, and will chase away any intruders.

You may ask why mate-guard at post-copulatory stages? That is because girls can misbehave. And due to sperm competition. That is intruding males can ‘remove’ sperm packets delivered by the males that have mated previously, which in the case of the intruding male is a way of ensuring that his genes are passed on to the progeny. For this end, dragonfly males are endowed with multi-purpose intromittent penises fashioned with brushes, and hooks that function to physically remove rival sperm from the female reproductive tract.


In some dragonflies, their multi-purpose penises also can provide sensory stimulation during copulation for the females to induce ejection of any previous sperm received before delivering his load. Furthermore, they can also ‘reposition’ the rival sperm to an area in the reproductive tract of the female that is less likely to cause fertilization. Another method is 'sperm flushing' by displacing any previously stored sperm in the female reproductive tract by the new deliveries.

So, doesn’t the female have any choice of “choosing” the sperm she wants just as any self-respecting female would do? The answer is, yes. Just as males have evolved sperm-displacement mechanisms using their fancy gear, females too have presumably evolved means to avoid sperm displacement. For this end, females have sperm storage spaces that allow them to manipulate the sperm they've received—to avoid sperm displacement, re-distributing sperm masses, favouring sperm located in certain sites and ejecting sperm after copulation.
So, as it is the case with most animals, in dragonflies mating first will not ensure that you will farther a child. This explains why some male dragonflies appear to be paranoid with mate-guarding at post-copulatory level, by holding up to the back of the female’s head, and remaining in tandem until the female deposits her eggs.

Wordless Wednesday - as strong as you were...

Wordless Wednesday

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Of the female that crashed into my room, Friday night

The night was young. The monsoon rain that we had in the daytime was continuing into the night. I was chilling in my room enjoying the first IPL cricket semis on the TV. Suddenly, a dragonfly came into my view above my TV! Surely this must be an Indian Duskhawker (below), I thought. This particular dragonfly, which is a scarce resident in my yard, crashes occassionally into my house at night. So I closed in to take a look.

It did’t look like any duskhawker that I know of. Instead, it turned out to be a female Sri Lanka Forktail.

After photographing it, I caught it and kept it safe from my pets to be released the following morning. I did this because it could get disoriented by the light.


The above post is my submission for Circus of the Spineless# 34 hosted by Doug Taron at Gossamer Tapestry.

Click on the badge below to visit the headquarters of the Circus of the Spineless.

Birds in my local patch

Large areas of my local wetland patch, where I have birded since childhood, have now been reclaimed for development to meet the growing needs of humanity. However, the remaining pockets still offer good hope. The owner of this private wetland is a friend of mine. Thankfully, he has assured me that the core wetland area rich in birdlife will be spared.

I am sharing here a few photographs taken at this wetland in peril.



Common Kingfisher Alcedo atthis– One of the four kingfishers in the area and a regular at this site. According to the owner of the wetland there existed a 5th species of kingfisher in the area. He explained: “...a small and reddish-hued bird, which preferred densely wooded inland areas as opposed to open water bodies”. According to him, it has locally gone extinct because of habitat loss.

This almost certainly is Black-backed Dwarf Kingfisher Ceyx erithaca—a real avian gem. A late naturalist friend of mine, Roshan (aka. Rotiya!), claimed this species in this area about 15 years ago, which was considered dodgy by some 'experts'. Although I have not been fortunate to see it in this area, I still maintain some feeble hope that it exists, albeit in small numbers, as certain patches seem just right for it.

Blue-tailed Bee-eater Merops philippinus– a regular migrant that I am never tired of seeing.

Pied Kingfisher Ceryle rudis (aka. Lesser P K) – A pair of these visits a few preferred spots at late afternoons, and sits for long giving prolonged views. Quite a photogenic bird.

Purple Heron Ardea purpurea– A nest and roost colony of these comprising easily over 40 individuals is the biggest concentration of this species seen by me anywhere.

Plain Prinia Prinia inornata– A rather common bird, seen regularly. This one started calling close to me claiming its patch and posed for some photos. This is the endemic sub species insularis, which is "dark, large, heavy-billed & short-tailed"

White-browed Bulbul Pycnonotus luteolus– A common scrubland bird, which is endemic to Sri Lanka and southern India.
Lesser Whistling-duck Dendrocygna javanica A rather common wetland species that is found in flocks numbering over 50 at times. Large number of 'whistling' flocks of these flying over my house at dusk used to be a common thing in the past, but sadly, not anymore.

Yellow Bittern Ixobrychus sinensis –This as well as the species below have their resident populations augmented by migrant populations from late October –April during which time their sightings are more regular.
Black Bittern Dupetor flavicollis –Not as common as the preceding species. Sightings are mostly in late afternoons. It is in its element by dusk, when it shows up well in the open, often affording prolonged views.

Purple Swamphen Porphyrio poliocephalus– A rather common resident found in fair numbers.

Chestnut-headed Bee-eater Merops leschenaulti– A small breeding population is found in the area quite recently. I am quite pleased about it as it is very much an uncommon bird. If I ever get around doing a checklist for the birds in my patch this would clearly grace the front cover.

The above post is my contribution to I and the Bird #76 hosted by Sussanah the Wanderin' Weeta.