Birdwatching Report: Day 01, 02, 03

Reporting from Piparwar, a small town located about 70 kms away from the capital city of State of Jharkhand, Ranchi, India. Surrounded by dense forest, it’s a perfect place for birders to enjoy the presence of rich avifauna, truly a paradise for birdwatching! (or so I believe).



• DAY ONE:

Friday, 11 December 2009, 11:00 AM

My mom, elder sister, a close friend (and course mate) and I departed for Piparwar at about 1:00 PM. As soon as our journey began I instantly got into the birding mode because that’s one of the main reasons why I decided to spend ten days of my vacation at Piparwar. On the way, I spotted eight Cattle Egret, a pair of Parrots (probably Rose-ringed but they weren’t so clear), a few Common Mynahs and Black Kites, an Asian Koel sitting on the electricity wire, a few Mallards, a Swan, a Mynah-like bird which was slightly larger and had yellow underwings, Roosters and Chickens (typical village scenery), a few House Crows, and a Black Drongo sitting over a cattle. And, all this birding took place from the moving car, did I mention? Phew! Even though, that sounds cool with so many birds on the way, I actually don’t feel much accomplished at the moment because they were mostly common birds, while I’m looking for more than just common birds, which I hopefully will succeed to find because Piparwar is a place hemmed by dense forest and spotting any not-so-common bird won’t be too hard, provided that they visit the area of our apartment and I get a binocular which I currently don’t have. So, does that mean my plan would prove to be a total failure? Not exactly, I’ve spotted so many birds with naked eyes that I don’t feel much need of a binocular (it’s must-to-have for a birder, though) right now, and there’s no harm keep trying and looking for those jewels that are hidden around.

Besides, it’s good enough for us that we’re away from normality for a while (Note: Home) because we (mum, sis and I) haven’t travelled to anywhere on this Earth for about an year now except local visits whose importance were next to nothing.

So, let’s see how it all goes…

• DAY TWO:

Saturday, 12 December 2009, 12:30 PM

I spent a very interesting evening yesterday watching common, local birds that are ubiquitous in Northeast India. Even though, it does sometimes irk to watch and listen to the same old, commonly appearing birds, it actually gets quite interesting when you put aside your thought of adding any elite, unique species to your life list and care more about admiring the beautiful creations of God.

The evening, just as morning, is one of the best times to observe birds. All of the birds seemed to be in a great excitement and hurry to reach home and their calls were so loud that they just simply couldn’t be ignored. It was the sound of jangling bangles, all the calls blended and muddled together that picking out any specific species’ call was almost impossible, so that I even didn’t try to do that to waste my time. Rather I concentrated on the activities that were taking place around there.

At first, the view began with House Crows invading the ambience which did bug me for some time, but when some of them passed just a few metres away from me I realised how horribly wrong I was in assuming those birds as ordinary because they simply aren’t. A number of House Crows in flocks were flying across the sky, hurrying off for home, resonant call echoing the surrounding, it was impossible to ignore them anyway. I do admit that sometimes House Crows bother me a lot because they seemed to have invaded every nook and corner of India but then again these are one of those birds that I highly admire for their meticulously designed structure, particularly their ornamental wings. I admired seeing those black birds in contrast with blue sky that was slowing getting red, orange and purple in dusk. There is a water tower visible from our apartment’s balcony which is very lofty and a perfect place for birds to gather before their final departure to get home. A number of flocks could be easily noticed there, and it was easy to understand that the birds were waiting for their close ones to arrive before taking off together. What an intelligence, indeed; I don’t understand why some humans consider animals as dumb, deaf and brainless (and, yes, I’ve met such people) when wonderful animals show such apparent intelligent behaviours. Sometimes, we simply forget that nature is the biggest source of inspiration for human beings in almost every single field. Oh, well…

Indeed, it was very pleasing to become a witness of such admirable scene.

After an eyeful of House Crows, I tried to look around for other beautifully engineered flying wonders, just when three Rose-ringed Parakeets (Again, I’m not too sure of species because I witnessed their silhouettes only) darted off, fading away with their continuous screeching. The next bird caught my attention when I was just looking around without any point of focus. It was about a mere fraction of seconds that that bird came into my view, otherwise it would have perfectly blended with its green surrounding in the dense tree, and I would’ve hardly noticed it whatsoever. It was a small, greenish bird, and I was sceptical just when that familiar whistling call reached my ears that cleared my doubt: it was an Oriental White-Eye. It amazes me how such a compact body succeeds in creating such powerful melody that is easily audible from metres away. I was just wondering about all this, when a flock of three or four White-Eyes flew away, apparently they were waiting for the last member to join in before leaving. There were House Sparrows, Common Pigeons and Common Mynahs as well. I know that there were other species too but it’s just that they were out of my view. But, someday I know that I’m going to see all of them. Yes!

All in all, as you have already read, last evening was very enjoyable even if it was just fifteen minutes or so that I spent in loving those birds. And, this morning was no exception. Even though, I didn’t go out for intentional birdwatching, I did the bird-listening by recognising the melodious calls of Black Kites and Oriental White-Eye with usual blended calls of House Crows and Black Drongos.

• DAY THREE:

Sunday, 13 December 2009, 12:38 PM

Well, I didn’t do much birdwatching yesterday, so I don’t have much to write about. Although, right now I can listen Red-vented Bulbul and allies singing around here with some inserted calls of Chickens, House Crows, a call that I can’t recognise. I know there are many birds around here but I’m totally helpless because I don’t have any binocular. But, I can do without it for some time. Right now, I’m more delighted about that book that will be reaching in 24 to 48 hours! I’m so excited!

Aaah, and now an Oriental White-eye is singing outside. I most likely wouldn’t be able to write diary tomorrow because I’m going to visit my sister and niece. Other than that, if anything interesting happens today, I’ll be writing again.