Raditha’s Photos

Late last year, a pair of spotted doves built a nest amongst the rafters in our house. They laid eggs on it at least three times. Sadly just after the third pair of eggs were hatched, one of the parents fell victim to a cat. Fortunately the Single Parent family did survive, but after the chicks flew off they never came back, That is until now. This photo is the last time I so them, they were wondering about out of the nest and the next morning, they were gone

I don’t know the life span of a dove, so I would tend to think this is one of the hatch lings, now all grown up that has returned to the nest rather than the surviving bird from the original pair with a new partner.

A pair of Imperial Pigeons on a withered Jak Fruit Tree

It’s said that you will love your Sigma 50-500mm lens as long as you don’t point it up a tree. Here is proof. I shot about 20 photos of this Changable Hawk Eagle perched on an Alastonia tree but only one came well. Even then there is room for improvement.

There are certain light conditions though which allow the lens to be pointed up at a tree, a clear sky with the sun behind your shoulder is one of them.

Parrots love wing beans (popularly known as Dambala in Sri Lanka). I had several wing bean wines on my ‘horizontally challenged garden‘ but they all died due to the combined effects of a papaya mealy bugs infestation and the dry spell we had about two months ago. Since then the Parrots stopped visiting but two surviving Nil Katarolu (Conchflower ? ) plants attract sunbirds

BTW: what kind of Parrot is this? I think it’s a Rose Ringed Parakeet.