Kahni tu banti hai! (Story is bound to be made!)

 

May 06, 2023.

While moving towards Chakki Mod, Gurjeet asked,

“What are you going to write on today?”

 

“Let us see. I will find some topic as Chakki Mod never disappoints. The place is full of surprises. I will find something to write about. “Even if I get nothing, at least I’ll take some photographs,” was my reply. 

Enroute, we picked up Arushi Kanwar who had requested to be tagged along when we bumped into her a day earlier. I had met her briefly last year when she was visiting the area with her sister Ankita and her mother.  Both Ankita and Arushi are young keen birdwatchers though it is early days for them. 

We drove straight to Bhojnagar where some coral trees were still blossoming.  We got Common cuckoo, starlings, parakeets, drongos, sparrows, barbets, and many other species. We clicked to our heart’s content. Arushi was especially delighted as she never expected so many birds to come to the flowers. She did mention that her day was made, and she was quite contented.  However, me and Gurjeet were on a little secret mission of our ours.  

We drove out of Bhojnagar and stopped just around the corner. The other day, we did have a glimpse of a raptor. Even though the area is full of species, raptors are not many., We did see a raptor that we are going to investigate today.  Leaving Arushi in the car, we started looking deep into the thick foliage. Gurjeet picked up the sound and signaled that it was there perched on a branch. In the meantime, Arushi stealthily moved out of the car and started exploring. To be very frank, we did not want to reveal what we had seen. It was a rare bird for the region, and we did not want the word to spread.  Her keen eyes saw it. 

“What it is?” she enquired.

To hoodwink her, I said, “It is but a Shikra’ thinking that she will not notice the difference and may just ignore it being a common bird.  

“No, it is not a Shikra. This is huge and has thick barring. Its colour is also different,” the young birder said firmly as she started focusing and clicking the bird. It was a Besra, a bird quite uncommon in the area. 

Many senior birders and bird photographers who have been visiting the area for years have yet to come across Besra. I was clicking it for the third timer during my birding journey in Chakki Mor. Ever since Gurjeet uploaded the photograph. many have called him up seeking the exact location of the bird. 

And here was Arushi , a young birder who has witnessed and clicked Besra quite early in life. She has become a part of the story, the story of not only clicking a Besra but also catching me by my ear for telling her a lie.  

Even though I took many pictures, this story is that of Arushi and rightly pictures clicked by her are being shared. She has been rewarded with a picture of Besra with Purple sunbird as a kill, a rare photo opportunity that she lapped it up.

The Challenge

“When you're following your inner voice, doors tend to eventually open for you, even if they mostly slam at first.” ― Kelly Cutron

As the curtain draw for birding for the time being with temperature's rising and coral flowers having just withered away, the green foliage in Chakkimod-Bhojnagar valley is getting thicker by the day. It is becoming difficult to spot the birds. However. diehards do not give up themselves easily and continue to seek birds.  They go by the adage, " If you seek the bird, the bird also seeks you" and certainly Chakkimod never disappoints and continue to throw some pleasant surprises.

While scouting for the elusive birds, we came across the beautiful blue throated blue flycatcher today. When we started our trip , we held the view that it would be a tough day head. However, Gurjeet Virk remarked that this season we yet have to see the Blue throated blue flycatcher.

Out of nowhere, this beauty turned up and while we zoomed our cameras to take few shots, Aseem Kalia jokingly said, " End of Season's Sale. "

Lips of wine

I tasted your sweet lips, thrilled to my fingertips

Lips of wine, warm with fire, you are my one desire

Lips of wine, and they are mine

While tropic breezes play, while palm trees gently

sway

Lips of wine, come to me, whisper low so tenderly

Lips of wine, and they are mine

When one sees the Red-billed leiothrix for the first time, one would perhaps be reminded of the above song, "Lips of Wine " . It was a popular song of yesteryears 

performed by Andy Williams and written by Sy Soloway and Shirley. 

