Life At Mitthi

  Hindi name : करांकुल, काला बाझ Gujarati name : કાળી કાંકણસાર                                                                                                                 A rare visitor in a non-monsoon season, this one dropped by last week. Of the 3 species of Ibis found in India, this one prefers an open country side , a little away from the water body, and that explains the stopover at Mitthi. It is also often seen feeding with egrets and other birds on agricultural land being tilled. A crimson red squarish caruncle on its featherless head is what gives it its distinctive name. A large blackish brown bird with blue-green gloss, is difficult to go unnoticed but since they are silent...

Little Green Bee Eater Gujarati Name : લીલો પતરંગો Hindi Name : पतरिंगा, हरियल This little bird transforms our little garden into a playing field. Performing aerial acrobatics to catch its prey in mid air, almost like the game of 'Quiddich' played at Hogwarts by Harry Potter. Like all bee eaters, this one too has a beautiful green plumage with a dark bluish green on its neck. Though small it appears slightly big due to its elongated central tail feather. It is very interesting to watch this bee eater catch its prey which mainly consists of butterflies, bees, grasshoppers, beetles, mantises, dragonflies, moths etc. It first selects a tree/wire to perch on, at a height not more than 10-13 feet. In our garden it is mostly chooses one of the Gulmohar trees or Fig tree. It then eyes its prey, swiftly goes for it, snaps it and returns to its place on the same tree/wire. For insects which have a poisonous sting (bees) or a hard exoskeleton, it hits the prey on the branch to...

Common Iora Male Common Iora Male Gujarati Name: શૌબિન્ગા, શોબિગી Hindi Name: शाऊबीगी What would you do when you are chatting with a close relative, discussing ‘Lockdown’, and you spot an unfamiliar bird few feet away across the French window, in the garden? Cutting short would have been rude and the conversation was nowhere close to an end. So, keeping the person engaged in our talks through monosyllables and on speaker, I tried to get a better glimpse of the bird, all the while remaining indoors. Over my last few months of studying behaviors of various birds, I have noticed something which was very unusual or rather unknown to me. Birds also like to follow a 'Schedule' and 'Pattern'. Post my first sighting of Iora on my purple Kachnar tree at around 4pm, I kept a check on their visit in the same place at around same time. And I was pleasantly surprised to see them visit it again, almost daily. Due to the temperature going up, their timings ...

Indian White Eye A slight movement on a neem tree drew my attention while chatting with my daughter. Was it just a gust of wind or was there something I spotted from the corner of my eye? Cutting our conversations short, I tried to confirm my intuition. The movement shifted from one branch to the other and from one tree to the other, the subject camouflaged all the while in the new sprouts of the neem and saptaparni trees. Many times, lost the subject and felt a slight despair. Should I go and get my camera to be prepared for a sudden appearance and may be miss the spotting or should I stay and see it first? I stayed there believing that I might get the chance to click it some other time. And so glad I did not move. Straining my eyes to their last nerve, could see a greenish yellow bird, size of a thumb with a bespectacled look. Had never before see it in all these years. A very restless bird, kept hopping so fast that was difficult to keep track. It ne...