Encounters with the Nilgai

My abiding memory of Bharatpur is the misty mornings as we set of on our cycles.  Visibility would be low, but the air would be filled with bird calls - duck, geese and lapwings.

The lanes would vanish into nothingness, and at times we would not be able to see the other members of our group who were just ahead or just behind.  

I think the beauty (and probably the cold!) of the mornings affected all of us, as suddenly we would all lapse into silence and just look, greedily drinking in the sights and sounds of the sanctuary.

The lovely road past Shanti Kutir is not used that much by visitors, and has some nice twists and turns, and along with the chill in the air, and the hanging mist, it suddenly reminded me of a scene from an old Sherlock Holmes novel.  Only somehow there was nothing sinister about the setting!

Nilgai was the most common type of antelope we saw, though there were some chital and sambar as well.   With no large predators in Bharatpur, the Nilgai have no security concerns, and are thriving well.  We would often come across herds of females and young ones, like this.  they are the largest antelopes in Asia, and are common in north India, though for me from the south, it was my first encounter.

 
Their brown coats give them a good camouflage in the dry, tall grass.  The females were my first sighting of the Nilgai, and I wondered why they were called a Nilgai - or blue bull - there was not a hint of blue!  

It wasn't long before I saw my first male Nilgai, though, and what a handsome creature it is!

As big as a horse and called Boselaphus tragocamelus, they look like creatures from the magical forest around Hogwarts!

All I needed was to see one fly, for the image to be complete.  Alas, that was not to be, but the members had close encounters with them one time or another!
Photo by Mr Ramanan

Mr Ramanan was almost knocked down by one male Nilgai as it came crashing through the undergrowth on one side of the track, and quickly lumbered through on the other side!  He did get this beautiful photo though, as it stood, all ears, ready to charge off at the slightest threat.  

The insides of the ears have a distinct marking, and the adult males are usually off on their own.  A single lone female is unusual, as is this photo by Sripad, where the pattern on the hooves are so well seen.

Photo by SripadOn one occasion, as Divya and I followed Sripad and Carthic, (or was it Skandan?), a male Nilgai emerged on to the path from the marsh on the right side behind the pair of riders in front, and ahead of Divya and me.  We stood stock still, and there was a period of eyeball-to-eyeball contact, before it dashed off to the left of the path, only to find its way blocked by undergrowth.  At this point, it panicked and charged back from where it had initially come, and then we heard it sloshing through the marsh, probably grumbling at us all the while!
I dont know whose photo this is, but its not mine!Oh yes, and like rhinos, Nilgai have interesting toilet habits - they have a centralised dropping area, like what you see below!  So if you want to see one of them, I guess all you have to do is hang around one of these spots!  They all have to go at some point dont they?

Now I could not bring myself to finish this post with that picture, So I have this magnificent photo by Carthic.

Photo by CarthicHow could people actually hunt these handsome creatures?  And that too for "sport"?  Okay, they are not endangered, but would any sane person want to hunt them?

Why am I ranting?  Well there are scores of ranches in Texas that advertise Nilgai hunts, as a pastime and sport.  (Do a google - there are scores of them.)  Yeah right, some sport, you have a gun as long as his body and what does he have - just strong legs to run, and run and run.  

I have this nightmare that one day, all this senseless killing and mindless hunting will be reversed upon us, as the animal kingdom gains it karmic revenge....

In India too, they can be hunted.  They are not endangered.  And as they run out of space to graze, they come into farmlands to graze.  In Rajasthan and Gujarat, Nilgai have become a menace to farmers.  But given their resemblance to cows, they are not killed, reportedly, though in these states you could hunt them I believe.

