Birding Around Mukteshwar - II

Redbilled Blue magpie

A well known idiom says that,"Early bird catches the worm". Most members of the Avian world follow this advice religiously. Early morning is the time when birds are most active. This also the time for birders and especially bird photographers to observe and capture the avian life at its best. 

Hectic schedule, during recent visit to Mukteshwar, pushed birding to backseat. However, my visit to the place would be incomplete without documenting some feathered friends. Hence, one day, just after sunrise, I embarked on walk around our hotel  to greet these local residents.

A Furry Friend practices Yoga

The most eagerly awaited day of a working week is Friday. This holds true for our office too. This is also the day, when we take a break from the computer and desk job routine, for an hour of yoga. Deviating from the Avian theme, by featuring a health conscious mammal, who visits balcony at home.

This furry friend, a squirrel,  is seen practicing yoga asanas here. Revealed here, is the secret behind strength and agility, that enables our furry friend to scale vertical walls and catwalk on tightropes.  Watch closely.

Ready - Steady- Go

Stretching to warm up those muscles

Can you touch your nose......with your toes

Try this... Paschimottanasana

Exercising with instruments

Relaxing after strenuous workout session

Whew ... those asanas were something... Hope you enjoyed this break.. Will return to our Feathered friends now.. watch out for future breaks.. keep fit

Birding in National Parks - Part 1 Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary

 

Lake at Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary

The year 2011 started on a good birding note. The second Sunday of the year, saw us heading towards Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary in Harayana. Our family planned to visit the bird sanctuary to see the migratory bird that nested there during winter season. While researching the routes to reach Sultanpur, we were surprised to find out that it was about 35 kilometers from our home by road. Traveling through Najafgarh and other villages on Delhi Rawta border was estimated to take us around an hour to reach the place.

Black Winged Stilt

Sunday, 9th January dawned as a cold, foggy and rainy day. Chances of viewing birds, migratory or resident, seemed too bleak. However, our heart was set on visiting the place and we drove off towards Harayana, after breakfast. Weather gods were benevolent after the early morning drizzle; soon the sky cleared up and the rain had stopped.

 

Cattle egrets

The outing looked promising in spite of the late start. The modern day traffic gods played truant as usual. Delhi traffic showed its colours after drive of 5-6 kilometers from our home. Our car had to crawl  for an hour, through dense traffic, which started from main Najafgarh road up to Khaira village crossing. Thankfully, traffic and noisy human habitats ended beyond this point. We enjoyed rest of the drive through fields and fruit orchards along the Delhi- Harayana border.

 

Teals, Lapwings, Moorhens



Common coot

On the way we found vendors selling fresh guavas and bought 4 to 5 kilos of the delicious green fruit. We reached Sultanpur around lunch time. After quick snacking on guavas and sandwiches, we entered the bird sanctuary to explore.

Grey heron

 Storks, herons, moorhens, teals and ducks were enjoying the warm afternoon sun. Painted stork families were nesting and were noisiest of all. Peacock, kingfishers, parrots were some of the more common birds that we saw.

The Sultanpur lake had been replenished by the abundant monsoon rains, hence many species of  birds were visible this year.  We stayed for short while, pledging to return later for lengthier exploratory visit.



Painted Stork in Flight



Quotes displayed near Sultanpur national Park Gates

Everyone wants to understand painting. Why is there no attempt to understand the song of the birds? (Quote by - Pablo Picasso)

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. (Chinese proverb)


Birding around Mukteshwar

Mukteshwar is a quite hill township in Kumaon region of Uttarakhand. The small town is perhaps better known for the man-eating tigress that terrorized people in the neighboring villages in late 1920s and was killed by Jim Corbett in 1929.

    No tiger, spotted near Mukteshwar in recent years, however leopards are seen occasionally  around IVRI forest reserve near the town. Jackals, mountain goats and various species of birds can be spotted around fruit orchards and forests of the area.

