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.
Now that the monsoons are finally here, our regular monsoon visitor is back too.. the White Breasted Water Hen.
This lone bird seems to appear and disappear with the monsoons each year, and I have often wondered where it goes off during the dry months. It is quite a shy bird too, which scuttles into the bushes at the slightest disturbance. It is called पाण कोंबड़ी in Marathi, and appears to be a common bird, though I have only seen it in the monsoons!
I live in Mumbai, in a colony lucky enough to still have plenty of trees and open spaces. The best part of living here are the birds I see from my window, every single day. "Birds from my Window" is a series, where I regularly feature photos of birds I see from my home. To see all the posts in this series, click here.
A very unusal and a beautiful bird. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteDo read my blog http://samreenahmed13.blogspot.in/?m=1
Thank you Samreen!
Deletebeautiful picture of the bird .. so what other birds do you get to see
ReplyDeleteBikram's
Thank you, Bikram! and I am lucky that way! I get to see a whole lot of birds, right from my window. In fact, I have a series on the blog about them, called... Birds from my Window!!!
DeleteWOW! I thought white breasted water hens are seen only in forests and near large swamps and reservoirs. What kind of a house do you live in? :-)
ReplyDeleteI thought so too, but apparently, they are quite common near all water bodies... and my house stands on what used to be, at one time, salt pans. and there are still quite a few marshy areas behind our colony.. and yes, i am very much in the centre of Mumbai :D the next time u are in Mumbai, come over to my place. Maybe i can show you some of our avian visitors!
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