In my previous blog post, The Curious Case of Contentment, I had called out this probable scenario — “As we see off the monsoon showers and await the arrival of our migratory friends, the next few month will once again be filled with birding action. Will it make sense to then continue on the pursuit of contentment when happiness will be served on the proverbial platter?
As the birding season picked pace, during the months of September-October did we manage to put contenment’s name to test? Read on to find out.
The extension of the monsoon season well into the middle of October is now following on the back of its significantly delayed start in mid July. It goes without saying that these changes are also impacting the way migratory birds arrive in the Indian Subcontinent. While the changes seem subtle and as an aberration for now, it is only a matter of time before the deviations manifests themselves as patterns. Worrisome patterns. Climate change induced weather extremes are not just bothering us humans — forest fires, floods, and rainfall excess/deficits are making birds deviate from their usual patterns.
Grassland Recce
One such deviation that had the birders of the city of Pune on their proverbial toes was the sighting of a breeding pair of the Broad-tailed Grassbird. A rather rare species endemic to the moist grasses of the Western Ghats, there are very few records of its sighting in the comparatively drier grasslands of Pune. Furthermore, it was been sighted across the entire length of its breeding period (March to September) where it was suspected to breed two broods. This tiny yet loud brown bird of the grasses had set the game afoot, not only because it was way off its range here but also because the species is classified as “Vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List. This mix of existential threat and range deviation meant that one could never be sure which Grassbird sighting may be our last. Ever.
Not knowing which bird sighting may be your last of that species. Sobering as this thought is, we are hurtling towards this reality at an unsustainable pace.
With this thought lingering at the back of my mind, we packed up our birding gear, made a meek attempt to remove the tufts of grass that had encroached into unspeakable of places while we crawled around to sight the Grassbird and decided to extend the trail towards the rocky terrain nearby before the sun made it difficult to keep on moving.
Brightest of ideas in the drabbest of weathers this turned out to be. The lifer sighting of the Grassbird was followed by three more lifers. The Sirkeer Malkoha, the Long-billed Pipit and the Striolated Bunting along side the usually hard to see Blue-Rock Thrush. One after the other these avian specialties graced me with their august presence — in September.
The lines between happiness and contentment were blurring faster than I had anticipated. The grasslands kept their promise of high count of sightings and the late to shine sun made it possible to create some surreal frames on the trail.
Common yet Uncommon
The buzz generated by rare sightings got loud through the month of September well into October. It is during this time that my happy place, the Vetal Tekdi — a hillock in the midst of my hometown is usually rife with passage migrants. Passage migrants are birds that take a well calibrated pit stop enroute their long journeys across the European, Asian and African continents. The limited time frame that they stop over makes one realize how incredibly fortunate it is to sight them so close to home. Yet again, the thought that one may not be sure which of these sighting may be our last sighting of that species continues to live rent free in my head. The Vetal Tekdi plays host to a significant number of these passage and early migrants. Their timing of arrival and duration of stay makes seeing them a common sighting of an uncommon species.
So how do you maximize this small window of sightings. Well, you do what the title of the blog says.
Eat. Sleep. Bird. Repeat.
What followed over the next few weeks was a routine even I’m surprised of having pulled off. Every morning and late evening, a trail to the known birding nooks of the Tekdi continued to yield some of the best times I have managed to spend here. It was not only about the birding, its kinda hard to explain, but being on the Tekdi has this time lapse effect on you. You need to experience it firsthand to be honest. On that note, between November 05 and 12, this year (when Bird Week is celebrated in remembrance of Dr Salim Ali and Shri Maruti B. Chitampalli — two of India’s pioneering ornithologists) we are hosting the inaugural edition of the Vetal Tekdi Birding Marathon. This birding marathon is a volunteer driven effort to raise awareness about the natural heritage that is the Vetal Tekdi and the unique avifauna that inhibits this hotspot — more so during the migratory season.
Sounds interesting? Do join because the title of Vetal Tekdi Birding Champion awaits your participation.
Event details are available here — https://bit.ly/VTBM2023
Mountain Milieu
The thing with birding, as with many other avenues of life is that getting in a routine has cascading benefits. What become muscle memory with regular trails to the Tekdi, proved to be a saviour of sorts as Ashwin and I trekked up the Kumaon mountain ranges to partake in our first ever extended mountain birding trails. To say that the days in the mountains were a blur would be an understatement for the experience was something further superlative to that. The idea of time and space seemed to have made a mockery of us as we begin to experience what sighting everything everywhere actually feels like. The birding hot-spots of Sattal — Chaffi — Pangot offer a window into what concerted preservation of bird habitats will yield for those coming behind us.
It was during one such evening in Pangot, when we where resting only because the setting sun meant that sighting or photographing birds will now be a superhuman ask, when realization dawned upon me that I had being in this exact place two years back on this very day.
Broken, hurt and desperately wanting to be held close, I was waiting for the dark to set in to open a bottle of liquor and drown my sorry self in it. Back then, I was not even sure what I identify myself as. An attempt to escape from the many facades that I had put on over these decades had got me here back then.
And yet, two years later, here I was, having embraced rigorous therapy, to make peace with my demons, a vague deja vu was all that is left of that past self.
There is only gratitude I have for everyone and everything that helped me get here today. The second anniversary of beginning the journey from “Could life be any worse?” to “Could life be any better?” would probably not have asked for a better sunset. With every passing trail, I have learnt to enjoy my own company to the fullest. As I experienced this milieu with myself in the mountains, I could only manifest that the company keeps getting better.
Grand Finale!
A month this eventful needed a befitting finale of sorts. The city of Gurgaon, an urban sprawl that eats its fringes for breakfast is not exactly the kind of place one would look for this finale.
Or so a naive mind would conclude.
A mix of fallow lands, water logged fields and large swathes of grasses interluded by manicured cultivation makes the outskirts of Gurgaon a birding paradise in the heart of India’s urbanization furnace. The chance of a rare sighting is always lurking around the corner and in my case it turned out to be an early-arrived flock of the European Starling. Bling bling and blitz blitz abound, these European cousins of the local starlings/mynas, seem to have taken their fashion lessons in Paris at the very least.
This brief period of two months did really put the notion of seeking contentment in birding to test. The urge to chase happiness in sightings was real, but once the initial euphoria waned off — foot steps became slower, sitting in a spot to observe bird behavior made more sense than sitting inside a bird hide trying hard to make near perfect frames, and more importantly, the zeal to live the moment than rush to capture it — won. Every. Single. Time.
The adage — slow is smooth and smooth is fast seems to have been coined for this very path to contentment.
For all of you who have stayed with me this far, I’m re-plugging the details of the inaugural edition of the Vetal Tekdi Birding Marathon — https://bit.ly/VTBM2023
Do plan to participate in this open for all mega birding event!
