My Winged Neighbours!

I have a neighbour, who has a large car and parking space enough for two cars. But his car is always parked on the narrow road in front of his house blocking two thirds of the road. This irritates me. There is another, whose habit of burning plastic bags in front of their house, irritates my wife no end. There is yet another, whose pet cat thinks that my scooter seat is there only to satisfy its scratching urge. And my patient's two wheelers, often parked carelessly in front of the clinic, obstruct the road and bothers all three of them. So, It is tit for tat or give and take or whatever, and we live accepting the irritations as part of life.

In contrast, we have these winged neighbours, the Barbets, Bulbuls, Coukal, Cuckoo, Hornbills, Robins, Sun birds, Warblers and a few others not introduced to me yet, who are a pleasure to have around! They enliven the mornings with their twittering and enliven the surroundings with their flittering. The Bulbuls sometime destroy the  Chikoo fruits in the tree and help themselves to a share of Bananas from my kitchen but the pleasure that I get from them is certainly more than the sustenance they get from me!

Now and then I try to get their pictures but they are not used to sitting and posing for cameras. That being the case I was very much surprised to see the family of Hornbills who reside in the tree opposite my house, sitting on the coconut leave next to my window in the morning. I usually hear their harsh call but rarely see them. Once or twice they alighted on my balcony for a few seconds and once they tried to break my window! Today they spent a lot of time sitting there relaxed, calling to their friends and preening themselves. Since I have tinted glasses in the window, I could see them clearly but they were not aware of my presence.  Had I opened my window, I could touch them! I spent an enjoyable half an hour looking at them and got a good many pictures. Few of them are here.

The Bulbul's yearly family building programme is on. The nest this year is on the loops of electric cable hanging above my clinic door. They seem to have an affinity to electricity! Probably they select places which the cat can't reach!

The Family - one parent and two siblings

The child in full splendour!

The parent and child - Having opposite views?

Another pose.

The site of Bulbul's home - the year before

Remnants of the last year's home !

Mother providing warmth of love and putting the off springs to sleep, after feeding

Managed to get the picture of the hatchlings when the mother was not around!

This year's nest, in the coil of power cable above the door. And it was an adventure, risking my limbs, to photograph them. I had to keep one foot on the railing another on the window sill and use both hands to take the picture!

After a long time I tried posting a video - the Hornbills preening and grooming themselves!