Bring back the sparrows

During any conversation about birds, very often, I am asked, what I think of mobile phone radiations affecting  sparrows. I tell them, I don't believe in that theory. I've never believed in that theory. I have my reasons for that, which I'll talk about.

But, before that, let me tell you what I think is the biggest reason for the dwindling sparrow population:
lack of nesting space.

For centuries, sparrows have been living with humans. Knowingly or unknowingly, humans have supported sparrows. The thatched/tiled houses which gave sparrows places to build their nest, have given way to box type concrete houses. Even in older concrete houses, there were small provisions which could support sparrow nests. But, houses these days are just boxes! With this change, we've driven them out of our lives.

Now, coming back to the reasons why I don't subscribe to the mobile radiation theory:

• Sparrows are found in abundance in places where they have nesting spaces inside human houses, despite the locations being busy areas with lots of mobile phone towers. Some of the streets around Commercial Street in Bangalore, one of the busiest shopping areas of Bangalore, support several Sparrows. There are many old houses and buildings in this area which have suitable nesting sites for sparrows.
• In 2012, Sparrows were reintroduced in several suburbs of Chennai. Nest boxes were supplied free of cost to the houses in these areas. And, sparrow population started increasing there, despite mobile phones towers.
• Birds which are as small as sparrows or even smaller - say, Ashy Prinias, White Cheeked Barbets, Coppersmith Barbets, Sunbirds etc - are found in abundance in cities. So, mobile phone radiation affects only sparrows and not other birds? I don't think so. Barbets make holes in trees to build their nests. Sunbirds build protected basket type nests, hanging from tree branches. These species probably don't need our support to survive, but the sparrows do.
• In areas where sparrows are found, it is not uncommon to find sparrows perching on cellphone towers.

Even scientists are divided on the mobile phone theory, which hasn't been proved at all. The media glorified that theory, it became popular and everyone now thinks mobile phones are killing the sparrows.

"Recent studies in institutions across the world have contradicted reports of radiation from cell phones and their towers damaging the eggs of sparrows, and thereby contributing to their reducing numbers." - Arunn Narasimhan, Associate professor, IIT Madras.
https://home.iitm.ac.in/arunn/cell-phones-and-sparrows.html
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/cell-phone-radiation-may-be-harmful-but-not-lethal/article5113454.ece

It is not beyond us to bring back the sparrows. Blaming mobile phone radiation for missing sparrows and not doing anything is the biggest blow we can deal to a friendly species which depends solely on us for survival.

What can we do?

• If you can spot sparrows in your locality, you can place nest boxes in your homes for the sparrows to nest. Nest boxes are available for sale from Nature Forever. Or, you can even make one on your own. 
•  Place bird feeders and bird baths in your garden/terrace/balcony, which will help not just sparrows, but other birds too. Summers can be too taxing for the birds. Placing bird baths with water can be the biggest help you can do for birds, during summer.
• If you haven't spotted sparrows in your location in a while, get in touch with organisations like (Enviroment Foundation of India, for example) which specialise in sparrows restoration and reintroduction.

Let us stop blaming mobile phone towers based on an unproven theory, and do something useful to support the species which depend on us for survival.

The nesting sunbirds!

My grandparents from Vellore called and told me about a new nest that a couple of Purple rumped Sunbirds had built in our house. I immediately traveled there, as this was a rare opportunity! When I went there and saw the nest, I was elated. The nest was hanging from Bougainvilla tree within our compound. I spent almost 3 whole days camping just a few feet away from the nest, observing them and clicking a lot of pics!

The nest itself was so beautiful. I kept admiring the intelligence of these tiny birds. The nest had windows and a tiny little shade above the entrance (to prevent rain water from falling in to the nest). The windows were covered with translucent plastic sheets which wouldn't allow direct sunlight into the nest, but would still enable proper heat and lighting! The nest was built hanging from a tender branch, away from any walls or solid branches. This would prevent the threat from Predators like cats, as the branch wouldn't support the cat's weight, and the distance would prevent a cat from leaping and attacking the fledgelings!

