I was woken up by a chirping sparrow. A pleasant way to begin the day indeed. And then I smiled. Why? I remembered a friend who worked with me just for three months and moved on to Brunei to work in a newspaper there. Lakhsmi Narayan used to say sparrows are multiplying in Sharjah by the day. We had named him “Sparrow” as he kept talking about them.
Sparrows are interesting birds. I have read that although not a water bird, the sparrow can swim if it needs to, such as to escape a predator. Also, the sparrow is a frequent dust bather. It throws soil and dust over its body feathers, just as if it were bathing with water.
Their worst enemy? The pesticide. At a village in Bangladesh, thousands of sparrows died eating dead insects in vegetable fields sprayed with a hazardous pesticide.
House sparrows breed all year round and the survival rate of chicks is about 20 per cent. Many bird chicks fall out of their nests trying to take off. "If all the sparrows in Dubai had chicks that survived we would be overrun with the birds," Dubai Zoo Director Dr Reza Khan had told a prominent newspaper recently.
During my school days, many sparrows used to get knocked down by the ceiling fan (You remember those old huge fans limping around slowly like an elderly woman chasing a roguish grandson? These fans made more screeching noise than offer breeze. In fact, we could not get sleep without that fan sound.)
Tiny packs, mighty cheer. That sums it up about my darling feather friends.
Sparrows are interesting birds. I have read that although not a water bird, the sparrow can swim if it needs to, such as to escape a predator. Also, the sparrow is a frequent dust bather. It throws soil and dust over its body feathers, just as if it were bathing with water.
Their worst enemy? The pesticide. At a village in Bangladesh, thousands of sparrows died eating dead insects in vegetable fields sprayed with a hazardous pesticide.
House sparrows breed all year round and the survival rate of chicks is about 20 per cent. Many bird chicks fall out of their nests trying to take off. "If all the sparrows in Dubai had chicks that survived we would be overrun with the birds," Dubai Zoo Director Dr Reza Khan had told a prominent newspaper recently.
During my school days, many sparrows used to get knocked down by the ceiling fan (You remember those old huge fans limping around slowly like an elderly woman chasing a roguish grandson? These fans made more screeching noise than offer breeze. In fact, we could not get sleep without that fan sound.)
Tiny packs, mighty cheer. That sums it up about my darling feather friends.
thats what i've conjecturing where all Delhi sparrows gone? all gone 2 ur place :-)
ReplyDeleteask some 2 return.......
Jokes apart, nice click n post & yes really sparrows is almost becoming rarity in Delhi
Sparrows are lovely little birds. I am not an expert on birds, but I am familiar with this beautiful (and very vocal) little creature. Here is a link to see the type of sparrow I see most often here. Sometimes they fly down the vent that leads to the hood over my stove (it funnels the steam from my cooking to the outdoors) and I can hear them singing in a frantic manner. The first time this happened, I thought they were stuck and I panicked. Wanting to save them, I got out my screwdrivers and removed the hood over my stove, including the fan, only to discover that they knew their way out quite well and I had scared them off. I had to laugh. Thank you for bringing back such a fun memory for me, friend. :)
ReplyDeleteNamaste
Hey R. Ramesh, how are you? I love to travel, but most of my traveling has been done right here in North America...and the majority has been right here in the United States. I have wanted to go to Asia -- India in particular -- for many years now, but just haven't had the opportunity. It will take me another couple of years to get through school here and I hope to take a month to travel overseas as a graduation gift to myself. If I find myself able to travel before then, I would love to go meet you and a few other wonderful people I have met through Blogger as well. We will stay in touch, of course, dear friend. I am hopeful that an opportunity will arise to trek over to your side of the globe. :) Namaste
ReplyDeleteI love the sparrows... they are a part of my childhood. My earliest memory as a child is of my granny always cooking up stories to entertain me which always revolved around sparrows.
ReplyDeleteDelhi has lost almost all of these. This makes me sad.
I had been over the moon, when I had spotted some recently.
You can see the photo here
http://delhiphotodairy.blogspot.com/2009/01/sparrows-return.html
Good writing yaar. Here in Bangalore i dont get to see any sparrow's i think they hardly exist in Bangalore.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Jayashree
Sparrows are our cute and smart little friends. They remind me of my childhood days.
ReplyDeleteWell buddy, humor is an ingredient in majority of your posts and the readers enjoy it even more :)
In this post, these lines are quite funny:
"We had named him “Sparrow” as he kept talking about them" :)
“...huge fans limping around slowly like an elderly woman chasing a roguish grandson” :)
Been so long since I saw a sparrow. They are such cutie pies! :)
ReplyDeleteI read your Nigeria post first, so I am still in shock. Reading this here I only can ask once again: what’s wrong with us people! Slowly, we are killing our ‘beautiful world’. Enjoy the chirpy sparrows – I do too!
ReplyDeleteAn wonderful post on “Sparrow". Tey look tiny yet beautiful because I have seen them closely.
ReplyDeleteHappy to hear that house sparrows are doing well in Dubhai. I am wondering what it is that makes then survive and proliferate there when we are seeing them disappear from our cities in India?
ReplyDelete