Showing posts with label Rishi Valley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rishi Valley. Show all posts

Sunday, June 20, 2021

From Mandaveli to Mahabalipuram: How the ashy woodswallow receded from urban spaces - The Hindu

I now need to discover "Newsletter for Birdwatchers" that is quoted here, along with Santharam of Rishi Valley.  

I have seen these birds in the Kalakshetra campus.

I also looked up allopreening - the preening done by one bird on another.

From Mandaveli to Mahabalipuram: How the ashy woodswallow receded from urban spaces - The Hindu

From Mandaveli to Mahabalipuram: How the ashy woodswallow receded from urban spaces
As this bird’s breeding season reaches its tail end, a throwback to the days when nesting pairs could be seen in urban spaces, sometimes atop lamp posts. Despite being more easily sighted in Chennai and other bustling sections within its distribution range, an erroneous notion about the bird persisted for a long time
Prince Frederick
The ashy woodswallow — also known as the ashy swallow-shrike — inhabits palm trees where it chirpily attends to its domestic duties. Where only a smattering of palm trees exists, the bridge arm of a lamp post becomes home. Truth be told, in urban spaces, this adaptation is largely a thing of the past, existing mostly in birders’ anecdotes and ornithologists’ field notes.
Ornithologist V. Santharam had once written about a pair of ashy woodswallows that nested atop a lamp-post at a Mandaveli junction, in the Newsletter for Birdwatchers.
“That was in the mid-1980s, and Mandaveli was relatively busy. Just near RK Mutt Road and the bus stand junction, there was a lamp-post close to the petrol bunk, where an ashy woodswallow pair was nesting successfully for more than a year,” recalls Santharam, spotlighting how they disdainfully rejected a couple of palm trees standing diagonally opposite the lamp-post.
Were those palm trees taken by other pairs of ashy woodswallows; or any other birds? “No, these two were the only breeding pair in that area.”

1. Within its established range, the ashy woodswallow (artamus fuscus) is usually found in good numbers in areas marked by stands of palm trees.

2. Though the species is comfortable occupying power lines and poles, these are no substitute for palm trees.

3. On sections of ECR — for example, Pallipattu — that are marked by a proliferation of palm trees, these birds can be seen perched on power lines

4. Ashy woodswallows are a gregarious species known for their huddling and allopreening rituals, performed as they park themselves on the power lines

5. Both the male and female are a picture of familial commitment sharing nest-building, incubating and post-natal parenting responsibilities.

6. This bird sallies forth from its perch, snatches the prey while on the wing and even polishes it off before returning to the perch.

7. Birder Sidharth Srinivasan recalls a scene from Nanmangallam where waiting ashy woodswallows made quick work of butterflies that gained elevation after a mud-puddling session

8. Sidharth observes that the ashy woodswallow occasionally lets out a harsh call, one that is markedly different from its regular call. The ashy woodswallow is known to mimic other birds, certainly not as prodigiously and markedly as a drongo would, but will certainly slip in an odd note or two now and then.

