Kandy’s human landscape is of course very colorful and photo-worthy indeed. But I shouldn’t omit the many fascinating animals and plants I came across during my time there, mostly in and around Kandy Lake. I already mentioned the monitor lizards, which I have to say were the coolest. But there were plenty of others, particularly of the avian variety. Here’s a photo lineup:
Speaking of lizards, I spotted these cute little guys in the kitchen of my homestay. They remind me of their cousins who lodged with me in Okinawa for a few weeks back in 2006. Sorry about the red-eye, or in geckos’ case, yellow-eye (26 April 2018).
Keeping with the reptile theme, that’s a turtle there in the center of the photo. It’s sunning itself on a log in Kandy Lake, rotating its flippers (28 April 2018).
Mama monkey here is soliciting food from passersby. If you look closely, you can see her baby just poking out from the column behind and above her. There were also monkeys in the trees above the path to my homestay one day. They were knocking fruit (one of those colorful but bland Asian fruits; I’ve eaten them but can’t recall the name) and scattering them all over the road. A local family was enjoying watching them too. I get the sense that monkeys aren’t something you see everyday here (27 April 2018).
Not surprisingly given the gross fish overpopulation in Kandy Lake, there are many varieties of waterfowl living around the lake. I like the blue beak on this bird (28 April 2018).
Here’s another aquatic bird, a white heron perhaps (28 April 2018).
These loon-type birds are my favorite. They spend most of their time underwater and can swim as fast as fish. The only way to tell the difference is to watch for the telltale bubbles floating to the surface as they dart around under the water. Here, the bird on the right just caught a fish and the one on the left is trying to steal it. In this case, justice and hard work prevailed (28 April 2018).
I like the orange styling around the eyes of this bird (28 April 2018).
Even the crows here are prettier than average. While still jet-black like crows anywhere, Sri Lankan crows have a glossy sheen to them. This is despite the fact that, with the apparent absence of pigeons here, crows fill the role of garbage-eating urban flying pests. They must be dirty, but they look clean and shiny (28 April 2018).
OK, I’m cheating a bit here by including a bird I saw in Colombo, not Kandy. But these enormous pelicans have to be seen to be believed. This one was shaking enough water off its wings to drench any poor pedestrian foolish enough to stand under this lamp post (30 April 2018).
And lastly, not all of the fascinating living things here are animals. Here are some flowers I passed every day on my way to and from my lodgings. And yes, I did stop to smell them. I was disappointed (29 April 2018).