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?!
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!
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.
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 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.
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!
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?
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!"
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!
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?!
Photo by Sripad
Photo by Mr Ramanan
Photo by Mr Ramanan
Photo by Sripad
Photo by Mr Ramanan
Photo by Sripad
Photo by Mr Ramanan
Photo by Mr Ramanan
Python in the thicket spotted near the temple
