Familiars

Once upon a time, the story goes, every part of India was teeming with birds. I’ve heard this story from my grandmother. So it is nice to spend a weekend in a place where this could almost be true. The moment we get out of the village and into the fields around Bera, we began to see birds. There were the passage migrants which we had also seen in the Rann of Kutch, and the utterly familiar endemics.

This was a varied habitat; the edge of the Thar desert, but the dammed river nearby held water. Ibises and herons, wagtails and sandpipers could be seen there. In the thorn bushes we saw francolins, bushchats, and larks, as well as doves, fork-tailed drongos, and bulbuls. The small birds of prey, black-winged kites and shikra, told us of the numerous rodents in the area. Nightjars and owls could be seen at night, flying from the headlights of the jeep. We were told this was early for the winter migrants; they arrive in November.

Bera is known only for its leopards. But it turns out to be a good place for birds too. We did not see anything we hadn’t seen before, but we did spot some passage migrants without really looking for them. I’m sure there is much to discover here.

Shikra

Sitting on the steps of an old structure in Hampi, I saw a preening shikra (Accipiter badius). One way to tell the difference between the sexes is by the eye colour; this one, with its orange eyes, is a female. A male has a significantly more red eye. This is perhaps the smallest of Indian raptors, but I’m continually surprised by its weight. The leaf it sat on did not move up significantly when it flew away. Until then I was happy to see it preen, because that was one way of getting to see the details of its tail feathers.

I’m afraid this post will be short because I have to take a very inconvenient flight.