The male and female sunbirds kept visiting the nest with bits of plastic, coir etc. Though the eggs were already laid in the nest, they kept improving the nest. The birds which were uncomfortable with my presence, got used to me within just an hour or so. After that, they just didn't bother though I was sitting very close to the nest. They kept flying in and out of the nest, carrying building materials and improving the nest. At around 6pm everyday, the female sunbird returned to the nest and stayed there till dawn. The male, I think stayed somewhere else, as there wouldn't have been enough space for the two of them ;)

I was there just at the right time, I guess, as I started hearing very different kind of calls on the third day. The eggs had hatched. Both the parents kept bringing in food for their kids and kept feeding them. They also kept removing the excreta from the nest from time to time. What's really interesting was the calls that they made. I never knew Sunbirds had so many different calling patterns as I'd only heard the short tweet that they usually make. After the eggs hatched, the parents made wide variety of calls at different points of time - one soft call when at the nest, one loud trilling call just before coming close to the nest, another warning call.

I didn't want to disturb the birds, especially the young ones. Hence, I don't have pics of the eggs or the fledgelings. But, here are the pics of the parents. The one on the left is the female and the one on the right is the male.

It was a wonderful experience observing these birds so closely and clicking pics!

Lal Bagh!

One short trip to Bangalore, last weekend. How could I miss a chance for some birding? As soon as the train reached Bangalore in the morning, I went off to a friend's place had a quick shower and a cup of Boost and rushed to Lal Bagh! And, it was worth it.

One species I really wanted to click was the White Cheeked Barbet which is common in Bangalore butnot found in Chennai. I kept hearing several WCBs calling but couldn't spot one as they are small birds and the green colour helps them in camouflaging in the thick tree cover.

I kept walking listening to several birds calls - Greater coucals, Mynas, Crows, White cheeked barbets - they all could be heard, but I just couldn't spot them.  Saw several black kites flying by quite close. Was able to see their nests, too! Mynas were very common, and saw several of them peeking out of holes in the trees - they were probably waiting for sunshine!

And, for sometime, I started using my macro to click some bees which were busy gathering nectar!

A walk along the lake was perfect as the sun was rising as I spotted several cormorants, geese, Brahminy kites, Pied Kingfishers, Purple Moorhens, Asian Koels and Greater Coucals. But, the White cheeked barbets were elusive.

Then, I came to a part of the park which was literally owned by Black kites. Perched on the trees, the park benches, grass - they were everywhere. They were not very shy. They didn't fly away even when I was close. Spent a lot of time taking pics of the black kites, as I hadn't come this close with these birds. And, that too, such a huge flock of Black kites!

Just few minutes before I was about to give up hopes of spotting the white-cheeked barbets, and was about to leave the park, I spotted one! Couldn't get close, got these two pics - not great pics, a bit soft, but I was happy to get these shots!

For more pics, check out my G+ album - https://plus.google.com/photos/101762870962161822848/albums/5828054753418539201

The baby

Remember my post about our neighbourhood Shikras? I'd stopped going near the tree/nest of the as I didn't want them feel that the place is not secure and move their nest elsewhere. So, I had no idea whether the Shikra laid eggs or whether they hatched.

So, I was in for a big surprise when this baby turned up right in front of my apartment window, last week.

I saw it walk to and fro along the parapet wall of the neighbour's terrace, as I clicked pics. It took time for me to realise that the baby wasn't old enough to fly. I also noticed crows circling over it, and swooping down and attacking it. It just hopped, avoiding the crows and finally took shelter in a slightly dense Guava tree. I could see the mommy Shikra, perched on a coconut tree (one of it's regular spots), a few streets away. An hour or so later, while I was contemplating about calling an animal rescue office, I realised that the baby was not in the Guava tree anymore. The mommy must've rescued it's baby and moved it, because I spotted it a few hours later, on another tree.

Fight for survival

I happened to witness 2 amazing acts of bravery. Survival in the wild is tough and such acts are daily routine for animals, I guess! 

