Teetiri protects the grassland - 5 - Teetiraa approaches the nest by walking away from it

5

Teetiraa approaches the nest by walking away from it

He walked out of the small patch of weeds around the stony rubble wherein he had slept the night. The orange band of light in the sky was fading out and was now being replaced by a shade of golden yellow. Teetiraa walked around the edge of the grassland, in a straight line, pretending that he was going somewhere else. They could not risk the nest being known to unseen watchers. There were several enemies, quiet, unseen, hidden away among the trees, bushes, stones, grass and high up in the sky. They could never be certain that they had not been spotted at the nest.

He stood straight, and walked in a determined manner, calling out, "Teetiree, Teetiree", twice, clearly, loudly, for all to hear. He did not approach the nest, nor did he seem to walk away from the nest. Most smart predators would then be able to search along his path and be able to spot the nest. That would not do. Another season would be lost. Teetiraa thought of those unlucky times as he kept walking around the nest with greater caution. He kept walking in a straight line, right upto the babool tree.

Here, among the stony ground under the branches, he suddenly started calling out loudly “Treeeee, Tteetiriiiii, Treeeeee, Teeetiriiiii”, as though he had spotted Dhaman or Naag. He jumped up and began to fly below the tree, creating a lot of noise. This would have all the unseen watchers looking at him, wondering if there was indeed some problem under the babool tree.  Teetiraa knew, that, at that very moment, Teetiri had begun to walk away from the nest, crouching, taking care to see that her head was unseen above the grasses. This was the best strategy, they had decided among themselves. All animals, seen and unseen, would be looking at Teetiraa, as he was doing something like a loud, haphazard dance, while Teetiri was quietly crawling away from the nest. 

Teetiri protects the grassland - 6 - Teetiri begins to leave the nest

6

Teetiri begins to leave the nest

Teetiri kept crawling, slowly, taking care that her black and white head was not being visible above the greenish brown and brownish green grasses. She reached a pile of stones, some brown, some black, some red, some off-white and some brilliantly white. Here, in this pile of stones, she raised her head and sat among some of the stones for some time. She kept moving her head and raising it up and hiding it again. This sort of moment, she knew, would be immediately noticed by the most alert of crows, mongoose or foxes, if hiding nearby. They would wait till she left the pile of stones and would immediately come around to investigate. Once she had settled down in the pile of stones, she called out to Teetiraa. Softly, only once, in a small gentle manner, "Treeet-Treeeeet".

That small gentle call from Teetiri was a signal to Teetiraa that his partner was now comfortably settled elsewhere. He stopped his dance, and began to walk about aimlessly, in large widening circles, pretending to be searching for insects. At times, he did get the still lazy beetle that had not yet hurried to hide away in the daylight. He knew he would have to remember all these spots where lazy beetles would be found easily. For when the eggs would hatch, he would need to be able to catch these beetles in the early morning and late evening and bring them back to feed the young lapwings at the nest.  He began to widen the circles of his walk towards the now unprotected nest. He had to stay in visible distance, to ensure that there were no predators nearby, who would perhaps stumble upon the nest by accident. 

Once he was able to locate the nest, and could keep it in his view, he replied Teetiri's call, by another contact call, louder than Teetiri, but with the same gentle manner, "Treeet-Treeeeet-Did-you-do-it?"  Teetiri could now understand that Teetiraa was able to see the nest and that he would keep a watch out for predators. She bobbed her head once or twice, while still remaining seated at the pile of stones, and made a short but crudely loud noise, "Piteeeweeet". That sound would now make all predators, seen and unseen, look at the stony pile. They would begin to search for the source of that sound. Once again, Teetiri bobbed her head up and down, and began to crawl away clumsily from the stones. 

Teetiri protects the grassland - 7 - Teetiri hides the nest by allowing herself to be seen

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. 

