Feathers Flying

A couple of days ago the new call from somewhere close by the front window was visualised as a nest of fledglings all quietly chirruping together while they were being fed by their mother perhaps, upraised heads and mouths open pleading. A single bird in this case could not have carried, but in chorus, perhaps a half dozen strong, a fine low register fluted across from one of the pavement trees it must have been by the three storey Indian house opposite. Then this morning again another bird new to the neighbourhood, a single, solitary one that had lost its way calling in a few sharp, piercing notes that suggested a long, pointed beak and perhaps a wild eye too. A brief cry this with little hope in it before the creature flew off. Otherwise the koel is a constant every morning and sometimes around noon too from the tree in the back corner of the yard. Some early mornings before light the wake is in advance of the koel’s call and it is awaited, giving a little reassurance when it arrives a short while afterward. Last week Yanasagaran reported positive mayhem unleashed on Orchard Road by the mynahs that descend on the pavement rain trees there, the whole street from Centrepoint down to Scott’s Road completely spattered by their droppings. For the shoppers of course there is not the faintest inkling, not a sign by the morning when they arrive. It needs a visit out there in the night in order to see the size of the work crews scraping, cleaning and polishing, before sending their pics on to the supervisor for confirmation. Two or three years now the newspapers have carried reports of disturbances by the mynahs—shoppers annoyed at the monotonous chirping, crowds and profits down—but never a word of this other; the mere mention would besmirch the locally famous strip. Were the Enviros on the job there already with their poisons? the Crow Control outfits with their rifles? Social media might reveal. Once upon a time and not so very long ago either that river Valley area had been devoted to fruit orchards, Yana recalled; thereby the tag. At one point last year the insistent koel in some wooded areas abutting housing has raised calls for culling.