OUR NEW FRIENDS

OUR NEW FRIENDS

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

07/VI/2022

As the morning breaks, the vicinity of our veranda becomes the humdrum of activity. Hummingbird’s sing, dance, do a hop, skip & slurp away nectar. Some have a quick bath on the water droplets sticking to the freshly washed leaves. Some fight & chase each other, some chirp & have a good time.

Sparrows come and go & so do the Bulbuls. ‘Insects and water’ are their basic requirements. Sparrows of course feast on the elaborate ‘grain buffet’ laid out in the flower bed in front. They love to come in for a drink from the drain. Population of birds has suddenly increased. From a pair, now they come in dozens.

Doves have their own beat. The lamp post is their favourite place to sit and coo. Moment, they see any other type of dove, they dive and chase it off. Grains on the flower bed do catch their eye. A bite or two and off they go. A passing motorcycle or a car makes them cautious and they freeze. By now they know these ‘iron animals’ don’t harm. so, they leave that caution to the winds and get back to feeding or dancing around in circles.

Today being ‘World Food Safety Day’, birds too deserve to eat safely. Quality & variety of the grain is being looked into personally by both of us. Initially we used to buy the sieved & discarded grains from the Chakki, but most of them being hollow, they were being left uneaten. We took the clue and now serve them the best quality we can.

Quality of water too is maintained. Their water container is washed every morning while watering the plants. Conservation of water keeps working on our minds so we pour the old water into pots. However, as a habit, they love to drink from the rain water drain, some water is left on purpose to accumulate, so that they can take a dip in the ‘pool’ then fly off to their next destination.

Our neighbours are kind of NRC ‘non-resident colonywalas’. Though posted close by, they come and go often. Their potted plants keep dying due to lack of water. We as a friendly neighbourhood do what we can in their absence.

As I started to water their hedge, their neighbour cautioned me. There is a ‘Makkhi ka Chatta’ in it. With their chirpy little daughter playing with her toys very close by, who had already taken a few stings a couple of days back, I just stopped sprinkling water immediately.

There are a few banana trees growing next to the hedge. This little girl wanted to water them so that she could eat bananas and opened the tap in the garden. Many ‘Chotti Makkhi’ who were sitting on the tap got agitated and a few of them stung her on her arm.

Now I know why there are so many honey bees in our garden. They come and have a drink, collect nectar and go back to their hive in the hedge. With food and water so conveniently located they have a ball. Plus, they become food for the ‘Bee Eaters’ BE.

It’s been some time that one has been trying to capture the BE bird through my lens. It is shy, elusive and always on a lookout for danger. Within a blink of an eye, it’s there and then gone. It definitely was the 'Bee Eater’, as I saw it eating bees.

One had been trying to catch them in action and today was the chance. A pair of BE and their chick were sitting on the neighbour’s washing line in the balcony. The bigger one would swoop in the air, do a kind of a hover, catch a bee and return back to the line. It would toss the bee in the air, catch it again in its beak, hit it on the clothes line a few times and feed the chick. One bee for the chick and one for herself.

Then they shifted base to the neem tree. Once I felt I had caught them kissing and did not want to invade their privacy, but then realised it was feeding time. The quality of the bees was no doubt the best. They were enjoying this juicy and tasty snack.

Bee after bee was devoured. How do they choose which ones to eat? Did they target the weak ones? Don’t the bees sting them back? These kinds of questions kept churning in my mind. Probably this must be a way to keep the bee population in check was what came to my mind.

Be well fed and keep the environment in balance my dear BE. Be our guests as our pots shall ensure that you can catch your ‘shikar’. Have the new friends got my invite? I wonder!!!!!!!!

JAI HIND