An article on the Nilgai by the Wildlife Institute of India,  writes, 

Although there has been a reduction in the overall range of nilgai, the existing populations seem to be doing fairly well. This is largely because of they are a protected species under the law, and more importantly the protection they acquire from being considered sacred due to their resemblance to domestic cows. Moreover, gradual degradation of dense forests into open scrub and thickets, increasingly bordered by agricultural fields, has offered favourable habitat conditions for the increase of nilgai numbers. Invariably, in such situations, nilgai become serious pests as crop raiders and a major issue of human-wildlife conflict. Possible solutions voiced include a selective culling programme linked to licensed hunting permits. However, throughout the range of the nilgai, most farmers are Hindus, and in Rajasthan and Haryana, many of them are Bishnois, a sect that rigorously protects all animals. Bishnoi farmers prefer to tolerate the raids on their crops rather than permit the slaughter of nilgai. So it is highly unlikely that any scheme to cull or ranch nilgai either for hunting or for local consumption will ever work in India (Kyle 1990). This attitude may however change, when the number of people living off the land increases, when the local people begin to believe nilgai are vermin or a source of meat. Relocations of problematic nilgai, for the time being, seem the safest solution.

Another example of the human-animal conflict, which can only get worse with time.

Is there a humane and sensible solution?

(To start at the beginning of the Bharatpur narration, click here.)

Spot that bird

An account of the bird race, by the winning team that appeared in The Hindu.
Spot that bird

There are more birds in Chennai than we thought…That’s what the Bird Race showed. NINA SIMON

With two bikes between four of us, Arun, Hopeland, Rajkumar and I spent our time after an unfair Saturday at college (they don’t call it a weekend for nothing!) criss-crossing the city searching for birds. January 29 was the bird race held by the Madras Naturalist Society and we were in a hurry to finish our homework and be free. Arun named our team “The Common Crows” as we entered the race.

“D day”: I never wake up in time; my college attendance or rather its lack is proof. So Arun had to leave home at 3.00 a.m. to wake me up! At 4.30 a.m. we were on the road, cold wind whipping our skin and the first bird we saw was the common crow! Soon we were on the East Coast Road on the way to Vadanamali Village.

As dawn appeared we searched the bushes for lark, whimbrel, curlew, sandpipers and other birds found near the backwaters. We ticked more birds than we expected on our checklist but a fast fading “flamingo pink” sky told us that we had to get back on the road. This time to Pallikaranai spotting 46 species and seeing an eagle hunt a snake and feed on it.

Next visit: Sholinganallur where we spotted wagtails, pintails and greb along with a few raptors.At 9.00 a.m. we passed through Nanmangalam to see the booted eagle. Reaching Ponmar by 10.30 a.m. we got to see harriers up close perched on the electric cables as we searched for paddy birds while allowing our bikes to cool down. We visited Arun’s old friend the barn owl at Vijayshanthi Apartments too. We then spent a stiff one hour on the 365-acre campus of Madras Christian College since we knew where to find the birds (we study there).

Above us a Montagu’s harrier hovered in the air trying to find prey in the dense scrub jungle below. We spotted the yellow wattled lapwing, which made our day! Hopeland had to write down the birds we spotted sitting on a moving bike because we had no time.

It was already 12.30 p.m. and our next stop was one—and –a- half hours away! We reached Vedanthangal and set ourselves spotting birds: in no time we’d ticked off painted storks, pelicans, open bills, cormorants, darters, greb and a whole list of water birds from our list.

We drove back to the city just in time for a rush-hour traffic jam. Looking like vagabonds we limped past the President Hotel parking lot trying to look a little bit more presentable only to find that we were not the only ones around. Kids of eight and 10 were talking about their passion for birds, rattling off bird names; and old men and women were acting like children comparing notes like secrets!

All through this race I had only one thought other than spotting birds: “would we win?” But now I realised it didn’t matter for the experience of driving 310 km and spotting 131 species and sharing my experience with the rest was a trophy in itself. After the meeting and dinner hosted by the Madras Naturalist Society each of us walked out with a treasury of tales and a satisfied smile.

Each of us had contributed to a conservation movement that might one day save the birds of our city. If you have ever heard the owl hooting at night you will understand the satisfaction I got that day!

Nina Simon is a IInd year student of Zoology, Madras Christian College

Well, they must have had some sore butts after that, with 300+ kms under their belts, in a day!

Plans for an elevated road?

