Thursday, January 14, 2010, Yala: Naturalist Guide Sam Caseer and I were rotating between the jeeps and it was my turn to be with David Gerard and his son Jock and his friend Wills. As David was becoming interested in birds I began to call off the names from left to right in an ephemeral freshwater pool on the Buttuwa Plains. Behind us was Akasa Chaitya and Elephant Rock.
The waterbirds were a stone's throw away from us. The Painted Stork was looking gorgeous in pink. Yala National Park was fresh and green. The sun was climbing high but veiled by a thin cloud, so the light was not harsh. The diversity of birds, the closeness of them and the fresh foliage in the park all combined to create a certain spirit of the place. Drinking all of this in through the optical quality of a Swarowski binoculars, David was overwhelmed.
There was time to take in the birds as we had spent over an hour at a leopard sighting. We had come across a group of jeeps that were at Boraluwala on the main road. I had been told about a leopard here. I found what I would guess would be a male probably between 12 to 15 months old. The eyes still looked disproportionately large. It was atop a rock that was about 30 feet away. It was remarkably relaxed and dozed off despite several jeeps that jostled for a good viewing position.
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