Rain catcher: on Jacobin Cuckoo - The Hindu

An interesting article about the Jacobin cuckoo, with pictures from Sagarika's sightings this April 2019, around Perumbakkam, part of the larger Pallikaranai marsh area.

Rain catcher: on Jacobin Cuckoo - The Hindu

The Jacobin Cuckoo heralds the monsoon in north India

Abhishek Gulshan

The Jacobin Cuckoo is one lucky bird indeed. At least according to Indian myth. Also known as the Pied Cuckoo or Chatak, this bird heralds the onset of the monsoon in India.

Being an agricultural economy the rainy season is considered one of the most auspicious seasons in the country. And so, the Pied Cuckoo in North and Central India is a welcome sight.

It is a bird with black and white plumage (pied) with a fancy crest on the head. Its scientific name is Clamator jacobinus. The genus ‘Clamator’ literally translates to being a shouter, a bird which is quite vocal, so you’ll hear yourself surrounded by the calls close to the monsoon. The word ‘jacobinus’ relates to pied birds.

Pictures are from Sagarika's sighting in Chennai

There are two populations of the Pied Cuckoo in India. One is a resident in the southern part of the country. The other, according to tracking by birders, makes its way to North and Central India from Africa by crossing the Arabian Sea, along with the monsoon winds. When the monsoon arrives in all its majesty, its sighting also spreads widely.

So this is a resident?  I didn't know that.

The bird is primarily arboreal, which means that it mostly lives on trees but often forages for food in low bushes, and sometimes even on the ground. Considering its arboreal nature, it prefers forests, well-wooded areas and also bushes in semi-arid regions. These birds are primarily insectivores and feed on grasshoppers, beetles and are also often seen feeding on fruits and berries from trees.


The species, like all cuckoos, is a brood parasite. It lays its eggs in nests that belong to other birds, preferring similar-sized birds like babblers and bulbuls, as their ‘hosts’. The hosts are often distracted by male cuckoos, and the females quickly lay their similar-sized and coloured eggs into the hosts’ nests. The hosts then take care of the eggs and the chicks that hatch from them, as their own. The parasitic chicks are fed by the hosts and then leave the host parents once they are ready to be on their own.

A few years ago, birdwatchers set out to test the truth behind whether the bird does signal the coming of the monsoon. We began a monitoring process, collecting data around bird sightings, and other habits. This is being documented online on ebird.org, an Ivy-League initiative for birdwatchers all around the world.

A large number of birdwatchers reported the sighting of the Pied Cuckoo on the online documentation forum, and when these dates of sightings were compared to the monsoon's arrival, as available with the Indian Meteorological Department, the results were fairly clear. Pied Cuckoos did indeed arrive before the monsoon in most parts of central and northern India. In a few areas, it was also observed that wherever the monsoon was to arrive earlier than usual, the Pied Cuckoo also showed up a few days earlier. So the Chatak is not an old wives’ tale anymore.

To join a trail in Mangar, Haryana this Sunday and spot the Jacobin Cuckoo, email ninox.edu@ gmail.com

The writer is the founder of NINOX - Owl about Nature, a nature-awareness initiative. He formerly led a programme at WWF India as a naturalist, and is the Delhi-NCR reviewer for Ebird, a Cornell University initiative, monitoring rare sightings of birds in the region

Who was Marcus Garvey?

July 11th 2019

That is the question that crossed my mind, as I crossed the park this morning.  Turns out he was a Jamaican-born activist of Black Rights, Black Brotherhood and established many a business in order to improve the lot of African Americans.  Seems to have supported the KKK, (why???), and lived in Harlem when he moved to the US. A colourful and controversial character.

This 20 acre park is located between 120th and 124th street, and has oak trees and sparrows and starlings in plenty.

This art installation is made from used tires.  The mound seen at the rear is part of a schist/large rock around which the park is built.  Supposedly, they could not remove it, to extend 5th Avenue, and proposed a tunnel through it - but it did not get built.

Need to find out what this spectacular tree is.

Are those flowers I spied, on the Oak tree?

Birds of a feather bathing together!

The squirrel seems to have figured how to work the water fountain.

