World Environment Day 2011 - Dedication to Sparrow

The pictures of sparrow found below in sequence are contributed by few of my very talented friends. Its always difficult to capture animals and birds in camera as they keep moving every moment, yet they made efforts to capture, is truly remarkable frames of moments. Thank you guys! You definitely rock as always!!

Amit Semwal aka photographer captured Sparrow around beautiful bunch of flowers.
Sagar Heerani captured that beautiful sparrow in his balcony of his home.
Kartika captured the picture of these lovely little eggs of the sparrow in the nest found on a tree near college area.
Shivangi got the set of hanging artificial sparrows with real feathers bought from the market of course we demand for the real one.
Parker captured a beautiful picture of the winter birds feeding the seeds and grains from a grain-feeder, hanging outside his home.
And last picture capturing an earthen pot filled with water my mom kept in garden for the birds.

*For the picture below ALL RIGHTS RESERVED so Kindly do not copy it in any case

FFew days back I went to see the movie Pirates of the Caribbean-4. It was a good movie for a change from the usual- casual movies that we see in India. A movie based on an expedition to search a fountain of youth with a story of mermaid. It was a movie completely like a wonderland to watch and cherish the childhood fascination about magic, adventure and mermaids. Well that’s not all I was fascinated about in the movie. No wonder I was simply delighted to watch the character, Jack Sparrow....Aye...I mean there has to be Captain somewhere between the names! So it was Captain Jack Sparrow with his feathers on his head and shabby look simply kept me captivated in the movie till the end.

When the movie was over, I was still so much into the musing of the movie that was again and again recalling the dialogues and perhaps the stunning scenes of the movie. And suddenly on one thing my mind got its attention captured... in fact it was just one word that is ‘Sparrow’!

I wanted to be bird, a sparrow when I was a kid! Soaring high, floating in waves of air, proud with wide open wings, chirping in chorus, be independent and sit wherever possibly the warm broad shoulders or tiny finger and sing out my heart!

When I was a little girl, my mom used to sometimes ask me to sit outside and fly away the birds that would come to eat the grains, drying up in the sun. I used to have a little stick in my hand and often used to run behind the tiny birds until they left my garden area. But those little sparrows were very naughty. No matter how many times I made they fly away, they would come back and swiftly get a tiny grain in their mini beaks and fly away. Sometimes I noticed them dancing over the grains. It was a usual sight every morning.

My mom used to say, come back home after playing with friends in the evening when you see streets light on and birds flying back their nest. Never thought one day will come or have come when I do comeback home when the street-lights are switched on in the evening but those sparrows are no more around flying back to their nest chirping high for hours in the evening.

On Sunday’s afternoon I used to play with my friends in the room and used to constantly hear the chirping sound of the sparrows. Sometimes those notorious little birds used to suddenly get inside the home through tiny opening of the windows ...trying to get a cosy place to set up their nest inside the house. They used to actively fly here and there. Soon we used to rush to switch off the fans, or they might hurt themselves.

Sparrow, a tiny bird has been like a childhood identity, and right now I feel so nostalgic!
We used to hang around with friends to get a look of the sparrow’s nest and if possible to get a glance of the tiny little eggs of the bird rested on some tree or some tiny bushes found in the garden. A nest which looked quite artistic and good team work involved in the making of it. Quite social birds often found living where human were dwelling.

In Hindi we often call this bird Sparrow as ‘ghar-chidiya’ which literary means ‘house-birds’. Today, we don’t find them often. In fact why am I writing this post is because I cannot recall when the last time did I see those tiny friendly birds? Forget about near home or window or balcony...I have not seen them in my whole area. This is definitely weird and hard to believe this.

Soon I started searching information about the sparrow on internet. And shockingly I found many articles and organisations working together to protect the sparrow. It was then I realised, things are already worst and I did not notice at all. It like the nursery rhyme turned upside done like, ‘mor bhi aaya, kauwa bhi aaya, chuha bhi aaya, bandar bhi aaya par chhun chhun karti aayi naa chidiya, aur naa dal ka dana layi chidiya’

I wondered why the population of sparrows declining so badly. Was it about only the less food and water they got to survive? I’m really not sure about anything, honestly!
Different reports say and give different reasons, none so sure. Some says it is the change in climate conditions responsible. Some says the smoky and polluted cities are to be blamed. Yet some says, it the smoke that car and other vehicles emit from the unleaded fuel. That particular smoke has some chemical in it that kills small worms and other tiny insects. And perhaps the insects are dead before the birds feed them. So a disturbed food-cycle is responsible.

“However, I feel for some different reasons through my conscious thought building process. I believe since the sparrow were the birds which often lived around where the human stayed, the birds were very much dependent on the human for their survivals.

When I was a kid, my mom used to give me sometimes grains to feed the birds. I simple loved doing that when I was a kid. I’m sure my generation people must have sure seen some generous acts in our daily living. Sparrows feed and fluttered around the homes and garden to rest. I see there is no more a garden concept prevailing.

My mom used to keep a tiny clay pot filled with water in the garden for the birds. Sometimes for an hour she used to slightly open the garden water-tap in the afternoon so that birds to get a chance to play in water relax their body temperature and drink some water.

Birds used to peck grains in backyards of homes where mom used clean the grains or rice or lentils. Today we find everything neat and tidy from the malls and hence no more loitering of free grains in the balcony every morning food for the birds is over.

I wonder who does all this and more these days for birds. Today birds survive depending on the food found in the garbage. However, how far the food in the garbage is safe for the birds? The foul smell from the garbage hints something bad to all of us, especially for the animals and birds finding quick forage in the garbage full of harmful plastic bags.

The lifestyle of the human has played a very significant role in the declining of the birds. Our changed habits drastically affected the life-cycle of those little birds. They are now on the threatened birds’ list in many parts of the world. March 20th, 2011 was celebrated as the ‘World Sparrow Day’ to promote the awareness about the decline in the sparrow’s population.
A house sparrow, a once common bird found in abundance across the globe needs to be conserved and continuously efforts have to be made to protect birds, which are not anymore so common and have turned into ecology sorrow!

“A little we can do, yet it would be so worth and so apt to do ...get a wide open pot and fill it with water, place it outside your home, terrace and garden. Throw and sprinkle hand full of grains and seeds on the ground for the birds to feed in the morning and evening.

“So this year 2011 World Environment Day, 5th June...I want to make an effort through this post to promote and spread the awareness needed for the much extinguishing little birds’ sparrow. I support my little sparrow! Do you?!

~ Keep the Spark ALive..