Certain bird behaviours parallel those of ours. Recently, at the Perumbakkam Wetland, a ruff was giving smaller stakeholders in the habitat a rough time (sorry for the pun). With ruffled feathers (okay, I obviously didn’t mean that ‘sorry’), this bird was chasing away wood sandpipers and other ruffs found in the same feeding space. Even among the ruffs out there that day, this one looked bigger, and so felt entitled to a larger space. And then, this happened. A raid of three marsh harriers glided in and began to hover over this section, sending all the birds into a panic-driven flight. The belligerent warlord of a ruff was a transformed being; it got the farthest away from the patch the marsh harriers had set their eyes on.
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Now, the ruff, a winter visitor to our parts, is an exciting bird to watch, especially in its breeding plumage. The male of the species puts on an arresting decorative head-dress and collar. Of course, these migratory birds would return home for their breeding season, which begins in May. However, some birds begin to develop breeding plumage at the tail-end of their winter visit. So, there is an off-chance that towards the end of this migratory season, I may get to see a transformed male ruff, and I am keeping my fingers crossed.
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With birdwatching, there are more possibilities than we realise. Birds can show up at places where we don’t really expect to see them. Recently, I found yellow-wattled lapwings at a patch of earth in Padur on Old Mahabalipuram Road, near the site where a section of the new bypass road from Padur to Thiruporur is coming up. Found across India, the yellow-wattled lapwing is known for its seasonal movement, and keeps “shifting home” based on a few factors, which include seasonal rain. So, I was gald to come upon these beautiful birds unexpectedly.
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A reptilian friend sent me looking for a new pair of shoes. Until that day, I was wearing ankle-length shoes while birding. When I noticed this friend (who incidentally is a common krait) slithering just centimetres away, on earth higher than where I stood, I realised I should up my safety-consciousness, taking it over ankle-length. Now, I wear green wellies which came with a note from the manufacturer: “designed to resist perforation and abrasion”. I beseech my reptilian friends out there to resist the temptation to test that claim, especially when I am wearing those wellies.
Field Notes is a weekly column about the resident and winter-visiting birds of Chennai
