The Peacock of New Beach Road

Intermittently through the summer of '21, through lockdown, sightings of a young peacock yet to grow his elaborate tail feathers, have been reported up and down our road.  A solitary vagrant (?) that has taken a liking to the neighbourhood?

13th Dec 2021 was my close encounter.

The morning starts with a light drizzle, hmm, terrace walk, to go or not, tussle between my id (relax!) and my overactive superego (no you must go, don't be lazy)...sigh, superego wins, and off I go to our terrace. 

Emerging from the door, I gasped, there was the peacock just beyond the door, and not in the least perturbed or shocked at seeing me!  I stood stock still and watched as he strolled across the terrace to the wall and hopped up.

My first of several pictures of the young chap. Pavo cristatus - Indian peafowl

I moved slowly and kept my distance, took a few video clips and many pictures as it strolled and explored our terrace, at leisure, in the jerky fashion that many of these big birds have.

I admired the brilliant "peacock blue" of his neck.  Got a close look at the leg spurs.

I later read that,  that spur on the leg comes when they are around 2 years and tail feathers begin developing around 4.  So then was this chap between 2-4 years of age?  Why was he on his own like this?  I have always seen them in small groups, when I have seen them in India's sanctuaries, be it Kanha or Kaziranga.  I remember in Manas how there was a congregation of them at the entrance of the park.  Our first "Darshan" everyday before we headed in.  

All through the stroll, the house crows of the neighbourhood made their displeasure known, swooping close to his head, hopping closely with loud caws.  

The crows seemed bemused, not knowing what to make of this large bird, something new in the neighbourhood.  I remember when we spotted the Grey Hornbills, the crows behaved in the same manner. In that case, they successfully chased the pair of hornbills away, but our friend the peacock was not too bothered.

Finally, after a complete stroll around, with crows constantly swooping around, he hopped onto the eastern wall, before he launched off.

I peered over the wall, but lost sight of it.  Saw the beautiful reddening leaves of the jungli badam instead.

And then I spied him, across the road on the neighbour's roof!

It was an amazingly rewarding morning - I saw these 4 blue-tailed bee-eaters, as well and enjoyed their insect-hunting sorties and acrobatics.  Initially I wondered if they were chestnut-headed, but their long streamer tail made me conclude that they were Blue-tailed.  Here for the winter.

I also saw scaly-breasted munias, and this beautiful tree.

And here's the complete video.

21st December

An alert neighbour found the peacock once again - in the trees. And Sekar took these pictures through one of our bedroom windows.

We were able to admire the crest on his head, and the beautifully descriptive eyes.  That blue.... I had some sarees in that colour....silk, gorgeous.

He was feeding on the little berries and the young shoots...peck, peck, look, look, duck from the crow, peck again, neck in, neck up...we observed his motions.

And then he did something interesting...he lifted his undeveloped train of feathers, and quivered them, did a pirouette on the branch, showed us his rear.  Did this a couple of times, to a disinterested couple of crows as audience!  (Besides us of course!)

Getting ready for the breeding season?  Or is he immature still?  I wondered.

Further encounters ensued.

23rd December - on our car - seems like a photoshoot - blue on blue.  
Picture taken by our neighbour.

27th December evening - on the coconut tree, surrounded by crows, who were behaving in an indignant fashion - I mean, the coconut tree, this is the limit, I could almost imagine them muttering among themselves.

This was today - 28th December - on our neighbour's tank.  He was there for a good length of time.  Seemed to survey things around, and kept gobbling something - maybe ants - from around that brick he's standing on.

Wishing him a happy 2022, when he finds some other birds of his own feather - and maybe we will see his trail developing? And hear that characteristic peacock call, which has been completely absent.  Very quiet for an adolescent!

3rd January update

Spied this morning too, on the neighbour's fence, eating berries.  His neck caught the morning sun and I gasped with delight watching the shimmering colours through the binoculars.

A dog barked, and he was all alert.  A crow swooped close to its head and settled on the fence too, and immediately this chap put up his yet-to-fully-grow tail, and did his kathakali moves to the crow. So was that an act of aggression or is he (Heaven forbid) thinking he has to woo the crow?!

