RV Matters - 29 January 2020

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On 26th January, I celebrated the Republic Day with birds. I was out early that morning to the Sunrise point and the valley beyond. I decided to explore the overgrown fields, surrounded by shrubs and trees, away from the path. I could see this area was not much disturbed and there was good ankle-high growth of dense grass clumps on what used to be earlier barren, exposed gravelly soil.

Just as I approached a clearing, I noticed a dull-coloured, bulbul-sized bird take off from the ground where it had been foraging and perched on the trunk of the Cassia fistula plant, not yet a big tree. Even before I got a clear of the bird, I could guess its identity as the WRYNECK (Jynx torquilla). This is a rare winter visitor to southern India and I had seen it just once earlier almost at the same place on 26th March, 2013. Related to the woodpeckers, the wryneck is a distinct bird, unmistakable in its appearance. Its upper parts were greyish-brown with barrings and mottlings of dark, cream and rufous shades. The underparts were paler with dark wavy lines. There was a dark line through the eyes and the tail too had whitish bands. The beak, unlike the woodpeckers was shorter but pointed.

The bird seemed quite restless, kept turning and twisting its neck and within a couple of minutes took off and disappeared in the adjacent row of shrubs. I slowly tracked it and saw it foraging on the ground. Over the next forty minutes the bird and I were playing hide-and-seek, which was quite demanding since there were quite a few similar-sized birds (bulbuls) flying about, the bird was very silent and with its inconspicuous colours, it just merged with the surroundings. However, with patience and luck. I spotted it every time. Once it sat deep inside a shrub, preening itself. Another occasion, it was seen chasing away an Indian Robin that ventured close to it as it hopped on the ground, looking for ants, which seems to be its favourite food. I managed to get a few record photographs but the bird was too quick and restless.

On my earlier encounter in 2013, I had seen the bird much closer and it was much more confiding, allowing me to approach it as close as 2-3 metres, providing excellent views. Unfortunately I had not carried my camera that day. Today the bird was rather skittish and perhaps also hungry after a cold night.

Its Generic name “JYNX” is derived from the ancient greek word “IUNX”. The specific name “torquilla”, refers to its ability to twist its neck almost 180 degrees. When threatened at its nest by predators (including humans), this bird is reputed to hiss like a snake and contort its neck and sway from side to side. This habit earned it an ill-reputation among early Europeans who used the bird in casting a spell (or Jinx) and in witchcraft.  

Through persistence and patience, I managed to ward off the jinx and see the bird twice in Rishi Valley!

Dr Santharam

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RV Matters - 25 December 2019

December had started off as a busy month for me and I am still trying to catch up with things. This is the reason I could not write this piece earlier. Apologies!

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The winter has begun well with several migrants returning to the campus from their breeding grounds up north. However, there was some initial anxiety as some of them turned in later and in smaller numbers than in earlier years.

The Grey wagtail (image above) was one of them. Usually we see them as early as early September but this year after a sighting or two, they did not turn up until late October from their Himalyan abodes. Even now, though I see them, I feel there is a dip in their population in the campus.

The same is the situation with the Blyth’s Reed warbler, a central Asian migrant that turns up in good numbers by late October and can be heard uttering the characteristic “tshcuck” calls every few seconds from shrubs and tree canopy. They turned up sometime in late November and I don’t see them in their usual numbers.

The Verditer (photo below), Blue-throated, Taiga and Paradise Flycatchers are back in fairly good numbers and that is a relief. The north-east monsoon has once again disappointed us and none of the waterbodies have any water. The Hundri-Neeva Canal outside the campus has some water flowing in it. But despite the excess rainfall and floods in the Krishna river and its tributaries, very little water was released in the canal. None of the waterbirds seen last year could be seen here. Our only compensation was the sighting of a pair of Wire-tailed Swallows on our Sunday morning outing.

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The meagre rains that fell intermittently have kept the campus somewhat lush and green, though it is a matter of time before the drying of the vegetation starts.

Dr Santharam

The Monitor Lizard

This happened on the 9th of July, 2019. We were harvesting mangoes in the morning. This was in the mango orchard which is opposite to the vegetable garden. This orchard is to your left as you head towards the gangamma temple. It was around 11:45 am and, our people were collecting the harvested mangoes and winding up for the lunch break at 12:00 noon.