The presence of the palm trees, within the hearing range of one wheezy call, probably put these birds at ease about the location. Santharam also recalls how in MRC Nagar, “largely an open area at that time”, ashy woodswallows would string the power lines, huddling and allopreening.
With palm trees on the decline even in semi-urban spaces, it takes a long drive to put oneself within the possibility of savouring such “ashy-avian” delights. An unthinking question could be: Aren’t there more power lines within the city now? The ashy woodswallow may find a comfortable perch in a power line, but does not usually see it as a substitute for a palm tree. These birds invariably “test” the strength of power lines found in a place that proliferates in palm trees. The further one drives down East Coast Road, the greater the chances of sighting gaggles of ashy woodswallows on power lines. Just ahead of Mahabalipuram, there are villages where one can make this association between palm trees and ashy woodswallow. As ashy woodswallows have now receded far from urban spaces, and farther still from our collective consciousness, one can take kindly to gaps in the overall understanding of their behaviour.
However, in decades past, when the species was hardly a will o’ the wisp, and put up live shows in residential localities, an erroneous assumption about its behaviour persisted, In retrospect, it looks indefensible.
It was largely believed that ashy woodswallow stuck to their towers and never descended to terra firma. Beyond casual conversations, the assumption was found validated even in some field guides.
Seeking to tackle this erroneous notion, Santharam wrote about in the edition of Newsletter for Birdwatchers that saw the light in January 1981. “I have seen this species on the ground on many occasions. The first such occasion was on 23.3.79 when a pair of these birds were pulling out some tufts of grass probably to line the nest at the open meadow of Adyar Estuary. One bird having collected a beakful of material headed towards some palm trees. The other bird remained on the ground for sometime and then flew in another direction,” Santharam penned his observations.
“On another occasion, I was observing a finchlark nest that had two chicks in June 80. An ashy swallow-shrike alighted on the ground a few yards away. On seeing the bird near their nest, the agitated parents, especially the female vigorously attacked the intruder and forced it to move away.”
Santharam ends his note by explaining what necessitated it.
“While the Handbook (Vol. 5) says that this species has “not been recorded actually on the ground, but may do so.....”, Whistler in the ‘Popular Handbook of Indian Birds’ asserts that this species never visits the ground. It was interesting to note that the nesting materials include fine grass, roots, fibres and feathers.”
Forty years on, Santharam has this to say: “Apart from the rare occasions when it comes down to take out the grass, this bird has no need to come down. It catches insects in flight, and sits on wires and poles. That is the reason why it (the bird’s rare descent to terra firma) was probably not reported. Or people thought it was not significant. Because both these people had mentioned specifically that it is not seen on the ground, when I saw it happen, I wanted to report it.” From past literature about this species, it is staggering to note that the species’ relationship with terra firma has a matter of deep speculation.
In 1951, the celebrated naturalist Charles McFarlane Inglis — who associated with the Zoological Society of London and the Royal Entomological Society in the forms in which they existed then — wrote a note about the ashy woodswallow to The Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, and it got published.
At that time, Inglis was staying at Kenilworth in Coonoor, and he was calling attention to a discovery about the species he had made some years ago.
“Although I have no evidence of this swallow-shrike actually settling on the ground, I have proof of the nearest thing to it,” writes Inglis and goes on to present photographic evidence of an ashy swallow-shrike helping itself to a bird bath, which it shared it with a grey-headed myna. Inglish was “staying with my friend, the late H.V.O’ Donel, on the Huldibari Tea Estate in the Duars” when both made the discovery.
As Donel had a camera at hand, the rare event of an ashy woodswallow setting claws on object just inches above terra firma could be recorded for posterity.
(Uncommon Residents is about the resident birds of Chennai and surrounding areas that are rarely seen)

Monday, June 18, 2018

How many push ups can you do?

I have been seeing a lot of rock agamas of late.  At Yercaud.

I have seen the males do push ups, as they occupy the highest rock, chase other males, and I also came across females digging holes really deep for the purpose of egg laying.

The videos below are of her digging exploits.






After she was done, she covered the hole and it was fascinating that the sight of the digging could not be detected, so well was it camouflaged.

Our human male gym show-off can be assured that his behaviour is no different from that of the rock agama, and is a deep evolutionary behaviour.  I shall treat it with less scorn and impatience from now on!

Why do rock lizards display varied behaviour?

Study provides rare evidence of why animal signals are relevant in nature

Lizards may perform comical push-ups, head bobs or suddenly transform from a stunning crimson body colour to a paler shade in just a few seconds, but this is no game. A recent study on male rock agamas published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution shows that such ‘signals’ advertise their quality to prospective mates and competitors.
An animal’s quality or ‘fitness’ — measured by how successfully it obtains mates and reproduces — is an important concept in evolution, showing how well an animal’s ‘strategy’ does in nature. So what do these males do to win females over?