I tried unsuccessfully to reach the Harlem river, but came up against the Harlem River  Drive and the bridge to Randall island, which seemed "uncrossable" on foot at 125th.  I would need to trudge up to 128th.

With a midday sun overhead, and hot concrete underfoot, the extra walk did not seem appealing at all, and I returned, catching a row of maples instead.

Maple leaves against the blue sky 

And another outdoor art piece catches my eye

Brown-belted bumblebees

Harlem, New York

I am on the 19th floor in Harlem, and the midday air is usually filled with the wailing of ambulance sirens in the streets below, and a more persistent and loud buzz closer by.  Little black and brown blobs would whizz by my startled nose, and land on the balcony railings and take off once again before I could get a good glimpse of them.

Today morning, me and my iPhone were quick on the draw, and I caught this beauty just as it was about to take off.

                                                       Brown-belted Bumble Bee

 (Bombus griseocollis)

I did not think they would be seen so high up in the atmosphere.  These brown-belted bumblebees are important flower and fruit pollinators for the region, and they are probably the reason that those hibiscuses are flowering merrily and happily!

Sharp-Eatman nature photography has an ID guide for the wild bees of New York

Identification Information:  These bees can be best identified by their trim "crew cut" fur and by the belt of brown hair that usually appears near the front end (on the second segment) of their black abdomens, just behind a narrow yellow band.  Brown-belted bumble bees have  black legs and dark transparent wings.  Their heads are black, sometimes with yellow markings, and they have large black eyes.  The bees' yellow thoraxes (mid-sections) may or may not have a black spot at the center.  Queen bees may lack the brown belt.  Queens are substantially larger than other members of this species but have the same distinctive large eyes and  trim fur.

Unlike other bumble bees, brown-belted bumble bees have short tongues.  They thus are unable to access nectar and pollen from deep-throated flowers.  They prefer blossoms that have flat landing platforms containing multiple florets, such as milkweed, black-eyed Susans and thistles.   Instead of expending energy by flying from one flower to the next, brown-belted bumble bees can walk from floret to floret, efficiently gathering a small amount of nectar from each. The brown-belted bumble bees shown here were gathering nectar in this fashion from coneflowers, common milkweed and swamp milkweed.  These bumble bees also feed on goldenrod, toadflax and thistles along park trails and in Stone Barns' gardens.  They first appear in our area in mid-March and remain throughout the summer.

The Hibiscus suits their short tongues!

The snipes of Karapakkam

20th April 2019

I make life difficult for myself.  I have to go and see those snipes, but I cannot take the car all by myself, so I need to find company to justify those carbons in the air, and I am finding low cooperation from the family, and so it has meant that despite Sagarika's constant nagging, bribing (with those lovely pictures), and whining, I did not go to see them.  (She claims she was after me since February, but she loves to be technical and specific about these matters.)

After extracting a promise that I will not malinger or wander or get  a heatstroke, (I am known to do all three), my husband decided to be the other warm body as we set off to see the Snipes of Karapakkam.

In the process we saw the relentless march of construction in the Pallikaranai marsh, as we followed instructions into some interior roads where every few plots were empty and marshy and supporting swamp hens, pond herons and warblers and sunbirds, while multi-storeyed buildings and debris filled more and more of the wetland.

We parked in one of the lanes and walked around stopping at each marshy plot.  Flashes of purple as swamp hens fluttered from one plot to the other.  A watercock walked into the reeds as did a bittern.  A plain prinia flitted among the reeds, calling sharply as it swayed precariously on the slim blade.  A purple-rumped sunbird flashed across heading for the wildflowers that were growing in the edges.

But no snipe did we spot.  We reached the end of the road, and suddenly it was all marsh ahead.  We seemed to have reached the existing boundary of construction,  a road running south-north along the edge.  At the far end, we saw a gaggle of photographers and binocular-wielding humans and we knew that must be where the snipes are!  We hurried across and there they were, several of them, staring balefully and not doing very much.  The Greater Painted Snipes.  My first time.

GK was there and filled me in on some rather interesting aspects.  The female is well marked, brightly coloured and polyandrous.  She does the courting, and once the eggs are laid, it is the male that sits and takes care of the nest and brood while she goes out and forages!  As a result the male is dull coloured. Opposite of the usual rule of brightly coloured males.

