It has been a long time I haven't written about the birds in my place. It doesn't mean that I have forgotten about them. Although not shown outside or observed by others, I have always been in touch with the winged ones surrounding me. With many trees in the school surrounding, there are birds galore for sights and sounds and thus my days here in the school doesn't end without a birds or two in a day. When fortunate enough, I get to sight beautiful birds which rarely come out in public such as trogan and owls. Usually, I get to hear and sight common birds of the place such as bulbuls, sparrows and of course spotted doves.
Yesterday afternoon was one fortunate time for me and of course to all in the school. A bird which we have seen for the first time in our school campus in the summer of 2015 visited us again.
With lazy steps I was back after having my lunch. The moment I was about to settle down for a short rest before readying for their afternoon sessions, I saw a strange bird flying towards my office window from the school garden. My senses became more active and I watched it intently following its flight. It attempted to land on the transmission line running above the garden but it didn't. Instead it made a round of fight above the garden and out flew towards the playground. I thought that it wouldn't land on the ground. But then, I saw the children stopping their play and gasping. The bird landed on the playground. Coincidentally it was lunch break and most of the children were out playing and loitering around. The bird drew most of us towards it. Our colleague Rinchen Nidu was out playing kabola with a group of children. He too stopped the play and was up capturing the bird in his phone. Sir Rinchen instructed children not to disturb the birds and also warned the children not to harm the birds. As the children drew closer to have better view of the bird, it took a flight and landed at the other side of the goalpost. But in few seconds, the birds took up a great flight and away it flew towards the village and disappeared in the woods behind the academic building.
The bird was gone, but its moments remained in me rewinding my time back to 2015 when the same bird visited our school for the first time since my arrival here. That time, an incessant rain lasting about a week brought in our school a big puddle behind the academic block. As a result the bird came, we thought and assumed. The bird stayed for a long time, wandering the puddle, pecking something out. We had great time enjoying its move and rest in the puddle from the back windows in the recess of lessons. Personally, I had fortunate moment to photograph the birds as much as I can during the recess of my time. I didn't know the name of that bird back then. I tried a lot to identify the books referring the books available but in vain. Now I do with the help of active birders in Birds of Bhutan, a group on facebook. The bird with long legs, with body and black wings is Black-winged Stilt.
With a gap of a year, the bird visited us again. This time although the puddle came up last time during incessant downpour time but the continuous sunshine following that dried up the puddle. May be because of that, the birds didn't stay for long. Hopefully it will return some day. We are waiting.
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