My new discovery

Thanks to the bird race last Sunday, we visited the Karikili tank for the first time. Next to Vedanthangal, its more popular cousin ensures that there are no crowds here. 

It appears that the pintails also preferred the peace and quiet of this lake, and were sunning and snoozing in large numbers, far away from the noisy pelicans of Vedanthangal. 

We sat for a while on the bund and watched them now and then going bottoms-up as something in the water grabbed their attention.

A pied kingfisher did its helicopter act before divebombing in, only to come up empty-beaked.

As I sauntered along the walkway, a long wispy brown tail fluttered in the trees, attached to a rufous paradise flycatcher busy chomping on some hapless insect.  He stared at me indignantly before taking off to the next tree.

A flock of Red-wattled Lapwings announced our presence with some frantic did-you-do-it calling, but the Cormorant which was preening and sunning couldn't care less.

A lonely Lttle Grebe and a Common Coot looking most uncommon swum around as if in search of friends.

A Coppersmith Barbet and a Brainfever bird called from the trees, well hidden from our view.

We soon moved on to Pallikaranai, but the lake was the highlight of a day well spent, as we enjoyed the oh-so-short Madras  winter, with good company to boot.  Thank you Sekar, Raji and Sheila!

PS - our tally of 70 odd (72 I think) was the highest we've achieved on a bird race, so not bad for a birding day that finished at 2pm!  Of course GK's idying and Sheila's camera added a good handful to our tally at the end of the day.

Du Fu and the Golden Oriole

I am in a Chinese state of mind these days, as we plan to go off for a week to Beijing and Xi'an.

And Mr Ramanan sent me this absolutely spectacular picture of the Godlen Oriole he spied at Vedanthangal.  As I admired those eyes that looked like they were kohl-lined, I was immediately struck by the thought that someone must have been inpired to rhyme by this lovely bird.

Golden oriole - Photo by Mr Ramanan

And there it was.  Du Fu, the Chinese poet from the Tang dynasty period composed this four-line poem.

A pair of golden orioles sings in green willows
a column of snowy egrets flies off in blue sky
my window contains peaks with a thousand years of ice
my gate harbors boats from ten thousand miles downriver

( Red Pine. Poems of the Masters, p. 100. Copper Canyon Press 2003.)

Another translation:

Two golden orioles sing in the green willows,
A row of white egrets against the blue sky.
The window frames the western hills' snow of a thousand autumns,
At the door is moored, from eastern Wu, a boat of ten thousand li.

http://www.chinese-poems.com/d29.html

I like the second translation better.

The capital of the Tang dynasty in the first century AD was Xi'an.  But Du Fu himself seems to have moved to Chendu, where he is reported to have composed this quartrain sometime around 759 AD. 

The Golden Oriole seen in China some 1,200 years ago, and photographed so beautifully in Madras by Mr Ramanan.  The poem survives and so does the bird!

Gives me goosebumps.

An encounter at Vedanthangal

This article is linked in I and the Bird #98.

White-throated kingfisher - Photo by Mr Ramanan

This is a White-throated kingfisher, common in my neighbourhood and familiar to me.

Less than a foot, with a beak that looks like its too heavy for its body, and with a cackling and long cry.

(Even as I write this post, I can hear it calling outside my window)

Olive Keelback / Atretium schistosum
Originally uploaded by kamalnv / Ophiographer

This is an Olive Keelback, or so I was informed.   (I found this picture on Flickr.  Do take a look at kamalnv's other snake photos. He calls himself an ophiographer - someone who loves to photograph snakes!!)

The olive keelback is  unfamiliar to me. Found in freshwater  water bodies like ponds, common in south India, and maybe a foot and a half when full grown.  

Mama keelback lays eggs - about 10-30 of them - generally between January and April, and the baby snakes are half a foot long or so.

What do you think would happen in an encounter between bird and snake? 

I would bet on the snake as victor wouldn't you?  But Mr Ramanan was witness to an encounter where the bird just decimated the snake, well in an indirect sort of way.  

Read on...