Another visit to Vellore meant more birding trips in the dried up river Palar, that has now become a scrub forest. Had been trying to spot a pair of Greater Coucals that reside there, but they had been evading me forever, though their calls were heard every day.

That day, I saw the couple fly across to a Palm tree in the midst of a very dense bush. There was no way I could get closer, but was observing them from there and it appeared to me that they were somewhat restless. I noticed something hanging midway in the palm tree. What I first assumed to be a dried palm leaf was a snake. It was about 9.30 in the morning and the summer sun was shining straight into my face and I couldn't make out the colour of the snake or identify it. (I've been told by the locals, that there are large Cobras, Vipers and Rattlesnakes there, but I just couldn't identify it). It was so long that I first thought there were two snakes. It was just coiling up around the tree and climbing up. This explained the reason for the restlessness of the couple.

The Coucals' nest must've been on that tree, and the snake must've tried to get the eggs. The parents put up a fight, but the snake was aggressive. Though I couldn't see the action clearly due to the distance and the sunlight in the opposite direction, I could make out what was happening. After a few mins, the Coucals gave up the fight and fled, and I saw the snake slither up the tree and vanish behind the large leaves.

As I walked back, I witnessed another incident. This one was extraordinary, though it lasted only for a few seconds. I saw a large Shikra swoop down on to a Coconut tree. And, an Asian Palm Squirrel just sprinted towards the Shikra. The Shikra was taken aback and leapt a couple of feet, still perched on the same branch. The squirrel didn't want the Shikra anywhere near that tree, I think - probably, it's nest was there. Another leap towards the Shikra was enough to chase it away. I couldn't believe what I had just seen!

I couldn't get photos of both the incidents mentioned above. It wasn't a lucky day as I didn't spot or photograph any other birds too. But, these two incidents made up for everything!

Raptors and other migrants!

Visited Vellore (my native place) again in Jan and I made the most of it visiting the dried-up Paalar river which is one of my favourite birding spots. It is said that the strength of an ecosystem is determined by the strength of the top. In case of birds, it's the raptors.

I hadn't spotted many raptors there, but this visit made up for the previous visits. One fine morning, several Black kites and Shikras were circling overhead. I've seen black kites flying all over the town, but hadn't spotted one in the river bed. The Shikras were being chased by crows. The black kites descended on to the sand. Several of them. There were this couple who were facing each other as though ready to duel. But, some noise by a passing bullock-cart was all that they needed to flee the place!

Apart from these, I was also spotted a male Common kestrel (migrant from as far as China/Japan) , several Shikras, and Black shouldered kites. Was a good visit for a raptor lover like me :)

Apart from Raptors, I was also lucky to spot several migrants - winter is when several birds migrate to South India. So, this time, several birds from the Himalayas and a few from neighboring hill ranges.

Some of the migrants which got me excited were:

Black Headed Cuckoo-shrike - Resident of Himalayan foothills.

Blyth's Reed Warbler - Resident of Eastern Europe and Asia, the rosy starlings migrate to India and Sri Lanka during winters. I loved the lighting in this photo :D

Black headed Cuckoo-shrike and Blyth's Reed Warbler

Chestnut tailed Starling - Resident of Himalayan foothills, and some parts of North India. A sub-species of this, the Malabar starling, is found in the Western Ghats.

Rosy Starling - Resident of Europe and Asia, the rosy starlings migrate to India and Sri Lanka during winters. The sheer number of these birds sitting in groups, is overwhelming!

Chestnut Tailed Starling and Rosy Starling.

A rainy morning at Nanmangalam

One early morning last week, seeing clear skies, we decided to go to Nanmangalam reserve forest (which is about 20 km from my house). By the time we were halfway there, dark clouds started piling up all of a sudden from nowhere! We were in half a mind to turn back, we proceeded nonetheless.

Sun was peeping through the clouds on and off. We reached there, parked and started walking into the forest. We reached a large clearing which is one of my favourite birding spots in Nanmangalam and saw that part of it had become a small pond due to the rains over the past few weeks.

We saw several cormorants, little egrets and cattle egrets fly away from the water as we walked closer. The calls of Greater Coucals and Laughing doves were teasing us as we were trying to spot the birds.