The neighbour's dog came bounding to the fence, and with a roll of its eyes, the peacock hopped across to the other side and vanished.

5th January - further update

Peacock evening it was!  My friend was on the neighbour's roof once again, and once again being heckled by the crow.  This time, I was able to catch its offensive actions on camera.

Up went its unformed tail, and it faced the crow - was it as a threat or in courtship?  The crow like the peahens, looked totally disinterested, looking the other way.

The crow hopped around on the wall, seemingly trying to deflect this attention, but the peacock moved in true kathakali style, quivering its feathers and also kind of rattling its beak, giving the crow his full attention.

In what felt like a slow-mo, the peacock swivelled as the crow moved.  

As i watched this scene in total rapt fascination, the crow decided it had had enough, and took off, (I like to think), when faced with the rear end of the peacock.

Immediately the tail came down and the peacock kind of peered over to see where the crow had gone off to.  

14th January

After a long hiatus, he was sighted this morning again.  Was it the overnight rain that brought him into view? on the roof of the bungalow across the road, once again in conversation with the crow.

I want to give him a name.  No inspiration at the moment.

The rains of 2021 November and the new rivers of Thiruvanmyur beach

November 2021

Thiruvanmyur

15th November 2021

After the first serious bout of rain, this plot at the corner of Baywatch boulevard and KK road  was semi-flooded and they were pumping the water all the way to the sea.

 

 

 And this was the other road along which a channel was created.  Reminding me of my grandmother's home, and the water canals that would course through the farm areas.

Definite paper boat kind of feelings.

28th November - the sun comes out, the sea was calmer and the cattle were happy with some dry spot!

November 29th.

New Beach Road is lined with RWH pits connected by a sloping pipe through which excess water goes to the sea, via this outlet.  

This plot at the corner of Baywatch boulevard and KK road is completely inundated - it is a sheet of water along with the road next to it. 

My hypothesis is that this now is the level of the water table.  The owners of the plot on the other hand, think they can pump away this water.  Which is what they are doing.  Water is getting pumped to the sea in huge pipes.  Can't the empty plots at least be allowed to keep their water, and support the monsoon ecosystem of frog and tadpole?  Will mosquitoes breed then?

I saw  tadpoles in a couple of waterfilled plots and have been hearing the sound of frogs, maybe for the first time ever, on NBR?

Water in SloMO From the beach

 Clean Up!

It was a timely and quick way to remove the plastic thrown back by the sea from the sands for sure.  The only problem with this is that it also affects the intertidal marine life doesn't it?  All those little crabs and clams - all collateral damage?

Several such mounds from the earthmover lined the road.
I hope that this kind of cleaning is a one-off event as otherwise the sands will get "dead".

As I watched the floodwaters join the sea, I ruminated on how, we are spending huge monies on desalinating the  ocean's waters on the one hand for our consumption, and then the fresh water that comes to us free, we are once again spending money and pumping back into the sea.

Surely there is a better way?

Chennai resident crosses birding milestone, documents 100 species from hearthstone - The Hindu

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/pallikaranai-resident-crosses-birding-milestone-records-100-species-from-hearthstone/article37732789.ece

Chennai resident crosses birding milestone, documents 100 species from hearthstone

Sundaravel Palanivel recently reached the three-figure mark, remarkably through patch birding from his home in Pallikaranai. His observations and photographic records include around 10 rarities and many insightful avian patterns

Prince Frederick

Any successful flourish of the bat or a breakthrough with the ball or any defining moment in a match would instantaneously whip up a frenzy in the stands. It would combine the spontaneity that goes with deliriously delighted fans and the craft associated with professionally trained cheerleaders.

When Sundaravel Palanivel ran up a workmanlike hundred recently, there was a rare form of cheering with spontaneity and aesthetics seamlessly woven into it. In that moment when he looked through the viewfinder at a dancing forest wagtail and pressed down the shutter-release button, and reached that magical three-figure mark, the sense of achievement was inescapable. That untrained but delectable cheerleader perfected that moment of glory. For the uninitiated, the forest wagtail does a sideways sway in elegant contrast to the almost frenzied up-and-down tail-bobbing of other wagtails.

