A Bulbul was perched in the Kennel yard and observing a pair of Bulbuls make the feeding time a conversation time.
It was the bird call of the Bulbul that drew my attention to the pair of Bulbuls in the feeding station.
That gave me an occasion to observe the Bulbuls at the feeding table till the arrival of the Barbets which displaced their privacy.
I have had this thought in my mind how the meal time can be made into a communion time!
I confess that around the meal time the conversations drift to food, people, events, news or discussion.
What was touching was the sense of presence and nearness the Bulbuls communicated to each other, which to me was an experience of communion between themselves!
How conversations around the table can draw the family to intimacy ! A father told me that at dinner time, the conversation is to say something to each other, where children and parents share thoughts appreciating each other. What follows after this was the Family prayer time which was a time to be thankful! They deliberately avoid discussing news or other matters for most part of the meal time. Their two pre-teenage children participate with expectancy and interest!
I realise that food draws us closer at a meal time. Our words of kindness and intimacy draw us to each other. The time of prayer following the meal draws each other closer in the presence of God.
Bulbuls have this ritual of pausing to be still while feeding ! The meal time is a communication time for communion!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
I was curious to look for the hiding places that birds choose when it becomes cloudy and threaten to rain!
I found that these three locations above are places that they fly for shelter!
Some birds like Sunbirds and Bulbuls avoid getting drenched in the rain. But the Magpie robins, Mynah and Greater coucal can be seen wandering in the lawn even in the rain!
The Bulbuls use the water bath for their water play and a dip, after which they pay attention to grooming the body and drying.
I realised as I watched these bird behaviours, that most birds look for hospitable environment!
A Bulbul and Barbet arrived at the feeding table after the shower looking dry! They sheltered themselves in a safe place during the roan!
The bird behaviour sometimes surprise me because there is an intelligent design behind what they do!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
The rose bushes have a new vigour and freshness in the recent weeks!
The waiting is over and soon the garden would have fragrant flowers !
There is an expectancy and anticipation!
I feel carried away by what it might be to see, if all the twenty rose bushes in the garden bloom together!
The parable of Jesus of Nazareth in Mark's gospel chapter 4, verses 26-29 reveals the mystery of growth and fruit bearing.
" The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil, and goes to bed at night, and gets up by day, and seed sprouts up and grows- how, he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come ".
The central theme of this parable is the suggestion of the mystery of growth!
During the recent months, I have had opportunities to listen to parents who shared their thoughts about their concerns about their children. They are intrigued by the mystery of transitions in the lives of children!
One parent was moved deeply by the thoughtfulness that their five year old son conveyed on his fifth birthday. He preferred to visit the children's home and be with the children there instead of a regular party at home! That is what they did!
I was curious to know how the parents celebrated their birthdays. On the father's birthday, the family visited the senior citizen's home and took food and gifts. On the mother's birthday, the family had the domestic helpers's family to come over to spend the evening with the family!
Thoughtful parents beget a thoughtful child!
The soil of the home above was genuinely blended with thoughts for people who were different from them !
The thoughts and acts of kindness towards others beyond the family make the soil of home rich with kindness to provide children the nurture to 'love your neighbour as yourself' !
A lot is known as to how we can influence our children in the way they can grow and go!
M.C.Mathew( text and photo)
The still postures of birds, when they are perched in their favourite sites in our garden, share some information about the way they internalise the environment. This Barbet during its transit halt in the gauva plant for about three minutes, gave an indication of the alert presence and the navigation plan ahead!
Its location in the guava tree is only for a short time, and yet is a link in its flight path !
A Barbet is a moving and flying bird. It is not common to see it on the ground or in the lawn hopping like a Magpie robin or a Greater Coucal or a Mynah.
Its life is lived in the trees often sheltered by the foliage. Its plumage merges withe the green leaves. Its safety is finding its shelter in the trees.
So all flight movements are for finding fruits to feed on and to remain sheltered in the shade of the foliage. Its fear prone behaviour is evident when a squirrel moves in its vicinity in the foliage of the tree. It flies away to a safer place on spotting a squirrel. However it would chase away a Bulbul from the feeding station. It is not used to co-feeding.
There are three behavioural patterns which are common to Barbets. They are greedy feeders taking larger chunks of fruits between the bills and struggling to swallow. When possible they would fly away with fruits between their bills to feed privately! Their bird calls are sonorous and distinct, but do not convey a socialising instinct to draw other birds to their proximity.
That makes me wonder whether Barbets practice a defensive presence all for themselves! Do they practice living insulated!
I pondered over this when the premier of Israel made a presentation in the United Nations general assembly two days ago, with a territorial map in his hand showing how Israel disarmed at least seven opponents in its territorial region, declaring it as a trail of victory over other nations!
Is Israel seeking for insulated existence!
The globalised world on one side is seeking for collaborative existence. On the other side countries like China, Russia, and the USA seem to convey an authoritarian and dominant mood to exist controlling others!
Why continue to turn back in history to accuse Adolf Hitler of fascism when some countries are behaving similarly in the current time !
About 142 countries vote for independent Palestine nation and less than ten countries oppose that in the United Nation's general assembly. Many representatives of countries walked out of the assembly when the Israel premier was addressing the assembly.
I suspect, what is common between Barbet's behaviour and that of these few countries is individualism, isolationism and authoritarianism!
I wonder whether we would return to a better relationship between nations honouring liberty, fraternity and democracy!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
From the appearance of the long downward curved bills, I suspect the above bird is from the family of Sunbirds belonging to the species of Little spider hunter ! It was after a while I noticed a spider hunter in our garden. The male and female birds have similar plumage.