Teetiri protects the grassland - 8 - Dominga and Domingi’s eggs change colour

8

Dominga and Domingi’s eggs change colour

Teetiri needed to keep walking to get some energy and blood circulation back into the body. It was tough, sitting there, on that open nest, in the cold of the night, waiting, waiting, and waiting for what seemed to be forever. Well, it did definitely seem like forever. What does a lapwing have to do at night, completely alone on an open nest? At least Dominga and Domingi sat close to each other, while Domingi sat on the eggs at her nest. Once they had had a big fight, and all the birds came to know about it. Domingi had laid four eggs, all alike. And one fine day, Dominga had come to the nest and saw that one of the eggs had changed it’s colour. Domingi insisted that just awhile ago, all the four eggs had been of one colour. Then how could one egg change colour? Dominga kept asking.

Dominga - the male magpie robin kept arguing with Domingi

[Photograph - Dr. Tejinder Singh Rawal]

They had kept arguing and arguing. The noise had become very painful, remembered Teetiri. Dominga had gone and complained about it to Kotwal, to Chimini and to Teetiraa also. That must have been very humiliating to Dominga, thought Teetiri, for she knew that Dominga and Teetiraa did not like each other very much. Teetiraa had replied rather very rudely and had tried to insult Dominga until Teetiri had told him to keep quiet. This was a totally different problem from theirs, thought Teetiri. The lapwings had lost their eggs, while the magpie-robins had no idea of what had happened to one of their eggs. And what more, but to try to understand what they could do with the different coloured egg that was still present in the nest.

Domingi - the female Magpie Robin was very upset

Dominga had kept fighting with her about the missing egg

[Photograph - Dr. Tejinder Singh Rawal]

Dominga had kept on arguing. He had kept searching for other birds to tell his sorrowful story. Domingi on the other hand had continued to sit at her nest, knowing that her responsibility was towards protecting her eggs. She had not dared to leave her nest, for fear that another egg may change colour. What if the eggs had not been changed at all? What if, one of her eggs had indeed changed colour by itself? Did the two of them, Domingi and Dominga, know all that there was to know about eggs and their colour? How could she just leave all her eggs at her nest and fly away just because one of the eggs had changed colour? Dominga did not listen to any of these questions. He was angry and very certain that Domingi had given away one of their eggs and brought one from some other bird’s nest.

Teetiri protects the grassland - 10 - Darzi does not like to be disturbed

10

Darzi does not like to be disturbed

Darzi was not one to be disturbed, once the sun had come up. He had to quickly feed himself and pick up some insects for his partner, Darzeee, the female tailorbird, who was sitting at the nest that he had made so lovingly for her. This was the correct time to feed upon the insects infesting the tasty sap that began to flow from the babool’s bark. There were insects of all kinds here. Red and Black Ants, small Beetles, big Beetles, Spiders and the very tasty caterpillars. These were absolutely great. Darzeee loved to be fed the new caterpillars once they hatched out from under the babool’s bark. She did not like the hairy ones. She did not like the red and black ones either. It was these smooth green ones that she loved.

While he was eager to pick up one of the caterpillars and fly off to Darzeee who would be waiting for him, here was Phoolchuki with some strange story about Dominga wanting Darzi’s help. Amazing, thought Darzi. For Dominga was never friendly to Darzi. But Phoolchuki gently reminded him that Dominga had never harmed Darzi either. So why not help Dominga? Darzi’s brother came flying in from the neem tree to listen to this conversation. He was very impatient because he had to fly farther than his brother had to. He told Darzi to go ahead and listen to Dominga while he would go and tell Darzeee that her partner would be late. She may as well get out of the nest and feed upon some of the nearby insects.

Darzi did not like it one bit. But he agreed to go down to the ber bush and listen to Dominga. It is all because of you, he told Phoolchuki. Otherwise he would not have stopped searching for food for Darzeee. Phoolchuki told Darzi that it was because of Teetiri that they had to fly low, because it was well known that lapwings could not come and perch on the tree branches. She had offered to help and she had convinced Dominga to seek Darzi’s help. Otherwise Dominga would have flown up inside the babool tree, Phoolchuki said. Okay, okay, said an irritated Darzi. Just this once. Never again. Teetiri was also a good friend, so he would go down to help and advise Dominga.