The very look of Red billed leiothrix is intoxicating and it is popularly called the Bird with the Red lipstick. Perhaps it is the most photographed bird of Chakki Mod in Himachal Pradesh where it has a considerable population. 

It is indeed a beautiful bird. Adults have bright red bills and a dull yellow ring around their eyes. Their backs are dull olive green, and they have a bright yellow-orange throat with a yellow chin; females are somewhat duller than males, and juveniles have black bills. 

One has to just go to Ishwar Dhabha on the Chakki Mod -Bhojnagar stretch and sit there to see these playful beauties on the logs placed by Ishwar Bhatia and his wife. At any moment you will find scores of them feeding on the grains placed by the family. 

Chakki Mod never disappoints given the number of bird species found there. However, on a low day even when no other birds are spotted, be rest assured that you will get the  Red billed leiothrix. 

At the Ishwar Dhaba they are bold and  their playful antics are the finest examples of healthy human  bird coexistence. The credit does go to the caring attitude of Ishwar and his family. 

 In our early days of birding in Chakki Mod, finding even one or two red billed leiothrix was challenging but certainly exciting. It remained in thick undergrowth and just having a glimpse of it made our day. But now you find them all over the place , their population has not only increased , they are no more weary of the humans.

 Lips of wine never get satiated as  more you see , more you will want. 

You will never get bored watching them , photographing them, appreciating  them. 

Red billed leiothrix clicked in Chakki Mod, Himachal Pradesh . 11 February 2023. Nikon D 500, 200-500 mm.

"Owners pride, neighbour 's Envy "

 

Do you recall this ad tag line from  yesteryears of Onida Television? Well, these days, this tag line perhaps fit the blossoms of Indian Coral Tree from our very own birding hotspot, Chakki Mor more than anything else. 

The birding community has been making rounds of Chakki Mor these days to click photos of birds that get attracted to the red blossoms of the Indian Coral Trees . The birds on these trees include the  starlings,  crimson and purple sunbirds, the Himalayan, the black and red vented bulbuls,  drongos, scimitar babblers, woodpeckers , nuthatches, barbets, parakeets, red billed blue magpies, the Orient magpie Robin ,  flycatchers and the Indian Golden oriole and even the kingfishers. 

The photographs of birds on Coral Trees is a delight  to watch as they are  getting increasingly posted across social media forums  attracting likes and appreciation comments. Perhaps the best compliment is from across the border on Instagram account of Aseem Kalia where to one of the posts, a photographer from Islamabad, Pakistan confided that bird photographers from Islamabad have been fascinated by the pictures that they have been searching Islamabad and neighbouring areas for an Indian Coral Tree frantically. Have failed to find one, the photographer requested for a sapling from him. 

When Aseem shared this with some of his birding colleagues here , one  of the friends jokingly remarked ,"We can gift them why just one but many saplings provided they stop perhaps you know what". Well for all you know one day the Indian Coral Tree becomes the ambassador of goodwill and diplomacy. Till then, let it be our pride and their envy. 

Photograph of Spot winged starling clicked by me on Coral Flowers in Chakki Mor on April 12, 2023 on Sony a7 iv, 200-600 mm .

Mother's Day

 Mother's Day ! 

Environment has its own unique way of manifesting itself, surprising us every now and then with the unexpected. It was on May 15, 2023, I drove down to Thapli region in Panchkula District of Haryana   specifically to see if Jacobin Cuckoo had arrived or not. For the last several years, I have been following the arrival of Jacobin Cuckoo.

 As I reached Thapli, it started raining. Disappointed, I drove back and as soon as I almost reached my home, I got a call from a friend in Thapli that the sky had cleared. I drove back as my instincts pointed that some surprise was awaiting me.

 

I walked up a small hillock in the forested area that offered a good view of the area where Jacobin Cuckoo was spotted by me last year. The path was uneven, and I slipped and fell. I was tired as my energies had dilapidated and did not feel like getting up. 

