Down the Ostrich Trail

A friend of mine informed me yesterday that the IISc Photography club members were meeting up this morning for a walk around the campus. The campus is home to a variety of species, many of them too shy to be spotted on its bylanes. Now, I'm not particularly skilled with the camera, and was excited at the prospect of picking up some photography tips, as well as spotting some of these bugs and birds, so I decided to join them.

And it was then that I discovered that the campus is also home to lots of secret trails. It really was very refreshing to walk around listening to sounds of nature with no souls in sight, except for the five of us. While my friends were enthusiastically identyfing the warblers, babblers, asian paradises, and sunbirds, I was admittedly mystified. I can masterfully identify crows, parrots, and eagles provided you don't confuse me by placing ravens, parakeets, and kites alongside them ;-) Which reminds of a story I was told !

A few years back, a professor of Ecological Sciences had set out exploring a trail early one morning along with a bunch of his students. While his friends were enthusiastically discussing the characteristic features of babblers and sunbirds, one student, perhaps in a bid to make his presence felt, announced that he had, but for a brief moment, spotted an ostrich up a tree.

Now, before we jump to any conclusions, let's have an objective look at this situation . Agreed, that ostriches aren't often found on trees. Statisticians are curiously silent on this matter. Ostrich census committee members don't crawl up eucalyptus trees in the hope of projecting larger ostrich population estimates. An ostrich is tall enough for it to get a good view of the landscape without having to climb a tree . But could it not be possible that this was that one outlier ostrich, who, inspired by 'Jonathan livingstone Ostrich', set out to test its limits ? We all strive to reach higher in life, so is it unreasonable for an ostrich to nurse similar ambitions ?

Anyhow, I am saddened to say that this student's claims were met with smiles of incredulity, which needless to say, cramped his style. The message was loud and clear- The success of an ornithological expedition was contingent on not spotting ostriches on trees.

Anyway, coming back to our expedition today, I came away with a bunch of insect bites, and with knowledge of enough bird names to impress someone for five minutes ( but not quite enough for ten :-) Which reminds me of my 'tip of the iceberg' theory ! To keep up the suspense, I'll stop here, and reserve that for another day ;-)