This was my first sighting of the Snipes.  We also saw Common Snipes.  Supposedly the Painted Snipes are not "real" snipes", Common Snipes are.  The common snipe (Gallinago gallinago) does not have the role reversal of the Painted ones, and they are also more shy it appears.  They had a long straight bill and a mottled appearance.

Here are the pictures from Sagarika's visit - we did not have a camera.

 The Greater painted-snipe (Rostratula benghalensis) male, which is a duller brown and has that white breast band

The spectacular colourings of the female.  The eye patch looks like the letter P, doesn't it?

Sagarika pointed me to another interesting aspect of this bird.  It is the origin for the word "sniper".  According to Wikipedia, soldiers of British India used "to snipe", which meant they would go and hunt and shoot these plump rather slow-moving birds.  And these "sportsmen" (whats so sporting about it beats me completely), were referred to as snipers.

The Chennai sun was out by now, and the crowd of birdwatchers thinned, and we left too, not before seeing the aerial antics of some green beeeaters.

The slowly vanishing wetland of Chennai still teams with life

Pallikaranai wetland and Perumbakkam lake:  In front of our eyes, it is slowly dying, choking with garbage, and being filled in for development, as we watch helplessly.

And how much of bird life is still there!  Through the winter of 2018-19, my friend Sagarika, visited the wetlands and recoded the comings and goings of winter visitors, the nesting of some of the water birds, the courtship and the territoriality.

Flamingoes crowd around in the little patch of water, buildings all around.

A mixed menagerie, all cheek by jowl - pelicans, egrets, herons, ducks

And all the time, there is this relentless filling in off the marsh.  

The Pied Avocets sharing space with Black-Winged Stilts and the ducks

A Yellow bittern (Ixobrychus sinensis) skulked in the undergrowth, its head feathers all astray.  She spotted several through the course of her regular weekend visits.

Another Yellow Bittern, in breeding plumage.

The black bittern (Ixobrychus flavicollis) also loves wetlands, nests in the reed beds.  Sagarika found this one,
stock still as it waited for fish.

Above the water, in the shrubbery, the winter visitor Blue-tailed bee eater brought a
flash of brilliant colour as it fed on the insects that are a plenty over the waters.

And on the lines above, barn swallows rested in droves

 

This season, the flamingoes have been seen in large numbers.  Pallikaranai, opposite the garbage dump, and in the Perumbakkam side, they have been seen everywhere.  Juveniles and adults.

 

Garganeys visiting for the winter,

... as also Godwits

Ibises aplenty,

Pheasant-tailed Jacanas in breeding plumage and nesting as well.

A Jacobin's cuckoo among the thorny scrub

She spied a Jerdon's bush lark (Mirafra affinis) or Jerdon's lark, something I have not seen, ever.  

While a bush chat seemed to spy her..

And a raptor surveyed its hunting grounds.."it was huge in size.  Huge as in so huge we could see it with naked eye!"  Bigger than a Harrier, so probably an Eagle.

A ringed Plover seemed to pose for her.

Is that a Ruff rummaging in the weeds?

A Northern Shoveler couple swim and feed

The weekend birders 'club' knew the Snipe spots!  Painted?  

They spotted some 15 one day! Common Snipes

And Wagtails together!  Citrine and Yellow.

The Clamorous Reed Warbler clamoured and sang delightfully,

Whistling teals whistled as they flew in formation across the marsh

And many a Swamp Hen preened, fed and called, across the wetlands.

Birders go every weekend, in-beween the apartment complexes.  Every empty plot is still a wetland, and along with the plastic and other human-generated garbage, there is still urban wildlife.

How long until it all vanishes?

PTJ redux

Beautiful capture of Jacanas with a new born chick by Mr Ramanan.  Mr Ramanan's photo essay from the 2017 breeding season is here.  

I went looking for them a few days later with Sheila, and while we did not see the eggs (they had probably all hatched), we saw what was in all likelihood, the third chick.