Sitting there still for almost fifteen minutes, I saw an Indian roller perched on a treetop. The roller would fly down making a hissing threatening sound only to return to the place where it was perching. When I looked deep, I observed that the roller was guarding its nest, a hole in the tree and that a huge monitor lizard was clawing its way up the tree and the roller was trying to shoo it away. 

The Indian roller once again flew into the undergrowth and some commotion followed. The roller flew back to the branch and in its beak was a juvenile of the Bengal Monitor Lizard.  I could not believe what I saw. I had never seen an Indian roller known for its acrobats in mid-air hunting a monitor lizard. I captured the moment with my camera. The Indian roller ate the juvenile lizard.

 I got up and walked away with the documentary evidence that Indian rollers are fine hunters as well. Probably the nest contained her chicks, and this was a female roller that would go to any length to save her chicks like any mother would do.  What a sight to have on Mother’s Day.   However, I felt sad for the adult monitor lizard that lost her little one and was no longer in sight.

Book Review
Birds of Haryana -A Field Guide

Authored by Dr Rajiv Kalsi, Mr Suresh C. Sharma and Dr Janak Choudhary, Birds of Haryana-A Field Guide is a comprehensive and authouritive  bird guide on the 530 species of birds found in Haryana State of India. It has just hit the stands.

The guide is richly illustrated with coloured photographs with the accompany text covering significant details on morphology, behaviour of the birds and their habitat.  Pointers on how to identify the birds accompany the photographs in an easy and understandable way. Voice indications are also mentioned.

The 602 page guide is divided into chapters based on the order and family of the species which are 79 in number.  The guide indicates not only the status of the birds but also when and where to look for them.

A word about the authors. Dr Rajiv S. Kalsi is an Associate Professor in Zoology and has worked on number of birds and mammal species . He has done extensive research on habitat interactions, wildlife and conservative biology. Mr S.C.Sharma has spent over 40 years wandering in the wild across the country , seeking birds and photographing them. Dr Janak R. Chaudhary a renowned ENT surgeon took to bird photography as a hobby. His interests include macro photography and making Bonsai.

Published by Unique Publications, Panipat the guide has been modestly priced at RS 895 (US$19).

The guide also  contain an article written by me on Ethics in Birding and Bird Photography for which the authors have very kindly acknowledged.

"Live and Let Live !

"Live and Let Live !

In a significant order, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that animals in Haryana be accorded the status of “legal person or entity”. It declared all residents of Haryana ‘persons in loco parentis’ to promote welfare of animals. The legal definition of "In Loco Parentis is a person who, though not the natural parent, has acted as a parent to a child and may thus be liable to legal obligations .

The order grants animals in Haryana “corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person”. The order was passed by Justice Rajiv Sharma, who was transferred from Uttarakhand to the Punjab and Haryana High Court at Chandigarh last year. Justice Rajiv Sharma was incidentally a member of double bench of Uttarakhand High Court that passed a similar order “to protect and promote greater welfare of animals” in Uttrakhand almost a year back.

Justice Sharma in his 104-page order stated that animals have a right to life and bodily integrity, honour and dignity, and could not be treated merely as property. “In order to protect and promote greater welfare of animals including avian and aquatic, animals are required to be conferred with the status of legal entity/legal person,” he stated. Justice Sharma added that animals might be mute but “we as a society have to speak on their behalf”.

“The animals should be healthy, comfortable, well nourished, safe, able to express innate behavior without pain, fear and distress. They are entitled to justice. The animals cannot be treated as objects or property,” the verdict states.

Justice Sharma gave 29 mandatory directions including fixed load to be carried by animals and banned their deployment for pulling vehicles in extreme weather conditions. He asked the Haryana government to ensure ensure that no person was permitted to keep in harness any animal to draw vehicles between 11 am and 4 pm in summers when temperature exceeded 37 degrees Celsius, and between 10 pm and 7 am when the temperature fell below 5 degrees Celsius in winter.
He also banned the use of spike sticks, harness, knobs and other sharp instruments . Animals carrying load are to be covered with reflectors for identification at night.