Madras Musings - We care for Madras that is Chennai

Government has announced a plan to build an elevated road connecting the Marina Light House and the East Coast Road (ECR). It has been announced that the proposed plan will improve connectivity between the city and the ECR and will ease traffic mobility. However, as is consistent with most Government plans of such a nature, environmental and aesthetic concerns have been given the go-by.

The entire road in its final form will extend 9.7 km and will be at a vertical clearance of 5.5m. The first phase will be for 4.7 km and will link the Light House on Kamaraj Salai (Beach Road) with Besant Nagar. A consulting agency has submitted its feasibility report and the estimate is that the first phase will cost Rs. 430 crore.

The route will begin from near the Gandhi statue, turn east near the Light House and run along the existing San Thomé Road bypass by the sea up to Srinivasapuram. From there it will cross the Adyar Estuary, run parallel to the broken bridge, pass the Theosophical Society campus and finally connect Besant Nagar near Elliot’s Beach. In the second phase, the elevated road will run along Besant Nagar Beach Road, close to Velankanni Church, and then run parallel to the coast before joining the ECR. Around 500 homes, 14 commercial buildings and three religious buildings will be affected by the plan.

The report does not look at what will happen to the already fragile ecology of the area. It also has not taken into cognisance CRZ guidelines which do not allow for such constructions along the coastline. The broken bridge which this road will pass close to is testimony to the destructive potential of cyclones and high waves in this region – not to mention the corrosive elements. Constructing a road in precisely the same area is nothing short of short-sighted ness.

The proposal will also ring the death knell for the entire Adyar estuary which was in the past considered a bird sanctuary. At present there is an ongoing project to develop what is left of the Adyar Creek as a natural estuarine park. What will the fate of this project be once a road cuts across the park and the estuarine area? The proposed road will affect what is an environmentally important region which has been recogni sed as such by the State and the Centre. The corridor is also to be located in the breeding ground of the Olive Ridley turtle.

The matter is not likely to end here, for it appears to be the opening for further land development. In the past, when the question of constructions close to the coastline near Quibble Island was investigated, the Government granted permission for the development stating that all this was taking place alongside an existing road and so the area did not come under CRZ guidelines. Now with another road being proposed along the sea coast itself, it is more or less certain that in future further reclamation and development will take place along the coast, citing the presence of the elevated road as an excuse. This will play havoc with the coastline and will also create a Shanghai-type of beachfront for the city. The question is, is this what we want?

Not surprisingly, the proposal has come in for scathing comment. The opponents have pointed out that the Government is spending vast amounts on beach beautification quite unnecessarily. If only this amount was spent on cleaning up the city’s waterways and making them navigable there would be ample scope for good connectivity from city centre
to the ECR. Where then would be the necessity for an elevated road? A waterway costs only one tenth of a roadway to maintain and is also more economical when it comes to fuel consumption. It would be the ideal solution for a city already polluted. But the present trend is more towards building massive flyovers and roads, all catering to a motorcar-using population when the majority that uses public transport and would benefit from a waterway is being neglected. When will those in power ever change this trend?

There seem to have been rumours of this since 2006. I came across this article the The Hindu.

Silence over project irks Information Commission

The winter visitors are here! � The Butterfly Diaries

The winter visitors are here! � The Butterfly Diaries

A  lovely piece!  You will enjoy reading this!

Vickie Henderson Art: I and the Bird #93: The Compelling Nature of Birds

Vickie Henderson Art: I and the Bird #93: The Compelling Nature of Birds

Take a look at Vickie's blog.  It hosts the 93rd birding blog carnival, and she has lovely whooping crane paintings as well!  The post on Sarus Cranes, I saw the tallest flying bird! is included in this carnival!

The bird that craved for a ramp

Darter, Snake bird, Pambuttara, Anhinga melanogaster...but to me it will always be the "fashion model" bird!  The waters and trees of Bharatpur are full of them. So "common" were they, that after a couple of days I stopped looking at them. Can you imagine, such a gorgeous bird, and I wouldn't give it a third look.
Photo by Mr Ramanan
A fashion critic could write," She had a lovely long neck, and the black silk saree 
with its beautiful white embroidery stood out under the ramp lights."!!  (The only thing is I dont know if its a she or a he!)

