About Nestlings and Fledglings

"What we know is a drop, what we don’t know is an ocean" – Isaac Newton.

 My knowledge on birds minuscule indeed despite owning the field guides. And this instance reeling under the false knowledge of all times i really didn't know what to do. The fact that if i touch the poor creature and provide some comfort it will be abandoned by it's own parents and banished from the community. All of them could smell me on it and considering it alien might peck it to death. 
The poor creature which i knew to be a baby had fallen down, perhaps from it's attempt at flying or could've accidentally fallen out of it's hole nest in a tree. i wouldn't know. All i knew that it was lying below the pomegranate tree, seeming quite helpless and afraid. 
Torn between the dilemma that arose because of the ill baked knowledge and also the fact that i should not interfere with nature i kept guarding the poor thing from being a meal of cats/dogs. But how long could i do that. My presence there might perhaps be making rescue by parents difficult too.

i realized then how nothing i know about what to do when i find a baby bird that looks abandoned or lost.  
For starters i held the baby. Tried to comfort it through affectionate human gestures. Soft caresses and gentle sounds.Trying to convey that it was safe and would not be harmed in any way. Then tried feeding some water by opening its beak gently and squeezing drops of water out of a moist cotton ball. Later placed it in a bed of a hanging basket of money plant so that it could feel that it is in a familiar setting and then sat down to think what i should do next. 

As i stood in the balcony i couldn't help but notice a flash of green rushing past and disappearing into the dense foliage of mango tree visible from the balcony. Perhaps it was the mother searching for her baby.

i decided to take the baby and put it back safely among the branches of the pomegranate tree. i followed my instinct and did just that. It was below this tree on the ground i had found the bird.

The baby perched and sat there as i stood for a while making sure that it is still there when once again i noticed another green with a long beak fly past and before i could see who it could be it got merged in the oblong shiny foliage of the nearby child life tree aka Putranjiva.  

It was time for me to move away and let nature take it's course. 

Sitting in my balcony i had my anxiety though. i wondered if the mother was able to find her baby. i wondered about many things because we have legs and hands and can do a lot while they have their beaks and their wings and have limits to what they can do.

After finishing my daily chores i decided to google and find out if i did right or was my handling of the situation a non caring or halfhearted one. i ought to know better.

Found this not only helpful but also received some sound learning/knowledge which also dispelled the myths i had about baby birds.  https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/i-found-a-baby-bird-what-do-i-do/ 

It was not difficult or bothersome when once again i found a 'nestling' of the Indian Robin aka Bulbul bird that had perhaps fallen out of it nest. As mentioned in the internet site about what to do i made the baby safe from predators and later searched for the nest. It was not a long search and i could locate the nest in the Rangoon creeper aka Madhumalti. Not without some flurry of activity happening around me. A couple of Bulbuls chirping loudly were hovering around me and it seemed that they were panicking. Nearby perched on to the thin branches of the Indian lilac aka the Neem tree which was swaying in the breeze another Red Vented Bulbul  kept calling continuously. It sounded more like a war cry/ alarm call than just the usual chirp.  

i quickly put the nestling in it's nest and scooted from there as fast as i could hoping that the shrieking birds should sense my intent. That i was only trying to help.

i can only hope that my intrusion was purposeful and that the baby grew up to be another Red Vented Bulbul and is chirping around living it's life. So do i imagine about the Basanta aka Brown Headed Barbet i had placed on the pomegranate tree. 

i too feel like how Karen Blixen felt in the story 'Out of Africa' by Isak Dinesen. 

Do they remember me ?!

Just how i remember them and have a memory of them do they too have one of me ?!

“If I know a song of Africa, of the giraffe and the African new moon lying on her back, of the plows in the fields and the sweaty faces of the coffee pickers, does Africa know a song of me? Will the air over the plain quiver with a color that I have had on, or the children invent a game in which my name is, or the full moon throw a shadow over the gravel of the drive that was like me, or will the eagles of the Ngong Hills look out for me?” ― Isak Dinesen

Wednesdays i generally wear green. Not that i am a devout Hindu who wears colors as specified in the Hindu astrological almanac for each day but for saving time have i decided to follow it. i have too many clothes. Much more than i actually need.
https://www.color-meanings.com/color-wear-day-colors-week/ 
But is is not the color of clothes i had wanted to talk about. It is basically about another who wears green. Not on Wednesdays only but always. Not commonly seen as one would see a crow or a common starling (Myna) but generally heard. '' Call it a monotonous kutroo, kutroo, kutroo or kutruk, kutruk, kutruk uttered throughout the day. Very noisy in hot weather, often calling in chorus.'' ( Birds of the Indian Subcontinent by Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp & Tim Inskipp). 

They remain very near to us and sighted sometimes but mostly remain camouflaged in the foliage of the trees.