Suddenly, this Shikra (picture on the right) majestically flew out of nowhere and perched on a tree closeby, giving chance for a couple of pics, before flying off again. We saw light fading quickly and noticed dark clouds covering up the sky. Before we could even think of what to do, it started pouring. Heavily.

Packing the camera in a polythene bags and stuffing them in to the camera bag, we started walking. But, there was no shelter as we were in the middle of the forest. After a 15 minutes walk, we reached the road and took shelter in a house there. The owner of that house was so friendly and was speaking to us for about half an hour.

The rains stopped, and we were tempted to go back into the forest. But, the dark clouds were still threatening.

But having come that far and having been drenched anyway, we thought we'll go back in to the forest. The rain seemed to have sent all the birds back to their nests and we couldn't find much activity, barring a few purple rumped sun-birds and ashy prinias. As the sun started to peep through the clouds again, couple of Green Bee-eaters came out to dry their wings and started preening, giving us more photo opportunities.

Another short spell of rain and spotting of a few of our regular favourite birds (Oriental Magpie Robins, Black drongos etc) later, we returned - with a few photos and some good bird sightings.

Birding in Yelagiri

While my previous post covered details about accomodation, sight-seeing and food in Yelagiri, this post is dedicated to Birding.

As I already mentioned in the previous post, Yelagiri is not fully commercialised. There's minimal pollution, not much human interference. Hence, birds can be spotted everywhere. Birds like Red-vented bulbuls, Red-whiskered bulbuls, drongos, munias are found almost everywhere - you don't have to specially go and look for them!

Here's a map showing birding places in Yelagiri. I've prepared this based on my 3 day birding trip. There may be several other places which I'd have missed. Also, I didn't go for the trek to Swamimalai, which is surely bound to be great for birding.

Here's a list of Birds that I spotted. I've also mentioned the place where I spotted them.

(YN = Yatri Nivas - the place where we stayed
NP = Nature Park)

Birds that I spotted commonly in Yelagiri:

1. Red vented bulbuls - Guauva trees in YN Garden. Eucalyptus forest area behind YN. Several in NP.

2. Red whiskered bulbuls - YN garden, NP

3. Rose Ringed Parakeets - Several of them on a tree near the bus-stop. Could spot them there at any time of the day.

4. Ashy Prinia - YN. Also in many scrub bushes along the road.

5. White Throated Kingfisher - Behind YN, On the way to Jalagamparai.


6. Common Tailorbirds - YN garden.

7. House Sparrow - behind YN.

8. Purple-rumped Sunbird (The pic below) - YN, NP and near the lake.

9. Pied Bushchats - YN. Several pied bushchat's spotted inside YN compound, behind the building, in the place where the kitchen wastes are dumped. I clicked several pics from the balcony itself as they weren't afraid to come close to the balcony.

10. Brahminy Starling - Road behind YN.


11. Green Bee Eater - behind YN and in the vacant land next to YN.

12. White-bellied Drongo - YN. Also, in several other places on the way to the lake.

13. Spotted Munia (Scaly Breasted Munia) - Near YN, NP, the main road, the road leading to the lake, Nilavoor park. They were everywhere. I could find ALWAYS a couple of Spotted munias in the creepers in the Nature Park's archway entrance.

Green Bee-eater, Spotted Munia and White-bellied Drongo.

14. Oriental Magpie Robin - YN and a few in bushes along the roads.

15. Indian Robin - YN and the road behind YN, Lake, Murugan Temple.

16. White Browed Wagtail - YN, Lake and NP.

White Browed Wagtail

17. Yellow Billed Babbler - Near the Murugan Temple

18. Laughing Dove - Near the Murugan Temple.

19. Common Iora - a few seen behind YN.

20. Black Drongo - YN and NP. Also, at several places along the road.

21. Baya Weaver Bird - Nilavoor

Apart from these, the calls of Common Hawk Cuckoo (Brain-fever bird) could be heard very often in YN and NP, though the bird was elusive as always!

