Last year, it was a brace of hornbills. Today morning, while one dissolutely plied the toothbrush (the same one as last year!) in the oral cavity, a large bird was spotted flitting about the azadirachta indica outside the window. Large tail, somewhat ungainly. Lo and behold. It is a coucal. We have coucals in Begumpet. Unbelievable. Is this because they chopped down all those trees on SP Road so that the motorists have a wider field of play in which run down (us) hapless pedestrians?
Be that as it may, there be coucals in Begumpet. Who'd have thunk it?
The only question is whether the flitty thing was a greater coucal (centropus sinensis) or a lesser coucal (centropus bengalensis). Damn things are well nigh impossible to tell apart.
It was probably a lesser coucal. Until it strayed within our sphere of influence. Whereby it was elevated to greatness. And is now a greater coucal. Although we doubt if anyone has taken the trouble to inform said couc.
Whaddever, eh?
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
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11 comments:
like 'tippi' hendren in "the birds", could your brush wielding presence be summoning the birds?
is the couc. your familiar?
and don't think it hasn't been noticed. it has. you know what i mean.
(old fashioned look)
I do not, of course, believe for a moment that you can tell a coucal from an orangutan. Nevertheless, well tried comrade audubon...
[b.b.braun] Could it? Where, then, are the raptors and the waders and the shovelers and so on? Why only pigeons, hornbills and coucals? What ineffable mystery links these species and our toothbrush?
The couc. is now our familar.
"Hiya there, couc.!"
[Slaps couc. on the back in a familiar manner. Couc. dissolves into indiscernible blob.]
It has been noticed? Really? Didn't know.
[tmkhatftb] Unprincipled son of an unchaste she-camel, you have no idea. In some Bengalurur circles, I am now called the "bird Nazi". Beak Heil!
Hey L, how goes it all? Didnt know ye were into bird watching too.
No da, motorists are very sweet, civil people. It's just that 99% of them give the rest a bad name.
[shamanth] Hey man, wilkommen back. Yes, sort of. Am definitely interested in the getting-up-early-in-the-morning-and-wander-the-countryside part of birdwatching. But am also somewhat colour-blind, so sometimes can't spot things all that well. Nevertheless, tis always fun.
Beg to differ about motorists. Most of them think the roads were built for their exclusive use (which they actually are, seeing as the sidewalks here are getting to be narrower and narrower), and anyone who steps onto the bituminous surface is fair game for some "Piggy on the railway" type incidents :)
Hello Kiddo person,
bird in question most prob. greater ie, C. sinensis. Zoo next sunday. come.
About motorists in Hyderabad: when I was little, which was twenty years ago, my grandfather would drive me in his cream-colored Ambassador, all the way from the airport, past HPS, over the flyover, and into Punjagutta, and we'd see over the course of our trip perhaps a dozen cars.
The last time I visited Hyderabad the cars had gotten bigger, there were at least 50X as many on the roads, and it had gotten quicker to walk than drive.
A coucal eh? While we drone on about sparrows...oh well...
[sheetal] Hello back, bird person! Trust Guntur was good.
It most certainly must've been the greater couc. Hah, our analysis stands vindicated!
Joopark will be attempted. Lemme see...
[horsey] My, my. How weird. Ludwig lives on your grandfather's route from airport to Punjagutta, stone's throw from HPS, in fact.
You should visit again. The roads are humongous fields of death now, that we who do not own vehicles traipse over. Most of the time it is faster to drive than to walk.
[ph] Welcome. We're acquainted? A coucal, no less. And hornbills last year. Its either that, or this Meswak toothpaste thingumabob has something in it that induces these visions.
Sparrows are good. We'd drone about sparrows if there were any in Begumpet. Pigeons ('rock dove' is apparently the correct term), we have by the boatload, cooing annoyingly and gazing beadily at us. We hates them now!
No, not acquainted. Just being all casual and friendly.
Especially after we read how you have easy access to Ugaadi pachadi.
Nevertheless being gazed at beadily is very frightening.
[ph] Please to continue being casual and friendly. We do have access to Ugaadi pachadi, but it is not easy. Several cunning plans need to be hatched for such things. But we do OK.
And they do gaze. Beadily. It is hard to describe in words, "The Look Of The Balcony Pigeon".
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