Justice Sharma signed the verdict with the concluding remark , "LIVE AND LET LIVE."

They come, pluck and depart disappointed ? They return merrily !

They come, pluck and depart disappointed ?  They return merrily !

It is spring time in Chandigarh and one could see Semal trees in and around the city beautiful in their fullest bloom with vibrant red flowers. The Semal flowers attract all kinds of birds such as parrots, drangos, barbets , starlings, hornbills to the birders' delight.

However, as mentioned in Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scripture of the Sikhs, even though the birds visit semal, they depart disappointed for its fruits are tasteless and flowers nauseating, reminding that only humility and sweetness bear virtue and goodness.

ਸਿੰਮਲ ਰੁਖੁ ਸਰਾਇਰਾ ਅਤਿ ਦੀਰਘ ਅਤਿ ਮੁਚੁ ॥
si(n)mal rukh saraaeiraa ath dheeragh ath much ||
The simmal tree is straight as an arrow; it is very tall, and very thick.

ਓਇ ਜਿ ਆਵਹਿ ਆਸ ਕਰਿ ਜਾਹਿ ਨਿਰਾਸੇ ਕਿਤੁ ॥
oue j aavehi aas kar jaahi niraasae kith ||
But those birds which visit it hopefully, depart disappointed.

ਫਲ ਫਿਕੇ ਫੁਲ ਬਕਬਕੇ ਕੰਮਿ ਨ ਆਵਹਿ ਪਤ ॥
fal fikae ful bakabakae ka(n)m n aavehi path ||
Its fruits are tasteless, its flowers are nauseating, and its leaves are useless.

ਮਿਠਤੁ ਨੀਵੀ ਨਾਨਕਾ ਗੁਣ ਚੰਗਿਆਈਆ ਤਤੁ ॥
mit(h)ath neevee naanakaa gun cha(n)giaaeeaa thath ||
Sweetness and humility, O Nanak, are the essence of virtue and goodness.

Semal is the local name for Bombax. It is abundantly found in Southern and Eastern Asia, right from Burma to Afghanistan, besides northern Australia sand western Africa.

The flowering season of Semal is followed by fruition. Its fruit is the size of a golf ball which is filled with cotton-like fibrous stuff that is used for filling pillows and cushion and for that precise reason it is also referred as Cotton Tree or the Red Silk Cotton Tree.

Semal is a fast growing tree that can reach height of 30 to 40 metres and does not require much of watering or fertlizers. It grows straight and tall , branched symmetrically with the trunk up to 3 metres. Its timber is soft and is used for manufacture of plywood, match boxes and sticks.

The bark, roots sand gum extracted from it is used in cosmetics and herbal medicines for curing diarrhea, dysentery, hemoptysis, pulmonary, tuberculosis, , influenza, styptic and wounds.

Decoding the nightjar !

March 10, 2019. A team from Chandigarh comprising Mr Arvind Syal, Mr Rakesh Suthar, Mr Navtej Singh and me arrive at Kaelsar in Yamunangar District of Haryana specifically to click pictures of crimson and purple sunbirds that flock there to sip nectar from purple colour wild flowers. There the team was joined by Dr Rajiv Kalsi Professor and Head Department of Zoology M.L.N. College Yamuna Nagar and   Dr Janak Chowdhary, a renowned ENT Specialist who loves to do micro photography of tiny insects and spiders.  The sun was up and hot . The time was about 09 30 hours. 

