Did they hear me complaining?

Last month, I complained about not being able to see any birds (Where are ye 'all?) except the pigeons in my neighborhood and the weeks after that I’ve been seeing quite an improvement. Parrots! They’re all over the terraces (except mine. That’s still a complaint!).

My neighbor feeds them with rice early morning and hordes of parrots fly from the west and perch on the terraces and coconut trees.

Realizing this, I started placing heaps of rice in small hills around me terrace too, but they wouldn’t even look at them. I thought I should give them sometime and kept on doing it every other day. Well, most of the times it’s the pesky squirrels who’d empty it all! I sometimes wonder if they have stomachs all over their bodies!

Once or twice a parrot or two would taste the rice a bit and they’re soon scared off by squirrels!

But I am glad that I’m able to see the parrots these days and that too frequently – both in the morning and evening! Now that’s really something.

I also did spot two other birds (or are they the same?) last week – not sure what they’re – Any idea?

Somehow the parrots seem okay with the presence of pigeons and crows (I've seen them chasing the crows sometimes if they sit on the same leaf, but they happily share their food with pigeons!)...

Today evening, even though I was sneezing constantly, I couldn't resist going to watch the birds. I'm sure many were scared off by my sneezes, but I did capture a parrot doing a little jumpy thing on a coconut tree. It was funny watching it.

One morning last week, I went to the terrace to spray my plants with Neem extract (unfortunately it rained minutes after I came down) and I saw this great scene. The parrot looked as if it was doing Sûrya Namaskara (an exercise with yogic postures and chating that keeps your body healthy and fit) early in the morning.

Where are ye’all?

Where are ye’all, my dear winged friends? Where are the Koels that replied back to my ‘coos’ on Sunday afternoons? I still remember me cooing and the Koels would reply back and if you stop cooing, it’d give you back a frightful coos continuously, as if it’s lost its lover. I don’t see them anymore! Or at least hear their coos anymore!

Where are the welcoming early-morning chirrups of sparrows? They used to be a nuisance when you wanted silence years before, but my ears are aching for them again… My eyes don’t see their cute little figures flitting about. Yes, I do hear their chirps once in a while these days, but where are ye’all hiding?

Even you, O’ Myna? Where are you hiding your beautiful yellow beaks? Are your yellow bordered eyes tired of Chennai-ites? Don’t your yellow feet find relief in Chennai trees? I still do see them (in fact did see one flying by today morning) but not so much!

O’ dear Parrots! Why do you fly away at my sight? Where are all your siblings? Why don’t you kee-kee a lot anymore?

Why wouldn’t ye cocks crow anymore? Do you not see the sun anymore in this polluted sky?

O! My heart bleeds and my eyes bleeds too to see ye’ all! Really, it’s sad that birds have almost disappeared from Chennai (the city I live in – previously called Madras). Not that we had exotic birds visiting us, but we did have the above mentioned birds very commonly visiting our houses, but they’re lost almost-forever. Know why? They’re not fed by people and neither are they given places to live. With structures stacking side-by-side and trees cut down to build bridges, the winged chummies were offended and driven away!

But one consolation is that I see a lots and lots of Pigeons. They lately seem to compete with the Crow population!

Hope people start realizing the importance of birds and begin feeding them…