Isn't the photo above amazing?  All the features of the bird - its long snake-like neck, dagger-like bill and the wedge-shaped tail feathers - have been caught so well!

Photo by Sripad They adorned the trees all over, catching the sun to dry their wings. Everybody got great shots of these birds, and as I wondered about their vanity, Mr Chari gently mentioned that they were drying their wings because unlike water off a duck's back, the Darter's feathers do get wet, as they dive into the water in search of fish.

So it is that they spend their days, alternatively diving for fish and drying their wings!
Photo by Carthic

By the end of three days, I was able to do a pretty good imitation of the bird - ask Sripad!
Photo by Mr Ramanan
They are loners, hanging out on the trees alone, which is how we saw them most of the time.  Click on the photo to the left, and see its feet - duck like!

Carthic captured another unusual pose of this bird, as it stared into the water looking for fish.  Its got special neckbones that allows this almost unnatural-looking posture.

Photo by Carthic

Bharatpur
My photo of an Immature!

One mid morning, we came across this Darter, with an abnormally white neck. Old and grey I thought, but it was actually young and immature!!

Its the same bird, folks!

These shots are of the Snake-bird in the water.  It swims with its whole body submerged, looking like the periscope of a submarine!

As it swims, it keeps a keen eye out for the fish, which it chases with speed, shooting its bill out to spear and catch the hapless fish.  When we visited Dungarpur, in December, we saw this piece of hunting action.  The pictures below are from Vedanthangal.

Photos by Sekar
Salim Ali mentions another interesting feint.  If surprised while perched on a tree, it drops down through the branches, almost as if shot, into the water, surfacing at a safe distance.

They are found all over India - where's there's freshwater fish fish there's likely to be a Darter as well. 

Update:

On reading this, Mr Ramanan sent the following great sequence, shot at Vedanthangal. He adds:

As you have narrated about the hunting sequence of the darter, I thought I can share some of it here with you.The darter, unlike cormorants that hunt in flocks, hunts alone using its beak as a weapon to pierce the fish and bring it up. As it has to swallow the head part of the fish first, it tosses and sees that the head goes into mouth first. After feeding, it spreads its feather to dry and also cleans it beak as it contains lot of oily secretions derived while swallowing the fish. These all are 'ACTION SHOTS' for a greedy photographer like me. I have some of them here, which I have photographed at Vedanthangal on various occasions.

Exactly as we saw in Dungarpur!  Thank you Mr Ramanan!

(This is part of a series of posts on a week spent at the Keoladeo sanctuary, in Bharatpur Rajasthan.  To start at the beginning, click here.)

The Baya weaver and other discoveries

Here are the birds that I saw for the first time during the Chennai Bird Race. The Baya Weavers were in a palm tree

A Baya Weaver
Photos by Sekar

, on the road to the Vedanthangal sanctuary, after the turn-off from the highway, before the temple.

The tree was full of these birds and their nests!  I've seen empty nests before, close to Pulicat, but this was the first time I saw the birds and the nests in use.  We saw a couple of males who have a lovely yellow cap and breast during breeding, but I think this one is a female.

Mr Baya is rather industrious.  He weaves this nest from paddy reeds and other grass.  He also has a regular harem, with several wives and a separate nest for each one!  Now the interesting thing is, he weaves several of these halfway (like the one in the picture) and then has to await approval of the Mrs!  A prospective Mrs Baya comes along takes a look inside while the anxious male waits outside.  If she approves of his weaving skills, she occupies the nest, completes it, and then lays the eggs inside, taking full responsibility of incubating them! Then, our cheery Mr Baya goes off and looks for more wives with more half-finished nests!!  

What interesting lives in my environment, and I didn't know about this until now!  The finished nest has a passage that goes upwards into the egg chamber, and its so secure that snakes cannot get at the eggs.  Click here for more details on the nest and some great pictures and drawings of completed nests.

