On a cloudy morning, with drizzles in between, I did not expect much bird movements in our garden. What surprised me was the interesting scenes and activities of a Sunbird pair, Leaf pair, Bulbul Pair and a Parakeet pair! The Magpie robin was alone, but looked charming and ready for finding its pair.
Anna and I felt visited by these birds, who made the garden their picnic experience!
A day begins with similar word activities most of the days. We keep remembering that birds return each day to visit us! We have friends of yesteryears visiting us, messaging and telephoning. They make us stay connected. We feel grateful for their thoughtfulness.
The regular visits of feathered friends add another dimension to our daily life. Their presence makes us feel that the garden is a hospitable place for them to be resident, make nests and become a family!
I was keeping a watch on the fledgling of a Greater Coucal to appear one day, since I noticed a two adult birds take turns to arrive with feed the fledgling for the last two weeks. The nest was hidden in a tall palm tree. Today, I noticed the fledgling outside its nest, opening its mouth to receive the food from the mother bird.
The garden became a home for formation of new families of Magpie Robins, Bulbuls and Myna.
The closure of each day is also with some of these birds revisiting us in the evening! I know from their habit that some regular visitors give special bird calls, till they see us in the courtyard to greet them!
In case the bird feed is not filled in the morning, sure enough. the bird calls become longer and louder. The Bulbuls are good at it. If they do not find us obliging, they would come to the dining area and call out loudly in chorus. In case that also did not make us respond, they would fly into the fruit ball in the dining table and feed from it. Our presence does not deter them. A family of four of them feel homely in our presence.
Our bird house for love birds is now without any birds. We have had some casualties which made us wait till the winter time to try having a few of them. During our time at Vellore, we had enough young birds every year after the winter, to distribute to families who wanted to have a pair. They had two breeding seasons in a year.
Anna and I find this experience with birds refreshing and entertaining.
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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