How to turn good mornings into Gold Mornings?

Getting up early in the morning is always a challenge nowadays; thanks to the frenzied lifestyle, especially in urban cities. Alright, consider Chennai for example. It is one of the busiest cities of our nation. Yet there are so many things, happening things, in Chennai to keep ourselves caught up during morning hours like fitness activities, campaigns, nature activities, etc. Here I am going to deal with one of the nature activities.

Experiencing NATURE in any case turns your good mornings into Gold mornings!

Bird-watching it is, to be specific!

Bird watching at Chennai

There are many birding spots in Chennai. For water birds, go to Perumbakkam tank in Sholinganallur link road (just opposite to CTS), Adyar creek and Pallikaranai marsh. Visit IIT campus, Anna University, Theosophical Society, Guindy National park, Nanmangalam Reserve forest with proper permission of course for watching birds of scrubs.

Birds are vibrant-coloured lovely creatures living on earth. Be it its enthusiastic calls, classy flight-patterns, innocent yet charming looks and endearing behavior, it sways us by all means. It might not sound as interesting as it is for a few but trust me it drives you crazy once you are out there on field admiring these lovely fellows.

As you all know, bird-watching is all about keen observation, careful listening and most important of all – Patience. Don’t worry, I am not going to tell you what to do on field as everybody knows it, even the beginner. I would rather say some interesting things about a few birds instead.

Little Cormorant

Cormorant (Neer Kaakam in Tamil). The interesting part of this species is this striking open-feather stance; inviting pose for any photography enthusiast. However, the pose is to dry off its soggy feathers. Generally water birds have wax coat around their feathers – a natural guardian shielding them from getting wet. Cormorants don’t have anything as such and hence dries off its wet feathers standing on the rock, stem or anything for that matter.

Curved beak

Open-billed Stork

Asian open-billed stork (Nathai Kuthi Narai in Tamil). The beak of this species is unusual, its like two inverted arcs placed over each other. It is to cart off snails from its shell as it love snails. The structure is result of years and years of evolution.

Bill pouch

Group Hunting

Spot-billed Pelican (Kuzhai Kada in Tamil). It is among the heaviest water bird breeds in southern Asia from India to Indonesia. Pelicans have peculiar hunting behaviour. Swimming in a semicircle as a group, they push the fishes to the border of the lake and scoop them with their huge bill pouch. They can carry up to one kilogram of fish in the pouch.

Egg layed on the leaves

Pheasant tailed Jacana

Pheasant-tailed Jacana (Neela Vaal Ilai Kozhi in Tamil). This is an attractive species you can spot on a lake or pond. It lays glossy brown spectacled eggs on the nest built over the leaves of floating vegetation, which lose balance and falls in the water. This species is threatened across the world.

Likewise there are many beautiful species with diverse behaviour and pattern. This is just a hint for your bird-watching adventure. Now it’s your turn to dig deeper and explore many such things.

Let us go out there to their habitat and enjoy bird-watching, without disturbing them at any case. If you do that I swear your good mornings will definitely turn out to be the Gold morning ultimately renovating your thoughts and deeds.