Asian elephants - Portraits

These images were taken at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, Sri Lanka.

Asian elephants - Sri Lanka

After a short travel break, this image taken during bath hours at the Pinnawatula Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka (click on the image for larger version).

The Mangrove Walk

The Mangrove Walk @ Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve

Muddy sting ray today

There are hundreds of monitor lizards roaming around Sungei Buloh. This particular one was going to have a muddy sting ray as a meal.

Oriental pied hornbill

The two Sungei Buloh resident oriental pied hornbills recently had two chicks. We can occasionally see them flying around the main park building. Here is the male, recognisable by its double bill.

Here is a female. 

A curious bird

The title says it all!

Another visit to the rookery

Chicks are not out yet. It seems that parents are still working on their nests.

Whimbrel

Most migratory birds have left the mangrove mud flats of Sungei Buloh to return to Northern lands after the winter. A flock of whimbrels seems to be have decided to stay over. It could either be juveniles, who are too young for nesting or just over-stayers.

Whimbrels look very much alike curlews. The simplest way to differentiate them is to compare the ratio of the length of the bill to the the size of the head. It would be 2:1 for the whimbrel and 3:1 for the curlew.