Multiple signals

To find out, Shreekant Deodhar and Kavita Isvaran of Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science studied all behavioural and physical (changes in body colour) signals displayed by 41 wild male rock agamas throughout the lizards’ lifespan (for around 2.5 years) in Andhra Pradesh’s Rishi Valley. They found that males used multiple signals, including head bobs, push-ups and neck flap extensions. Males often used these traits all at once; the frequency of most of these traits increased with the number of females in the vicinity, suggesting that these signals — directed towards females — are maintained by female choice.
“These behaviours may help females judge a male’s quality quickly and more accurately,” says lead author Deodhar. “It is often [energetically] costly to display all these signals together, and if a male does this, it can indicate his quality.”
But there are costs to such flamboyance: it attracts predators and fellow competitors. The scientists found that most of these displays reduced in the presence of predators, proving that predation risk too played a role in the use of signals. Some colour-changing traits could be aimed at multiple receivers including competitors, but detailed experimental studies would be necessary to understand this better, says Isvaran.

Rare evidence

The team also quantified male ‘fitness’, which is usually extremely difficult to measure in the wild. Observing males throughout their lifetimes, Deodhar noted how many females each male had access to per day and ‘breeding tenures’, the time for which males occupied territories during the breeding season (the longer this time, the more the access to females). Males that signalled more had longer breeding tenures; thus these signals are relevant biologically because they also affected lifetime reproductive success.
“The biological relevance of this finding is also exciting because it is often difficult to follow individuals across their lifetimes,” says Isvaran.
Agamas are well suited to answer this question because they have short lifespans, perform very unusual displays and live in open habitats which makes it easy to study their behaviour, she adds.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

One of my favourite places

One of the most charming places close to home is RV, with the most charming people in it as well.



One of those charming people is Shantharam, and I was delighted to find this in the papers.



Green Valley of Learning - The New Indian Express



V Shantaram, director of the Institute of Bird Studies & Natural History
The munificent shade provided by the banyan tree could function as the classroom. There is no teacher to guide or shout instructions. There aren’t any books, and no rules. The subject of study is all around—perched on trees, camouflaged in the foliage, some preening themselves while others are screeching and cooing. This is the campus of the Institute of Bird Studies & Natural History, a bird sanctuary in Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh. Both fall under the aegis of Rishi Valley School.
Aligning itself with founder Jiddu Krishnamurti’s ideology of compassion towards all living beings with his observations on birds, animals and nature being well documented, a six-month correspondence course in ornithology was introduced in 1997, much before the institute was set up in 1999.
“The course is open to people from any background. Although professionals in ecology and conservation are taking advantage of it, the course has attracted a lot of retired people and housewives who are pursuing it as a hobby,” says V Shantaram, director of the institute.  
For students, the Rishi Valley School campus is a practical learning ground with its huge tree cover, bird life and other forms of biodiversity. “Krishnamurti planned to develop a world university, but it fell through. Rishi Valley School was started in 1930 in this remote place with barren surroundings except for a centuries-old banyan tree. Tree plantation followed, gaining momentum in the 80s when the revenue department handed over 150 acres of land to the school on lease for afforestation. With an additional habitat of a percolation point that provided rainwater harvesting, bird life on the campus began to grow,” explains Shantaram.
So what came first, the institute or the bird sanctuary? “The latter,” says Shantaram, the credit for which goes to S Rangaswami, naturalist, author and educator at Rishi Valley School. “In the late 90s, Rangaswami found a dramatic increase in the bird life and decided to conduct a survey. He invited people from other places, which is when I came there,” says Shantaram. “From the 70-80 species found here in 1977, we were able to list 150 species, probably due to the positive changes in the habitat. In 1991, Rishi Valley School was declared a bird preserve.”
The bird preserve may not have become the Institute of Bird Studies and Natural History had Rangaswami decided to move on after authoring his book, Birds of Rishi Valley and Regeneration of their Habitats, in 1994. He introduced a correspondence course in ornithology.
The reins of running the institute was later handed over to Shantaram. “Rangaswami invited me to join and I came here in 1978 as the resident ornithologist. From the 175 species when his book was written, the number has grown to 230, which I have documented,” says Shantaram.
The correspondence course is of six months, with students welcome to come to the institute and observe birds as part of the practical component. Shantaram also teaches at the main school. “Students who are 17 and above can join. Once an eight-year-old boy got through the course, while our oldest student was an 80-year-old lady,” he says.
Students have to answer a question paper after the first three months and another at the end of the course, after which they get a certificate. The course fee is “a minimum donation of `1,000. Upon feedback from students and others, the course syllabus is always up for revision,” says Shantaram. The institute’s mascot is the yellow-throated bulbul, “which is special to south India and is listed as ‘threatened’. We keep seeing it here regularly,” he says.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

A parental goodbye to the Valley

Our last visit to the Valley, home to our son these last two years, but a connection that began in the Deepavali of 2010.