Glossy Ibis
Photos by Sekar

The Glossy Ibis was my second new "discovery" at Vedanthangal, actually in the fields surrounding the protected sanctuary. This is the adult in breeding plumage, and the sun caught the colours quite spectacularly.  

The Glossy Ibis, if I'm not mistaken, is a winter visitor, and a glamorous one at that.  As I watched it, intent on feeding in the fields I had this image of a serious and ponderous gent all dressed up for a music kutcheri but more interested in the newspaper in his lap!

Painted stork
Photos by Sekar

The slow, stalking movements take away from my pre-conceived image of grace! Quite similar to the painted stork, so beautifully captured in this photo taken within the sanctuary. Such lovely colours and such an elegant pose - like a fashion model on the ramp, but then there's an awkwardness to their gait and a certain silliness when they clack their beaks that takes away from the image!  Maybe thats why Ranjit Lal christened the Prime Minister in his Crow Chronicles as Pinky Stink Tainted Storkji!

I am reading the book, set in Bharatpur, and the bird personalities are so apt, that I think I'm going to write a couple of posts based on that book!

And late in the evening, I finally saw a Common Hawk Cuckoo, also known as the Brainfever bird!  In Kanha, in the summer of 2005, they called out to us, from all over the forest, but maddeningly, I never did get a good sight of them, as they hid in the foliage, or took off just when I sighted them.  So, four years later, I look up into the foliage, and I saw a juvenile just sitting there, quietly.  No call.  I would've missed it entirely if I had not glanced upwards.  They call mainly in the summer and are largely silent in the winter.  

Sripad's got this great shot as it feeds on its favourite food - hairy caterpillars!  

Brain-fever bird

For more of Sripad's bird race pictures click here.  

For more of our pictures from Vedanthangal, click here.  

The obliging monitors of Bharatpur

The Bharatpur story starts here.

Every now and again, we came across these large reptiles that obligingly posed for us, as they basked in the winter sun at Bharatpur. I thought they we re fascinating to look at. They look a hundred years old, with all that folded skin and dinosaur-like appearance!

The Indian Monitor, I think its called.  Its one of those ancient survivors - the species dates back several million years, I read somewhere. Around three feet long I would estimate that the one we saw were.  I think thats the average size of this variety.

All the ones we came across were solitary, and thats how adult males seem to hang out.  Not fond of company it would appear!  

After a while, this one got a bit annoyed and irritated with all the clicking and commotion and kind of walked off in a huff, into the bushes!  Its walk is clumsy and deliberate, and a sitting target I would imagine for poachers and hunters.  The eat all kinds of other insects and small creatures like frogs.  I do wonder if they form the food for some other creature.  I think their young are vulnerable to being eaten by larger birds and such, but I cant imagine anything wanting to eat one of these adults - would be terribly leathery dont you think?!

Photo by Sripad

Sripad got a good shot of its head.  See, its smiling for the camera - or is it a grimace?!

2nd HSBC Bird Race - All in a day: 131 species of birds spotted

Yes, I did it! Finally made a trip to Vedanthangal. All in the name of the bird race, which we took part in as (rather unimaginatively named) Sarus Cranes.

We ended the day with 60 species seen, whcih I thought was a great improvement from our forty something of last year!

Last year, we went to many more places inside the city. This year I toyed with the idea of green birding, but then there were added complications. Some of the team members needed to be back in half a day, and we had to see visiting family in the afternoon. It all seemed too complicated, and we chose the easy way out - we took the car. There were several teams who took on the challenge of only using public transport. Hats off to them! Maybe I'll get there next year!!

Our route was off in the morning to Vedanthangal, which is two hours away, returning via Muttukadu. Followed by lunch, siesta and some socialising with family, then off to Poonga, (no species added there), a strong bonus at the Madras Club where low tide revealed a bunch of waders, and back to the reporting venue, a trifle late actually as we crawled along in evening traffic.

I added three new birds - the glossy ibis, baya weavers and the brainfever bird.   Saw new parts of the city, enjoyed the company of kids - my friend's daughter who got all excited on spotting a bird in the bush or on the wire, my son who was all keen to go the previous day, then went through a patch of utter boredom before perking up at Vedanthangal (maybe he needed those sandwiches!!), and my Bangalore-based nephew who provided interesting sidelights about how Bangalore has so many kites (true) in the air, and that the winning team in their bird race there saw as much as 150 birds - probably also true!!  

