Kestrels

Saiha has provided us with fairly regular sightings of select avian migrants very near to our base. Wagtails and kestrels cornering the lions share; kestrels initially had me confused with the Oriental Hobby (Falco severus). However during the previous year I had been able to take a picture of  the Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) on the mobile phone tower; both the Airtel tower and our Cannon camera were then fresh.  Common Kestrel was also one of my initial “uploads” on Migrant Watch. This citizen science project too I joined during the previous year and Suhel has since been a big help. This year, last fortnight to be precise, has presented sights of the kestrel that have been, well to put simply, a beautiful experience.

Last year’s mobile phone tower is still preferred by it (don’t know if it is the same individual though!) but it apparently likes resting behind one of the drums on the mobile tower. These drums on the tower remind me of a rubber stuck on a new pencil. We saw it arrive and stay put for at least 25 minutes; this was around 4.00 pm.  A couple of times during this it opened up one wing but stayed at the same spot. The next day we say it take a sudden flight away from the very tower at about 1.00 pm; apparently scared by a helicopter that flew in not very far from the tower towards the helipad. This perching at a height of Common Kestrels has been stated by Rishad Naoroji in his Birds of Prey of the Indian Sub Continent “Seen at regular intervals perched singly in staked-out, readily defended foraging territories on relatively low, bare or sparsely foliaged trees, posts, fences, telegraph poles and wires, communication pylons, stacks of harvested grass or crop, rocks, and even sand dunes if higher perches unavailable, from where hunting sorties are launched”.

We were walking the path that skirts the Tourist Lodge at Saiha and snakes towards the wild growth that overlooks Saiha Tlangkawn at around 3.30 to 4.00 pm. I suddenly saw a bird, yellow-beak and yellowish-streaks on a whitish plumage take off; it was then perched about 15 feet high on a tree and faced the valley. It took me a while to understand that this too was the Common Kestrel. Apparently disturbed by my ungraceful intrusion it took-off for the growth on the other side of the valley. They apparently are regular winter visitors in these parts; Anwaruddin Choudhury to affirms this in his “A Pocket Guide to the Birds of Mizoram”.

The first sightings of the current year was when we saw 2 of them at around 4.00 pm for about 15 minutes. They took small-dives, opened up claws, (almost!) turned on their sides and caught insects. It was fun to put binoculars to use and see the small insects disappear amidst this ‘dance’ of the kestrels. They were not trying to attack each other that I am more or less clear but whether they tried to attract each other in the process is unclear to the novice in me. As I write I recall Rudyard Kipling's eloquent narrative of the dance of elephants in his Toomai of the Elephants.

View of Saiha Tlangkawn

View of Saiha Assam Rifle Campus

Roshni has heard them on more than one occasion as if giving a morning alarm with the cock in the neighbourhood; around 6.00 to 6.30 am. The bird could not be far if we heard it from our winter closed windows. During one of her walks to the Tourist Lodge she saw it fly in her direction  and get almost stationary at a height that was comfortable for it to get into position and her to observe and identify it. “The kestrel is a hawk about the size of a pigeon. There is only one bird which can really remain quite stationary, in the air, even when its wings do not move, and that is the kestrel. ” this is how it is referred to by Salim Ali and Laeeq Futehally in their “About Indian Birds”.

We went up to the helipad the other day at around 3.30 pm and saw 4 kestrels. They moved, not in circles, but came back to the same point in a while and in the process came quite close to us. This point was just as the valley depression began and not far from the Circuit House.

As we returned from the helipad we saw a flock of about 20 birds at a distance. When Roshni pointed towards them I proudly exclaimed “yeh to koi aur hain, kestrel nahin ho sakte” only to be proved wrong as I looked up with the binoculars. They appeared smaller in size than the kestrels we otherwise see and I wondered if distance was the factor.  About 20 to 25 of them, moving, almost in circles, about 30 feet above the ground. There was a fire in the Assam Rifle campus and they apparently were enjoying insects that came out or flew away from the fire. Assam Rifles Campus at Saiha overlooks a valley distinct from the one mentioned above. 2 of the group left group to perch on a tree and this they did more than once in the course of about 25 minutes that we observed the group. These were crows and from previous experience here I assume them to be Large Billed Crows (Corvus macrorhynchos). When we left we saw the flock had scattered while the 2 crows still were present. It was a wonderful evening; just to see the kestrels moving all around in joy like children coming out of a school!

Before this evening I understood that we had the Common Kestrel visit us in winters. A little confused as to whether we also have the Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni) here I checked up Rishad Naoroji’s “Birds of Prey of the Indian Sub-Continent” again. While the details in the book have ever overwhelmed me I checked up what he says of Lesser Kestrel and found some of our observations to be in consonance with his notes. “Essentially insectivorous, highly social and flocking species”; “Taking prey (mostly insects) more often on the wing than the Common Kestrel, otherwise hunts similarly but mostly in small groups or large loose flocks, 10 m to 15 m above the ground”; “In Africa catches insects disturbed by grass fires in the air or descends to the ground to take them on foot”.

Last evening I checked up sites having recordings of bird-calls online to check up and compare the calls of Common Kestrel and Lesser Kestrel. Hearing each of them a couple of times led me to confirm that the call we both are familiar with belongs to the Common Kestrel. However today, (15^th November 2010, 1.45 pm), as I sat to punch in the words from my note-book we heard the call of the Lesser Kestrel!

Saiha, these days, plays host to both these kestrels ~

Thanks to Suhel and Migrant Watch.