Quote Originally Posted by Samrat Sarkar View Post
A heavy gloom engrossed all my mind. That alter-ego sitting inside me became very remorseful then. Some simple question cropped in my mind at that moment. Should I have remained guard for the birds? Then how could I guard them during the night? Did I make any mistake by building the nest for them, was the arrangement made by the housewife with the cane basket more appropriate for the chick in that situation? …. The basket would have been lifted from time to time and the chick fed at those intervals? The chick then would have survived? All these questions remained unanswered to me. A feeling of melancholy oozed out of my work of passion. The feeling of joy out of the work of my passion weighed down heavily by a feeling of sadness at that moment. I looked upwards and saw the pair of parent birds in between the mango and jack-fruit leaves, still then collecting insects from here and there…Not eating those insects. Frequently coming down to the China rose plant and not finding their chick there again going back … All the time calling their offspring in a high pitched voice.
Lucky you could observe this touching behavior of the birds towards the chick. Its sad that the cat found the nest. Maybe on hind sight one can say that keeping the chick closer to humans might have saved it. I feel you did what you thought would be best for the chick. The photographs depict the behavior nicely. Especially I liked the one, where the chick can be seen asking for food and the parent is waiting patiently by its side to guard it. Thanks for sharing the detailed account. Look forward to more.