Avian minnows. Brown, beady-eyed, chirruping hoppers. So numerous in my childhood, so not-seen nowadays.
I see proud-chested pigeons. Puffing, preening, primping. Grey with fluorescent necks. Meek, docile, mild. Dropping plenty of their tell-tale poop all over.
I can see murders of crows. Raucous, black, glistening, circling away in their hundreds. Attacking stray pieces of strewn garbage.
There’s cawing and cooing, but no chirping or cheeping.
I see majestic kites, gliding high overhead, riding the air currents, eyesight as sharp as their beaks and talons, on the lookout for carrion.
Parrots. In the mornings. Camouflaged among the green canopy outside my window. Happy, carefree and noisy.
The occasional koels. Their warbling heard, more than themselves being seen. Even mynahs.
Sea birds. Long spanned, long billed and long legged. Flying in formation. Or seeking the fruits of the sea, while wading.
Assorted migratories.
Bats, stealthy ghosts that scare the heck out of me, come twilight.
Unidentified wagtails and pretty whatchamacallits, hopping, bobbing, pecking.
But where have all the sparrows gone?
Enjoy your description of the sparrows. And – God! an excellent question!
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Thank you! It’s to do with urban growth, loss of their habitat and lack of water, o believe
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It was a wonderful read about the birds Kunal. Though the sparrows have dwindled in great numbers over the years, we are lucky to have them here. They come into our balcony and keep chirping. It is such a welcome sound to hear. Not only sparrows, we have a few other species of birds too, the names of which I am not aware. In the adjacent vacant plot there is a group of peacocks. We spot them at times when they perch up on the rocks.
I had written a small poem the first time I spotted a sparrow in our balcony. Sharing its link.
https://radhikasreflection.wordpress.com/2016/06/05/sparrow/
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Thanks, R! You’re lucky then, I guess, in Bangalore (right?). Mumbai is terrible now, with rampant construction. I read that the heat reflecting off these new fangled glass towers, is too intense for the birds – I know that I get a headache whenever I walk past
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I am at Hyderabad. When we moved in here it was so open with such great natural rock formations. Now every other day huge machine comes to bulldoze those rocks, and a new building stands in its place within no time. Its only a matter of time when Hyd too will be following Mumbai!!
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So beautiful to see these wonderful birds that are so few but I can see one or two outside my house and hear their chirping noise and Kunal this post of yours was such a good read. Great.
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Thanks, Kamal!
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Welcome Kunal.
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Sparrows have come to my home! You are also welcome 🙂
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Lucky you! And thanks for the invite & the read 🙂
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We have them in England’s New Forest
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Good for you, Derrick! They’re dying out in our cities 😦
Thanks for coming by!
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They are here in my university campus, Sir! Lovely to see them chirping all around 😊
And that was a wonderful post!
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How lovely, Surya, you’re blessed, then! Kerala is far more verdant than this awful metropolis I live in 😦
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Blessed I’m, Sir…my native village in Kerala is still quite beautiful and close to nature..but my university campus here in Coimbatore, is a paradise!
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…please call me Kunal. Would love to visit Coimbatore (Sadguru’s ashram) and I have fond memories of Kerala (my honeymoon!)
Thanks for commenting, miss!
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My pleasure! 😊
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Sir, are you looking for the right birds? 😉 On a serious note though, I sympathise. For me, nature is nourishment for the soul. The scene of urbanisation you describe sounds too much and I guess the disappearance of the sparrows tells you that.
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Hahaha, Chevvy. I’ll settle for sparrows 😊. They’re more harmless!!!
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How about the Mighty Sparrow? Dah mahn can propah sing buy!
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Some awesome visuals mixed in there.
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Thanks, Jason! Hope you’re doing well?
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I am me. Thanks Kunal. 🙂
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Colorful scene!
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Albeit without sparrows. Thanks!
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Everything around these days is so different and unfamiliar. .. diminishing sparrows is all part of the new unfamiliar world I suppose. .change progress etc always comes at some price for sure …as always well written piece kunal …sumi
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Thank you. I’m all for change, but we have to think of the world around us as well.
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True, Kunal. Miss them too!
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👍🙏🏽
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Lost to concrete jungles and a sense of urban malaise, I suspect. Great write!
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Thanks! Is it the same in Melbourne?
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Getting that way. But I live next to a forest so I’ll be safe for a bit longer 🙂
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Oh, nice! Good on you 🙂
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We’ve kidnapped them so you can come up with wonderful descriptions and poems like this one. We Shimla folks are fueling your creativity in the most unique ways. 🙂
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Am glad you still have them, I miss those li’l guys! Thanks for hopping across!
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Anytime. Always good to read you. 🙂
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I am blessed to have a sparrow serenade each morning.
They start early…around 5 a.m. and they continue until nightfall.
When Mother Nature says ‘lights out’ a few adventurous ones continue
to sing, so not only do I get up to music, I go to sleep to their song
also. It is a joy. The photo is a treasure. It is so lifelike I expect it
to burst into song at any minute.
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You are indeed blessed, stay that way! It’s a pity human development – if it can be called that – is messing with another Nature. Thanks for your visit!
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I’ve been enjoying my new bird feeder, and a sparrow is a regular visitor, along with chickadees, varieties of finches, and one very pesky squirrel.
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There’s obviously a correlation between the amount of greenery and birds. Thanks for the visit!
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Oh! We have PLENTY of them here – to the point that we’ve begun to hate them, since they gobble up all the newly sprouted plants in the garden😏😏
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Oh? Well, it’s a no-win then!
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