People act strangely when they perceive a threat to their social statuses. They lash out, either blatantly or passive-aggressively, at the nearest targets. Given how unfunny people can be, such behaviour ends up creating tension. Their logic is that this would somehow help control the way others think about them.
It’s one of the stupid things many of us do to restore our crumbling self-esteem. But this kind of nonsense doesn’t fly with the birds. If they insist that you back off, you do just that. If you don’t, they aren’t going stick around. Or they would peck your eyes out.
Last weekend, I am pretty sure I annoyed a Common Kestrel. Thankfully she chose option number three. And nobody got hurt.
I have seen only a couple of Kestrels in Chennai. So when I spotted her this time, I couldn’t help but give her chase. I caught up to her after power-walking for about 500 meters. When I did, she didn’t look too happy.
Instead of going my eyeballs or taking off at once, she got into a staring-contest with me. And I took my own sweet time to lose.
She was closer to me than any other falcon had been. It was unusual for a bird of prey to hang around nearby for that long, without any proper reason. Maybe her nest was nearby. Or she was gunning for a full meal.
I would like to think she was just being tolerant, given that I was just looking to take a couple of photographs.
Tolerance towards discourtesy is tricky business when it comes to people. A thin line separates it from spinelessness. Sometimes, you can’t take things lying down. Other times – you must let things pass without a fuss.
She dresses up
in custard apple slices
and honeycomb sponge cakes;
wicked is her colour palette, and
wild, like a forest fire, is her plumage
Something else I had written about Common Kestrels
(Photographs: Medavakkam, Chennai)
I subscribe to your blog by email, which shows a few lines of text linked to the post by the URL. But when I click the link about half of them come up ‘Page not found’.
I only just realised today that when you edit the post you also alter the date in the URL. So I reckon I’ve been missing about half of your posts while under the assumption you’d deleted them shortly after posting.
I wonder if other email subscribers to your blog have had the same problem.
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Yeah Carbogal, I have received a few emails on this. I should have probably written a note about it way back. I write most of these posts after work, and upload them nearing midnight (IST). I change the date between 12 AM and 1 AM to make sure they appear higher on the next day’s WordPress feed.
Apologies, I shall this work out soon!
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Did you know you can schedule the post for a later date and time, future-schedule? I do this sometimes when I want it to show up at a certain time in the WP feed. Since most posts of my favorite bloggers require a click away to the blog to read the entire piece anyway, I resorted to just reading via WP or bookmarks. I no longer get any WP email; just another digital thing to manage.
I have you to thank, Christy, for learning that I could re-post an older post by changing the date and time. Since I link to posts within other posts, however, I always take the additional step editting it back its original date so that links in these other posts don’t become ‘broken.’ It’s not that much work, but so far, it’s not failed me.
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Shannonrooo! You are right, I am just going to schedule the posts for 12:01 am.
And yeah reposts work calculatedly, I have been using them a bit too much though.
Isn’t this nice? Learning and sharing! Give me a sunflower stalk and a meadow please.
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Indeed. It’s why I blog!
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Only a couple sighted in Chennai..oh-so-UNcommon 🙂
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(Smile) Oh-so-true! It does bother me a bit that some of these birds are referred to as “common”. Common Kestrel and Common Hoopoe, it seems. Please!
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It’s probably a class thing. Presumably they’re not as cultured as the other kestrels.
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How is the common man to understand these names!
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My life has been made better when I broke from ‘status’ as held by my peers. My friendships have become more meaningful and the headaches in trying to be something I’m not (nor want to be) were quickly replaced by more pressing matters (environmental activism, birding, education).
I’m glad the kestrel didn’t get so annoyed with you that we flew from your camera. Such lucky shots! Our American kestrel won’t let anyone get so close.
Im sure losing never felt so good!
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“My friendships have become more meaningful” – Ain’t that the truth, my friend. The headaches have gotten progressively better too, replaced my enjoyable and stimulating head-throbs, a warm glowing.
Luck was indeed a kestrel that morning !
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When you give birdy love, it always comes right back, methinks. That kestrel must follow your blog.
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Lovely pics and a lovely poem that follows.. 👌👌👌
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Thank you dear friend!
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