The mountains, trees and birds !

These mountain ranges above, Anna and I have watched over the last twenty five years during our car travels from Vellore to our home in Kerala, got transformed into a greenery gradually. One would not have imagined that such a rocky terrain would have shrubs and trees covering them over a period of time.  

There were efforts from the forestry department and volunteer groups interested in ecological upkeep of the environment to plant trees. The greenery is a tribute to them. 

A naturalist, recently told me another story. When trees and shrubs grow over the mountains, the birds find these for their night shelter and nesting. Away from the noise and heat of the valley and predators, many birds retreat to the trees in the mountains.  The bird droppings then become seeds which sprout and become shrubs and trees. He mentioned to me that there would be hundreds of birds who frequent these trees that they would convert a barren space into a forest over a period of time. What hurts this process is the poaching of the trees for timber and fire wood. There are flourishing timber markets on the valleys adjacent to these mountains. The fire wood, which is still the major source for cooking, is available at cheaper cost in these markets. 

The birds add to the forestation efforts and humans engage in deforestation activities. 

Whenever possible I keep looking for birds in the valleys adjacent to the mountain ranges.  I have found birds, although not in large numbers. The high noise level in the highways makes the birds move towards the mountains. 

There are fifteen papaya trees in our garden. We did not plant any one of them. It is likely that at least a few would have come up from the bird droppings. The other would have come up from the kitchen waste we use to make compost to manure the garden.  

The bird life is also threatened with climate changes, felling of trees for roadways, housing, malls, office spaces, and for timber.

A few natural aviaries we visited in the valleys tell us a lot about the simple things we can do to invite birds to become permanent residents in the garden. 

The birds flock to the feeding corner in our courtyard. I realise how dependent they are on the provisions we offer them. In fact, if the feeding bowls are empty, some birds would come to the front of the room where I spend the day, and move about chirping to remind me of food, they are searching for. Since we had this feeding corner for about five years, it is during this monsoon season, we found about thirty to forty birds coming each day looking for food. 

Excepting occasionally, the birds of different species practice co-feeding. The birds avoid the squirrels, They would wait till the squirrel move out. I noticed even wood peckers come looking for food!

The birds contribute to forestation; we can become bird friendly! It is when a garden has few nests or birds become in pairs, we know that the garden is bird friendly! We notice how birds make a cacophony when we trim some trees to indicate their distress over the loss of the flight stations. So we do not trim all trees at one time. We spread it over different times so that they do not loose their perches all at one time! 

I confess, for Anna and me, birds have become 'feathered friends', which was what we heard from a friend, who visited us and saw birds at the feeding station!

M.C.Mathew (text and photo)