Teetiri protects the grassland - 2 - With the dawn, comes the sound

2

With the dawn, comes the sound

And then suddenly, in one very small moment of time, the orange shade in the sky glowed brighter, and all the trees seemed to come alive. It began with Bulbul, the redvented bulbul, whistling a soft note, trying to wake up her partner in the nearby branches. Phoolchuki, the purple sunbird, picked up that note, in the small thicket of weeds and grasses. Phoolchuki was searching for his partner, for she could not be seen easily inside the thicket. His frantic calls set off Dominga, the magpie-robin, sleeping on the topmost branches of a nearby Babool tree.

Dominga, the male Oriental Magpie Robin - 

He loved to sing from the topmost branches

Teetiraa and Teetiri were good friends of Dominga. 

His morning song woke up the grassland.

[Photograph - Savio Fonseca]

Teetiraa knew that Dominga was a very proud bird. He loved to hear his voice, he had told Teetiri. She had for once, agreed with him. Teetiri had said that Dominga sang for two reasons. Firstly, was to tell all other birds that he could sing beautifully. And secondly, he sang loudly in order to prevent his brothers, uncles or nephews from singing nearby. Teetiraa had seen Dominga chase away his male relatives on several occasions, and therefore was not unhappy that he had to agree with Teetiri.

Dominga's song woke up Chimini and her large family. And, instantly the small grassland between the forest and the sandy banks along the river was filled with sound. Lots of sound. The Chimini family was very noisy. They seemed to talk to each other all at once. Chatter-Chatter-Chatter-Chatter seemed to be followed by Chatter-Titter-Chatter-Titter. Sometimes one did not know if at all there was a purpose in all their talking. Their loud chatter in the babool trees, seemed to get Salonki, the common myna, and her family started. Salonki's family and several other Myna families preferred to rest together in the large Chinch (tamarind) trees that stood bordering the grassland with the nearby forest.

During the day, only her partner accompanied Salonki, while they moved around hunting for food. At times, eight to ten of her brothers and sisters and their respective partners came whenever food was available. At night though, the Chinch tree was filled with hundreds of myna families, and their sounds at dusk could easily drown the sounds of the Chimini families in the babool trees. It was indeed amazing, thought Teetiraa and Teetiri. Here they were, one partner to the other, only the two of them, content in living with each other, and these other crazy birds, were intent on living with hundreds and thousands of their relatives, in the same tree. In the same tree? Would they not get tired of seeing so many relatives all the time? How much more boring can it be, thought Teetiraa.

Teetiri protects the grassland - 11 - Darzi says that Kokila was responsible

11

Darzi says that Kokila was responsible

Darzi was getting impatient. He knew what the problem was about. This was something new to Dominga and thus was not easily understood or accepted. He called Teetiri and Phoolchuki aside and spoke to them in a whisper. This was not something that was Dominga or Domingi’s fault, Darzi said. This was the evil Kokila at work. The Koel was a lazy bird, and therefore his partner, Kokila went about removing one egg from unguarded nests and replacing them with one of her own. Koel would never spend time or trouble in constructing his own nest. Kokila perhaps did not trust Koel to feed her at her nest if she did decide to sit on her own nests. And thus, Kokila went around searching for nests where she could hide her eggs.

Teetiri was shocked. She was learning about this for the first time in her life. As far as she knew, there were no nest raiders who replaced eggs of ground nesting birds. Phoolchuki had once heard about nest raiders on tree-nesting birds from one of her aunts who had had to raise a young Kokila chick in her nest.  The Kokila chick soon grew to be four times the size of her aunt, but she continued to feed it and take care of it, with all the love that only a mother can give. Her aunt had argued with her sisters and brothers that after all the Kokila chick was also an unprotected young bird, and if she could give food and love, and make sure that it flew away safely, she would be happy to do so. Phoolchuki’s father had not agreed but her mother had supported it. She was also a mother, wasn’t she? Who else would know a mother’s love, she had said.

Darzi said that the same incident had occurred with one of his aunts in the big fruit orchard that bordered their grassland. The village on the other side of the fruit orchard had many large tamarind, mango and banyan trees that were full of these evil Koel and Kokila birds. They came out from there, searching in the fruit orchards, the grasslands, the riverbanks and the forests. They searched for unprotected nests, that already had some eggs laid in them, and replaced one egg with one of their own. Did they do it with ground nesting birds, Teetiri asked, worried that it may happen with their nest when both Teetiri and Teetiraa left it unprotected? No, No, Darzi said, it was only with tree-nesting birds. The colours of the Kokila’s egg were such that it would easily be seen if left exposed to the sun, in the open grassland, if left in a ground-nest.

