Excerpt from the Million March Poem

The night has been long,
The wound has been deep,
The pit has been dark,
And the walls have been steep.

Under a dead blue sky on a distant beach,
I was dragged by my braids just beyond your reach.
Your hands were tied, your mouth was bound,
You couldn't even call out my name.
You were helpless and so was I,
But unfortunately throughout history
You've worn a badge of shame.

...

This morning I look through your anguish
Right down to your soul.
I know that with each other we can make ourselves whole.
I look through the posture and past your disguise,
And see your love for family in your big brown eyes.


I say, the night has been long,
The wound has been deep,
The pit has been dark
And the walls have been steep.


- Maya Angelou

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

The free bird leaps
on the back of the win
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and is tune is heard
on the distant hillfor the caged bird
sings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.

- Maya Angelou

My discovery! Rare New Bird!!!!!

Housekeeping Idhar Aao!!!!!!!

Will try and get a clearer picture ... but this is the Coppersmith cleaning its nest ... the birds feed the young from outside first and then go in and emerge with (what is presumably)the trash.

:-) The Coppersmith Baby is Here!!!!!!

What's your name?

I don’t have a name to call you.
Just nonsense words I make up.
Am hoping one day soon
It’s a language you will want to take up.

The words are easy,
Their meaning not deep.
They describe the most mundane,
everyday things.
Like what happens
When you look at me,
Or when my name you call,
The funny way you cradle me
After every fall.
Your name is nice.
But the things I feel …
Well, it just does not sum them all.

I wonder why they called you that.
Did they think hard enough?
I want to ask your old man and woman
Couldn’t they have made something nicer up?

Like when I turn you into a sweet,
A funny bird-call …
Sometime an ice cream flavour
At other times ‘Takashimaya’, the mall.

Your name I feel should be
A thousand special things.
It should have
The throb of our heartbeats,
The sound of our laughter,
The warmth of our blanket,
The sunset turning softer.

I hope you are not upset
When I tell you …
That the name they gave
Is the one I will remember ...
When it's not love that coats my tongue,
only anger.

Oriental Magpie Robin / Dayal

The Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis) are distinctive black and white birds with a long tail that is held upright as they forage on the ground or perch conspicuously.

Distributed in many parts of tropical South and Southeast Asia, they are common birds in urban gardens as well as forests. They are particularly well known for their songs and were once popular as cagebirds. It is mostly seen close to the ground, hopping along branches or foraging in leaf-litter on the ground with cocked tail.

Males sing loudly from the top of trees or other perch during the breeding season. Females spend more effort on feeding the young than males. Males are quite aggressive in the breeding season and will defend their territory and respond to the singing of intruders and even their reflections. Males spend more time on nest defense. Studies of the bird song show dialects with neighbours varying in their songs. The calls of many other species may be imitated as part of their song. This may indicate that birds disperse and are not philopatric. They appear to use elements of the calls of other birds in their own songs. Females may sing briefly in the presence of male. Apart from their song, they use a range of calls including territorial calls, emergence and roosting calls, threat calls, submissive calls, begging calls and distress calls. The typical mobbing calls is a harsh hissing krshhh.

The Indian name of dhyal or dhayal has led to many confusions. The food of Magpie Robins is mainly insects and other invertebrates. They are known to occasionally take geckos,leeches, centipedes and even fish.

They are often active late at dusk. They sometimes bathe in rainwater collected on the leaves of a tree.

Indian Cuckoo Male

Indian Cuckoo Female

There are many other Indian Female Cuckoos I know too ... None of them perch on trees though ...

Indian Cuckoo - Female

The Paradise Flycatcher Again

More of the Bhardwaj

The Bhardwaj sighting is considered to be luckuy in some parts of India. The bird sighting.

The Coppersmith's Latest Aggressor: The Greater Coucal / Crow Pheasant / The Bhardwaj

The Greater Coucal or Crow Pheasant (Centropus sinensis) ,also called the Bhardwaj bird in India, is a large non-parasitic member of the cuckoo order of birds, the Cuculiformes.

A widespread resident in Asia, from India, east to south China and Indonesia, it is divided into several subspecies, some being treated as full species. They are large, crow-like with a long tail and coppery brown wings and found in wide range of habitats from jungle to cultivation and urban gardens. They are weak fliers, and are often seen clambering about in vegetation or walking on the ground as they forage for insects, eggs and nestlings of other birds. They have a familiar deep resonant call which is associated with omens in many parts of its range. The eyes are ruby red. Juveniles are duller black with spots on the crown and there are whitish bars on the underside and tail. The sexes are similar in plumage but females are slightly larger.

The Greater Coucal is monogamous and their courtship displays include chases on the ground and the male bringing food gifts for the female. Nests are built mostly by the male in 3 - 8 days. A Typical clutch consists of 3-5 chalky white eggs.

The Bhardwaj sighting is considered to be lucky in some parts of India. The bird sighting.

The Two Idiots Cast In The Order of Appearance: 1) The Black Drongo 2) The Coppersmith Barbet

Be Kind

Be kind whenever possible.