Black and Orange flycatcher

The area is now a popular tourist destination in summer, known for the panoramic views of the Nandadevi and Trishul mountain range of the Himalayas. This part of Uttarakhand is also famous for fruit orchards of plums, apricots, apples, peaches and sweet lime. Known as the "fruit basket", Mukteshwar orchards send supplies all over India. Frequent visits to Mukteshwar for work in the last 1-2 years, have given me a chance  to photograph the beautiful species of birds of the Himalayan ecosystem. Sharing pictures of a few of them that I could capture this spring season.

Barn Swallow - It makes a new mud nest in the project site office every year.

Black Throated Tit - A tiny bird, hunts for insects in bark of apple and plum trees on site.

My camera card always ended up having more pictures of the scenic views, village life and birds than the project site. Once, while going through site photographs in an office meeting, the images of a local home with cattle pen popped into the slideshow. Our structural engineer asked bemusedly, "What is this?" My boss immediately quipped,"Contractor and his site team", and everyone burst out laughing.

This bird is part of Quality Check Team. Can be seen checking steel reinforcements here :)

Grey headed Canary Flycatcher

Black Lored Tit looks more like a stylish bulbul but can be easily distinguished by black streak across lores

Hoping to capture images of other birds when I visit Mukteshwar next. More feathered friends coming soon.   :D

#birding #indianbirds #himalayas #birdwatching #birdwatchingphotography

The pigeon story: A first hand account

This is the story of a pair pigeons who made home a corner of the balcony at my place. I never thought the eggs will ever hatch if they escaped the evil eyes of crows around, but they were meant to survive. All was well till an unfortunate incident united us with the pigeon family in their agony...

I had thought the eggs will fall prey to one of the crows around. Pleasantly, one fine morning, I discovered the poor helpless chicks out in open. I really felt bad for them. Dunno why the mother pigeon could not find a safer place....

Things in a larger perspective. That pot in the upper rack in the corner is the home to the chicks. Thats where the eggs were laid. I know you are amazed too. The mother pigeon would fly to neighborhood every time we went to balcony. She trusted us completely or was just helpless...

Chicks are growing....

Still growing, day by day....

Could finally catch them with mom.

My bai had already started complaining about the mess they were creating everyday :)

Soon they will outgrow the pot. Probably they have already. Look at the mess around...

Closer. That makes them attentive...

Here they are in their teens. When we are not looking the whole balcony is their playground and now they have their personal pots to sit. Huddled together for the click...

The youth, cant tell them from parents in one glance.

Venturing unknown territories..

They are no more afraid of us. Well, cant say that, they can hardly fly.

Tragedy struck!!! The chicks were attacked by an eagle ;( One fell victim to it, the other literally knocked on the door to let it in the house.

Here we see the mother pigeon. She could not find the chicks at the usual place. She sensed something wrong happened in the balcony, wont dare coming there. Just waiting somewhere near by.

Waiting for the chicks to appear...

The remains of the fight put up...

The refugee. He spent the whole night there.

We tried to feed it, but it wont budge.

Morning came, so came the parents looking for the kids. At least they found one. We were so relieved. They kept returning next two days, still hopeful, but ALAS!!

The story ends with this reunion. Hope they have a short memory and remain happy ever after, but not so short a memory to make a similar nest. They learnt it the bitter way, if they have.

Winter Session of the "Parliament"

The 2010 winter session of Indian parliament was a no show. No new policies or laws were passed, as the opposition parties wanted investigations into the 2G scam by a JPC. Walkouts, protests and disruptions were highlights in the drama of the Indian legislative assembly.

No, this blog hasn't deviated from avian life to humans and their politics. While our elected representatives were not doing their assigned jobs, other parliaments were in session in avian world; that of the owls. A collective of owls, also known as a parliament, is most active during the winters, which is their breeding season. The usually silent predators are more vocal; with mates calling out to each other and young ones demanding food from their parents.

Owl, a nocturnal bird, is often associated with misfortunes, black magic, evil, and conversely with intelligence by humans. Owl is also known as the vehicle of goddess Lakshmi in the Indian mythology. Fear of the dark and unknown, prominent at night, and deep rooted in the human psyche, has perhaps resulted in such conceptions.

