Grey Treepie
We are in the depths of exam mode, meaning I have
spent more that 42 hours marking papers, since last Monday. In addition to exam
supervision that is a heap of work in anyone’s book and I am sorry to say the
task is less than half over. With meetings still happening, students still
seeking clarification before they take exams and wanting immediate
gratification about the answers they have written once they exit the exam hall,
there has been little time for anything else but exam fever for the last 7
days. Another 4 days and the long awaited summer break will be here but before
then ….
The weekend has come to a close and the blog I had
intended to post sometime Friday is now well overdue….. Enough complaining….
Red-vented Bulbul
One of the greatest joys here is waking up to
birdsong almost every morning. We are blessed with a raging river and paddy
fields just outside our windows and the amount of birdlife that transits
through this zone is amazing.
Blue-throated Barbet
Directly outside our bedroom window is a barren
tree branch that affords birds a clear view over the steep cliff face and the
river below and it is therefore a favourite resting place for a wide variety of
species. We have taken to calling it the singing tree. We are fortunate to wake up to birdsong most mornings. Even when cloud
cover and thick fog conceal the beauty of the mountains the birds entertain us
with their antics and musicality.
Of course it is not the only clear view we get of
the bird life but it is certainly the most convenient and many a morning I am
distracted by the calls and activities of vocal and endearing species, seemingly
singing for the sheer pleasure it brings them.
Black Bulbul singing its beak off!
Earlier this week I lamented
that the one power tiller that plies the fields here in this frantic planting
season would scare away our morning serenade, and just to prove me wrong our
friend the White-throated Kingfisher made an instant appearance, the moment the
machine was turned off.
White-throated Kingfisher
Our regular walks also provide us with ample bird
watching opportunities and the method we employ to identify the species we have
spotted is to photograph them so we can look up our book or the net on our
return home.
Himalayan Bulbul
We are now able to identify the calls of several
local species and there are still an elusive few that we hear but never see.
Cattle Egrets
These days we don't seem to get too much time to smell the flowers but we do find a few moments almost every day to appreciate the melodies.
No comments:
Post a Comment