Utopia is where
odd fellows rest,
bench-pressing inkblots
with blank stares
and babysit blue orchids,
bearing stars for seeds,
that come in pairs.
I have lost interest in keeping count of the number of birds I have spotted. I let it go around the 300-mark. But I still obsess over spotting new birds during every trail. If I don’t, it’s not as though my heart loses purpose. It just sports a stubble and drunkenly fumbles.
I realized how much it meant to me during a trail on the road to Addukam three months ago. Adukkam is a tiny village along a very bumpy and bird-friendly route from Kodaikanal to Theni. I have had plenty of luck there before.
The first morning had me spotting the usual suspects – Spotted Doves, Drongos, Hill Mynahs, Pied Bushchats, White-Cheeked Barbets, Orange Minivets and Chestnut Headed Bee-Eaters. A Crested Serpent Eagle showed up in the afternoon. I had started birding later than usual that morning. I made my peace with it.
The next day wasn’t any better due to a sudden downpour in the morning. Besides a familiar flock of Vernal Hanging Parrots, a pair of Black-Lored Tits and a darling of a Jerdon’s Leafbird, I couldn’t spot any other bird.
The final day had me feeling nervous. I was restless that I hadn’t made a new feathered friend yet during the trip. The early morning hours quickly passed by. A Hoopoe was nice enough to say hello. But still no luck. By afternoon, I was chewing on my fingernails.
The weather was still a cool shade of yellow, so I sat down to stare the water-coloured terrain. I told myself to quit having these vague expectations in birding; that the experience is more important than the ecstasy of seeing a new plumage, hearing a new call or watching a new kind of love unfold.
I felt a little better. And I continued along the trail. During the early evening hours, these amazing birds I had never seen before just started showing up.
I saw a Streak-Breasted Woodpecker battering the bark of a tree. A Bar-Winged Flycatcher Shrike that looked like a dart with an attitude. A gorgeous Painted Bush Quail couple crossing the road, looking like circus bunnies set free for the first time. A Blue-Throated Blue Flycatcher (I think). And the highlight – a Asian Fairy-Bluebird couple. The male, with his brushstrokes for blue on his plumage, singing to the wild and the female, with a metallic teal skirt, carrying parts of her home in her beak.
One could think there were life’s lessons during this trip. That somehow it all adds up into an inspiring equation about how I should never give up on my dreams. That no matter how ambitious they might be, I should keep trying. But I didn’t do anything different during the final hours of the trip.
Maybe the lesson is about breaking down my dreams into little puzzle pieces. Then maybe these pieces will find me as long as I stay focused on the bigger picture, and things will just work out.
Nah.
Come to think of it, there is just one lesson for me. Maybe for you too. Our brains are wired in such a way that familiarity, even in its least venomous form, breeds indifference. Commit to change every now and then. Surprise yourself, or else you just might lose sight of who you are.
Really nice photo!
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Thank you!
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Great title, great poem, great picture! I love birds! This red-eyed one looks beautiful!
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thanks buddy 🙂 he’s a very shy fellow!
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Funny, I’ll say he is a scared fellow.
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you’d be absolutely right 🙂
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I has first got to get my dictionary…I be back shortly 🙂
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awww i is not happy to hear that 😦
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I love the idea of babysitting orchids! Strange but beautiful. ❤
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i was cradling one that grew atop a hill and it felt like one of those “holding a tiny finger” moment 🙂
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I is back after having gone through 6 crisp pages of the dictionary…and I says hurrah …we have a beautiful sensitive piece…I once babysat a leetle owl who was more terrified than I 🙂
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I says thank yous alice, is what I says…
A leetle owl! That’s hootin’ amazing 🙂 Do you have a photograph to bullet my blue sky today?
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in those days I had neither a camera nor the wits…and now that I have a semblance of both I sees no birdies around
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What a beautiful utopia. I’ll go there.
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Me too! But coming back… sigh.
