Missed Prey

BySafani Gunasekera

When we were traveling along the banks of a water body one evening in the Wilpattu national park, a serpent eagle suddenly dashed in front of our vehicle and landed on the edge of the water. Puzzled by what we saw, we looked to see that the eagle was trying to capture a land monitor. The eagle had its claws on the land monitor but didn’t have a firm grip as the monitor was under the dried branches and shrubs. The land monitor tried to move towards the water and the eagle’s claws got stuck on a dried branch and it released its grip. The monitor managed to escape in to the water.  and the unhappy serpent eagle who missed its prey went back to rest on a branch and wait for the next opportunity.
(Wilpattu National Park; June 2016)

Similar Posts

  • Shared Space

    BySafani Gunasekera

    We were able to capture this picture of a Sri Lankan Land Monitor sun bathing with the house cats on a roof top in Sri Lanka. Albeit the home owner’s attempts to cover the openings, this clever lizard had managed to creep in to the ceiling and make itself a home, thereby becoming a nuisance…

  • Gaze

    BySafani Gunasekera

    While driving along the tracks of the Yala national park in the evening, we came across this young leopard cub perched on a tree branch that gave us the opportunity to take many photographs. Later only we realized that in this photo, no matter from which angle one looked, you simply cannot escape its gaze….

  • First Flight

    BySafani Gunasekera

    One afternoon, inside the Wilpattu national park, we came across this monarch bird’s nest, which has a distinctive cone shape. There were two chicks in the nest, and two adults were hovering around them. We stopped to watch the commotion and realized that they were teaching the chicks to fly out of the nest. While…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *