| I arrived yesterday in Kandy, the main city in the highlands of Sri Lanka. Long after the rest of the island was controlled by European countries, an independent kingdom held on up here. The last king of Kandy, Sri Vikrama Rajasinha, built a beautiful lake beside his palace, and it remains one of the jewels of the city. On the two mile long walk around the lake you typically see lots of birds, and I wasn’t disappointed today, but there were some less usual animals as well. First, I saw a pair of elephants that had been here to participate in the big festival that just ended. A crowd had gathered to watch the complex operation of coaxing them onto a truck that would take them away. I saw a whole troop of monkeys, as well, but they were not close enough for me to get a decent picture. But then a juvenile Indian Pond Heron that was resting on the edge of the lake let me get close enough to get a good shot. And finally I saw an adult heron and a big lizard called a Water Monitor perched quite close to each other on logs in the lake. They seemed to be studiously ignoring each other. |
| Created on 11 August 2025, updated on 11 August 2025 by Samuel Ethan Fox |
| pond heron Lawrence J. Moss |
| Great pic! |