Towards the end of a migratory season, a few resident birds and almost all migratory birds might find opportunities to exchange notes on a weighty matter.
While some resident species might be hunkering down to the challenging process of nesting and raising their young, the migratory birds might be getting a faint glimpse of it — that is, if one views birds through an anthropomorphic lens and attribute the features of human imagination to these feathered creatures.
In reality, the migratory birds might not be aware of what their bodies might be betraying to the human eye, around this time of the year.
A grey plover that has partially put on its breeding plumage, at the Kelambakkam backwaters on April 24, 2023 | Photo Credit: PRINCE FREDERICK
In the fag end of April, and through May, in their wintering grounds here, the mature among the migratory birds would be putting on their breeding fatigues in preparation for what would concern them once they hit their home grounds.
On April 24, within a span of a couple of hours, in two water-holding locations of south Chennai (one marked by a marshy environment, and the other markedly brackish in character), there was a demonstration of two scenes from the play titled “Regeneration”.
One had the resident black-winged stilts nesting in stony platforms, in copy book style.
At the other spot, a grey plover (which is a winter migrant in these parts) had turned black in the belly, indicating it is almost time for it to return home to raise a new family.
In its breeding grounds, the bird is better known as the black-bellied plover.
