The trapeze star

Saw this little squirrel running up and down the electric wire that connects our house to Shankarbabu's house across the road. He is quite fearless. I wanted to name the picture "How Green Was My Valley"

Rooftop birding

The latest bug to hit me is bird watching. Every morning I go up to the rooftop with my Bushnel and scan the surrounding rooftops, electric wires and trees and poles for birds. So far I have spotted and identified quite a few. Asian pied starling (kalo shalik), (probably black) drongo (Fingay), red whiskered and red vented bulbuls (bulbuli pakhi), oriental magpie robin (doyel). The purple sunbird (both male and female) (durga tuntuni), common tailorbird (tuntuni) and a warbler have been sighted too. During morning walks we have also sighted the white throated kingfisher and Indian pond herons.
I am excluding from this list the crow, the common mynah and the sparrow because the idea is not to trivialize the subject !!
All these that I have seen so far are very common birds in Kolkata and as such don’t require too much attention because none of them is threatened (though Kolkata as a whole is threatened as a habitat for birds in general). But there is a certain fun and joy in spotting and identifying even the commonest of birds of a certain region. I have decided to learn this new subject as much as possible in the next few years of active life that I still have. I have purchased two books on the subject. One is by Salim Ali “Birds of the Indian Subcontinent”. The other is a pocket guide that doesn’t quite fit my pocket though !!



English Name: Sandpaper Vine; named so for its rough leaves
Also known as Purple Wreath
Scientific name - Petrea volubilis
Family - Verbenaceae (Verbena family)
Native to Central America

There already is an entry level binocular (brought in by Gublai a couple of years ago) Bushnel. I have got a Canon 450di recently (not related to birding) and have acquired a 75-300 lens for the birding project.
The overall and ultimate objective is to get Mampu interested in the subject from an early age so that when she is my age she can be an authority. Or at least not say that no one told her about birds. Already this morning we found her reading Salim Ali’s book fairly intently. I am impressed.
It all started with a recent trip to Purbasthali. On the way from Katwa to Purbasthali we spotted a flock of certain large stork like birds. I had no clue what they were called. In fact I thought they were migratory birds. We watched them intently for quite some time and photographed them on my video. Later I learnt they were resident birds, fairly common and are locally known as Shamuk Khol. The official English name being Asian Open Billed Stork.
After sighting them we went to Purbasthali where we saw a lot of different birds but neither did we have the binoculars nor did we know the names. I could identify only the white throated kingfisher and the common cormorants (afterall I did the calendar of Exide 2008 dedicated to birds).



Once back home I decided to look around from my rooftop. I saw a tiny sparrow sized bird darting towards me. Then it sat on the electric wire outside. It was jet black with a bluish tinge. It had a longish bill. I could sense I had seen this bird’s picture, probably in our calendar but couldn’t remember the name. I looked at the kolkatabirds.com website. But with no idea where to look I was totally confused. It’s slightly better than trying to locate a pin in a haystack.
I shot off a mail to Sumit Sen and he asked me to look up under sunbirds. To my utter shame I realised it was nothing but a purple sunbird – a very common Kolkata bird called Durga Tuntuni. From the next morning I started going up to the roof with my Bushnel. I also ordered for Salim Ali’s book.

A female purple sunbird taking a dew bath in the Kadam tree next to Bishubabu's house, as viewed from my rooftop.

Right now the hobby is in a budding stage. I spot a bird. Observe it as minutely as possible; try to take a snap if possible and then find out its name by flipping through the books. Interesting, to say the least.

A drive to Purbasthali

Last Sunday we went to Purbasthali for a boat ride in the ox bow lake. Sighting of migratory birds was a bonus. The boat ride, costing Rs 250 was worth every single rupee.



To get there you have to turn left (when coming from Katwa) towards Purbasthali railway station from the Katwa Nabadwip main road near a place called Parulia. This road is very pretty and runs through lazy rural Bengal for about 7 km. The last village before the river is Kasthosali.


We had organised a boat in advance through our friend Raja Chatterjee of Junglee. Paresh Pal was ready for us and got the boat ready near the Sing-er ghat from where we boarded.



The final climb down to the boat was steep but everyone managed without much problem or any slippage.



We were a bit late. The boat journey started at around 11 am. The sun was playing with the water droplets and I was ready with my camera.


In the lake we got to see a lot of birds but being totally illeterate about ornythology we didn't know what all we had seen. But even I could recognise the cormorant, white throated kingfisher etc.




This area of Purbasthali is full of flower nurseries and old zamindar style buildings. I will most definitely go more to Purbasthali. The place is worth more than one visit.



The journey was obviously fun filled for all of us.