Birds, nests and some memories..

After a long long time, I spotted a bird's nest today. I was having tea at the usual place after my morning jog and I saw these small birds chirping and flying out of a bush by the roadside. Out of curiosity I went near, and there was this nice little nest hidden by the leaves. It was woven into a bunch of lantana leaves and the owner, a brown little weaver bird, was standing guard. I didn't want to scare them off and made a quite retreat.

As kids, my sisters and I used to scout for bird nests all around the house. There were quite a few of them in the bushes and small trees nearby. There were exquisite nests made by weavers and bulbuls and the shabby ones made by spotted barn doves. It was a joy to search the nests for eggs or little birdies. Though we just wanted to see the nests, it often scared the birds away. Many a times we found weaver bird nests made inside folded Kanha leaves. The dove's nest were just a handful of twigs laid across two branches of the Cocoa tree. Doves are probably the dumbest of birds who just lay their eggs on this open fragile set of twigs, which they call their nest. A swift wind was enough to roll these egss on to the ground, in case they were not already consumed by crows, snakes or squirrels.

Then there were these small little brown and white birds that used to make their nests so close to the house. We had a climber growing on to the veranda which was their preferred location to build their nests. Year after year they used to come to the same place, repair and rebuild the nests, hatch their young ones and disappear as quietly as they come. At times there were more than 10 young birds doing their flight training around the garden. We also had a few swallows (Plain Martins), who used to build their mud houses on the roof of the first floor verandah. The parents fly in with small bits of clay, which is mixed with saliva and glued together to form these designer nests. We never got to see their kids as the parents were quite possessive and used to keep them inside all the time! A few occasions we found nests shattered after the rain, and brought home the eggs or the helpless chicks, but not an egg hatched or the hatch-lings survived under our care.

Seeing another nest near the house after so long was like going back a few years in the past !