A few more images from Sri Lanka

The lush vegetation of the south

My purpose for being in Sri Lanka was to help with a whale watching workshop organised through the Indian Ocean Rim Association.

The workshop started with a ceremony that included dancers and musicians and the lighting of the ceremonial oil lamp.

Enter dancers and a musician playing the conch shell

Conch player with dancers

Below: Bruno Mainini, Chairman of the IWC lighting the lamp and to the left is the Australian High Commissioner H.E. Mr Bryce Hutchesson.

The workshop underway

The top table.

Greeting the Sri Lankan minister for wildlife and sustainable development.

Ms Joyeenah Gopaul speaking about whale watching in Mauritius

Discussion on the conclusions

And finally a dinner with colleagues.

Mr Simmonds being instructed to sit down.

A few more images from around Colombo.

Locals celebrate a Buddhist holiday on Galle foreshore - many kites flying.

A red-wattled lapwing in the hotel grounds

An egret

Tower blocks in Colombo

The House Crows of Colombo

My all too brief visit to Sri Lanka did not give me chance to see much of the island's spectacular terrestrial wildlife but my eye was drawn by the crowds of swift, sleek, house crows wheeling around the gardens of my hotel and along the nearby roads and foreshore. 

They were always about something, clearly highly social (much politicking going on) and they reeked of intelligence. Indeed as I peered our of my window on the third floor, they were clearly looking back.

The hotel balconies give a good view across the city.

Planning their next escapade.

a favoured tree roost

On the trail of the blue whale - off Sri Lanka

Fishing boats in Galle Harbour

Sri Lanka has become famous for the accessibility of its blue whales. During my recent brief visit this week, I was in a group taken out to sea by the Sri Lankan navy to look for these ocean giants.

Previously their boat, the Princess of Lanka, was used to move security personnel and now, post-war. she has been put to work in the service of taking people to the whales.

We set off  for the deep sea from the port of Galle. Here are some views.

Galle is on the southwestern tip of Sri Lanka some 74 miles from Colombo. We pass the fort and lighthouse 

A small fishing boat heads in.

Little terns on a marker buoy.

A distant Buddhist temple on shore.

Alert whale watchers with a senior member of crew.

A small flotilla of whale watching boats out on the high sea

Small whale watching vessels and a container vessel.

Customers on the rear deck of the Princess of Lanka

A blue whale - its back curving as it dives.

Blue whale at the surface 

Our boat: the Princess of Lanka back in port.

Further to the sperm whale strandings....

Further to the recent sperm whale strandings in the North Sea, I have just published an article on the Huffington Post site giving a little more information.

Its HERE.

And to compensate for all those recent images of dead and dying sperm whales that we have been seeing in the UK and the rest of Europe recently, here are a couple of live sperm whales off Kaikoura in New Zealand.

In the first the sperm whale is at the water surface to the right of the whale watching boat - you can see his blow hole on the far right and the 'little' bump of his dorsal fin to the left. The second shows him 'fluking up' as he commences a deep dive.

Would you eat an alien? Well would you?

I'm recommending this BBC Radio 4 series - which explores our relationship with animals in an accessible and inspired manner - to all friends and colleagues.

What does it mean to think? What does it mean to be social and self-aware and how does all of this relate to the way that we treat animals raised for food and others. My colleague Christine Nicol at the University of Bristol Vet School did a great job with this and for all overseas who cannot hear it (because the BBC does not allow this), I know she is working on making it more widely available.

Click HERE to access the four episodes.

Favoured Photographs

Find seven nature of your best nature photos said the challenge.

So I looked through my photo files from the last few years and here they are in one place with some 'runners up'.

Might cheer up a wet and windy February!

First the 'runners up'.

Mother and pup grey seal play in the seaweed: Bardsey Island

New Zealand: Spotted shags - parents with two large (and demanding) chicks

UK: Watersmeet in Devon: Dipper

Galapagos Islands: Blue-footed booby.

Floreana, Galapagos Islands: Giant tortoise has a snack 

Floreana, Galapagos Islands: Marine Iguana basking

Bath, UK: my backgarden: Starlings in the Hawthorn

Stourhead, UK: young mute swans in the Autumnal reflections

And the seven I chose (in no special order):

Bardsey Island, UK: grey seal newborn pup.

New Zealand, Banks Peninsula: Hector's dolphin (an endangered species)

New Zealand, Kaikoura: a sperm whale sounding

UK, Exmoor coast in Devon: Eurasian wren

Galapagos Islands; Santa Cruz: Giant tortoise

Galapagos Islands, Santa Cruz: Sally Lightfoot crab

Galapagos Islands, Santa Cruz: diving brown pelican

I have been very fortunate to see so many amazing animals and one lesson from this is that there are fantastic animals neat to home too - if we take time to look.