My first trip to Vaishnodevi was unimpressive. Climbing was hard, and it only served to highlight how badly out of shape I was, while my in-laws managed to cope so much better. Further, I hadn’t quite realized that the cave experience wouldn’t be the same as I had imagined, since the original cave was only opened at certain times a year, and that we only entered a newly created tunnel, one far easier to access, and hence more manageable with the crowds that thronged the mountain shrine. The resulting experience at the shrine, for barely a fraction of a second, hardly compared to what I had expected / imagined / heard about. So, for me, Vaishnodevi was like any other temple, nothing to write home about, something that was reflected (though not explicitly mentioned) in the blog post I wrote then.
A flock of birds pecking
at something on the ground caught my attention. They looked like sparrows, so I
turned my attention instead to a Little Green Bee Eater plucking out insects
from the air. It was only when the tiny sparrow landed nearer me that I realised
it wasn’t a sparrow – or at least, it wasn’t the common House Sparrow I see
everywhere.
Out came the camera and I
clicked furiously as the flock went about having their lunch.
It was Karthik who
enlightened me about the identity of these birds – these are Yellow
Throated Sparrows, also called Chestnut Shouldered Petronias. They
are a species of sparrow found in Asia, from Turkey to Afghanistan, Pakistan,
India and Bangladesh. There are vagrants found in Sri Lanka and also Myanmar.
Apparently, it’s quite a common bird, found in gardens, fields, and forests,
and it made me wonder why I haven’t noticed any before.
Can you see the dark brownish or chestnut patch on the shoulder? That, and the pale yellow patch on its throat (which you can see if you look really close, unfortunately, I need a better camera to show you) give the bird its name.
Interestingly, this is
the bird which is said to have introduced the legendary Salim Ali to
Ornithology. As a young boy, he shot a sparrow that looked different, and the
then secretary of the BNHS (Bombay Natural History Society) identified it for
him, and also introduced him to the subject. His interest was sparked, and he
went on to become probably the most well-known ornithologist of the country. Isn’t
it interesting to see how simple things like these change the course of a
person’s life?
I guess I have never seen it before! Looks pretty.
ReplyDeletenext time you see a sparrow, take a closer look, Mridula! you never know!
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DeleteThank you!
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ReplyDelete