NATURE ON FEBRUARY

Whichever way i turn i see signs of regeneration.The harbinger of spring is the semul or the silk cotton trees,known in latin by the bombastic sounding title bombax malabaricum.The name is doubly deceptive;bombax has nothing to do with bombay,as you might be deluded into believing,but stands for silk-warm,thought i have never found any on it.Furtheremore,though malabar claims to be its state of nativity,it grows extensively all over the country.There are hundreds of semuls to be seen in delhi, both the scarlet and orange varieties.Visitors to the capital driving from the airport to ashok hotel can see them on either side of the avenue that runs between nehru park and the diplomatic enclave.They are in full flower in the first week of february.

February has much to offer to the nature lover.The first pink blossom on a leafless peach tree is a sight to behold,'fair as a star when only once is shining in the sky,'As te day begin to get warmer,birds became more active.Green barbets go on their wavy flight from one dark-foliaged tree to another,wind themselves up;kurr,kurr,krr,and then let themselves go;kutrook,kutrook,kutrook.Their indian name is sensibly onomatopoeic;kutrook.The green barbet is a shy bird,barley visible among dense-leaved trees because of its olive green plumage.Its call betrays its presence.No sooner does it became aware of anyone gazing at it than it falls silent and after a suspicious glance it is off on its undulating,heavy flight to another tree.I am impressed by bird-photograpers who manage to get it entering its nest-hole in a tree or with its aeak full of wild berries.Green barbets are my morning companions.Race course road,now barricaded,has putranjiva trees on both sides.In february they are loaded with berries and are therefore much frequented by barbets.

By the third week of the month,the peach loses its filwers and comes into leaf.Semuls begins to shed their large,waxen blossoms which lie round the bole in a messy woven carpet of red and yellow.Crows delight in viciousley pecking at those still on trees,particularly those that are partly open,as if cawing' open up,admn you!'

Big birds are much in evidence on big trees.One morning in the gymkhana club i saw a pair of hornbills fly to a semul tree where a couple of pariah kites were mating and screaming in ecstasy and agony.They watched the going-on with also scandalized by the kites shamless behaviour.They flew around the tree loudly enquiring'did ye do it?'i wanted to shout back,'i did not ,but take a look at those kites!'Grey hornbills are a common sight in delhi.They are as ugly and as untrusting of humans as vultures,without the vultures ability to soar majestically among the clouds.They go flapping their wings in undulating flight,screeching like kites.Theiar nests are malodorous because they are no more than holes in trees lined by the hen with her own excreta.I go to see a few wood peckers everymorning.Usually they are scaly-belled green woodpeckers hoping around the bole of a siris tree behind the tennis court.They rarely call when they are on a tree.I have never seen one on the ground.Occasionally i catch a glimpse of golden-blacked woodpeckers.They proclaim their arrival by shrill,ear-piercing cries.When the sunlight falls on their backs,they glisten like molten gold.The goldenbacked wood-pecker is a spectacularly beautiful bird.

One afternoon i saw a sight which continues to inrigue me.I had often seen sparrows gather in hundreds pefore roosting time and fly about together without any ostensible purpose.This afternoon i saw them on threeadjoiningkeekar trees.They looked like a swarm of bees buzzing about their hives;they hopped restleslly from one branch to another chirping incessantly.I got within arms reach of them but they were so absorbed in their own activity that they ignored my presence.It sounded like a very disputatious community meeting.After some minutes of watching them at close quarters i noticed that almost all of them were males.I detected about half a dozen hens in the total assemblage which must have numbered well over a thousand.Iconsulted my birds looks but found no explanation.