Magpies, the harbinger of happiness and good luck…

Magpies, the harbinger of happiness and good luck……….

While roaming around Chaki Mor in Himachal Pradesh looking for the varied species of birds that the place seems to attract, we stopped at the old Hanuman Temple atop one of many hillocks there. Our stopover was not to do much with paying obeisance at the temple but more for resting in the shade that the tree in the compound of the temple offered us. We spotted a couple of red-billed Blue Magpie. Before I could frame them in my camera, they flew away in a splash. Probably, the bird is of shy types. They looked majestic in their whites and blues and the red bills. I regretted not having clicked them. After resting for some time, with no magpies in sight, we moved on.

While returning, we again stopped at the Temple to take the chance of finding those birds again and also take our lunch that we carried with us. The moment our car stopped, we saw them flying to hide themselves in the thick branches of a tree in one of the corners of the temple. However, my camera could not click them because of the thick braches that hid them. We waited patiently with my camera all ready to click the moment I could get a chance. But the Magpies did not relent. Finally, we decided to leave to return again after few days. I kept on reminding myself, I need to see the Magpies again.

The following week, we again came back and again stopped at the same temple. Hold. The Magpies were there with their exotic plumage, nibbling at the offerings in the temple. To our delight, this time they did not vanish but stayed back. Were they now recognizing us? I think so. Birds and animals do recognize and feel comfortable with familiar faces. We had become part of them and they became part of us. We are all part of the same Big Family comprising of the plants, birds, fish, and animals and of course the human beings.

A few words about the Red-billed Magpies need to be typed to complete yet another leg of the journey. As per Wikipedia, “The red-billed blue magpie is a species of bird in the crow family. Corvidae. It is about the same size as the Eurasian magpie but has a much longer tails of any corvid. It is 65-68 cm long and weighs 196-232 grams”. Even though shy of human beings, it gives harsh high pitched contact calls , kyak-kyak- kyak- kyak, plus a range of other calls and whistles. It feeds on fruits, small birds, eggs and insects and often feeds on ground.

Magpie is a symbol of happiness in Chinese culture. The singing of Magpie is considered auspicious by the Chinese as they believe it foretells happiness and good luck. The Manchu minority in China consider them to be sacred birds. The legend says that Fukulon, the goddess from heaven one day ate a red fruit thrown by a magpie hovering above . Few months later, she gave a birth to a boy named Bukulirongshun who later became the forefather of Manchu minority. It is believed that the neighboring tribes felt threatened by the Manchu minority and decided to slaughter them. While all were hunted and killed, a boy named Fancha survived the genocide as Fancha ran from dawn to dusk with hunters in hot pursuit. Ultimately, a magpie landed on his head and he stood motionless. The hunters thought that it was a tree trunk and went away in another direction looking for Fancha. Manchu minority survived extinction, thanks to this wonderful bird.

For me it was indeed a blessing to see the Magpies as part of my journey and to include them in my writings and collection of photographs.

Brown Headed Cowbird?

Few days back, I took this picture but did not post it because I was not sure about the identity of the bird. I thought it was a Flycatcher but a friend cautioned me that it is not a Flycatcher. Was it Robin? No way! Or a Bluebird? But Bluebird has a blue head even though its body could be brown. On the other hand, this bird's head was brown and body dark blue. Further research and consultation followed. Like enthusiastic kids, we matched the photograph with that of hundreds of birds. Eventually, I zeroed down to Brown Headed Cowbird. I may be wrong but certainly I am not far away. Some birds look similar but are different. Only an expert can judge. I am only a beginner. I case I find the right identification, I will correct the post. Till then, bear with me and accept that it is Brown Headed Cowbird or let me know if you have the right identification.

In the entire process of identification, I learnt a lot about other birds that I have yet to see. Let me assure you it is so much fun bird watching, taking their pictures and knowing about them. . There is so much to explore and learn. Want to join me?

Sunbirds

The Sunbird!

Among my recent sightings were the Sunbirds. They are bright coloured beautiful birds and are abundantly found in the lower hills of Shivalik Range of Mountains.

India has 12 distinct species of Sunbirds. Smallest sunbird is the crimson-backed that is only 8-cm-long and weighs as little as 4 grams. They feed on nectar of flowers but they feed their young ones insects. They have the unique ability to lower their body temperatures while roosting.