While we were focusing our cameras to get good pictures of sunbirds, our eyes   fell on a  bird sitting motionless in the thick  dry foliage Its colour perfectly matched the dry brown leaves that were scattered all over. While the camouflage was perfect, our instincts knew it was after all a  nightjar, the master of  camouflage.  We could not believe our eyes as we turned our camera to take some photographs. The thick branches of the trees  around hampered the light and we hurriedly scrambled to alter the camera settings without much success as we knew it was now or never. A couple of  clicks and the sound emitted by the crumbling of dry leaves under out boots  alerted the bird as it took a low flight into the thick forest area . All we could hear was its piercing  sound and then there was pin drop silence. For all of us from Chandigarh, it was for the first time, we had seen a  nightjar  though Dr Kalsi and Dr Chowdhary  had often seen it many times though not during day time. It is more of a . nocturnal bird. We gave dejected looks at each other as if   we had  missed our golden  opportunity to click the bird that was a delight  and challenge to any bird photographer?  It was so near and yet so far. 

Nightjars are the mystery birds about which little is widely  known except that they sit virtually motionless during daylight hours merging completely with their surroundings . However, they get active when dusk sets in  to feed on insects till dawn, mostly taking their prey in flight, mostly by keeping their mouths open in flight.  To spot them during daylight hours require a great amount of luck. The mystery if remain unresolved leads to myths and superstitions. 

The sound returned and so  our hopes. The bird returned to its original place of hiding.  All of us silently reminded ourselves to remain where we were and wait for the bird to emerge in the open. As our luck would have it, the nightjar flew and perched itself on a branch in the open at the eye level, barely few feet from us, sitting still. The light was perfect. The photo session began and most of us had turned our cameras to continuous mode as all of us wanted to take as many photographs as possible. Later, Dr Janak Chowdhary rightly said, "It was a life time experience to shoot Nightjar at day time , it was sheer luck indeed." The bird flew away and we prudently decided not to chase it any further. It had already obliged us and we need not disturb it any more. Even though it was getting hot, a cup of coffee each from Dr Rajiv Kalsi was very refreshing. Our day was made.

Back to the pavilion with our trophies in the shape of RAW images stored in our cameras, it was time to identify the nightjar specifically. Even though it had a large tail, I thought it was Indian nightjar. Quite a few concurred with me until Dr Gurpratap Singh, a renowned expert on birds opined that his candidate was Large-tailed Nighjar. He said that majority opinion is not always correct. According to him, " the cryptic plumage of  Nighjars renders them unsuitable for straight forward identification."  According to him, nuchal collor, throat-band, tail pattern, width and length of the tail, characteristic markings etc are to be keenly observed for true identification. It is certainly a mystery bird that requires minutest detailing. Biding is not easy thing to do. Every day there are challenges and new learning, a new experience.  Certainly unraveling the mysteries of the feathered creatures is very exciting.  In the  Indian sub-continent , besides the  Indian night jar and the large-tailed nighjars, we have Great eared nightjar, jungle nightjar, grey nightjar, european nightjar, egyptian nightjar, syke's nightjar, jerdon nighjar, andaman nightjar and the savana nightjar. 

Mr Vikramjit Singh a prolific writer on wildlife in his column in Time of India dated April 24, 2017   mentioned that Shivalik range is a haven for nightjars. he wrote, "Ideal spots to photograph and hear their charming calls are the check dams along the Shivaliks such as Perch, MIrzapr and Siswan dams. He was of the view that various nightjars look alike, it is best to identify them from their distinguished calls. 

Well!   Keep your eyes wide open and keep your ears well oiled. There may be  a nighjar  around to be  seen, understood and deciphered. Decoding the nightjar ! 

The return of Egyptian vultures to Saketri

To the delight of the local bird watchers and environmentalists , a score of  Egyptian vultures have been spotted in Saketri, Panchkula Distt. Haryana.  These vultures were spotted by birders at least two months back by the birding community and happily they have stayed back and their numbers have increased.

According to the local farmers, they have been seeing this bird basking in the sun around theit mustard fields for quite some time. Some of them said they were seeing these"beauties" for the first time even though some elderly farmers claimed that there used to be  many vultures in Saketri in yesteryears. They conceded that their population had almost vanished in the past few years and it was indeed delightful to see them back again.  All of them agreed that these vultures pose no threat to their fields, rather they have a great role to play in keeping the area clean.

