The long hours of blistering summer
heat provides ample occasions for extended spells of rendezvous with solitude.
As the sweaty hot days pass by, you realize that this is one of the most apt
and desirable things for rejuvenating mind and soul. Wanderlust ceases to exist
and rendezvousing in the outside world takes a back seat.
But imagine a rendezvous with a
beautiful bird like the Rufous Indian Tree Pie. And that too with a group of
tree pies together is surely enthralling.
Loud, metallic flute-like
interludes punctuating the silence was how I was mostly accustomed to spotting
tree pies. For those readers who may not be aware Indian Tree Pie also called
Rufous Tree Pie belongs to the same family Corvids as the Crow. The adults have
sooty blackish head, breast and upper mantle, with darker face and throat. The
upperparts are rufescent-brown turning orange-buff on uppertail-coverts. On the
upperwing, secondary wing-coverts and tertials are silvery-grey, contrasting
with the black rest of wing. The long graduated tail is pale grey with wide
terminal band and is the signature of the tree pie. It is an agile forager,
omnivorous and opportunistic in feeding, clinging and clambering through the
branches. They have wide repertoire of harsh and guttural, others pleasing and
melodious calls, squawks and musical notes.
In the housing block of IIHMR
University Jaipur there is a circular enclosure, a sort of thicket of neem and
Gulmohar trees, which is a haven to a lot of birds in this scorching heat.The
terrestrial space in this little grove is occupied by lap wings and their
little ones who strut around fearlessly. There are occasional appearances of partridge
platoons, always in a hurry, filling the atmosphere with their loud and
resounding loud war cry like callings, zipping past, till you catch the
silhouette of a swift moving long line of different sizes of them disappearing in
one of the bushes.
Luckily the terrace of
the D Block opens up to this enclosure whose different hues of green shine in
the soft sunlight of early evening. The
rustic grandeur of the grove is distinctly visible against the skyline of
expansive horizons overlooking the airport. Late evenings the whole of last week have been
the appointed time for a rendezvous with these tree pies, some six of them. Two
adult tree pies were grooming their four babies in the deft and supreme art of
flying in the enclosure that was selected as a flying practice arena.
The exercises for the
day are announced with a swift noisy flapping followed by a short glide on
outspread wings and tail by the adult tree pies flying in different directions
to mark outer limits of the flying exercise arena.Soon thereafter the high
pitch notes of the incessant incantation of a particularly raucous scolding
note compels juvenile tree pies to line up. An adult tree pie appearing on a top branch of
a tallest tree would be issuing instructions on distances and heights to be
covered in flights. And then one of those moments, it darts off swiftly,
displaying its shining rufous body glistening in the evening twilight and the
exercise begins.
Masters of an undulating
flight, the long tail fascinatingly makes tree pies glide through curves and
crevices amidst branches of tress at differing heights, swoop with deftness
into the thick foliage of Neem and Gulmohar trees.
The hesitating and fumbling exercises
performed by the young babies with their short tail makes them look like novices
in the supreme art of flying. They were shaky in their flight, once one of them
got stuck in the sky as if not knowing where to go. And then it snooped into
one of the lower branches of the Gulmohar tree. Even when they started
accomplishing longer flights, the tough part remained landing safely into a
branch. The toes were still frail, making the clasp on the branch loose and
shaky, slipping away leading to a near toppling situation to be rescued by a
deft piece of balancing act guided by sheer instincts.
As the sun goes down
easing off temperatures and the coolness of the evening starts enveloping, the
gregarious and noisy mynas, especially the bank mynas, are restlessly hovering
around looking for settling to a branch for the night. Their criss cross movement of settling down
is quite an irritant. And audacious as they are known to be,the rogue mynas do
not leave a chance to surprise the babies to scuttle their focus in taking off
or settling down.
The small ones have very
tender whitish beaks making them completely dependent on their parents for
feeding. Invariably in the middle of the show there is a refreshment break when
the adult tree pie gets some food and all the little ones would crowd on a
branch and compete, though with innocent eyes, with their wide open beaks
displaying a prominent red outline of their tender mandibles.
The other day it was
windy as usual but was distinctly cooler. Probably it must have rained a little
somewhere near. Right in the middle of the exercise arena is the Gulmohar tree
that rightly prides itself to be fully laden with leaves flowers and berries.
Hunched in the dense foliage of this Gulmohar tree is sitting an unexpected
guest for the show today. It is a juvenile Black crowned Night Heron squatting
meditatively with its boldly steaked and spotted yellow white body barely
visible, its probing beak moving gracefully. The adult tree pies slowly reached
up to him. Were they inviting him!! No it did not look like that nor did the
Night Heron seemed interested! There was an impasse reached for some time
either party not knowing what to do. The exercises were late that day, they
could only begin once the baby Heron had left.
Two days back there was
nobody to be spotted for some time in the evening. Was it the end of the flying
exercises! Kept wondering, and then they are all spotted suddenly on the
Eucalyptus heights. Today the flights were much more confident. From lower
heights of the neem and Gulmohar trees today they had ventured out to heights
that were at least twice as high than the ones they had been negotiating since
last whole week. It was windy as usual
but their efforts to rise to the heights of the branches of the Eucalyptus starting
from the lower branches of one of the neem trees was more resolute, the
ballistic curve each one was able to create looked near perfect. The only thing
missing was the speed and swiftness. Even their gait and hopping amidst the
thin branches of the Eucalyptus tree was beginning to look boisterous.
The daily
exercises had shifted to the left side of the enclosure and negotiating these
heights in some days was to give them that swiftness that was so much the
hallmark of tree pies.
Eucalyptus
heights had their own share of adventures. One evening when the tree pies were
practicing swooping into Eucalyptus tree from coming from a distance one of
them nearly banged into a Shikra who lived further towards the
boundary wall, around where the quaint water stream of IIHMR ends up into a dense cluster of neem and eucalyptus trees. The encounter with the shikra was rather
sudden, both seemed unprepared for it. Nevertheless it was enough to rebut the young
tree pie to just fly far away to another tree in the opposite direction. 
It is two
days now, the tree pies no longer congregate in the enclosure. Perhaps the
flying arena is too small and unreal for the little ones who are now grown up.
The other day in the bright afternoon I saw the whole family leisurely
perching, spread all over a large neem tree behind the mess. The little ones,
though still innocent and unsure, about the ways of the real world were
nevertheless hopping and croaking their way into the open skies.
With the
coming of rainy season, in the evenings with their different versions of cloud
formations, the rendezvous continues. The team of young long tailed rufous
trapeze artists is often seen on terraces all around, the B Block guest house,
the nearby apartments, climbing all over water tanks, hopping swiftly on the parapets and stair cases
which reach the tanks.
The
remarkable thing that has grown is the long tail, the signature of the rufous
tree pie and they all seemed to be celebrating this moment of their lifecycle.
References
Photo Credits: Different Websites
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