Learning from birds and pets !

 

I watch the above scene almost every day in the same spot around the same time shortly after day break. I have a suspicion that it is the same Cormorant, an Indian Shag, who comes to this site in the mornings and evenings. It dries its body after diving into the stream below this tree and stays with its wings spread out till they are dry for it to fly away. It is seldom that a Cormorant is not in this site in at dawn or dusk.  The rituals it practices is daily constant. 

On one occasion a  Tree pie that was perched on the taller portion of the tree was intently watching the grooming exercise of the Cormorant. 

A bird begins its day, looking for its feed. It follows its instinct and rhythm. Its rituals are habit forming. 

A parent recently told me, how since they have regular visits to a marshy area where their three and four years old children can see water birds and feed them, children are more relational when they play together. The sights of the water birds feeding together gave children a new outlook to the way they play and share the toys. 

Watching the grooming exercise of a Cormorant is educational to me. There is an orderly way it does it every time it needs to dry its body!

During the morning walk, if I stop to take photos of birds, Daphne will wait for me and look in the direction where I am point the camera. 

Our environment offers us cues to the way the relational dimensions develop in nature!

The pause above of Daphne, is the usual posture, when she wants to convey her protest, when made to hasten her walk.  She is fourteen years old, but she is enthused to go on a walk in the morning and evening, although I sense that she prefers to walk, unlike in the past, when running was her normal habit!

Whether it be birds or our pets, they communicate and educate us!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)