Feathered friends of Nagarahole

“What do you think is the difference between birding and bird-watching?” asked our young naturalist guide at the opening session of our birding workshop. “Well…,” he added with a broad smile, “Bird watching happens on Brigade Road, and serious birding happens in the natural habitats of the winged variety!” Just a day into the workshop, aptly named Baanaadi, and this bunch of enthusiastic young naturalists had already pepped up our excitement and the things to come in the next couple of days. Sitting in the heart of the Nagarahole jungle amid these keen birders, absorbing the sheer amount of natural history surrounding birds felt a tad overwhelming at first. However, the more time we spent with them, the more we learned about observing the nuances. We began to connect with these marvellous creations that can hide in plain sight and soon we were drawn into the chirpy world of birding.

Walking along the narrow path leading to the lake, we noticed birdlife in almost every patch of scrub and every piece of wood. Where a novice would probably spot just an egret or a heron in that mass of vegetation and marsh, we were pointed to plovers, shrikes, ibises, storks, whistling ducks and several other species of water birds, all surprisingly in plain view. The added thrill of watching them at such close quarters through powerful field binoculars felt like sitting right inside the birds’ homes incognito!

At daybreak, the otherwise quiet and brooding Nagarahole jungle transformed into a thriving, screeching bird haven. The delight in listening to spectacular birdcalls from almost everywhere could only match the group's enthusiasm in identifying those birds from our field guides. Impromptu pitstops to understand hornbill mating behaviour from our naturalist or to examine a fallen feather or peer into giant spider webs added to the sheer variety and charm of our field trips.

To glimpse into the world of birds in their surroundings can be therapeutic, meditative and, at times, deeply mystifying. Birding, we learnt, is an enjoyable route to building sensitivity, wellbeing and mindfulness into our daily lives. As much as it can offer the joys of communion with fellow birders, it also, without doubt, offers the pleasures of solitude in measures no less.