The Day After...

An endless night

Trapped inside

Columns of winds

And pillars of rains,

At last broke free,

Slipping behind 

The gray horizon

Supporting the spuming back

Of the billowing ocean,

it pushed  forth 

With its remaining might

a capsized dawn.

And lo, the joy 

That burst forth

Across the gloom

As the flutter of wings

Set the world astir

With the possibility

Of renewed life;

They dived and swooped

And soared up in the air

To swerve and swirl,

Cruise and tumble

Riding on invisible currents

Happy to be alive,

Happy to just be...

Being a witness to this expressive display of relief from the  avian world, the morning after Cyclone Niwar hit the coastal  Bay of Bengal,  the natural course of thought landed me in utter fascination of the survival skills of these winged creatures. While we spent the whole of Tuesday trying to foolproof our home against the threat of the impending cyclone, what pro-active measures did the birds in our backyard take?

"Mom, how do birds protect themselves during a storm?" As a little child, I remember asking my mother.

"They hide in their nests", she answered. Of course, the certainty with which she had spoken  made me believe her.

However, my recent google search provided more satisfying answers to the simple question I had posed years ago.

Our neighborhood is home to variety of sunbirds, which are tiny with long beaks to draw nectar from the flowers, much like the hummingbirds of the Americas. Winds may steal hats and claim umbrellas, but may still not be able to reach these teenie meenie birds hiding in the leeside of trees or deep inside dense hedges.  Here, overlapping branches laden with leaves come together to form a roof shingle, thus creating a perfect protection from high winds and driving rainstorm. As long as these small birds decide to stay put, they can stay dry and unperturbed by the weather conditions.

However, this also means they cannot forage for food either. If you are a bird enthusiast, you might have noticed several birds indulging in a bout of gluttony just before a storm. This is because more fat translates into better energy reserves, and resultantly greater chances of survival during severe weather conditions. 

Apparantly some bigger birds are capable of sensing the onset of bad weather, and attempt to move on earlier to safer havens. Attempt doesn't mean they always succeed, since they too can easily fall prey to a phenomenon called “fallout". 

Fallout in this case means birds finding themselves in places far  out of their habitat— seabirds on shore, shorebirds far inland, tropical birds way out of their range. So, how do fallouts happen?  Hurricanes, with their high winds and ocean tracks, can act like roller coasters for birds. Those caught in them get whipped around, with many dying of exhaustion. But some make it, through sheer stroke of luck, by finding their way into the  eye of the cyclone. Needless to say, this implies that they would be landing somewhere far from their home habitats. 

Interestingly all birds have an in-built mechanism to waterproof their wings. The process known as preening the feathers is nothing more than applying a coat of wax/oil extracted from the uropygial gland, commonly known as the oil gland, located at the base of their tail. This water-resistant plumage is instrumental in keeping them dry even during torrential rains. 

So the next time, after a storm has rolled in and out of your area, and the birds are out and about, scaling the heights, diving the depths, happy to have survived the sound and fury of a potentially dangerous weather system, rejoice with them!