Story of bird lovers

Following, the cyclonic storm in December, 2011, at Pondicherry, many trees were uprooted in the hospital campus. The maintenence staff at the hospital were fully occupied  for several days to replant or reinforce them with support.One evening, they were at work to raise a fallen tree outside our residence. The supervisor noticed an owl in the foliage with an injury in its wing.

Injured Owl

Our neighbor is a family of nature lovers. Sidharth, who is a biologist, took the         responsibility to nurse the owl back to its health. The third picture is taken after five days of care and attention, just before the owl was released to its natural habitat.

                                                                              

Ready to fly away

Finds a home

The owl flew away and found an opening, meant for the exhaust fan in the wall of an adjacent residential complex and made it its home, since then. Many children and adults watched this owl grow up over the next few weeks.

Finds a family

One evening after the sunset, I noticed a second owl at  the mouth of the hole. A romance had begun!

All these began with Sidharth's effort to nurse the owl and restore it to return to its habitat. A little help had made all the difference!

We no longer see the owls. The pigeons have occupied the space. Although they were displaced by pigeons, we know that they are in our viscinity from their screeching sounds at night.

These nocturnal birds live away form human habitat normally. A sight or movement of people normally would disturb them and they would fly away.

The story of this owl is different. It stays near the human habitat and appears to be comfortable as of now.

We are responsible for creating a friendly environment for the flora and fauna.This calls for much consideration towards the least in the animal kingdom. The sparrows have almost disappeared from our neighborhood, for lack of food and due to noise and atmospheric pollution. I come across wooden nests on some trees in public gardens to attract sparrows. There is some success.

We ought to be grateful for nature's gifts and be more committed to keep the environment a better place for co-existence.

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)