Bird Watching
A slightly harsh chirp and a little movement like a small ghost in
motion. Or maybe just a white ribbon with a black head, which has acquired a life of its own?
A possessed ribbon, may be? Well, even as reason and experience tells
me that what I see is the adult male Paradise Flycatcher, I can't rip my eyes off the
bird. As I watch, it flits from its perch and makes a rounded flight, a twist here
a turn there with its two long, white, tail feathers making undulating movements moving
not very unlike the Olympic gymnasts and goes back to exactly where it started from. A chirp again.
Nearby is its
female, an orangish brown bird, without the long tail feathers and with a black head. Quite
unrelated to our gymnast for the uninitiated! But there goes nature in another of its
bewildering and bewitching variations. A delight to the beholder but a beautiful moment gone
unnoticed for the less visually adept.
Of all things that have caught my fascination, nothing has so far surpassed the joy that I derive from bird-watching. I had always been awed by birds, but not because of the cliched reasons of their flight or their colors or their songs.
It was as if I was just destined to love the avian fauna, no explicit reasons whatsoever. (The same extends to my love for animals too). The one reason I do sometimes think is true is their freedom and their so distinctly non-human behavior. Or maybe I am just curious about these creatures in an intellectual sort of way... I do not know and for the time being ascribe none of these reasons to my passion.
I have been a little lucky in my childhood (and still am actually). The start was actually
a chapter on birds in my eigth standard science text book. This had been my
starting point, and would have been so for many others too, I guess, had it not been for our
education system's decision to remove that chapter from the syllabus. (Somehow we choose to ignore
the simple pleasures of life!!)
And then in my tenth standard I participated in a wonderful Nature Camp conducted by the
Forum For Forestry Furtherence(4F). That is where people like Mr Manoj Mishra, Mr G Kinhal, Nabendu Lad and Ms
Prachi Mehta (her maiden name) made me observe nature and kindled in me the passion to pursue
this lovely hobby. I will always be grateful to Mishra sir (that's how we called him) for
his help with his personal binoculars (I lost them and he was not even angry at me!) and
his bird books. And thanks to Nabendu Bhaiya and Kaustubh (my birding pal) for mixing in
the right amount of adventure into our trips.
Initially, we used to look out for newer and as-yet-unseen-by-us species of birds and used to compete as to who
has the bigger bird list. But now things are changed, it doesnot matter what bird it is.
Be it the excitement of a fleeting glimpse of an Indian Pitta, or the tranquil movements of the
bee eaters or the swallows, they instill me with a sense of appreciation for those things untouched
by man. And I could just watch the fantail flycatchers and the ioras or hear the orioles and
thrushes and waft away to sleep on the bank of some forest stream unconcerned about all else in
the world! If only I did not have such a human mind, with its wants and greed! May be I will break
away one day, but that day is not in the near future, as far as I can see!
Recently, I have started delving into a bit of photography and shall add photographs to this page, when something worthwhile comes.
So, Want to start birding as a hobby?