The Purple-rumped sunbird has thicker and shorter bills as in the photo below.
From among the birds visiting our garden, these two species looked almost same to me for a long time till I noticed that the the spider hunters seemed to feed on nectar and spiders on flowers, while the Purple-rumped sunbirds seem to search for insects on the branches of the trees in the gaps of the bark.
What a gift of insight bird watchers and Ornithologists have given us by looking out for features to sub classify birds taking into consideration the differences in the plumage and habitat!
The creation around us receives a mystical touch when we consider that even small morphological differences have been noticed and published. The attention given to know more about birds in order to honour them with the status and description they highly deserve is a heritage we have received from many bird lovers!
I wonder whether we pause to think of the adverse effects we leave behind for the avian species, when we change the environment that they are used to!
Every time we cut a tree or trim branches in our garden, the birds visiting our garden decreased for weeks. They keep away from inhospitable places.
I want to gratefully remember all those who made efforts to bring advanced awareness for preserving bird life !
It is only in the recent years that Anna and I felt drawn towards birds. We feel glad for the inspiration that we received from Dr Sanjeeth Peter, a cardiac surgeon, who takes regular vacations to visit different places to study about birds. He publishes a calendar every year with photos of new birds he spotted in the year. He sends out to friends phots of birds every month with the calendar of the month in a format that can be used in the computer screen! What a way to spread his passion for birds! Because he is a musician and pianist, he can orally reproduce musical notes of the bird calls tunefully!
What a delight it is to have boards visit and greet us in our garden!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
This Asian Tit is a regular visitor to our garden and usually perches in the neem tree, often watching the activity of birds in the feeding table.
On one occasion, what seemed to make it alert with a fretful behaviour was the chirp of a squirrel. It looked in all directions to locate the regular chirps. That seemed to unsettle the Tit which usually visits our flight stations in the garden.
This time, it flew away farther than I can trace ! Was it just the chirps of a squirrel or something else!
Whenever I spot a Tit, I wait to trace its movements. Small birds are quick to move and yet the movements are well planned!
There are three thoughts that come to me.
Most small birds have a routine and fixed sights they visit during the flight movements. I notice this in Sunbirds also.The familiarity brings comfort.
The small birds get used to the environment only gradually. So any new experience is unsettling. Small birds avoid uncertain situations.
The small birds often come when the other bird movements are less in the garden. This their safety cover.
The movements of the small birds are therefore an interesting sight to watch. They chirp less but observe and listen more!
It surprised me how each species of birds behaves differently in the garden.
The birds mostly regard and accommodate the routines and patterns of the other avian counter parts.
I have been disturbed by an intolerant human temperament. In the recent meeting of the United Nation's general assembly this intolerance towards each other was a ugly scene to watch and hear.
I wish we would restore acceptance of each other as the norm!
It is a pity that there are less number of global statesmen who articulate our human fraternity, solidarity and shared journey!
The former president of the USA Mr Barak Obama sees the world as nations with interdependent connections. Such occasional statements bring relief when tensions and conflicts have become normal.
I sit and watch the bird movements on most mornings. They bring to me a sense of 'togetherness in diversity'.
The earth is giving !
God is giving and loving!
Humans are also giving and nurturing!
I wish humans will become more forgiving and accepting!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
I felt enthused by the way the Bulbul behaved at the feeding table. It took small bites and fed with ease and pleasure.
We are given according to our need !
Does that make me consume in an attitude of wanting more!
Each small bite that the Bulbul took and received it gave me a message of receiving without being driven by an instinct to grab!
I read yesterday a short story from the book, The habit of winning by Prakash Iyer, titled, 'Who stole my cookies'.
A woman having got tired by the delayed flight and feeling disturbed by dislocation to her plan bought a packet of cookies and placed it in her bag. She settled down to work on her computer. Another man was seated next to her. She would pick up a cookie from the packet placed next to her in between her work in the computer. She noticed that the man next to her was also helping himself with the cookie. She got furious with him for stealing her cookies. When the last one was left, the gentleman broke it and gave her half of it. That was when the flight was announced for departure. She hurriedly boarded the flight and sat down to read a book. She opened her bag to get her reading glass. That is when she noticed that her packet of cookies was in her bag. It was a miserable discovery that she was all the while eating the cookies that was someone else's and thinking ill of the man for 'stealing her cookies'!
The Bulbul's behaviour of eating its meal leisurely and delightfully with a sense of presence was a contrast to the way the woman behaved, eating someone else's cookie without realising that she was stealing!
It is a paradox in life! We live blaming others about the very thing we do ourselves.
Prakash while narrating this story wrote, ' Often the cookies we think of as our own actually belong to others. We worry, we fume when we see someone else get credit for what we think of as 'our achievements'. And yet we happily bask in the glory of recognition for achievements that were clearly the result of other people's support' (p 72).
He concluded the story talking about his friend, Dr Devdutt Pattnaik, who suggested to him that 'cows are givers and dogs are takers' (p73). The cows give milk to its calf, strangers and to everyone. The dogs claim territorial rights and they growl when you go close to them unless the dog is familiar to you. 'The dogs fight for the bone and they fight to claim space that does not belong to them. They want those cookies, other's cookies' !
How refreshing to have such truths brought to our consciousness through the way a Bulbul eats its meal and a woman ate stealing someone else's cookies while thinking of the man as stealing her cookies!
We share all that we receive with others. We take from others what is theirs. Others take from us what is ours.
This is the experience of shared living! What a sobering thought about the common ground of our being as human beings!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