Sunbirds come with different hues with the males with distinct metallic colours.The colour of the iridescence changes with the angle of incident light such that a blue may suddenly appear green or black. Many have marked contrasts in their colours.

Though they are not known to have extraordinary vocal skills, one can hear their melodious songs, interspersed with whistles and wheezes.

The female sunbird lays up to three eggs in a purse-shaped suspended nest. The female builds the nest and incubates the eggs alone, although the male assists in rearing the young after hatching, sharing some responsibility. They often fall prey to cuckoos.

Both these were spotted in Chaki Modh, HP

The Yellow Wagtail !

The Yellow Wagtail !

While returning from office after hard day’s work at Pinjore, I spotted a Yellow Wagtail hopping merrily. It jumped from one spot to another, dipped its tail on and off and thumped it to the ground gracefully as it was dancing .

All wagtails are dainty, delicate birds but the yellow one is the most graceful of them all.. Running lightly within inches of grazing cattle, their slight bodies are often hidden, but bright colours, catch the eye.

It breeds in Alaska and Siberia and is an early winter visitor to India during the non breeding season . To find it in the hot month of April is bit surprising. This is the first time I spotted it in Pinjore.

Migration is the seasonal movement between their wintering and breeding habitats. They follow established migratory routes. Most long distance migrant birds fly at night. They may travel continuously or land daily around sunrise to rest and feed.

Traveling to different habitats enables birds to find plenty of food throughout the year. In the winter, when food sources are limited in northern areas, they fly south to areas that have mild weather and abundant food.

Perhaps , migration in birds is controlled by an internal clock operating on an annual rhythm. Each year, at a certain time, their biological clocks signal that it's time to fly. Through a variety of methods birds find their way over vast distances each year.

Birds seem to have a unique sense to find their way on the wide-ranging journeys. They rely on several different cues - the geomagnetic field, sun, sunset, skylight patterns and most importantly the position of the stars.

They wait for the most favourable weather conditions then set off on their journey. A strong wind in the right direction will speed the birds on their way. If there are strong headwinds, the birds' speed will be greatly reduced, therefore it will need more fat reserves to travel the same distance. But eventually, they find their destinations. No boundaries, no visas, no passports, no custom clearances are required by them. Aren’t they lucky?

As per the legend of Egypt, Yellow Wagtail is the representation of Atum. Atum was a "Complete" deity of the earlier times, the creator and the finisher who ultimately lands in the watery chaos. He was also considered the father of the king

The birds of deceit and deception! Some myths, some facts!

I spotted this beautiful bird. I thought it was "Titter" but a friend of mine who has a vast knowledge of birds identified it as a species of Cuckoo. He is absolutely right as I matched the photograph with that available on the net.The shrill cuckoo call in the morning is very enchanting but study of its habit is equally enlightening as many myths get removed.

I always thought cuckoos were just black in colour but now I know that they can be grey or brown with soft feathers . I further thought that they deceive just crows by laying its eggs in their nests. Some research into its habits point out that cuckoo not only lays eggs in crow's nest but also in the nests of many other birds by deceiving them and at times by force. It can lay up to 13 eggs even though there was an earlier belief that it lays only one egg.

Recently the researchers have further pointed out that Cuckoos secrete a stinking smell in the host's nest that keep the predators away. Thus they are not totally parasites but play a mutually useful role or pays the rent of the nest. Another interesting fact is that at times Cuckoo evict the hosts from their nests and throwing out the eggs of its host. It is only cuckoo who can distinguish its eggs from that of its hosts even though its eggs match in colour, shape and size of that of the host.

I read somewhere that there is reference of cuckoo as a symbol of deception in Greek mythology. Zeus , the god of thunder and lightening and also known as the king of gods of the Mount Olympus transformed itself into rain drenched Cuckoo to seduce Hera who considered Cuckoo as a sacred bird and had earlier shunned Zeus because of his numerous love affairs. Zeus marriage with Hera was kept secret from their parents, Myth says they were brother and sister before they got married. Hera was jealous of his amorous conquests and a consistent enemy of Zeus's mistresses and their children by him. Zeus engaged a nymph named Echo to distract Hera from his affairs by talking incessantly, and when Hera discovered the deception, she cursed Echo to repeat the words of others.

The Oriental White Eye

The Shivalik Range of Mountains is home to numerous birds. Among the birds I spotted during my recent journey out there was this couple Oriental White Eyed.