When we reached, we heard the male PTJ calling in agitation and looking eft and right.  It appeared that he was calling the chicks.  Initially, we saw a slightly larger chick, which subsequently we did not see at all.  (I have read that when they hear an alarm call from the parent, the chicks hide under a floating leaf.  I wonder if that is what it did!

We did spy a littler chick, unsteady on his feet, which seemed to follow the parent, and I marvelled at how they stayed afloat and knew instinctively that they had to put their feet on the leaves and not in the water.  All the time we were there, it was not fed by any parent, unlike other bird chicks, who are constantly crying for food.

The wetlands was filled with the calls of the jacanas, the honks of moorhens, interspersed with the impatient school bus and a motorcycle driving by.  

I was dismayed at the amount of construction that is going on in the marsh.

Its a completely bizarre and distressing site.  There are homes, apartments even, and raised roads, while all the empty plots are filled with water, reeds and remnants of marshland.  It seems insane to come and build here, and even more insane to buy and live here.

The treepie

The treepie called me to my window.
Softly,
Like water dripping in a pool
Bob-o-link, bob-o-link.

The teak tree leaves and the wind did their best to hide it from me.
I caught but a glimpse.


Why do I smile so?



Rufous tree pie (Dendrocitta vagabunda) on the teak tree (Tectona grandis) in my neighbour's garden.

The Pheasant Tailed Jacanas of Pallikaranai

I remember when I first saw the Jacana walk on water (well almost), it just blew my mind, and I spent hours at Dungarpur just observing their spidery legs and jerky movements.  

The pheasant-tailed jacana (Hydrophasianus chirurgus) is quite common in the wetlands of Chennai, and always make for interesting sightings as they dart on top of the floating vegetation.

Mr Ramanan is a regular Sunday visitor to the marshes of Pallikaranai and Sholinganallur and has documented their courtship and breeding over several years. The females are larger and more colourful than the male and are polyandrous.  it is the males that incubate the eggs!

Mr Ramanan notes, "In 2016 in the month of June I had come across two active nests of Pheasant Tailed Jacanas closer to the road side itself. The female is polyandrous and the male takes care of entire breeding of the chicks."

Mr Ramanan noted that the smaller male chased the female with which he had previously mated, 

went underneath the bird, pushed it from the squatting position.  it looked as if the male was suspicious of the female, and did not want another clutch of eggs of another male in its territory?

In another instant, Mr Ramanan observed the male take the chicks under its wing, when a predator was sighted.  The alarm call had been raised by the female.

This is the male's protection posture, with all the chicks underneath, looking like a single adult with eight legs!

Mr Ramanan captured this picture of the female's frightened posture, with body erect but tail down.  (And do see those claws!)

"Once the threat disappeared they started feeding as usual."

"The breeding plumages of the sickle shaped tail with predominant amount of chocolate-brown colour and in flight a large amount white, was observed from the month of May to June this year. On one occasion when the early morning sun rays peeped through the clouds, it painted the female Pheasant-Tailed Jacana with the golden touch of rays which really accentuated its silky golden coloured nape."

Mr Ramanan continued his watch of the PTJs through the summer of 2016 and 2017.  "The sign of chasing all other birds like white breasted water-hen and purple moorhen, from their territory in the month of July, indicated that it has already laid the eggs.  As expected the first chick emerged on the 4th of August, and were seen with the male Pheasant-Tailed Jacana which had shed the tail by that time. I was expecting for some more chicks on subsequent days but it was not to be and the male has only one chick as on 11th of August. On 9th of August again came across the protection display. This time just like last year the female raised the alarm call when a common kite hovered over it and the male with the feeble call attracted the chick and took it under its wings.   The female immediately hovered over and chased the Common Kite. It is clear from the above that female also played an active role while breeding in case of threat, apart from the role of guarding their territory."

Incubating male seen at Sholinganallur.

Notice the large brown eggs! PTJ females usually lay a clutch of four.

When a Shikra was sighted, the male PTJ aggressively left its clutch unguarded and chased the predator.

Returning after a successful chase!

With his keen eye, patience and regular documentation, Mr Ramanan has been able to put together an entire series on the breeding of the PTJs, which makes for a fascinating account.

The marshes and wetlands of Chennai - important and precious for so many creatures big and small.