It was a hundred counted not by runs, but feathers; and the duration in which it was achieved measured not by balls, but 24-hour days. With the sighting and recording of the forest wagtail, Sundaravel was documenting the hundredth bird species from his hearthstone. He had amassed that score in a two-to-three-year time frame, sedulously applying himself to confiding the sightings to an excel sheet.

Sundaravel travels long and often in the hope of clapping eyes on rarities, but has also stayed faithful to his patch which he watches with eyes peeled back.

The fact that he is domiciled at Kamakotti Nagar in Pallikaranai, and the view outside includes spits of land and water that borrow their character from the Pallikaranai Marsh was surely an incentive.

His apartment is located on Third Main Road Kamakotti Nagar, which is overlooked by the tall NIOT campus ringed by trees that are taller still. While many of the bird sightings happened on this road and the terrace of his four-floor apartment complex, he also ranges around the neighbourhood, heading into streets nearby where nature plays peekaboo with civilisation, giving a fleeting glimpse of its largesse. The entries in the sheet locate each of the streets around his hearth where sightings happened.

The trees that rear up majestically on the NIOT campus serve as cradle for newborns of big waterbirds, which include the black-headed ibis, spot-billed pelican, Eurasian spoonbill and members of the heron and egret families. Though the nest-laden trees — in the breeding season — are out of range for his telephoto lens, Sundaravel has managed to freeze frames touched on the edges with heart-warming domestic scenes of parent-birds leading their young out on trial flights.

An almost permanent collection of water adjacent to the campus functions as a play school for fledglings. These are only the predictable factors his viewfinder is accustomed to. Unexpected feathers are often known to flit across that lucky eyepiece.

Out of the hundred, around 10 would be rarities. The others are regular residents, migrants and local-migrants, notes Sundaravel. No sighting can compete with any other, as each brings with it its own unique insight, with some even completing patterns.

Over the last two years, he has seen the Asian pied starling take ownership of the space, from just one breeding pair to at least four pairs now. The sighting and documentation of these breeding pairs etch a curious picture of the species' range expansion into Chennai, a recent phenomenon attested by other sightings from birders from other parts of the metro. Not long ago, northern Andhra Peradesh was believed to bring up the southern bounds of this species' distribution range in India.

There have also been sightings from home that are not exactly grounded. In the hours after cyclone Nivar (November 23-27, 2020) had crossed the coast, an Amur falcon crossed his path, its journey to its faraway wintering grounds in southern and east Africa evidently rescheduled and rerouted through Sundaravel's "airway", by the weather system. Interestingly enough, Sundaravel saw the obviously-windblown Amur falcon, winging far above his apartment complex, at the exact moment that he was discussing sightings of storm-tossed and windblown pelagic birds with this writer. Excusing himself, the birder dropped out of the call, and returned to announce his "windfall".

The best patch-birding day for him arrived this year on April 3, when he watched two rare warblers that are passage migrants in these parts — the large-billed leaf warbler and western crowned warbler. These birds had invited themselves to his apartment, and the unlikelihood of those visits makes one wonder if birds do wise up to human ways: And that these two were probably aware of the excel sheet in Sundaravel's laptop.

Another passage migrant, one that is discovering new pitstops in Chennai, the chestnut-winged cuckoo features in Sundaravel's coveted list.

Other notables on the patch-birding list include the gray-bellied cuckoo, red-necked falcon, sooty tern, cinnamon bittern, black bittern, yellow bittern, Caspian tern, lesser cuckoo, Asian brown flycatcher, garganey, long-tailed shrike, brown shrike, wood sandpiper, marsh sandpiper, western yellow wagtail, Blyth's reed warbler, citrine wagtail, rosy starling, fulvous whistling-duck, striated heron, pheasant-tailed jacana, Indian paradise-flycatcher, white-browed bulbul and an elusive and awkward skulker, the blue-faced malkoha.

Ambika