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Wonderful! 🙂
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Thanks Radhika 🙂 Great to see you here again!
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Thanks Christy! How have you been? I just re-joined the blogging club! 🙂
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I’ve been as good as the summer would allow, comrade 🙂 hope you have been wonderful. Tis a pleasure seeing you back, don’t go Houdini on us anytime soon 🙂
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Watermelon helps! 🙂 I’m working towards wonderful and hopefully wonderful writing! Thanks for the welcome! It’s words and pictures all the way from here! 🙂
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‘I told myself to quit being a rascal. To possibly drop these great expectations of mine.’ -maybe feathers have in-built expectation detectors?
‘They looked like circus bunnies set free for the first time, still wearing the make-up and colourful clothes.’- just gorgeous, little circ de sole quails
We should never give up on our dreams, just the expectations of them, I think 😛
p.b.s (post-bird-script) the video made me want to hug a sweaty wrestler
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“expectation detectors” giggles i like your mind, chomp chomp and yeah i agree, just expectations of them 🙂
lucha libre wrestler please, they wear masks and rad costumes!
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The title is so perfect. The pictures so vibrant. You so awesome.
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Acho the place and the birdies were awesome, I was incidental hehe thank you for your constant encouragement K!
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I agree with you, but awesomeness beholds awesomeness, ya know?
My pleasure, Christy.
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Awww (tips hat and does the worst rendition of the “happy” music video), big smile.
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Your entire last paragraph is just fantastic. I completely agree with you on familiarity breeding indifference. Mixing things up on a regular basis keeps us from getting complacent and bored. Change — even a little bit — is always good! As for achieving your dream, NOT getting it can lead you through many wonderful twists and turns along the way, even though your eye never left the prize. In the engineering world, we call that a ‘state function.’ There are many paths to take you to the same result, but some paths are just better when they’re longer and full of surprises. For nature and birding, it’s the journey that counts the most for me!
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Absolutely Shannon, the journey counts the most as far as our pastoral inclinations are concerned.
You’ve elucidated perfect on why “change” should matter in our little worlds.
Thank you Shannon!
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I don’t think you can give up looking for birds even if you want to. You love them so damn much 🙂
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Yeah I agree, thin line between obstinacy and obsessiveness I suppose!
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What lovely pictures !! I fell in love with this little beauty ❤ Splendid pcitures 🙂
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thank you so much Himali <3!
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you have a lovely inspiring blog my friend !! 🙂 Keep it up 🙂
Hoep to see u soon on Decoding Happiness 🙂
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❤ humbled, will see you soon, dear friend.
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for sure 🙂
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Love it !!
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Merci!
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Oh the Asian Fairy Bluebird is so gorgeous!! Beautiful pictures as always. I have to say I’m so amazed by the number of birds you have spotted in Tamil Nadu..I’ve really underestimated the wildlife in my own country! I have to take your advice for where to go next time I visit 🙂
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I underestimated them too hehe Kodaikanal is a lesser known birding location though, will send you all the map coordinates when you want it, my friend.
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What a beauty! But it is your marvelously descriptive writing that is the standout for me today: “…it’s not as though my heart loses purpose. It just sports a stubble and drunkenly fumbles.” Beautiful!! 🙂
PS: If you are in Kodi, you escaped the worst of the Chennai torridity. Seems like I was too quick to term this summer mild! Hope the rains help.
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Beautiful pictures…they show your great love of birds. 😊 Your poetry holds beauty also.
Cathy
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Thank you so much cathy, I am birdie blessed I humbly presume ❤
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By the way, I will shortly be deleting this blog and returning to my first blog. The address is:
http://www.wktucker.com. If you wish to follow me from there, I will happily follow you back. 😊
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Of course, the pleasure would be mine, Mary!
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Great post Christy, love your birds and love your words, great photos of beautiful birds, and inspiring and encouraging life principles.
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Thank you so much, it means a lot hearing that from a birder (big smile)
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Nicely said. Thanks.
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Thanks Stephen
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