Mr Ramanan recounts,

27th March 2009:  Vedanthangal sanctuary visit.  1:45 pm.  3 MNS members, sitting on a bench under a tree, lining the tank bund.  A white-breasted/(throated) kingfisher lands a branch some 20 ft away.

The bird was looking intently at the crevices formed between the stones studding the waterside of the bund. Suddenly it made a sharp dive towards the bund, caught a wriggling animal and flew back to its perch where it started battering the struggling animal to either stun or kill it. 

We thought that the victim was a skink, but when the bird sat still for a brief moment we could see that it had caught a small snake. 

Photo by Mr Ramanan

After some time the kingfisher flew away with the snake still in its mouth. Thinking that the show was over two of us moved away while the third stayed back to rest for some more time. When he rejoined us after about 30 minutes he mentioned that the bird had appeared twice more and caught a snake each time!

We returned to the bench after another 45 minutes or so. A local man sitting there informed us that during our absence the kingfisher had caught three more snakes while one snake which had emerged from the crevice when the bird was not around managed to survive. He showed us this snake which turned out to be a freshly hatched olive keelback. It was being mobbed by black ants which were trying to eat the yolk material still adhering to its skin. We took some photos to help in identification. 

When we looked up the kingfisher was there once again! In the next 30 minutes it caught two more snakes and one snake managed to survive thanks to the bird’s absence. After 4 PM the bird did not appear again.

The mother olive keelback seems to have laid its clutch in the crevice formed by the dressed stones lining the bund. And the bird seems to be aware of the hatchlings coming out one after another. In 130 minutes or so the kingfisher had caught 8 snakes and taken them away, probably to its nest, whereas only two snakes managed to survive. It is possible that the bird had caught some more snakes before our arrival, and also a few snakes might have moved away to survive. 

Mr Ramanan further elaborated that this is the nesting time for the whitebreasted kingfisher, and during that period, in order to feed its young, it looks voraciously for food.  It is not like the shrike, which kind of build a larder of dead prey.

Now this report, generated a lot of dialogue and sharing among MNS members.  While newbies like me, went wow! and amazing! etc etc, other senior members had more experiences to add!!

Preston Ahimaz recalled that, "I once saw a white-throat pick up baby squirrels from a coconut palm where their mother was depositing them, one at a time, from her nest in our kitchen after the nest was disturbed. " 

Sripad wondered whether the varied diet of the KF could be a reason for its "success as a species?  What I would like to know is, do other species of Kingfisher like the Stork Billed KF and the Pied KF follow the eating habits of the White Breasted KF. I think if they did, even their numbers would be as high as the WB KF. I have only seen the Stork Billed KF once,
early last year in Chennai.It would be physically difficult for a Small Blue to catch crabs and skinks. The Pied KF seems to have evolved the hovering ability to exclusively catch fish,there is no  doubt that they are only fish eaters . 

For me, it also explained why the KFs are common around my home, where there is no water body and no fish.  They love my neighbour's garden - probably feasting on all the creepy crawlies there.

The olive keelback snake is one of the more benign snakes, and does not go around biting, supposedly, and also eats mosquito larvae.  

Arun's wry observation that they say that "the WBK is neither a King, (they are so common) nor a fisher, (they eat umpteen things other than fish)!" is an apt sign-off!

About Vedanthangal

Its a bird sanctuary about 80 kms from Madras/Chennai, off the Chinglepet-Trichy highway.  There is a central water body, with the bund all around lined with viewing towers and benches.  Water birds like open-billed storks, painted stork, cormorants and some pelicans roost here, though Nelapattu in Andhra Pradesh  is more popular with the pelicans.

Read more Vedanthangal stories here.

Read Charlie's (of 10000birds.com) account 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.  

Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary, southern India. 04 Dec 2008

Charlie of 10,000birds was at Vedanthangal a fortnight ago, and here's a link to his interesting and amusing trip report

Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary, southern India. 04 Dec 2008

I have a personal jinx with that place.  I can count upto five opportunities over the last two years that I've had to visit, and have had to cancel in the last minute.

