Colours

The magenta of Bougainvillea; the gold-yellow of Cassia; the minimalist mauve of Ageratum; the brazen scarlet of Delonix; the salmon and orange combo of Caesalpinia; the graphite grey of a great crested tern’s back; the happy chestnut of a brahminy’s wings; the dull canvas beige of an oriental garden lizard as, tail raised in an exquisite curl, he races away across the hot cement street: these are the colours of Negombo at the end of a leap year’s February.

This list reveals the scope of my ignorance, as if I ever had any doubt of that. In a brackish pool behind the beach, with several green pond frogs, were two species of fish, but what they were is quite beyond my ken.

	Birds
340	great crested tern	Sterna bergii
	Reptiles
6	oriental garden lizard	Calotes versicolor

2012 Totals

Mammals: 33

Birds: 340

Reptiles: 6

Amphibians: 3

Fish: 1