I’ve been mostly a city girl all my life, so I’ve not seen many birds around other than crows. All of this should have changed when I moved to Sahaganj, an idyllic village in suburban Kolkata on the banks of the river Hooghly at the turn of the 90s. But I continued to have my nose buried in my books, so I hardly noticed any of the birds there either. My mom saw golden orioles, owls, and kingfishers in Sahaganj.
We moved back to Chennai in a couple of years and my observations about crows grew. When I lived in Hyderabad for about a year, the weather was cold and we used to wear windcheaters. I didn’t notice any birds there either. Not even the ubiquitous crow.
Back to Chennai again, and I remember an article in The Hindu about sparrows disappearing from cities. But I did not notice these sparrows or their disappearance myself.
I lived in Bangalore for four years and I barely noticed birds there either. I was usually in my office or at the service apartment where I stayed indoors most of the time.
After moving to suburban Chennai and staying with my parents since December 2016 near the zoo in Chennai, I’ve noticed plenty of egrets in the pond at the back, black drongos, pigeons, kingfishers, jungle crows, ravens, mynahs, seven sisters and other birds here. I don’t know if it’s the environs that has resulted in this profusion of birds or that I’ve become more observant since I walk on my terrace most days, but it feels amazing to notice all these birds. Some of the birds stay here year-round, while others are migratory birds. I love watching them fly in a V formation against the sunset in the sky. My parents have observed about 30 species of birds here in the cold months.
I used to have a book called The How and Why Wonder Book of Birds as a child. I remember reading about the pterodactyl in it. Now, it feels amazing to actually notice different types of birds near my home, rather than only in the books.
