waking up to the sounds of birds chirping with daylight peeking in through the closed curtains. it truly feels heavenly to wake up without the aid of any mechanical/electronic devices.
taljai seems to be brimming with peacocks (touchwood). there's an abandoned quarry just behind the society (kshitij) in which i live. kshitij means horizon and it truly is a horizon of sorts. it is the point where the urban meets the wild, the boundary separating the humans from the non-humans. so this quarry has now become one of my favorite places to hang out.
today i witnessed the best sight ever. 5-6 peahens clustered together. 8-10 juvenile males loitering about in a group. And one full grown male displaying his feathers to his community but mainly to the females I guess. that is what is generally known as the peacock dancing. and i was spellbound. It seemed like those mating rituals of birds of paradise we get to see on animal planet or something. a sight that will go down in memory forever. missed my video camera though.
the vibrant colors, his posture, the way he fluttered his feathers back and forth, again and again and again, making sure he catches everyone's attention. (he definitely had mine). that guy is going to be fathering a lot of chicks this season for sure. he inflated his body, vibrated it and just kept fluttering everything that he possibly could. and round and round and round he went, making sure he displayed everything. he made sure the light fell on each part of his beautifully colored body.
it makes you realize- nature truly is magnificent.
on my daily walks i see peacocks/hens soaring above the heads of the various daily walkers and most of them don't even seem to realize it. some pass by in the bush while the passers by walk past deeply engrossed in the music pouring into their ears from their headphones. rabbits sprint across and no one seems to notice. sometimes i wonder if i have been hallucinating. once i witnessed a shikra swoop down on a rabbit only to realize his intended prey was too large for him. no other witnesses of this failed hunting experience.
to see a paradise flycatcher flit from one branch to another. to see a sunbird dip its sleek beak into a flower for nectar. to see bulbuls chasing one another. to watch babblers creating a ruckus goodness knows for what. to see mynas stealing food from the smaller birds. to see sparrows mud bathing and then taking a dip in a tiny patch of water. to hear the red wattled lapwing screeching for no apparent reason (but i am sure it does have a very good reason, just that i don't know it.) to hear the hollow gurgling sound of a caucal as it hops on the
ground looking for little crawling creatures.
paradise means different things to different people, for me it is right here in my own backyard...(touchwood)
2 comments:
Hey Juhi, it was awesome..
it's only taken me 2 years to respond! but thank you for reading it :)
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