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I was standing there under the tree when our supervisor Hemanth pointed at something to me that was moving under the tree. I looked and was surprised to see a juvenile monitor lizard. By then, all our workers had left for lunch. I was amazed at his bold behaviour. Usually there is an innate sense of fear of the humans instilled in all wild animals, but, this guy was exceptional in his boldness. I watched him for a while, pulled out my (not-so-smart) smart phone and started filming him. He was looking for grubs (insects) under the mango tree, amidst the termite infested twigs and dry leaves. His forked tongue was constantly moving in and out as he picked up juicy grubs and ate them, totally unmindful of my close presence. He would look at me off and on, pause, and continue foraging for his food. I took my phone as close as 2 feet from him and he did not seem to bother.

This very unusual absence of fear for the humans worried me, because, he could easily be killed and eaten. The villagers here have this belief that eating the lizard’s meat gives immense physical strength. The fat/oil extracted from the meat is also believed to have medicinal properties. One of them claimed that, after eating the monitor’s meat, if you tie a sturdy string around your biceps and flex, the string just shatters to pieces.

I continued filming him for more than 5 minutes. He was totally at ease with my presence and went about his business of grub hunting. Once, he pulled out a grub from the leaf litter, held it in his mouth, paused, cocked his head at an angle and looked at me for almost a minute before swallowing the grub. Now, I too started feeling hungry and had to take leave of him.

I wished this beautiful fellow good luck and prayed that the fear for humans should be granted to him. I hope he is still around and doing well.

Santosh from RV Estate

RV Matters - 9 October 2019

Can you identify the bird species in these photographs?

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Drongo (Black), right ?

Take a closer look. You are only partly right. To be precise, the bird on the left is right (pun intended) !!!

Last evening I was out with my camera and close to the Lost Pond, I came across a bird that looked like a Drongo. But something was not quite right. So take a closer look at the photograph on the right. Look at the beak carefully. What do you see? Now look at the bird photograph on the left. Compare the beaks. Can you make out any difference? Yes, the bird in the right has a finer, curved beak.

I followed the bird for over 30 minutes and managed to get some pictures and here are some of them.

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My patience was amply rewarded and I got some some nice shots of the       bird – It is known by the name: FORK-TAILED DRONGO-CUCKOO. You can see the details on its plumage from the above photographs: overall bluish cast to the plumage, the white spots (juvenile), the white thigh-patch, the extensive white barring on the vent and undertail coverts and the absence of the rictal spot (at the base of the beak, a pointer in the case of the Black Drongo).

 I have not seen this bird in Rishi Valley earlier, though I am familiar with it from Chennai and other locations (in Western Ghats). It is often overlooked and mistaken for the more familar Black Drongo. Incidentally, the bird I asked you to compare it with (a Black Drongo) turned up on the very same trees that the Drongo-Cuckoo had used later in the evening and posed for a few shots.

I also noticed in the field and from the photographs (my own and those from the internet) that the Drongo-cuckoo tends to hold the wings somewhat loose and drooping by the side of its body and unlike the Black Drongo.

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The Fork-tailed Drongo-cuckoo is closely related to the Square-tailed Drongo-cuckoo (some taxonomists feel both these are the same species). It is widely distributed in the country and in South Asia. It is a brood-parasite and lays its eggs in the nests of other birds like babblers, bulbuls and shrikes. They disperse after breeding and the bird I saw was perhaps a bird on the move.

There was a Sirkeer Malkoha too at the Lost Pond!

Dr Santharam

RV Matters - 12 September 2019

What I am about to write may be controversial. But I suggest you read it objectively before drawing your own conclusions and reacting to it.

This year some of my former Environmental Science students came up with some suggestions to do something about the various environmental issues at school at their level and have started to work on some of them. This is laudable. We have several important issues plaguing us here – water shortage, plastic and other waste disposal, cutting down on electricity consumption, food waste and so on.

Yet there is one issue, a major one at that, which in my opinion we can act on fast if only we are willing to accept the facts.

Last couple of years, the number of students returning home and to school who fly rather than go by trains has increased tremendously – over 100 of them, I understand. This term, the “parties” to and from various cities (Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai) have been cancelled as many students opt to fly.