Here's the article that appeared in the Indian Express.  I think the author meant dawn-to-dusk!

2nd HSBC Bird Race - All in a day: 131 species of birds spotted

More than five teams sighted more than 100 bird species. The Southern Grey Shrike was the rare bird of the day, seen enroute from Vedanthangal to Karikili

EITHER the bird population in Chennai and its neighbourhood has gone up in recent years or more and more people in the city are taking to ‘bird watching,’ as a hobby or for fun.
This is judging from the response to the bird watching competition on Sunday when the winning team spotted a record number of 131 species. The event was the Second HSBC ‘Bird Race,’ hooking the bird-watchers of all kinds- mostly students, professionals, housewives, and even tiny-tots and a group of physically challenged for a ‘dusk-to-dawn’ event.

The winning student team from the Madras Christian College that spotted 131 species had started its groundwork a month ago, making it clear that birdwatching is not just fun, but lot of hard work and planning. They had nicknamed their team as ‘the common house-crow.’ Reputed orinthologist Shantaram who had a hard time judging the competitive entries said this time the bird race had seen a record-breaking sighting of birds. More than five teams had sighted more than 100 bird species and eight to ten other teams had identified more than 80 birds. The Green Birding team, Iora, had seen 60 species.

The Southern Grey Shrike was the rare bird of the day seen enroute from Vedanthangal to Karikili by the Golden Oriole team.

A major number of participants this year was school students. It was intriguing to hear even tiny tots describe birds like the Paradise flycatchers, Red wattled lapwing, Indian Pitta and Spotted doves after racing them from dawn to dusk. A seven-year-old even had a warning for fauna lovers: “ Don’t cross the fence in marshlands, you might just sink into the mire.” Kumaran Sadasivan of the Madras Naturalist Society, leading a team of novices, could tell the name of the bird species just by hearing the call. The Guindy National Park offered a rare sight with children and adults seen freaking out at the occasional sights of spotted deer, blackbucks and star turtles too. “What better way to spend the Sunday?” the participants were heard talking to each other.

Fauna enthusiasts had set out in groups of four from early morning to the most expected birding areas like Guindy National Park, Vedanthangal, Nanmangalam, Pallikaranai Marshland and un expected ones like Madhavaram Jheel too.

Kavas Mistry, HSBC manager of credit operations and a participant, said, “it is a very refreshing break from the routine credit and debit work that I do. I have now learnt to look at birds more attentively,” he said.

Shobha Narayan, associate vice president of HSBC, said: “I am a novice in bird watching. But this is the best way to break the programmed lives we lead. This is my first experience, and I will continue the practice. I hope this lung space of Chennai at the Guindy National Park remains untouched.” Another participant, Varsha Manoharan, said: “I have learnt the finer points of bird watching. One can actually spot 12 species of birds on a day at the house veranda itself,” she said.

The fact that warblers were seen more and heard less and the tailorbirds seen less and heard more, were only one of the many interesting facts that emerged during the bird race.

According to the organisers, compared to last year’s 40 teams, this year the event attracted 49 teams.

Physically challenged children had not ignored the competition. A group from Vidya Sagar participated too.

The new category of Green Birdie, which used only public modes of transport, had 11 teams participating.

Students of Olcott Memorial School in Besant Nagar discovered a bird sanctuary in their school itself by recording 46 bird species.

Guneet Singh, senior VP at HSBC, said that about 99 per cent of the participants had taken part in the unique race mainly for fun. Mangalraj Johnson, Chairman, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), being a bird watcher for about 60 years, remarked: “bird watching is contagious, and there is no cure from it.” Wildlife Warden, Karunapriya, said that with the fall in bird population from important birding areas like the Pallikaranai marshland, it was vital for the local people to proactively protect the places of bird habitation.

Pictures to follow!

More pythons

Mr Ramanan sent along more python pictures, and this pair are so spectacular that I had to share them.  

