7
Teetiri
hides the nest by allowing herself to be seen
Though she was trying to pretend to
hide, she knew that her black and white head would immediately allow all
predators to spot her. It had to be done in a manner that would seem to be very
purposefully done. This would fool would-be predators. She began to shake some
of the grass around her by crawling among them and casually stood up and began
to walk away. She knew that there would be someone out there quietly watching
her and remembering the spot where she had stood up.
Teetiri - visits the pond of water at the grassland.
She could keep a watch on Teetiraa at the nest nearby.
[Photograph - Savio Fonseca]
Teetiri walked out towards a small
puddle of water that always collected amongst some rocks near the old well. It
was said that some humans had once lived here in order to go by fishing boats
in the creek to catch fish and prawns. One big storm had killed all of them and
since then it had been seen that humans rarely came to this corner of the
creek. Teetiri rushed loudly, “Treeeet, treeeet!” at two mynas who were
drinking there. To all those watching, it seemed like Teetiri was staking her
right to drink at the puddle. But it actually served as a signal to Teetiraa to
begin to approach the nest, where the egg lay exposed to the hot sunlight. To
all those watching, Teetiri was now drinking peacefully at the water puddle.
Teetiri and Teetiraa had decided to
adopt this strategy of staging a double deception in order to try and allow
their new eggs to survive. They had risked only two eggs this time. Teetiri did
not understand how Teetiraa had thought of this idea. Sometimes he could be so
smart, she thought. Teetiraa on the other hand, thought that this was Teetiri’s
idea. She was always so smart, he thought. They had agreed with each other to
try this survival strategy. Teetiraa was at quite a distance, away from the
nest, but able to spot the location to be sure that there was no accidental
predator. Teetiraa walked into a bunch of tall grass in a bold manner and
suddenly sat down. He waited for some time and began to crawl out of the grass
towards a babool bush that had low undergrowth. Reaching the babool bush, he
crawled in and around the low branches until he came to a ber (Zizyphus berries) bush
that was alongside it. He repeated the same crawling in the ber bush. He came
out the other side to a bunch of stones that helped him hide while crawling in
and out of the low grass. He was now close to the nest. He waited here for some
time, looking around to spot any approaching predator.
At this very time, Teetiri flew up
into the sky, calling out loudly, “Treeee, treeeee, tweeet, did-you-do-it?
did-you-do-it?” When he was sure that everybody would be watching Teetiri
flying and circling about, repeating the loud harsh calls and disturbing the
entire grassland, Teetiraa did the final crawl to the nest, checked out the two
eggs and sat over them. Teetiri watched him from above, making sure that no
predator was approaching the nest, and sang out the all-safe call,
“Treeee-he-did-it, Treeeee-he-did-it!”
Teetiri and Teetiraa repeated this
shuffle, hiding among the bushes and stones, trying to fool their enemies,
morning, evening and night, day in and day out. They had to keep on doing it,
without losing their guard, without making a mistake, in order to ensure that
their clutch of two eggs hatched perfectly. Both of them knew that the actual
battle would begin when the eggs were hatched and the chicks would be born.
They would then have their very own redwattled lapwing family to take care of,
to protect, to raise, to feed, to take care of, to feed, to take care of, to
feed, and and and and, wow, it was indeed going to be a lot of work. They would
have to hide their chicks, feed them, feed themselves, and make sure that
nobody spotted their family together for at least ten days after the eggs were
hatched. For now, they had to be careful, extra careful.