Is this the reason why the same term has been coined for a collective of owls and that of politicians? :)

The call of the owl can sound very eerie in the dark, misty winter nights. The first time I heard an owl near my home, it sounded like someone was snoring loudly. Most residents of our housing society were annoyed by the continuous calls, which would start in the evenings and stop just before sunrise. Since no one could see the source of the sound, many theories were put forward to explain these winter happening. Some said it was bats hunting at night. Others proposed that it was probably a kite perched on high rise, protesting its discomfort in the cold weather. Mystery was unraveled one evening when someone standing in the 9^th floor balcony saw the owls flying around. 

Blurred photo of Barn Owl on our AC

The birds residing near our building were the barn owls, which are widespread residents in the Indian subcontinent. They can be found near human habitation and cultivated areas. They are very effective in controlling pests like mice. They also prey upon small birds, rats and insects.

One night a barn owl landed on our bedroom AC, where a pigeon family had made a nest. The owl sought a wholesome meal of freshly laid pigeon eggs. No sound came from the owl, but the pigeons made a lot of noise, which awoke me and my sister. We could see the owl from our balcony, as it waited patiently for the pigeons to leave their nest. Tried to click a photograph, however absence of a stand and darkness came in way of a good picture. Next morning, there was no sign of the pigeon nest abut remains of the owls meal were strewn on the window ledge below.

Another type, the Spotted Owlet is resident in my mother's school building. This bird breaks its nocturnal habit during winters. The spotted owlets are heard chattering or seen enjoying the warm winter sunlight.

Other birds like parrots, crows and babblers never leave them in peace, protesting owls foray into their daytime regime. The owlet pays them very little attention, but relents after sometime, retiring into some gap in wall or a hole in a tree trunk.

Oh no! Its the papparazzi again !

Searching for an escape route

One afternoon, when I reached the school to pick up my mother, the owlet was perched on a security spotlight on the school building. The shy bird left as soon as it realized it was the centre of focus of my camera.

Hopefully, these "members of parliament", i.e. the barn owl and the spotted owlet, will reappear soon for more photo sessions.

Baya's Blobitecture

Blobitecture or blob-ism is a term for an architectural movement in which buildings have organic, amoeba shaped bulging forms. These structures types are designed for theaters, museums, or tourist attractions. Come the monsoon season, and one can find the inspiration for these blob-ism structures, suspended from tall palms or thorny acacia trees. They are the pendulum shaped nests of the baya weaver; built using green resources like palm fronds, paddy leaves or grasses.

During my stay in Moira village of Goa, I saw many baya nests precariously suspended from coconut palm trees. The freshly woven green nests would gradually turn brown with age, swinging gently in the monsoon winds. The bright yellow birds made countless trips from nearby rice fields to coconut tree tops, while making their masterpiece. Following is what I found out about the architect bird, the baya weaver.

Baya weavers are found near grasslands, plantations or marshy areas in the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia. They are related to the common household sparrow; so much so that the juveniles and females of the species look like the house sparrows. Baya are social birds and breed in groups. Often 15-20 nests can be found together in a typical baya colony. Another Baya relative, the African sparrow weaver builds multi-storied apartment nests, in which 100 to 200 pairs have separate flask-shaped nesting chambers entered by tubes at the bottom.

Inspection time

The nest is built by the male baya weaver between months of June- July. The structure is cylindrical, with a central nesting chamber and a long vertical tube that leads to the side entrance of the chamber. Such a nest design prevents intrusion by predators like snakes or raptors. A male bird is known to make up to 500 trips to complete a nest. The birds use their strong beaks to strip and collect the strands from leaves and grasses, and to weave and knot them, while building their nests.

Once a male and a female are paired, the two complete the nest by adding the entrance tunnel. Baya females give “feminine” finishing touches to interiors by adding blobs of mud, which provides stability to the nest in windy conditions.

Adding finishing touches to the Nest

The nest building process can take up to 24-25 days. The baya family resides in this nest for a period of 35-40 days.  Next breeding season means construction of new nests. Abandoned baya nest are later utilized by mice or munias also known as the Indian Silverbill.