He revisited the python burrow that I wrote about about, a second time and saw them once more.  This time they were out of the burrow, and quickly slid in on the arrival of intruders. But before that he got these lovely shots.

A darker-skinned maleIf you click on the photo and zoom in, you can even see the heat sensors above the nostrils.

The female

I saw the tallest flying bird!

The Bharatpur narration begins here.

The Sarus Crane - a common resident of north India, a bird I had not seen so far, and one that I will always remember when I think of my first trip to Bharatpur.

For seasoned naturalists and bird watchers, these birds are really no big deal, found as they are in agricultural fields, something like a cattle egret or a pond heron, in the south, I think!  But for me, it was my first time, so indulge me as I take you through my first views.

It was mid-morning, and a bunch of us stood around because we had seen a lot of raptor activity to the left of the road. Two Marsh Harriers circled in the sky, and then we spied two vultures perched in the tall grass, right at the edge of our binocular vision. Just the top of their heads were seen. And among them, was also the reddish head of a king vulture, which suddenly took off and sat on a dead tree, further away. As we trained our binos on it, through the corner of my eye, I saw something large (I mean really large) go gliding through the air, flying rather low, across the road to vanish behind the trees on the right-side of the road/bund that we stood on.
"Wasn't that Sarus cranes?", I exclaimed, but since everyone else was concentrating on the raptors, they seemed to have missed it and looked at me rather dubiously. Anyway, in order to check it out, just-in-case, we went to a gap in the bushes on the other side, amd the pictures you see on the left, are what we saw. A pair, (they are usually in pairs) some distance away, feeding in the marshes!  The pictures on the left are the view we had with the naked eye.  Clicked with my little automatic Sony Cybershot, I even went around a tree further down the road, to see if I would get a better shot. One lives on ambition and hope!
I realise that birdwatching would be no fun absolutely, without a good pair of binos.

The camera is optional really, but without a good pair of binocs, I would not have seen these large birds in their full detail at all, and all the several kinds of ducks would have looked the same.Thanks to my husband, I have a grand pair - 8x42 - that serve me well, and I enjoyed the red head, with the little bald patch on the top of these Sarus cranes.
An inquisitive Nilgai poked her head out from the back, wondering what the fuss was all about.

And now that I have got that account off my chest, and showed you my efforts with the camera, let me also show you some lovely pictures from the cameras of Mr Ramanan and Sripad.  This series of pictures that follow are pieced together, from two or three different instances, and so the light differs.

But, they give you an idea of what I saw through my binocs.  These 5 ft + birds are famous for pairing for life, and participating in a courtship dance.   As I watched through the binocs, the pair were busy digging vigorously in the mud for insects, roots and other such food.


Photo by Mr Ramanan

Suddenly, the larger bird (the male) stalked up rather purposefully towards the female, who spread her wings.  While we along with Mr Ramanan saw this view, 
Photo by Mr Ramanan

Sripad was at another point, and this is what he saw!

Photo by SripadPhoto by Mr Ramanan
Photo by Sripad
Photo by Mr Ramanan

And as our racket increased, off they went, to quieter locations, away from us gawking tourists.  What a life for these stars, never a moment away from the flashbulbs and cameras!!
Photo by Mr Ramanan

So, it was that I did witness the courtship dance of the Sarus cranes, but I think it was the off-season abridged version, not the full show reserved for the breeding season!  I believe, when it is the season, both partners have an extended, elaborate circling and flapping wings option, and lots of bowing and scraping!  Must be some sight.

Below, the National Geographic short video on the Sarus Crane.  Its shot in Nepal, and talks about the crane conservation efforts there.  If you can tolerate the atrocious accent of the voice over (it annoyed me greatly), its quite a nice, short video, and you get to see the chicks, and the nesting habits, as well as some moving shots of these big birds.


I found the article, Working with the Sarus Crane, by K S Gopi Sunder fascinating and educative. Mr Gopi Sunder's efforts to follow the birds and pretend to be a crane make for amusing reading, while at the same time throwing light on their nesting behaviour.