(I've not mentioned the palm-swifts, common rock doves and pigeons that were commonly spotted.
One interesting thing is that there are hardly any crows in Yelagiri. I saw hardly one or two during my 3 days there)


Birds that were not common

1. Tickell's Flower Pecker (or Pale billed Flower Pecker) - In a kitchen-garden near YN.

2. Tickell's Blue Flycatcher - Several people have clicked pics of this bird at YMCA. I just caught a glimpse of it, before it flew away before I could click.

3. Rufous Treepie - in the Forest behind YN and Banyan Tree.

4. Coppersmith Barbet (or Crimson Throated Barbet) - Banyan Tree.

5. Lesser Golden Back woodpecker (Black-rumped Flameback) - Banyan Tree.

6. Yellow-crowned Woodpecker - This is special. I've not come across any listing of Yelagiri Birds which mentions Yellow Crowned woodpecker. I didn't expect to see one. But, couldn't get a clear photo. But, this collage of cropped images that I clicked is enough to identify the bird. The scaly back, the yellow crown and the red patch in the belly are prominent. Clicked at the Banyan Tree.

7. Jungle Myna - Forest behind YN.


8. Yellow Eyed Babbler (The pic on the left) - YN

9. Jungle Babbler - YMCA

10. Spotted Owlet - Don Bosco compound wall.

11. Indian Roller - On the way to Jalagamparai.


12. Greater Coucal - On the way to Jalagamparai.

13. Grey Wagtail - Spotted at Jalagamparai.

While I've talked about several places for birding, the banyan tree behind Yatri Nivas (refer map) was the one I loved for the surprises it was throwing. Every time I went there, I spotted some different species, which I didn't see anywhere else in Yelagiri. There could be a few other places which are good, but these were the places that I frequented.

To see more photos of Yelagiri birds, hop on to my Flickr photoset.

A trip to Yelagiri

When my dad made plans for us to go to Yelagiri, I was reluctant. Had been there with my colleagues for a workshop. "Not much to see there", I told him. Knowing my interest in birds, he tempted me saying it'll be great for birding. I was not convinced, as I searched on the web and could find not find much to say that it's a birding spot.

But, right from the time I got down from in front of the hotel (Yatri Nivas), I spotted birds everywhere and started clicking even before we even checked in! Before we move on, lets get all the basic info out of our way.

How to reach
From Chennai, we reached Jolarpet (the nearest railway station) by train. Jolarpet is closer to Bangalore, making it an ideal weekend getaway for people from Bangalore. From Jolarpet we took an auto-rickshaw to Yelagiri, for which we paid Rs 300. There are also regular buses which start from Thirupathur via Jolarpet. However, we're told that buses get fully crowded by the time they reach Jolarpet. On the way to the top, you'll cross 14 hairpin bends, each bend named after famous tamil kings and poets.


Accommodation

We stayed at Yatri Nivas which is a government owned hotel, but it is run by a private company as it has been leased out. I think the rates are fixed by the government, and hence the the tariffs in Yatri Nivas are the lowest you can get in Yelagiri (not considering dorms). We paid Rs 550 for a double room (The room had a TV and geyser) and they didn't even charge for an extra bed.

The place is decent. The rooms and the garden are very well maintained. The garden has various flowering plants and fruit-bearing trees (like Guava and Pomegranate) which attract a lot of birds. In fact, I spotted and clicked a lot of birds in and around Yatri Nivas.

Apart from Yatri Nivas, there are plenty of options for accommodation. There are tons and tons of hotels and resorts, but I was told that everything gets filled during weekends. So, if you're going on a weekend, make sure to call and book rooms, and send demand drafts if necessary.

Food
We tried only two places - Yatri Nivas (the place where we stayed) and Hotel Yelagiri (not far from Yatri Nivas). The quality is decent at both the places, and both are not over-priced. Apart from the hotels and resorts which serve food, there are several separate restaurants serving different cuisines.

If you are a strict vegetarian and you hate having food in a restaurant which serves both veg and non-veg, you'll have a tough time in Yelagiri. We enquired a lot, but everyone said the same thing - there are no pure-vegetarian restaurants there.

