Some observations on the Indian Courser

17/06/2016 4:20-5:15 PM

We were welcomed into the location by a white-eyed buzzard with a lizard kill and a flock of mynas. We first sighted the Indian courser in its previously sighted location. Before we sighted the courser, we could observe Yellow-wattled lapwings in good numbers and in various stages of development. We also saw several Yellow-wattled lapwings brooding over eggs at several locations. The entire landscape had short grass perhaps no taller than the courser itself. The location had a functioning quarry and several Lorries were commuting from the location. The location itself was a divided into residential plots. It is only a matter of time before the entire place becomes developed. There were no tall bushes except for some Prosopis Juliflora shrubs. We could see several Ashy-crowned sparrow larks also foraging on the ground. The soil could be called as red sandy soil. It was perhaps nutrient deficient and unfit for agriculture.

We could finally see the chick and the courser. We could not tell whether it was a male or female. They were feeding cautiously with a sharp lookout for threats. They were apparently unperturbed by vehicles as the quarry activity proceeds for the entire day and the Lorries kept coming and going. The chick was periodically coming to its parent and was demanding food. This was surprising as it was a fairly fully grown chick and it could forage well by itself.

The Indian courser is a striking bird with striking white coloured legs with three forward pointing toes. A white supercilium which extends on either side of the face beginning at the top of the beak, joining and ending at the nape is very striking. The sharp downcurved beak sets it apart. The crown is dark chestnut colour. The chest area is light brown in colour. The shoulder and tail are grey in colour. The vent is white in colour. The chick has a cryptic plumage with alternate spots of white and dark brown. The white pattern above the eye is visible in the chick but the black eye stripe is not very prominent.

The adult Indian courser is much smaller in apperance compared to the yellow-wattled lapwing. It prefers to run rather than fly. In flight also it appears very similar to Yellow-wattled lapwings.

The chick and the adult were very close to each other and were seldom separated by more than 10 feet from each other. In all the time I saw the bird, I never heard it call.

The adult after some time laid down on the ground and ruffled its feathers. We could see the chick limping. We are not sure of the reason for its limping. It perhaps got injured somehow. We took pictures of both the birds and decided to leave them in peace. We were told about another set of coursers further into the road. Though we went further, we could not see any more coursers that day.

We could also see two francolins in a peculiar dark coloration. (See picture) I was confused whether these could be melanistic variants of Grey francolin. They could also got this coloration by dusting in dark / black soil.

18/06/2016 12:00-1:00 PM
Having seen the Indian courser at a close range, I decided to go to this location again during mid-day on my way back from another birding session at Anaikatti. This time, I saw the same pair of coursers almost at the same location I saw them yesterday. Wanting to explore further, I drove very slowly ahead along the mud path.

Almost a half a kilometer away from my first location, I came across a bigger flock of Indian coursers. This flock had almost 8 eight individuals: two adults and rest were chicks in various stages of development. I could observe a chick demanding food from the adults in a peculiar manner. It was bending forward and touching the ground with its beak like a human prostrating in front of deity.
One of the sub adults, perhaps wanting to distract my attention from the chicks, dropped down its wings. Ornithologists call this behavior as “Broken wing display” and is used to distract attention away from chicks by feigning injury. I looked up several sources to know more about this behavior but I could not come across any source mentioning this behavior in coursers. This behavior is well documented in lapwings.

I could see another adult Indian courser which was injured and had lost one of its leg below its knee. This made me think about the other Indian courser I saw earlier the previous day. The high
frequency of leg problems were perhaps linked to genetics. As Indian coursers are quite rare and we have a very little population left, lameness was perhaps a result of inbreeding.

Today I observed a Indian courser trying to withstand the strong wind. When it had trouble, it opened up one of its wings in an effort to stabilize itself. (Right wing in this case)

 I also encountered in the same location some four chestnut-bellied sand grouse and a juvenile Rufous-tailed lark.

Though Chestnut-bellied sandgrouse is very well documented in these parts,
Rufous-tailed larks are very rare and I had observed two adults in 19/09/2015 in my Village (Palladam Puliampatti). The fact that this was a juvenile perhaps conclusively proves that Rufous-tailed larks are residents to our district. We just need to look out for them more.
In addition we could see some paddy field pippits, Richards pippits, Ashy crowned sparrow larks and large grey babblers.

Sighting of an Indian Eagle owl in my Village

Some experiences are as magical as one in which we sight an owl. Sighting an Indian Eagle owl warrants a separate blog article for itself.

              Since June 2014, I have been maintaining records of birds sighted in a patch of land owned by my family in Palladam Puliampatti Village. I started this as it was a course requirement for my ornithology course in Bombay Natural History society. In the course of one year, I recorded close to 49 species in this patch. This variety of life encourage me to take this up for a long term study. After my ornithology course concluded, I kept revisiting the site to record the changes in this location. Initially, I wanted to go for planting of trees in this patch to further supplement the wildlife found here. Now, two years and 79 species later, I doubt if such a step would be disastrous for the scrubland and grassland species of birds found here. We will leave this debate for the moment and get back on track for the sighting.
               I visited this track of land on 12th July 2016 at around 7:45 am. I wanted to take a different course from my normal track and see if would yield me more species sightings. As I walked on the edges of my land, I noticed some thing peculiar. In the adjoining ravine, I saw a Red-Wattled lapwing crouching suspiciously. The position resembled a false brooding position I had witnessed in Yellow-Wattled lapwings. Suspecting that its nest might be nearby, I decided to visit the ravine.

When I stepped into the ravine (This is not a natural ravine but one formed by illegally excavating the land of soil for road constructing in a nearby school), I searched in futile for the Red-wattled lapwing and its nest but in my search, I could see a short figure moving at some distance away. Through the viewfinder I could see that it was an Indian eagle owl! I was super excited. I had seen this bird flying through my farm a few months before and was searching for its roosting location.

I knew that the scrub land was a potential locality for the eagle owl. It never crossed my mind that I should probably check the ravines adjacent to my land. I took a few quick pictures and when I approached closely, the bird flew away from me. In flight, it was wondrous to see the bird with huge wingspan in proportion to its body. Indian eagle owls are usually seen in pairs. However, I could only seen one bird in this location.

I checked the shrub in which it was roosting and I could see that the shrub also contained a few empty creamy white eggshells and couple of regurgitated pellets. These eggshells seemed to be from a recent brood of the Indian Eagle owl!. Most birds dispose of the eggshells from their nests so that the eggshells don't give away their nesting locations. Perhaps the Indian eagle owl was confident that it could fend off any possible dangers to its brood. I also doubted if the eggshells were very recent. They usually nest between November and April and chicks are dependent on its parent for nearly six months. There were no sign of its chicks or its mate. Cursory glance of the pellet also revealed that it was a leftover from a meal of rats or bandicoots. I rechecked the site and adjoining ravines for the bird for the following two days but there were no sign of the bird. The roosting site itself in which I found the bird was by itself seemed to be sparingly used. As mentioned earlier, I could only see two pellets and very few droppings. It was perhaps one of the many roosting sites of the bird. I decided to try my luck after November, at which time, I hope the nesting site would be reused by the bird.