Barbet feeds on wood chips!

I watched a family of Barbets in the morning every day for a few days now in our garden. They stay between their flight stations for a longer period. While others left, one of them stayed back and shifted between trees. 

I noticed that this Barbet was initially seated in a spot and tried to bite in to the wood. Soon it changed to a branch and the last four pictures show its efforts to break small pieces from the branch. I would not have believed that it would feed on the chips, had I not got a photo of a wooden chip between its bills (last photo). 

We have a bird bath and feeding ball not too far away from this tree.

Birds during their flight movements do not seem to come to this spot, except some Warblers, who come close to it but still have not reached out to feed from the bowl.

On a holiday, May first, which is the Labour day, I kept thinking about the thousands of migrant workers left without work for the last two months, since the corona virus infection was first noticed in India. Yesterday special trains were arranged for them to return to their home states, after having been in 'house arrest' for about a month. 

Birds do not find enough food that they have to eat wood chips as you see the barbet does.  

Thousands of labourers have a stressful period as their livelihood is shattered by the 'locked in' state which has got extended to the middle of May now.  

From a conversation between Mr Rahul Gandhi and Dr Raghuram, a former Reserve Bank of india governor, now an Howard professor, I picked up the impending state of hunger and poverty thousands would face, unless normal economic activity returns in all parts of India.

It is now clear that we are in a grave situation and there are distressing months ahead!

When normal life is dislocated, I hope there would be greater sharing of resources to support those who live at the edge of society. 

I find the political class still in their ideological mould not in a collaborative mood! That is equally sorrowful!The use a language of aggression and the ruling party is the leader in this ugly game in national politics. If suffering and loss that people go through do not touch our leadership or soften them, then, what else would bring them to be in touch with reality!

One admirable comment I heard recently is the openness of political leadership in some countries to look at the opportunity to be collaborative and focus on the needs of the disadvantaged! The Australian premier has been outstanding with liberal economic support for the disadvantaged ! This is a message of hope!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)