Sparrows and crows. They are missing in large numbers from Chennai or so it seems to me.
Sparrows -- those cute l'il birds, so harmless and...homely. When I was young, I was crazy about birds (not 'and bees', heh heh) and animals. There were these sparrows that used to make my home theirs. A nest on top of the water-heater in the bathroom or on one side of the window sill that was close to a tree, etc. We would never disturb the nest and eventually, eggs would be laid and fledglings born. Then, when they started moving about, and the mother birdie was away at work, I would play with the chicks or whatever they are called. In fact, one of them and I had a game -- he or she would skuttle into the drain hole in our verandah and I would catch his tail and pull him back...repeatedly. What a fun way to spend childhood afternoons eh? I was quite gentle with him I daresay. So light and so sweet -- sparrows are. And where ARE they now, by the way?
Crows. Mostly annoying and sometimes even mean or menacing. In school, they would be alert in large numbers during lunch break and would fly pretty close and be very bold indeed about their preference for our sambar rice. After lunch whilst strolling around the playground,they would even swoop down and flap very close to our heads and had once or twice actually pecked kids on their heads. Not to mention unerring 'kaka-pee' targets that our heads and torsos posed to them. Smelliest pee considering the small size of the pee-blob. Ugh. So, basically, not too fond of the crows. But like comfort food, in Chennai, they are comfort birds. Their 'caaaa-ing' cannot be heard that much these days. Why?
Sigh.
Sparrows -- those cute l'il birds, so harmless and...homely. When I was young, I was crazy about birds (not 'and bees', heh heh) and animals. There were these sparrows that used to make my home theirs. A nest on top of the water-heater in the bathroom or on one side of the window sill that was close to a tree, etc. We would never disturb the nest and eventually, eggs would be laid and fledglings born. Then, when they started moving about, and the mother birdie was away at work, I would play with the chicks or whatever they are called. In fact, one of them and I had a game -- he or she would skuttle into the drain hole in our verandah and I would catch his tail and pull him back...repeatedly. What a fun way to spend childhood afternoons eh? I was quite gentle with him I daresay. So light and so sweet -- sparrows are. And where ARE they now, by the way?
Crows. Mostly annoying and sometimes even mean or menacing. In school, they would be alert in large numbers during lunch break and would fly pretty close and be very bold indeed about their preference for our sambar rice. After lunch whilst strolling around the playground,they would even swoop down and flap very close to our heads and had once or twice actually pecked kids on their heads. Not to mention unerring 'kaka-pee' targets that our heads and torsos posed to them. Smelliest pee considering the small size of the pee-blob. Ugh. So, basically, not too fond of the crows. But like comfort food, in Chennai, they are comfort birds. Their 'caaaa-ing' cannot be heard that much these days. Why?
Sigh.
2 comments:
for the longest time we had at least one sparrow nest at home. i blogged about this a while ago. apparently, lack of greenery, which means lack of insects to feed on, and worse still, radiation from cellular towers, have all managed to reduce the numbers. so sad.
Gosh, Tees... I dont remember seeing sparrows even when I was in Madras - and that was a good decade ago! Now crows are disappearing as well??? Damn. Ummon's comment rings true :(
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