Darzi advised Phoolchuki and Teetiri that Dominga must not be told that the egg belonged to Kokila. For otherwise Dominga may go and destroy it. Teetiri also agreed. One egg belonging to Dominga and Domingi was in any case destroyed and lost forever. One should not destroy another egg, though it belonged to another bird, just because one had been destroyed. Phoolchuki also nodded in agreement. Yes, she said, just because it did not belong to you, it did not mean that you had the right to destroy it. Better that Phoolchuki or Teetiri went and told Domingi separately. Let Dominga not know. But what should they tell Dominga? Darzi told Phoolchuki and Teetiri not to worry. He would handle it himself. 

Teetiri protects the grassland - 12 - Dominga is fooled by Darzi and returns to Domingi

12

Dominga is fooled by Darzi and returns to Domingi

Phoolchuki, Teetiri and Darzi returned to talk to Dominga. It was Darzi who spoke first. He told Dominga that it was not an unknown thing for eggs to change colour while at the nest. It must have been Dominga’s mistake. Did he, did he, did he, did he ever, ever, ever, ever, feed one of those red and black coloured caterpillars to Domingi before the eggs were laid? Dominga was taken aback. Was it his mistake? Did he give one of those red and black coloured caterpillars to Domingi? He thought very hard. But Darzi did not give him time to think. He kept talking. Dominga must have, must have, must have, must have, fed one of those stick-like grasshoppers then. If not the red and black caterpillars or the stick-like grasshoppers, then he must have, must have, must have, must have given one of those glowing worms that shone brilliantly at night. Dominga nodded hesitantly. Yes. He had once caught one of those glowing worms.

But those glowing worms were certainly not shining once he had caught them, said Dominga. But, it may also have been one of those stick-like grasshoppers. He had once caught a young one. He stopped to think back. Darzi looked at Phoolchuki and winked. Now they had him. Darzi began to talk very fast again. Yes yes yes yes. That must be, must be, must be, must be it. He must have given one of the glow-worms or the stick-like grasshoppers to Domingi.  Did you know that could change the egg-colour? It was his entire fault. Did he, did he, did he, did he, did he scold Domingi for his mistake? Did he, did he, did he, did he? Darzi kept asking. He did not want to give any time for Dominga to realise that he may be wrong or that he was being fooled. And suddenly, Darzi flew away to the babool tree, and back to Darzeee at her nest.

Darzi was happy that he had completed two tasks. First, he had helped Domingi protect her eggs. Second, he had fooled Dominga. He had wanted to do that for a long long time. Dominga had always been a very proud songster, singing from the highest branch, or from some of those new electric cables and wireposts that had been lined up along the edge of the grassland. Those electric cables gave off a loud buzzing noise sometimes. Most birds did not go near them. Darzi was always content to sing from within the branches of trees or bushes, and usually sang to tell Darzeee or other tailor birds that he was nearby. But Dominga was a proud bird. He kept singing just to show off, Darzi was convinced.

Meanwhile, back at the ber bush, Phoolchuki told Dominga to begin smiling, stop his sad look and get back to Domingi back as soon as possible. Dominga looked at Teetiri and asked her as to what she thought. Teetiri also smiled and asked Dominga that he should certainly get back to Domingi right away. She must be starving at the nest. He should go and apologise. Phoolchuki would go with him and make sure that he did apologise. Otherwise Teetiri would tell all the other lapwings to spread the message that Dominga had been a very very bad bird. Then nobody would protect him.

Domingi - the female Magpie Robin knew that

Dominga would return to her after his anger would go off.

[Photograph - Govinda Swami]

Each time a Shaheen, the falcon, would come hunting for small birds near the tall tamarind tree, some bird or the other would point out Dominga’s location to be hunted. Or, it could be more dangerous, if the tailor birds sounded their alarm to identify Dominga’s hiding place to Shikra, the sparrow hawk, known to all the birds as the silent killer, who flew in between the branches of the trees and bushes. Frightened and completely humbled, Dominga flew back to Domingi with Phoolchuki at his side. Both Shaheen and Shikra were the most feared hunting birds in the grassland, riverside trees, in the orchard, and in the village nearby. Most birds usually helped each other to know that these hunters were nearby.