No doubt the vultures  are useful scavenger as  they feed feed on  flesh of dead animals and hence  keeps the environment clean.  Further, their eating away the dead flesh keep the  spread of related diseases  from decaying carcasses at bay.

The  population of Egyptian vultures as well as other species of vultures in the Indian sub-continent has seen a drastic  decline  alarming the environmentalists and various projects including one near Pinjore under the aegis of BNHS have been taken up to reverse the trend. Various reasons have been cited for their decline , such as  poisoning, electrocution, scarcity of food, habitat loss and more significantly due to the toxic effect of veterinary drug Diclofenac through livestock carcasses.  The Government banned the use of Diclofenac for veterinary purposes way back in 2006.

The Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) is  one among nine vulture species available in the Indian sub-continent. Its range is widely distributed across Europe, Africa and Asia. Even though their primary food is flesh of dead animals, they do prey on  on small mammals, birds, and reptiles and also feed on the eggs of other birds. They are also referred to as white scavenger vultures or pharaoh's chickens.

The accompanying photo was clicked in Saketri on 06 February 2019.

Why do Cormorants spread their wings?

Have you ever wondered why Cormorants spread their wings wide with a crucifixion-like posture , according of course a delight to watch with enough photography opportunities?

Well ! The most obvious reason of course is to dry their feathers after a swim or dive to catch their prey. However, there are some more explanations, with differing views and observations from experts. Number of theories have been propounded.

These include casting a shadow on the water to have a better vision to spot their next target, have a better balance on land, absorb heat to digest their food by exposing their bellies to the glow of the sun, to signal to other cormorants the availability of food or merely to rejoice their success in catching their target.

However, Dr Robin Sellers, a professional engineer and amateur ornithologist, having observed this posture of birds for years have negated most of these theories concluding that this posture is all about adapting to the wind to dry their feathers.

According to his findings published in published his findings in the journal Ardea, when the wind was up to, or more than, a strong breeze on the Beaufort scale (4 or more), cormorants spent, on average, 2.5 minutes standing like crucifixes. With hardly a flutter in the air (0 to 1 on the scale) they stood with their wings out for nearly five minutes and generally extended them further. The birds also faced the wind - more than half of them orienting within one compass point of its direction when conditions were virtually still, but more than 80 per cent when a good breeze got up. According to him, Cormorants tend to hold their wings out for longer in lower temperatures and when they had been under water for longer. Light rain reduced their fervour and heavy rain put a stop to any spreading at all.

If wing-spreading signalled feeding success, the birds would not do it when diving proved unsuccessful. And the theory of casting a shadow on the water only helps birds that adopt a stand-and-wait strategy - like herons - rather than those that dive as much as 10 metres down in murky water.

Dr Sellers calculated that between 30 and 90 grams of water have to be expelled from a cormorant's plumage after an average dive. It would need up to 222 kilojoules of body heat to evaporate it, an amount that could be sacrificed providing enough fish were caught to make up for the loss.

On the other hand, Dr David Gremillet of Neumunster Zoo in Germany says that wing- spreading may, after all, be a digestive aid. He found that cormorants that feed on cold fish held their wings out, often for 20 minutes and when fed on pre-warmed to cormorant body temperature hardly bothered to make a wing movement. His conclusion is that cormorants expose their bellies to absorb the sun's heat, a warm glow that aids the digestion.

Dr Chris Mead of the British Trust for Ornithology acknowledges that wing-drying and digestion aids may jointly explain the cormorant's striking stance. He says the heating up their food is the most important reason. Why else would cormorants be all black if it wasn't to absorb heat through their plumage?

Whatever may be the reason for their postures, Cormorant diving in the water, catching the fish and spreading their wings wide open with their black glistening bodies are a delight to watch.

The pictures are those of Little Cormorant were clicked in Thapli, Haryana, India during September, 2018