BEE EATERS

 BEE EATERS

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

16/VI/2024

 

It is fun to watch the birds around the house. They live in their own world. For them, it is food, shade, favourite place to perch, mingle with a partner, raise their chicks, and live a carefree life.

Being alert and raising an alarm on spotting a cat or a predatory bird becomes second nature to them.

Our contribution is minimal. A few grains, little water and of course trees around are enough for them to live a happy and carefree life. If they are happy, we feel happy.

Trees bring flowers, flowers bring bees and insects which become food for the birds, branches become places for bees to make hives and birds to perch, and bees in these hives attract ‘Bee Eaters’.

All these days the ‘Bee Eaters’ were missing from action. Since yesterday, they have come on the scene. These birds came exactly around the same time last year. How do they know the time/date? And how do they know which place to return to? That is a mystery of nature.

These birds have yet not noticed our water lily tubs and water bowls. Once they spot the swarms of bees coming for a drink, they may not toil that much hunting them down.

What I have observed is that they do not attack/catch a sitting bee. Nor do they attack them in their hive. Their excellent eyesight needs to be commended as they can spot a bee mid air and at quite some distance from their perch, which is generally at the end of a branch. They keep a look out and as soon as they spot it, the bee eater takes off to catch the bee in thin air literally.

Once the bee is caught in the beak, the bird returns to the spot from where it took off. A few bangs to the left and then to the right to dispatch the bee to heaven and gulp, in it goes. A juicy snack meets its end like a Mirchi Vada for the Sun City dwellers.

Imagine you have a Pyaz ki kachori in your mouth and you resist eating it. The aroma and smell is killing you as your mouth is salivating. Instead carry it to where your little chick is waiting for mom or dad to bring a snack. Some self control these birds have. They keep feeding the hungry chick but the chick keeps asking for more by flapping its wings.

The parents must be having their fill and then going in for a kill to satisfy the hunger of their chick, but it is the other way around. Like every parent has his child as his first priority to feed it first. The Bee Eaters too are no different.

I think nature has provided plenty, and looks after all who come to this world. The weak and slow bees must be getting eliminated in this fight for food. Could it be the sacrifice of the feebler bees to keep the fitter ones from harm's length. These are my conjectures but could be true.

Bulbuls, Sunbirds and Doves are not liking this sudden invasion of a different kind of bird into their domain. But then they live in harmony as the bee eaters are not biting into their food share which is grains and other insects. I have yet to see the sparrows or bulbuls eating bees.

As the monsoons are approaching there is going to be another frenzy which we should witness soon. That is the emergence of white ants and black ants taking flight. Their appearance is the signal of the coming rains and that is the time birds go out on a hunting frenzy.

Even Kingfishers congregate on a lamp post to catch a grub or two, besides all the other birds who relish insects.

Welcome my friends the Bee eaters. We have plenty of food for you. Raise your young ones, enjoy our colony, and keep returning every year.

My only wish is to see how and where they nest. Will I be able to see it? I wonder!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© ® NOEL ELLIS