Its only worth visiting at this time of the year.   This is also the happening time for me in Madras, what with exams, kutcheris, NRI visitors, weddings, reunions ...and of course work deadlines.  Excuses, excuses, you say, and I have to agree.

Sigh!  Anyways, until I visit Charlie's report should more than suffice!

PS: There's another great post on Pond Herons as well from Charlie.  He describes the confusion between the flying white bird and the sitting brown bird rather well!!

Update:  Some photos from the MNS trip

Picasa Web Albums - Sharky - Vedanthangal Trip

Birding spots to the south of the city

Gillian of Delhibird network had this to say about the spots she visited from Madras:

VEDANTHANGAL

Just 80 kms south of Chennai this is a village water body where birds are said to have been
protected by villagers since 1793. They found that the guano dropped by nesting colonies made excellent fertilizers and their crops were better than their neighbours. It is now a sanctuary – a real bird city if ever there was one.

When I visited on the afternoon of Sunday, 24th February, there were hundreds of tourists strolling on the bandh at one side of the sanctuary. There was not a scrap of litter to be seen, all the visitors were quiet and taking a real interest in the birds. Many had their own binoculars or had hired the ones available. It was really heartening to see such genuine enthusiasm.

The magnificent nesting colonies occupied trees standing in the water. Many hundreds of painted storks were in the process of building their nests, incubating eggs or caring for new fluffy chicks. Hundreds of immature open-billed storks were standing waiting for their parents to return (some adults could also be seen around them), and at the back was a huge number of spot-billed pelicans and small cormorants. Night herons, spoonbills, black-headed ibis, grey heron and glossy ibis were present in less substantial numbers while a few darters and pintails could be seen in the water. The coming and goings of all these species made the sky a spectacular sight.

AUROVILLE, city of human unity near Pondicherry

The main success of Aurovillians has been afforestation. With years of building check dams, bandhs and planting first Australian acacia to stabilize the land and then indigenous species they have created a de facto forest sanctuary for many species including porcupines.

There is now a fascinating nascent botanical garden and a specialist medicinal herbs garden. Much work is being done on organic cropping – one of the reason the place is full of butterflies and other spectacular insects.

Among the bird highlights I saw were Indian pitta, yellow-wattled lapwing, paradise-flycatcher (both phases), white-browed bulbul, black-naped monarch, blue-throated flycatcher, black-headed cuckoo shrike, golden oriole, yellow-billed babbler, Loten's sunbird. The common hawk cuckoos are deafening in the morning.

Salim Ali's nephew, Dr. Rauf Ali, is based in Auroville and has a checklist for the forest city and for the nearby wetland of Kaliveli.

KALIVELI

This is a major wetland about 20 kms from Auroville - next to flat grassland full of oriental skylarks, ashy finch-larks and other grassland species stands a huge expanse of short, round-stemmed reeds used for thatching. Beyond the reeds the water is no more than 2 meters deep. Walking along one edge of the reeds, we saw thousands of Garganey, and good numbers of spot-billed pelican, ruff, marsh sandpiper, wood sandpiper, black tailed godwit, little ringed plover, pintail snipe, little stint, black-winged stilt, painted storks, and one white stork. There were dozens of marsh and Montagu's harriers but the first raptor we sighted was a peregrine.

There are many other tanks in the area which merit investigation, and it was particularly heartening to see Garganey in such good numbers in this region.

A visit to Kaliveli is on the cards in the coming month, for me! MNS members did go on a day trip to Vedanthangal, and this is what Chitra had to say:

Hi,
For an informal trip, we had a surprisingly large group of 16 adults and 2 kids who turned up at the Vedanthangal bird sanctuary this morning. Of course, different groups had different agendas and we converged only for breakfast! One group went off on a photography course... one group just enjoyed the walk on the bund, where as the majority tried their best to identify the birds there...
We saw about 40 species of birds in the two hours or so we spent in Vedanthangal and the half hour we squeezed in at Karikili Tank.
Chitra

(Note - Karikili is different from Kaliveli!)