The Gathering. The elephants in Minneriya.

Sri Lankas Minneriya national park has a major card to play. The elephant gathering. The area in question is the surroundings of a tank-an ancient water reservoir. The national park is in the dry zone, so in the dry season the elephants flock here to take advantage of the abundant water and food resources. May to September is the best time. I was at the very end of the season-still there were an abundance of elephants. I made a deal with a jeep owner in Habarana just after my arrival, and in the afternoon we headed for the park. It is enough to pay for  the driver- wildlife spotter is not at all needed to find the elephants or waterbirds.

An eagle keeps a watchfull eye on the surroundings.

Enjoying the trunkies. They are on their way from the shelter of the forest where they spend the warmer hours, down to the lake for drinking and bathing and some social joy. I love these creatures. So huge and majestic. Walking elephants have a certain kind of graze, despite their size. Walking like this, sliding seemingly slowly across the plain, it is easy to underestimate them. In fact they are potentially very dangerous and they can act with an enormous speed once something-or somebody triggers them. Cars have been attacked, and my driver was very on the alert-ready to start the engine with a millisecond of notice. And it did pay off. An elephant came quite close to us, and suddenly started to walk towards us with her ears out to the sides like sails. A clear warning.

Elephant bath. Sometimes one can see as much as 200 elephants here. Not as many as that the day I visited, but there were still closer to 100 spread over thee area.

A one week old little cutie.

One week old, one year old, plus mama. The youngest is lovely clumsy. The elephant trunk is maneuvered by a huge number of muscles, and the little one has not yet figured out how to make that work.

The shore of the tank is packed with birds. For them this is a fat food market. It is a spectacle of movements and noise. And sometimes falling bird droppings exactly where one don't want it to land.