Thursday, October 30, 2014



The sights and sounds of our amiable sparrows


Our neighbourhood is now a bee-hive of babies who are not lesser than six months and children who are not more than 10 years old. The moment morning breaks and the sun rises in the east at around 5.45 am some sparrows come to our verandah like small children. When the babies -- who live nearby and whose voice, laughter and cries have become so much familiar --are fast asleep, these sparrows add life to our daily routine work. They wake my parents to a new day.
Sparrows have a habit of coming in a flock

of five to seven and the number of male bird visitors are greater than females. The male birds, who wear  darker shades of brown on their wings and neck, make a louder sound which if carefully heard seems like "speak speak" and "quick" and then they whistle. They nose-dive from the grill to a level of our first floor and again starts flying from than point without touching the ground and comes back in full energy to swing on a hanging cable. Like I watch them sitting on an iron bar, these birds too look at me with their sharp eyes. The females are less smarter and have a faded look with a thinner shade of light brown beak. By the time my day starts they become restless for their daily dose of puffed rice spread especially for them on a flower pot in the verandah. No sooner that two or three have finished having food, the rest comes flying to the venue to check if they are missing out on something. Earlier I was the one who gave them  food and in fact I had regularised the system of offering them breakfast as a part of our daily life but with passing time the duty shifted to my mother's work schedule which indeed makes her happy. For the last one year the sparrows have started inviting a pair of mynahs since the time I have added a few more plants. These birds come in turn and also at intervals.

The sparrows have friends in our locality where they visit everyday to check how the whistling cockatoos are doing inside their cage.