A place we instantly fell in love with as a family, a place where everytime we visited my faith in humanity was recharged, a place where gentle positive energy flowed. 
Scrochingly hot and dry, the trees stood like skeletons.  Did they miss the sound of the children I wondered, or did they heave a collective sigh of relief as peace and quiet descended on the campus?!
The siris seemed to enjoy the weather, or did its roots have a secret supply of water?
The birds had nowhere to hide, and even the shy white browed bulbuls were exposed.
And then I saw this Jamun tree (Syzgium cumini) full of leaf and flower!
A Tickell's Blue flitted about in this oasis of green, as also a Chloropsis!
The beautiful flowers
The weaver ants were busy colonising a tree.....
...while the Jacaranda near the dining hall was in full bloom....
....and a whole family of hoopoes hunted for lunch.
Spied a pair of Malkohas at the guesthouse.The owlets were there too, on the copper pod tree near the senior school.
And then we left, our connection as parents done with.

But we will be back I am sure, to this place where, quietly and without fuss, experiments in education and sustainable living go on, and where I learnt to let go and watch.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

The Rishi Valley bird race

Feb 1st 2014: It is time for the annual bird race at Rishi Valley, and my husband and I are the adult visitors, along with a gaggle of excited little kids.  Our 12th standard son towers over them amusedly, too cool to be so animated about anything!

We birded for a few hours on Saturday, and returned to do a few more hours on Sunday morning, and enjoyed the walks and the crisp, cool air, the company and of course the birds.

The roosting night jar, the flycatcher in full plumage, a short-toed snake eagle circling above and the Verditer flycatcher were my highlights.  And oh yes the trio of owlets that looked down on us.

The enormous wood spider needed a better camera but the iphone did justice to the bougainvilla and the mango flowers.
Spot the Nightjar!

Spotting my first mango flowers of the season

As we searched for the Baya weavers I found these.

Do you see a huge wood spider in the middle, feasting on a grasshopper? 

A common leopard butterfly suns itself
We hope to be back next year, though the shortage of water looms over the campus.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

A January 1st filled with bird song and children's laughter

During our Rishi Valley term visit
At the guest house.

In the senior school, a pair of Collared Scops Owl have taken residence.  One of them looked down at me with amusement (I thought) as I tried not to look nervous at the thought of meeting my son's teachers!!

The sugarcane was flowering, and the bulbuls were delighted.

The Baya weavers were gearing up for the nesting season

The cloud cover kept us warm
The parakeets were not discrete
The munias were such a treat.

The oriole lurked among the branches
As did the coucal, making no advances.

Why does birdsong always fill my heart?
Or was it the the sight of our son, so long apart?





Friday, September 13, 2013

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Gliricidia sepium

Gliricidia seen in Goa

...and then in Rishi Valley too
such beautiful bunches from this small tree

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Deepavali at Rishi Valley once more

We were there in 2010, and we went back in 2012.

A Praying Mantis stoppped by to say hello...

...and enquire if there was room in the guest house for it....

The caretaker Gopal's wife gently told him his place was in the garden!

A wolf spider pops out to check on us

He chirped away, unmindful of us

And the three sisters were bathed in a lovely light

The baya weavers were obviously very industrious this season

..And what was this?


Christmas came early

The sun filtered through the wild grass, I heard a spotted dove in the distance, while the parakeets screeched noisily overhead



I miss the maramalli in my neighbour's front yard, here in Madras.  This one stood tall and proud.

And Cassias everywhere.

Assam Day 8 and 9 - Pobitora, adjutant storks and the civet cat

Pobitora - has been in the news lately.  Denotified as a sanctuary by the Assam govt, a decision then thankfully stayed by the Supreme Court...