Darzi flew down to the ber bush along with Phoolchuki. Dominga was looking very sad. Darzi forgot all his anger just by looking at Dominga’s sad face. Teetiri was giving company, encouraging Dominga to be courageous. She was telling Dominga that Darzi was sure to give good advice. Dominga told Darzi everything. How Dominga and Domingi loved each other very much, how they had taken a lot of trouble to build their nest together, and how Domingi had very lovingly laid four identical eggs. They had spent five days taking care of their nest and how one day, suddenly, one of the eggs had changed its colour. The size was also different. What should Dominga do?

Phoolchuki was angry that Dominga did not tell Darzi how he had been fighting with Domingi since then. Phoolchuki told Darzi that Dominga had made Domingi’s life very miserable. He had not been feeding Domingi at the nest since then. Poor Domingi was quite starved by now, Phoolchuki said. Teetiri tried to defend Dominga and said that he must have felt quite upset that one of the eggs had changed colour so suddenly. Also the size had changed, as Dominga said. Any bird that had lost his or her eggs would rightfully know the anguish, said Teetiri and calmed down Phoolchuki. Anybody could be rightfully upset. But not at ones’ partner, so angrily and so unjustly, until one came to know about the exact reason, Phoolchuki argued again strongly. 

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 - 55 - Billi spots a nesting Teetiri

55

Billi spots a nesting Teetiri

Billi kept getting irritated. Those drongos seemed to have got bolder and begun to perch inside the marsh. The lone drongo on the high perch must have called the other drongos after having seen Billi fail in his attempts to catch the jungle bush quail. The sparrows had also been joined by other sparrows and had settled in the large babool tree in the marsh. He needed to get some quiet place to hide, take rest, and wait for other birds to catch. His stomach seemed to be growling louder and louder and Billi could not take it anymore. He needed an easy hunt, a bird that would be easy to catch, a bird that would not run away from the spot from where it was seen.

What was this? Billi could not believe his eyes. Suddenly, his luck seemed to be getting better. There, hidden across another marsh stream and wet sand, in a patch of rocks and grass, seemed to be a nesting lapwing. Okay, Billi thought. The jungle bush quail may disappear, reappear and disappear, while the sparrows may fly up into the trees, but a nest cannot get up and walk away. The eggs cannot disappear or fly away, even if the lapwing would. He could at least get to eat one or two or three eggs of the nesting lapwing even if he failed to catch the bird. A feast of two or three lapwing eggs may be the right nutrition that he needed, Billi thought.

Billi crouched and crawled to get to a good spot to quietly watch and assess the situation. Bulbul, from his perch on the low branch, realised that something was happening again. There was Billi crouching and crawling once again. Darzi also took a quick look and whispered angrily to Bulbul to stay quiet. Bulbul could not see Teetiri sitting as though she was at a nest, fulfilling her role as a leader of the birds of the grassland. She had decided to take on the most important part of the plan on to herself. Bulbul could only see that Billi was now looking at some unseen bird or some other unseen prey towards the high ridge line that marked the limits of the marsh.

Billi wanted to be very very certain this time around. His luck certainly seemed to have changed now, he thought to himself. The black drongos were behind him, chattering away among them. The sparrows were as yet at the other tree, gossiping very loudly. The mynas were away in the grassland. That irritating and smiling Bulbul continued to sit where he was, accompanied by Darzi. Wonder what that was all about, thought Billi once again to himself. All situations seemed to be in his favour. The lapwing seemed to be up on an incline from where he was hiding. Again, that would also work out to his favour. The lapwing kept lowering its head and raising it, warily, looking around very carefully.