Well who can boast of 10 flowers on the rooftop garden and five and more in the tiny outdoor garden?

Well who can boast of 10 flowers on the rooftop garden and five and more in the tiny outdoor garden?

Well who can boast of 10 flowers on the rooftop and five and more in the tiny outdoor garden?

Well who can boast of 10 or more butterflies on the rooftop garden and five and more in the tiny outdoor garden?

Well who can boast of 3 pairs of Nectar or Honey birds on the rooftop and five and more pairs of Munia or Battihchas and Suticchas in the tiny outdoor garden?

The Suttichas with a needle like beaks are ferocious if interfered with (tiny but ferocious) and pair of them chased me out of the rooftop garden.

One was feeding on tiny spiders and tiny insects.

The other was searching for a plants (taller than me) with branches spreading under the asbestos roofing for place for nest.

I frightened them since cats are always there to prey on them.

I have a beautiful photo of a tiny nest with our dogs hair as a padding they made when I was away for  six weeks (rooftop garden gone to wilderness).

Our dog is no more but every time when I see these tiny birds they remind me of the good times and bad times.

Well we can have all these even on a rainy day.

That is only if you care for them tenderly.

Not with the idea of selling it to a guy/girl who does not understand plant biology.

It is just like giving a scholarly political book published in academic cycles in the West to a Ceylonese politician?

The ideas won’t filter into actions but only to rhetoric.

Where is liberty, equality and fraternity?

It is only books published after Carl Marx, the greatest critic of capitalism not socialism.

A cooperative society is an antithesis to corporate organizations big or small.

Avant Garden is a good local example.

Singing Birds

I wake up to the sound of singing birds.

I have now faced with a problem.

I try to identify them by their chirpy, chippy, churns but cannot.

Let me list the ones I can identify.

Crows caw, quacks of duck, cock-a-doodle-doo of cocks and few more.

But I hate the whine of mosquitoes.

They keep me up all night.

So, when I am up early with a nasty bite of a mosquito, with raging anger, to calm me and get to Metta Mode, I listen to the early birds.

Probably our domesticated fowl is the first to crack and wake up.

Then the jungle fowl and little later and afterward, there are many more birds whistling which I cannot identify but worth recording on a sonogram.

I can identify the Polkhicha that come and gobble my guppies.

Then the babblers, bul bul and last the Ceylon Oriole and the parrots and musical coucal.

I cannot count ten (ducks are not in my neighbourhood but are in frozen state in a deep freezer) and I give up.

Birds in Paradise Lost and the Juvenile Delinquent

This piece was long overdue.

Ceylon used to be a paradise for birds.

Not anymore.

It has many reason as I see them as a bird lover and a bird watcher but I have to highlight some recent developments ornithologist has not studied adequately.

I wrote a piece 2 years ago about a an Indian Oriole pair who did not migrate back for long period of time.

This coincided with the full operation of the Coal Power Plants.

I was obsessed to point out that the wind currents were effected by the commission of the Coal Power Plant and the it probably affected their detection of thermal range and the decision to migrate back to beyond Afghanistan.

They did remain for a prolong period and finally disappeared for good and never returned for the subsequent two years.

I was predicting that they would breed here but that prediction has no credible evidence to support by way of young ones.

Instead more of the local Oriole who prefers jungle habitat started vising our small garden.

Their was an unusual increase of local bird visiting our neighborhood for two reason.

1. Water.

2. The fruit tree they love to visit and partake its fruits.

During this period the remaining Bread fruit tree and another jack tree was consumed but they still have limited tree cover.

The other reason was that in the name of development and Eco-tours two remaining Kurulu Kales are being vandalized driving them to move out looking for safer places. (Kurulu Kale-Jungle reserved for local habitat both fauna and flora, in fact what is left of, in and around Kandy city.)

This development is going at full pace and they are even removing an overhead pass probably to make room for the Night Races which I will never watch.

Today story is more to do with the Buttichacha, the tiny bird that has made a point to take over our fruit tree for his delinquent acts.

For his size he is a hero of mine.

One day I was watching he was pecking a young bat who had lost his way and resting on another tree upside down on broad day light, like our politicians.

Their view about nature, coal power and anything scientific to me looks like upside down anyway.

Politics is not a science but a way of life and those guys/girls will never understand science in correct perspective anyway.

Those who cannot understand the value of live and let live and reconciliation won’t understand, science in their day to day life.

The next episode was this little guy has such a macho that he dare attack like a live bullet on the Ceylon Oriole whom I have now an special attraction after the episode with Indian Oriole.

Moment a Oriole comes he is airborne like a bullet and hit the big guy on the tummy with his long beak and the big guy won’t attack in return but shy away like a timid little boy and fly away without partaking any fruits.

When this happened, I went into my investigating gear to see whether he was protecting the young ones or the nest.

My investigation were negative.

He was a loner.

He has not found a bride but his instinct is to wait their for a good match and when he finds one to built a nest for his lover.

He is neurotic without a lover.

His pitch is belligerent and delinquent.

Now the Oriole expects the attack and cleverly avoid and direct hit and he was a peaceful guy and never retaliate.

The Butichcha now goes into pitch of defense (as if protecting the young ones) and as long as the big one is their makes a racketty noise in alarm mode. 
The big guy picks a fruits from the tree and quickly flies away.

The little one goes behind chasing the big guy but unfortunately it cannot catch up the flight of the Airbus body of the Oriole in comparison to the pocket size bird.

It reminds me of the rhetoric of our guys blasting the American.

I can remember in years gone by China used to have rhetoric against USA when its air space is violated by American spy planes.

They go to thousands of warning but the big guy the USA won’t stop the surveillance.

In the world of bird when paradise is lost and a partner is not available for mating what else a little bird can do?

Yelling in high pitch (like our politicians).

This one I am going to send to Maha Brahma asking him to intervene and produce one more (extra) female for this delinquent and boisterous BOY to pair with,

It just need one more egg.

Let him not make it a Buddhist Egg and unfertilized.

When I asked a favor Maha Brahma promptly addressed my call for the lonely cuckoos and I have many pairs visiting the garden now.

THANK YOU.

If you oblige this time, the rackety noise will disappear in no time and his delinquency will be gone for good.

I am not sure our Butchittas come under Swifts or Cuckoos.

Either way he is a personality good enough to enter our parliament and make a big noise without substance like the Hela Urumaya or Hela Karumaya.

Birds birds and birds, where the hell they come from?

This is my comment below a paper article about unusual bird activity

There is something radically wrong for them to come out.
I have been observing this for a while.
I have not nailed it down but In Kandy it is due to clearing of their habitat on the Hantana foothills by guys with political patronage.
They move from East to West which is not normal.
They are now nesting in few trees near our house.
Never seen before except Blue Kobeeyahs (Ash Parrots).
Second reason is they need lot of water (not food) due to unusually warm weather.
Global warming to be precise.
In our case we have a water purification plant and they come there to bathe and drink water.
Leave lot of water for them to drink if not bathe.
They die without water.
Mind you we had two full moons without rain in Kandy.
Third reason is our mulberry tree is full of fruits due to warm weather.

I am trying to make few sapling (very difficult in this warm weather) of mulberry and give it to my friends to encourage their visits.

If not Jam Trees would do.
My guess is without visiting the hinterland, a baaaaaxxxxD with political backing and in the name of development must be destroying the last vestige of their natural habitat.

Pass this message and this news by email to all bird lovers and start investigating without delay.

I have few sketches devoted in my blog-post-Linux 100 and parafox to alert bird lovers of this country.
Try your email in the meantime.
Thanks for highlighting this phenomenon.