squirrels box. who knew? i just watched 2 of them in the trees above our balcony (new room). while they box they make an unearthly sound like, perhaps, a recording of normal squirrel sounds played backwards, as if they were sucking the sound into themselves from the air rather than projecting it outward. very strange. 3 new birds since i’ve been here - the ceylon paradise flycatcher, the emerald pigeon, and some kind of slightly drab-colored toucan like thing, plus 2 kinds of snakes and also 2 kinds of lizards (not the chameleons nor the monitors which i see regularly)… the one lizard was particularly spectacular, its coloring from one angle a shiny metallic copper, like a polished new penny, while from another, a mix of this copper with metallic greens and blues, not unlike a fly’s eye or an oil slick. when i pointed this one out to Dinesh ( we were swimming at Pidirangula Lake with a bunch of the “boys” from the hotel (“boys" here means employees, anywhere from 18-50+ in age!)), he said “your friend has very poisonous bite… you know what the medicine for his bite is?” i did not. “the people say if you are bitten by that lizard you must make a mixture of moon metal, and mud from the ocean, and the heart of a ghost, and THAT is the medicine…” (as in there is no medicine. you will die) this after, at the bottom step before entering the murky water, i ask him “are there any leeches in this lake?”“leeches? no, no leeches…” i dive in and start swimming out “but, alleh (my love), don’t go too far out, ok, because we don’t know where the crocodiles are…” these photos were taken on an earlier trip to Pidirangula Lake, at dusk. in the distance, you can see Sigiriya's famous Lion Rock and Pidirangula Rock... and the always spectacular Sri lankan sky.
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pat
9/3/2016 05:12:13 pm
Thank you for all the beautiful photographs and I'll be checking for boxing squirrels in the park. Amazing, in this ever-expanding universe. I'm reading Flora & Ulysses (still / again) which features a squirrel who can type - he started to write poetry after he became a super-hero ... after he was sucked up by a vacuum cleaner and revived ... kind of like Spiderman having powers after being bit by that spider. I probably already told you about Ulysses but now that you've seen boxing squirrels you'll have a new appreciation for him :)
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