Yesterday, Sunday 5th July, we put a sleeping Lakshmi in the car and took her for a bird walk with the Delhi Bird group. We arrived there at 5:30 am. We walked along the riverside towards the banyan tree. Little Urvee, Alpana and Neeraj came too.
We walked down towards the tall reeds. She was excited -- "Grass house" she screamed referring to the poem about a little girl who pretends that her house is in the tall grass in the book called "Out and About" by Shirley Hughes. She is now interested in looking into a pair of binoculars. Peter Kaestner who was leading the walk pointed out a green bee eater to her.
However the bird that caught her attention was the Cinnamon Bittern. After much persuasion she looked into a scope and saw the Bittern. That is the advantage of going in a group. Binoculars are hard to focus for her yet. But if someone has zoned a bird in a scope it is easy for her. She saw the bird in its breeding form -- with a red beak. After that we saw three more in flight.
"Why is it called Cinnamon Bittern?" she wanted to know. Because it is a bittern which is cinnamon colour. "But that is brown" followed. "There are many shades of brown and this is cinnamon brown" we told her.
It was a sweltering day. She got a bit cranky and we had to carry her back. The group has breakfast together. It was a sumptious feast that day cakes, kakras, moori chickis, poori aloo...nimbu pani, rooh afza...we had taken pongal and chutney. Sheila said "Your next birthday gift should be your own binoculars" and laughed. That amused her and she laughed her heart out.
We got home, fed her and showed her a cinnamon bittern on the computer. We drew a bittern and she coloured it purple with a green beak. "It is a short bird with a long beak and is usually in the river sides" we told her. We called it purple bittern. We had also seen prinias, weavers, coucal and yellow and black bitterns. But we decided to show her just one bird and just talk about what had caught her fancy. In the night, we read the poem about the Grass house.
Before I could start reading she started
"My grass house, my private place...only the ants know where I am..."
This is going to be our book for the week and is on the headstead on the bed.
It really kicks her to have a grass house. She would not go into the reeds though. we need to do this more often by ourselves for her to be that comfortable.
We walked down towards the tall reeds. She was excited -- "Grass house" she screamed referring to the poem about a little girl who pretends that her house is in the tall grass in the book called "Out and About" by Shirley Hughes. She is now interested in looking into a pair of binoculars. Peter Kaestner who was leading the walk pointed out a green bee eater to her.
However the bird that caught her attention was the Cinnamon Bittern. After much persuasion she looked into a scope and saw the Bittern. That is the advantage of going in a group. Binoculars are hard to focus for her yet. But if someone has zoned a bird in a scope it is easy for her. She saw the bird in its breeding form -- with a red beak. After that we saw three more in flight.
"Why is it called Cinnamon Bittern?" she wanted to know. Because it is a bittern which is cinnamon colour. "But that is brown" followed. "There are many shades of brown and this is cinnamon brown" we told her.
It was a sweltering day. She got a bit cranky and we had to carry her back. The group has breakfast together. It was a sumptious feast that day cakes, kakras, moori chickis, poori aloo...nimbu pani, rooh afza...we had taken pongal and chutney. Sheila said "Your next birthday gift should be your own binoculars" and laughed. That amused her and she laughed her heart out.
We got home, fed her and showed her a cinnamon bittern on the computer. We drew a bittern and she coloured it purple with a green beak. "It is a short bird with a long beak and is usually in the river sides" we told her. We called it purple bittern. We had also seen prinias, weavers, coucal and yellow and black bitterns. But we decided to show her just one bird and just talk about what had caught her fancy. In the night, we read the poem about the Grass house.
Before I could start reading she started
"My grass house, my private place...only the ants know where I am..."
This is going to be our book for the week and is on the headstead on the bed.
It really kicks her to have a grass house. She would not go into the reeds though. we need to do this more often by ourselves for her to be that comfortable.
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