I first saw Grey Wagtails during a taxi ride in Kodaikanal. One was perched on a wooden gate, looking like a June morning. It wore the hues of an early sun, flanked by greying clouds.
The driver told me, in Tamil, that they were called Valikaati. Loosely translated, it meant “pathfinder”. My mind started to drift . Rudely interrupted only by the sound of a passing truck. I imagined the bird to be a compass with wings for people who were lost in the wilderness.
An alarm clock for the weary to wake up and find their way back to safety.
Soon, another flew towards a rocky surface ahead of the taxi. Spinning around, and shaking its tail feathers, the birdie merrily hopped about. Every few seconds, it turned around to look towards our direction. I wanted to believe that it was calling out to us. While there was no other route to take, it still felt special to me.
To pretend to follow a songbird to wherever it had thought was for safe for me.
As we drove on, I saw a few more Grey Wagtails by the side of the road. I stopped several times to see them prancing around, with courage in their hearts and songs in their throats. Maybe, they figured that I was in trouble; that I was going too fast for them to help.
During one of the breaks we took along the way, I asked the driver if he had heard any stories about Valikaatis ushering people to safety. Perhaps, some exciting tale to add more flavor to the day. Much to my surprise, he quickly told me that he didn’t know what a Valikaati was.
The next couple of minutes were indicative that I have the attention span of a gnat. Because it turned out that Grey Wagtails didn’t go by that name. I had misheard him before. These birds were known as Vaalatti (Karum Saambal Vaalatti) – which, in Tamil, literally means “tail shaker”.
With shifty eyes, I put my head down. It seemed so obvious in hindsight. They wagged their tails. Of course, they were called Vaalattis. It made perfect sense. I was embarrassed. But the elation of spotting a new bird was still fresh in my mind.
It has been a few years since this incident. I haven’t photographed them much despite seeing them in my city’s outskirts, all over Kodaikanal and in several parts of Kerala. I never had a reason for it until it later occurred to me that I might be feeling guilty about them.
Because Grey Wagtails do the shake to frighten away trespassers, flush out insects and seduce prospective mates.
Well, I am neither an eligible bird nor a tasty worm. Just a guy who may have annoyed them the first chance he got..
The long-legged soul
of summer’s final yawn,
a clumsy sign that
the rain might come,
soon perhaps, and
flood, with kindness
found in cups of
sugarcane extract,
those stranded without
access to Google Maps.
(Photographs: Kodaikanal)
Thank you for the follow! ^..^
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Love the picture!
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thanks comrade
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Amazing!
“silver wheat skin”, “sunless dawn”, “long-legged soul”… Beautiful. My head is still swirling unable to handle the imagery. These are just too good. 🙂
My brain is too overloaded to even try to understand what the rest of the lines mean.
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Yikes, there’s a lovely compliment. Thanks buddy!
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Ahhh. ❤
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this is superb! thank you.
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Beautiful! =3 And I love all the birds perching in a row.
On another note, I’ve been missing India today.
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Tthanks sarah. Nice to know you’ve been here before!
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I was there June of last year to work on an oral history project for Tibetan refugees. I’m determined to go back and explore more in a year or two.
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Awwww wonderful!
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I has read it thrice over …aye…I says it is beautiful ❤❤
Ummm… Quick question though…where do the google maps take us for the day??
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awww you says such lovely things, I says.
Ermm…google is good for stopovers, no? ideally, the restaurant at the end of the universe but a wheeled-stall with a dew outbreak and masala tea would be safe to assume
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Excellent I meets you there …keeps a place for me 😀
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sounds like the plans sans clans, a spot will be reserved
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And how iam to find you?? Will you be waving them daffodils tall??
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yes daffodils, but also falling continuously on a step ladder built from paper mache, trying to stand straight. neither mistake it for dancing nor disturb another paper mache dancer, they are the worst!
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Ok…I waits then for a man on a stilt made of paper mâché waving falling daffodils?
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purrrrrrrfect i says
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Hahaha! Those stranded without access to Google Maps?! 😀
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Oh come on, you’ve been there too hehehe
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Yup, I have even tried using ancient compass techniques, suffice to say – wilderness education was not my strongest subject 😉
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hehehe nice! i tell them i’m from bangladesh, use sign language, smile pleasantly and walk away
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Ahahahaha!!! Oh that’s funny, one of the good things about discrimination in a foreign country, don’t know the answer, I just say “no English”. Works every time, all the time 😀
There are positives to EVERYTHING 😀
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totally!
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Beautiful words! I am honoured you like mine. Thank you!
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the feeling is very mutual. thank yous, bev.
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Yo Sushi has changed her blog nest 😀 😛 It is – wordyforeverafter.wordpress.com
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ha! i was wondering this morning, the bookmarks beckon you see. will change it now! any particular reason though, sushi?
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Hehehe 😀 Just avoiding some fools in the real world 😛
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ayyo good then you went anon! welcome back mate!
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Thanks a lot comrade 😀
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Hey, this is a great pic!!! Goes without saying words are great too!! 🙂
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Thank you mamta!
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Fantastic
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Much appreciated, rajiv.
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Lovely! The birds and your writing 🙂 I had a spot spot for these wagtails when we lived up in the Nilgiris.
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Luck be your neighbours then! I love it when that skip over water, it’s like they are crazy as they are careful.
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That first line: “The long-legged soul of summer’s final yawn” feels especially relvevant now as I embark upon my summer – an awareness of the ending. Wagtails are amongst some of the most appealing birds – in the Himalayas I was blessed with a yellow wagtail and not-so-blessed as I insisted repeatedly on misidentifying a little forktail as a white wagtail. (The reasons for this were complicated; suffice it to say I wanted to put one-up on birders in Singapore going crazy over a solitary white wagtail that appeared at the peak of migration.) But recently I actually saw a white wagtail, though much further from India or Singapore than I had expected – I’ll post on that soon.
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Firstly, I wish you a fond and fortunate summer, lass.
Lovely to read about your tryst with white wagtails. I saw one a few months ago in kerala, I mistook her for a Pied wagtail. We live, love and learn, don’t we!
Take care and come back with stories!
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Such tiny adorable bird…😊
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that makes us grin so wide!
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Lovely! I like coming across to see and read things I wish I could but have never come around to! Someday, perhaps… 😉
Good stuff! Keep it coming!
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That’s great to hear, Kunal! Do keep coming back (smile)
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👍
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😊
Your posts make me happy!
Thank you
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And that makes me haaaappy!
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