‘Neelaponman’, (Kingfisher) as the
Malayalam word depicts that it is blue in colour except the chest portion,
which is white in colour. It has a long and very sharp beak. It feeds on fresh
water fish and frogs from ponds, canals or the paddy fields.
For
several days, Jacob and I sat at the mouth of the pond for an hour, sometimes
two, watching a Kingfisher perched on a vantage point on the branch of a cashew
tree, waiting for fish to surface. On spotting the fish, it carefully followed
the movement of the fish and he plunged into the water and emerged with a
catch. We were astounded with the deftness of the bird. As usual after the ‘Kulam Vettal’ (annual cleaning of
ponds) during summer holidays, Kingfisher made their nest on the banks of
ponds. On several occasions Jacob and I along with our companions, Chacko,
Purushan and Sudhakaran sat patiently at the mouth of the pond and observed him
in action. We too contributed in making a nest for the Kingfisher. After he had
chosen a spot about two feet below the surface of the pond, he started to
burrow into the soil with his beak to make it deep enough to lay eggs. During
the process it flew away to the cashew tree nearby to take rest. It was at that
moment we did our bit to deepen and make it a comfortable home for the lady
bird. This was done even without causing the slightest disturbance or hindrance
to the bird. Then the birds one after another would arrive and inspected the
excavated hole and the male made some alterations. After the hole was about two
feet deep it would be rounded enough for a bird to sit comfortably, turn and
move about. The female would start to lay her eggs. Immediately after that the
hatching started and had continued for eighteen days. During this period the
male bird fetched the fish for the female who was in the hatching process in
the nest. During this time, the birds fly out and rest on the cashew tree for
fun. Whenever the birds are out we used to inspect the nest. One morning we saw
both the birds on the cashew tree. They seemed disturbed. I decided to inspect
the nest. I stretched my right hand into the hole. I felt something cold on
against my hand and later against my back. My attention was fully on the nest
where I was trying to trace the eggs. Jacob shouted out to me that it was a big
‘Chera’ (Rat snake) that dived into
the pond. I realized that it was a snake which had just made its exit from the
nest and that the ‘Chera’ had eaten
all the eggs. Jacob brought two big copper pots and two canes. Jacob started
disturbing the still water in the pond by bobbing a couple of copper pots in it
at random so that the snake surfaces. He succeeded in the attempt and the
minute I spotted it I bet the snake with a sturdy cane and killed it. I looked
up with pride at the two birds that were still perched on the tree. Did I see
them heave a sigh of relief at my heroic feat of killing their arch enemy, the
snake which devoured their little ones! They flew off with a shrill “ki ki ki”calls.
Our
attempt to rear a pair of Kingfishers is worth mention. We had identified a
nest of theirs which was inspected by Jacob and me regularly. There were two
young ones in the nest. One day as soon as the female Kingfisher entered its
nest, I closed the mouth of the nest with a towel to block its flight out and
caught hold of the mother bird along with the young ones and transferred them
to our parrot cage. She was struggling to escape from my grip, while I was
trying to put it in the cage. I felt that the mother bird should be in the cage
to feed the younger ones when the food was brought in for them. While doing so
she caught my left thumb in her beak. The pain was excruciating as its beak is
as sharp as a razor blade. In spite of the agony I went through I did not let
go of it. Jacob inserted the stem of a spoon into her beak and twisted it so
that my finger could be released. There was a small incision and the scar still
faintly remains on my thumb. ‘Ammachi’, of course, had a home remedy.
She mixed ‘Chunnambu’ (Calcium
hydroxide) and the tender leaves of ‘Peruku’
(an Ayurvedic herb). She rubbed them together on her palm and applied the red
paste on the wound. She then bandaged it with a strip of cloth. I walked around
like a wounded soldier sporting it around to my friends and cousins. In a
couple of days the wound was healed. All
our friends visited the cage to see the new inmates. Ammachi and all the children loved the new arrivals and we began to
feed them. We had a tough time as the young ones hesitated to eat boiled rice.
We went to the ‘Kazhuva’, a broken
portion of the small bunds in the paddy field, where we could gather sufficient
‘Pallathis’ (a small round but very
thin fish which moves swiftly through the ‘Kazhuva’)
and ‘Poonjans’ (a two inch long fish
with a shiny spot on its head). This food appealed to the birds as they were
used to this kind of a meal. We even tried our hand at fishing to get the food
for her and her young ones. Like the master fishermen we went out with our
fishing rods to the paddy fields. We used an earth-worm as the bait. We were
able to get large numbers of ‘Pallathis’ in
this manner. Later we discovered that
the ‘Pallathis’ are innocent fish
which would hook on to the rod even without any baits. ‘Poonjans’ were trapped with a country towel. Big ‘Karoops’ were fed to the mother bird
and it was delighted with them. In one gulp the fish vanished. As we realized that
the food we gave the young ones was not enough we decided to take them back to
its burrow where it could continue to grow and live in its natural
surroundings.
Excerpts from
MEMOIRS
An autobiography
by
Joseph J. Thayamkeril
Lawyer, Kochi, Kerala, India.
josephjthayamkeril.blogspot.com
josephjthayamkeril@gmail.com
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