What to see?

There are 4 main villages - Punganoor, Athanavoor, Nilavoor and Mangalam.

If you can read tamil, do go through this sign board:


Nature Park: The summer-festival (Kodai-vizha) ground has been converted into a large beautifully landscaped garden, with a small artificial cascade. The place is superbly maintained and you can spend hours there just enjoying the beautiful plants and lovely birds. There's a musical fountain, which wasn't working when we went. But, I was told that regular shows do happen. It also has a children play area with swings, slides etc.
 
Punganoor Lake is a large man-made lake. You can walk around lake in the well laid-out pathway or enjoy a refreshing boat-ride. There's also a small park. You can take a walk around the lake and the park early in the morning or late afternoon/evening if you're interested in birding.

Murugan Temple
There's a small Murugan temple. After visiting the lake and boat house park, you leave from the back entrance of the park and walk about half a km to reach this temple. If you're to go through the main road after coming back through the front entrance of the park, it takes 3 km!

Nilavoor Lake
Another man-made lake, but this one is smaller. Boating is available. There's also a small park nearby, which again is well maintained. But, if you've seen Punganoor Lake, Boathouse and the Nature park, this is not worth it.
Right opposite the lake is a temple called Kadhava Naachiamman Temple, which opens only on Fridays. As it was not a Friday when we went, it was closed.


Jalagamparai
This is a small waterfall. There's a 6km trekking route to this place from Nilavoor. If you want to reach the place through road, you've to come all the way down from Yelagiri, reach Thirupathur and then drive to Jalagamparai. The total distance would be about 40km (including the descent from Yelagiri). There's a Murugan Temple. What's special about this temple is that the temple itself is shaped like a Shiva lingam.

Apart from this, there's Swami Malai temple, which can be reached by trekking. We didn't visit this temple.

As you might've figured there's very little to see at Yelagiri. To me Yelagiri is not a touristy location, but a calm, not-much-exploited getaway where you can enjoy nature. Maintenance of all the places - be it the lake, the gardens, the temple - is top notch, unlike most tourist places, which is what I absolutely loved about Yelagiri.

That covers the basics of Yelagiri tourism. To know about birding in Yelagiri, check out the next post.

Egrets fishing.

My previous visit to IIT Madras was really worth it - captured these beautiful little egrets fishing!

 

Leucistic Black Buck

Spotted this at IIT Madras a few weeks back. This is a leucistic Black buck, commonly mistaken for Albino.
Albino black bucks have pinkish eyes, but the eyes of this one are black. Leucism is a disorder which results in reduction of skin pigmentation. While albinism affects only melanin pigment, Leucism affects all pigments.

Common Kestrel

The best part about Chennai winters is that we get to see a lot of birds which we don't during the rest of the year. Several birds migrate to South India during winter from North India and even from other countries. Winter has begun and several migrant birds have already been reported this year (http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/article2609128.ece)

I got an opportunity to see and click the Common Kestrel at Theosophical Society today morning. There are several sub-species of Common Kestrels, spread over several countries. The one I spotted today, breeds in East Asia (Tibet, China, Korea, Japan and also in some parts of Himalayas). During winter months, they migrate to South India and other parts of South East Asia. 

When I set out today for birding, early in the morning, I saw several smaller and more common birds like Green Bee Eaters, Common Babblers, Pipits etc. But, the Common Kestrel was the special guest today.

From a distance I noticed this raptor perched majestically on a branch, but couldn't identify it immediately. On moving closer, I realised that this is a female Common Kestrel. The males have a much darker shade of brown and the striated patterns are not so prominent.

I kept clicking several photos as I kept moving towards it, fearing it may fly away any second. But, this one wasn't shy. For a couple of seconds, she stared right at me. I walked pretty close to her and clicked a few more pics before she flew away.

But, she hadn't flown away too far. Walking a few more feet, I found her again, this time giving a me clear view without being hidden by branches or leaves.

This was my first set of clear pics of any raptor, and was absolutely delighted!