And oh yes ...

It is always possible. :)

Asian Paradise Flycatcher - Female - Another Voyeur

Description

Adult Asian Paradise-flycatchers are 19–22 cm long. Their heads are glossy black with a black crown and crest, their black bill round and sturdy, their eyes black.

Female are rufous on the back with a greyish throat and underparts. Their wings are 86–92 mm long.

Male Asian Paradise-flycatchers change the colour of their plumage in the first few years of their lives. Sub-adult males look very much like females but have a black throat and blue-ringed eyes. As adult they develop up to 24 cm long tail feathers. Their rufous plumage moults into white with the central pair of tail feathers growing up to 30 cm long streamers that droop. There are adults called rufous-morph with rufous wings and tail but white underparts.



Behaviour and ecology

Asian Paradise-flycatchers are noisy birds uttering sharp skreek calls. They have short legs and sit very upright whilst perched prominently, like a shrike. They are insectivorous and hunt in flight in the understorey. In the afternoons they dive from perches to bathe in small pools of water.

The Black Drongo

Scientific name: Dicrurus macrocercus
Size: 30cms
Description: Smart and graceful glossy blue-black bird with a long forked tail. Sexes alike.
Habits: Fearless, agile and aggressive, this successful species is a feature of all our open spaces where its favoured insect food abounds. Individuals are territorial outside breeding season and have favoured perches from where they announce their presence with a medley of harsh calls mixed with skilled impersonation of calls of other species. Nests in trees which are protected from all avian intruders with zest and daring.
Habitat: Open country. Usually near habitation.
Range: Widespread resident across the country.

The Golden Oriole Male Makes An Appearance Finally!

What a beauty!

The Trial

You, me, we all do it.
We all play the slimy boss.
The cruel master to a poor slave.
We put things on a trial period.

So when a good thing comes along, we tell it
‘Listen am gonna let you happen, but you are on trial.
You goof up, then it’s done.
Your appointment will be terminated.
So go ahead and spread the joy,
but remember …
I am watching you.’

We then proceed to lie back and enjoy.
Time flies and the trial period is over.
The good thing comes up, apologetically ahems,
‘Was I good? Are you happy? Do you think you wanna keep me? Can I stay?’

That’s when we realize the power we have.
You almost laugh out loud in relief.
The good thing wants to stay?!
And here you were worried that it may want to leave?!
Now is the time to play smart.
The trick is in never letting the thing feel comfortable.
Never letting it settle or give it a place.
Oh never that! Never!

So we hem and haw.
‘Well no … you see … things were not satisfactory at all.
Pretty average!
Not special at all!
I should let you go, but what the heck! I will give you one last chance.
Now get lost.’

Mortified the good thing slinks away.
We know it’s going to try harder, the thing. It wants to stay.
What a joke!

The trial continues!

François La Rochefoucauld, Duc De

"Some counterfeits reproduce so very well the truth that it would be a flaw of judgment not to be deceived by them."

"Self-love has nowhere a greater share, nor is more predominant in any passion, than in that love; and men are always more disposed to sacrifice all the ease and comfort of them they love than to part with any degree of their own."


"We all have strength enough to bear the misfortunes of others."


"There are but very few men clever enough to know all the mischief they do. "


"Self-love is the greatest flatterer in the world."


"The accent of a man's native country remains in his mind and his heart, as it does in his speech."


"Self-love is the love of a man's own self, and of everything else for his own sake. It makes people idolaters to themselves, and tyrants to all the world besides."


"There are wicked men who would be much less dangerous if they had not some goodness."


"Silence is the best security to the man who distrusts himself."


"Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that have not wit enough to be honest."


"When a man is in love, he doubts, very often, what he most firmly believes."


"When a man must force himself to be faithful in his love, this is hardly better than unfaithfulness."


"We confess our faults that our sincerity might repair the harm those faults themselves have done us in the esteem of others."


"We often brag that we are never bored with ourselves, and are so vain as never to think ourselves bad company."


"A man's worth has its season, like fruit."


"A respectable man may love madly, but not foolishly."


"The desire to be thought clever often prevents a man from becoming so."


"What makes us so angry with those that have tricked us, is that they think themselves cleverer than ourselves."



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"Some accidents there are in life that a little folly is necessary to help us out of."


"True bravery means doing alone that which one could do if all the world were by."


"When the soul is ruffled by the remains of one passion, it is more disposed to entertain a new one than when it is entirely cured and at rest from all."


"Absence cools moderate passions, and inflames violent ones; just as the wind blows out candles, but kindles fires."


"Innocence does not find near so much protection as guilt."


"What makes us so angry with those that have tricked us, is that they think themselves cleverer than ourselves."


"It is almost always a fault of one who loves not to realize when he ceases to be loved."


"The force we use on ourselves, to prevent ourselves from loving, is often more cruel than the severest treatment at the hands of one loved."


"In her first passions a woman loves her lover, but later she loves love itself."