Indian Pond Heron

Photo taken at Rekawa near Tangalle, Sri Lanka.

Purple headed moorhen chicks

I spotted a whole group of these birds in a paddy field at Rekawa near Tangalle, Sri Lanka.

Village pond

A village pond at Rekawa near Tangalle, Sri Lanka. A Cormorant and a peacock are visible in the picture.

An outrigger among the Pandanus trees

A scene at Rekawa, Sri Lanka. Pandanus trees grow all along the coast line. They are protected under the laws of Sri Lanka as they prevent sea erosion.

Sea turtle tracks and nest, Rekawa, Sri Lanka

There are five varieties of sea-turtles which come to the shores Sri Lanka to lay their eggs. The Greenback and the Leatherneck varieties come to the south coast to lay their eggs. The mature females come every two years. They dig a wide shallow pit in the shore and then a deeper narrower pit where the female lays about 80 to 100 eggs each time. It returns every two days about eight times to repeat the procedure.
You see the tracks of the turtle on the sand and the pit in which the eggs have been laid. I took this picture at Rekawa close to Tangalle, in Sri Lanka. Rekawa is a protected zone for sea-turtles.
After laying their eggs the Green-back turtles go northwards in the deep oceon and the Leather-neck turtles go south as far as South Africa to feed. On their return journey to lay their eggs each turtle is fertilized in turns by about 6 to 7 males in the high seas close to the shore.
The tiny turtles coming out of the eggs run on the sand to the sea in the night hours and swim very fast to the deep ocean to escape their predators. They come back as adults to lay their eggs in the same vicinity. It is claimed that hatching the eggs in a nursery and releasing the small ones on the shore, seems to delay their ability to swim fast. They thus fall easy prey to predators.