This bird is small (about 8–9 cm long) with yellowish olive upper parts, a white eye ring, yellow throat and vent. The belly is whitish grey but may have yellow in some subspecies.

Even though they are sociable, forming flocks, they separate on the approach of the breeding season which is from February to September with April as the peak breeding season season.They build compact cup nest that is a placed like a hammock on the fork of a branch and lay two blue coloured eggs. Both sexes take care of brooding the chicks which fledge in about 10 days. Though mainly insectivorous, the Oriental white-eye will also draw nectar and eat fruits of various kinds
.

A wake up call!

While driving through the lower Shivalik Range of Mountains, I spotted    a House Sparrow.  It reminded of my school days, when hundreds of house sparrows hovered around our house in Chandigarh, chirping merrily all the day around.  As a matter of fact we woke up every morning with their chirping getting louder.

They used to build their nests in the hedge and at times in the balcony and even under the tube light shades. I recall my mother used to get upset with their nuisance, especially by their droppings but at the same time she used to keep grains for their feeding. It was probably love and hate relationship.

 Now these little birds have become a rare sight in Chandigarh and I believe in many other cities.  To my surprise, March 20 has been dedicated as World House Sparrow Day, clearly indicating that something is amiss.  A little research shows that it has already been put on red alert.

Known to be social birds living in groups, chirping and chattering to communicate with each other and have co-existed with humans for centuries mostly in urban areas.   The male and female house sparrows are easily distinguishable by their coloration. The male is dark brown, with a black bib, grey chest and white cheeks, whereas the female is light brown throughout its body, with no black bib, crown or white cheeks... It feeds mostly on seeds, but in the breeding season, adults feed their young with insects. These birds are found of mud bathing, leaving behind a dip in the earth and being protective of it. Sounds strange?

The reasons for the decline of house sparrows   are many. These include  the changing designs of infrastructure does not support sparrow breeding , lack of availability of  quality food, increasing use of pesticides, pollution caused especially by microwave (mobile) towers, less of grasslands, use of concrete walls for boundaries rather than the hedges.

Time to take a serious call on saving the house sparrow and encourage its breeding lest the imbalance in urban biodiversity may ultimately adversely affect the human species itself. A small step could be to adopt customized feedboxes, an initiative of World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

It is a wakeup call! 

The journey continues.......

With Kitty on the steering wheel, maneuvering the sharp and quick turns on the thin and treacherous road in the remote mountains of Himachal Pradesh, the sun was getting  hot.  We saw an old couple walking. Kitty offered them a lift which they readily accepted. I saw an exotic bird perched on top of a tree. I got down telling Kitty to continue while I decided to walk after taking some pictures.  Kitty moved on with the couple. I took some pictures and walked for a couple of miles. Neither Kitty nor the car was in sight. My mobile was in the glove compartment of the car and there was no way to contact Kitty. A young man came and to my relief said that Kitty was in his home with his family and he had come to fetch me.  We reached his small village, Suki Johri that had just three four houses surrounded by small terrace fields and there was Kitty enjoying a cup of tea, chatting merrily with a bunch of womenfolk while  kids were playing around.  I too was offered a cup of tea and trust me it tasted so good.

The family shared with us their way of life.  Theirs was a joint family comprising of parents, two brothers and their spouses and the kids besides a daughter whose husband sacrificed his life for the nation being a soldier.   The men walk for miles together for work every day while the womenfolk looked after the household chores, farming and take their cows and goats for grazing.  . Their fields yielded enough wheat and vegetables to meet their requirements.  The butter and milk came from their cows and goats.  Crystal clear water rich with minerals came from the “Chasma“nearby.  Earlier, they lived in temporary hutments but now their house was of concrete with proper sanitation and electricity with certain basic facilities like TV and Radio. Their pets included a healthy fowl, a white rabbit and a dog that is not only protective of the family but also of the fowl and the rabbit.

They lead a simple yet tough life but they felt contented. To us , their life was a real bliss. They lived in unison with nature in a pollution free environment, unaffected by the stress and strains of the urban life.   The radiance of innocence was writ on their faces.

It was time to depart. They took a promise from us that we will visit again. Surely we will do because it was a blessing to meet such a lovely family.  We had a feeling that we knew the family for ages. While we were leaving, the lady brought from her house a beautifully crafted basket made out of dry twigs by her  own hands . Surely, the family has heart made of gold.  Kitty says this is the best gift she has ever received.

The journey continues………….