While air travel is advantageous and preferable for various reasons (“safe”, “saving time”, “cheaper” ...), the one major reason to rethink about this is the amount of carbon footprint this entails. I have been recently reading about the initiatives scientists and educators ought to take in view of the grave and imminent consequences of anthropogenic global warming. It is time we, associated with K-schools also do something about it if we are really sincere and feel we can be part of the solution. We do discuss about the problems in school ad nauseum, in a mechanical way and expect others to do something about it when we ourselves, collectively and individually, can take action.

I do wish we can do something about this immediately rather than wait for some grand and fancy-sounding solution to be rolled out by innovators and scientists working on this issue. We are running out of time and we really don’t seem to worry about this. We have started facing the consequences of this in our daily life. How long are we going to wait? We need to put with some little inconveniences now rather than trying to solve the irreparable damage we have started to unleash on our planet.

Dr Santharam

RV Matters - 28 August 2019

There were three of them up in the sky that morning against the background of a cloudy sky, flying and circling, accompanied by the loud calls. The Oriental Honey Buzzard is usually a quiet bird but in the months of July-August when it is in the breeding phase, the birds become more vocal and take to the skies. We were trying to discern the various features by which the bird could be distinguished from its relatives and for over 15 minutes, we watched their antics in the air. Even as we watched, we could see one of the birds climb in the air, above the Cave Rock, uttering its calls and then lift its wings vertically over its back and clap them a few times. We saw this at least on four occasions. We also saw them dive down a few metres. The gathering clouds and the sheet of rains that slowly came our way forced us to beat a hasty retreat and head to the Dining Hall for hot, crispy dosas. I manged to click a few pictures (see above and below) which I hope will help our young birders locate the key features of this bird to identify it when they see it the next time.

Dr Santharam

RV Matters - 13 August 2019

Each monsoon, we get a pair of the Scaly-breasted munias visiting our house and explore the areas under the tiled roof, in their quest for a safe nest site for their young ones. They chose to nest on the wooden beam and wedge their nests between the beam and the tiles. For this, they spend enormous amount of time locating the grass strips and placing them carefully  together to make a large ball of grass in which they raise tehir family. The birds choose the site carefully so that it does not allow access to the stray cats that roam the area. The birds are quite shy and move away on seeing us. This year, I finally managed to get a few pictures of the birds and their nest. It is sad that despite their efforts, the nests are abandoned half-way through when the weather turns dry. But they never give up. Once the wet spell commences, they are back at work. A few days ago (around 6.20 pm) as I sat on the terrace, a few meters from their nest, the pair came to the nest and sat on the wires and flew to roost inside the nest. I hope this year at least they will successfully raise a family.

Dr Santharam

RV Matters - 23 July 2019

Driving along the Mudivedu-CTM road, last week, we had stopped by to take a look at the birds along the road. It was close to sunset and as we watched, a large eagle swooped down from the skies to land at the edge of a freshly ploughed field. As I moved towards it, expecting to see it feed on a large mammal or bird, I noticed nothing. Looking at its features, I identified the eagle as an Indian Spotted Eagle, a species not seen by me earlier in this area.

Wondering what the bird was up to, I observed more closely to see the bird pick something small from the ground and consume it. It repeated this act several times over the next few minutes and then I realized the bird was picking up winged termites that were emerging from the soil.

 Even as the eagle was engrossed in its feast, with loud noisy calls, flew in seven Common Mynas and a pair of Black drongos. They sat all around the eagle. For a while, I expected the newcomers would mob the eagle, forcing it to flee as they normally do not tolerate the presence of raptors near them. This did not happen. These birds too joined in the feast and started foraging on the winged termites, venturing quite close to the eagle that hardly paid attention to the smaller birds. This went on for over 10 minutes, after which the eagle took off and flew away after making a few sorties in the air.

Winged termites are a delicacy amongst birds and I have observed several times, several species like Indian Robin, Bulbuls, Sunbirds, Swifts and swallows, Babblers, Crows enjoying the bounty when these insects emerge in a swarm. Even large eagles and birds of prey catch them in flight. Termites are a source of protein and no one including humans (tribals, in particular) misses the opportunity to feast on them!

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Dr Santharam