I have one question, and its been nagging me ever since my return. These birds are monogamous and pair for life, so what happens when one of the pair dies?

Update:
This post is included in I and the Bird #93: The Compelling Nature of Birds hosted by Vickie Henderson.

Python!

The Bharatpur "saga" begins here!

Python in the thicket spotted near the temple

Let me say at the outset (or have I said this before?), that I have a morbid, irrational fear of snakes, and I would most definitely prefer to see them on TV than to have a personal encounter with one!

But Bharatpur is famous for the Indian Rock Python and Whitaker has classified them as "harmless" (how could a snake that hugs its prey to death be called harmless, anyway?), and so how could I come away without a peek? 13-year-old Adhi had said on the train that the only reason he was coming to Bharatpur was the see the "hibernating Indian Rock Python"!!

Very reassuringly, Whitaker's book reports that there are no known incidents of a human being eaten by these snakes! Made me feel a lot better, I tell you. These snakes have a "territory" of sorts and favourite burrows, where they sleep, catching the sun in the day, and hunt at night.

So, we set off for the Jatoli checkpost where there were reportedly burrows of these snakes. The path was stony, dusty and uneven, and it seemed safer to wheel the bikes along these narrow paths rather than risk shooting off into the marsh on either side.

Parking our bikes at the checkpost, we went with the forest ranger from there into the scrub on the right. We only saw an empty burrow. No snake. I looked nervously around my ankles and into the surrounding bushes, and hissed to Divya (who seemed least bothered), "what if its there in those other bushes?". I have to tell you that Divya has been on a couple of trips to Agumbe, where they do research on the King Cobra, another of Whitaker's projects, and so has seen those definitely-not-harmless reptiles doing various things (like eating each other up), and this was definitely passe for her!

So, we headed back, and the ranger decided to take us into the left side. I desperately wanted to tell him, bhai sahb, chodiye, koi baath nahin, hum, vaapus chalte hein, but the others were off behind him before I could open my mouth! And so I reluctantly followed, too nervous to lag far behind, and too nervous to go to the head of the line!

And this is what we saw:

A typical burrow. can you see the snakes?What are all those bones lying around?! Somebody pulled my leg - "Oh that's its last night's dinner. Not to worry, it wont eat for a while now!"

Above, the burrow, an adult lay basking under the bushes.A few steps closer to the burrow, and these two "young" ones continue to snooze.Still closer I got, and I could see two heads!Do you see the two heads?

We had obviously got too close. Their heat sensors, close to their nostrils must have been sending loud alarm bells. In a flash, these two slithered further into the burrow, and out of sight! Who said they move slowly, these were gone in the blink of an eye, quite literally. All of us, with the sole exception of Mr Ramanan, jumped two feet away in alarm!

The adult also slithered in!End of show, folks!

As we headed back (me, in relief and triumph!), Mr Shivkumar began a yarn about his erstwhile pet python that he had many decades ago.... he would feed it rabbit that he bought from Moore market...and then gave it away to Harry Miller....for the sake of the python, not out of fear for himself, he emphasized!

I am still undecided as to whether to believe him or not....Anybody can corroborate the story?!

The second Bird race coming up on Sunday!

Madras Naturalists' Society (MNS) along with HSBC and India Bird Races is organising Chennai's Second B*ird Race* on January 25th 2009.

*The Bird Race is a dawn-to-dusk event where teams of bird-watchers willspend the entire day birding in and around Chennai (within a specified geographical limit to its outer boundaries). The participants will try and record as many species of birds as possible and learn about the finer points of bird-watching from the experts and the experienced. *

Each Team will consist of *04 (four) persons* and each Team *must include a good birder* who is familiar with the site's/region's avifauna. You are *free to constitute your own Team,* but must ensure at least one of you is a proficient birder, familiar with the region's birdlife, and who can be the Team Captain.

You need to send a mail to either mns_memb...@... or birdr...@... to register, giving brief details of whether you will form your own Team (in which case you need to include your team members' names) or would like us to form a Team for you.

For further information do visit *www.indiabirdraces.com*