A blog by Jayaram Subramanian
Wherever there are birds, there is hope – Mehmet Murat Ildan
Chaithanya Greenford I (CGF I) …
I live in Kadugodi, Bangalore, in a small 7 acres neighbourhood of 25+ families. The sheer joy of living in this place has to be experienced – the lung space and closeness to nature (those who constantly seek it find it!) coupled with friendly people!
I moved into this community in 2006 but got interested in birds only about five years back and started photographing them with an entry level Canon EOS 1100D with a 250mm lens. Now I have a Nikon D500 and 200-500mm Nikkor lens as my staple combination. I love to visit jungles, marshes, and water-bodies in the constant quest for spotting birds.
An engineer with 3+ decades in my profession, I am passionate about nature, flora and fauna. More so I am in total admiration and awe of the winged denizens. My love for birds is inexplicable! As a person I am not very social and keep my experiences to myself. My neighbours have often caught me walking around with a bazooka like contraption aimed at the trees and bushes during my bird walks in the layout, and quizzed me. The brief conversations which ensued often lead to the arousal of their curiosity and interest in the birds. These encounters have encouraged and propelled me to share my experience and joy of bird watching as otherwise it will be gross injustice to the protagonists of my ‘films’.
Getting hooked …
The introduction is not complete if I do not talk about who got me insanely hooked onto birds. During the early days in this layout, I often saw Santosh (my neighbour and good friend, who now lives with his family in Canada) wander around with a camera taking pictures of flowers and insects. When I accosted him to find out what he was upto, he took me home and showed me a book authored by eminent ornithologist Dr. Salim Ali, ‘The Book of Indian Birds’. He said that he has started exploring flowers, bees, and insects, his new found interests, but his first passion is birds!! He showed me a few pictures from the book (catalogued as plates and numbered) and explained to me how I could go about identifying the birds in the neighbourhood based on their size, colour, shape of beak, etc. I was fascinated beyond words! I went and bought this book from a store but as always with me I put away the book in the shelf to be read on a later day! A couple of months later my wife gifted me with a camera (Canon). Initially I went around the layout shooting pictures of flowers and coming to terms with the camera. Birds were still not on my radar!
I remember it was a rainy day and the road outside my house was flooded. As I could not take out my car I stayed back home. I just stepped out into my car park around noon when I noticed a bird, with long legs and distinct red markings below the eyes, in the vacant plot opposite my house. I immediately rushed to grab my camera and clicked pictures of this bird. I did not know the identity of this bird. I took out Dr. Salim Ali’s book and was thrilled beyond imagination when I found the match! It was a Red-wattled Lapwing! My first tryst with birds! I showed this picture to Santosh and this triggered him to immediately pull out his Nikon and together we embarked on several adventures in and around the layout tracking birds in the months before he moved to Canada. There was no looking back since then!
Sheer joy …
With a great sense of pride and joy I claim that all the birds encountered in this layout (Chaitanya Greenford I) are within 100 meters of my home. This treasure trove right under my nose has been a positive reinforcement in my quest for birds. The sheer number of species encountered here mesmerises me and the surprise never ceases! Few months back when I stepped out with the camera one late afternoon, my neighbour told me that she saw a white and black bird with a long white tail in my garden an hour back. Imagine my delight and despondency in the same breath! I just went crazy on the missed opportunity. But providence was benign to me. I hung around there in the desperate hope to spot the bird and like a fairy the Asian Paradise Flycatcher drifted into my view! That was my first and only shot of the ethereal beauty till date!!
Patience and Serendipity are two words one will earnestly associate with bird watching!! I dedicate this blog to the birds in CGF (Birds within 100 meters as I proudly claim!)
Welcome to the world of birds!
Birds in CGF 1, Whitefield 