The Birds And The Bees, The Flowers And The Trees

No naughty thoughts! Just an innocent title, that! A year of 'social distancing' included not only human beings, but also my plants and my balcony. Much joy as they give me, they also don't fail to deeply disappoint me from time to time - what would joy and success be without disappointments? Who would sit back to think about the value of that joy? The plants don't seem to have been taught not to push a person too far. So when they decide to play with my oh, so fragile emotions, I give up on them. The Corona, badly performing plants, inability to do much about changing the soil and disappointment in the plants leading to disinterest turned into a vicious cycle ..... till the year came full cycle ..... and then ..... I finally pulled myself and decided to get started again.

So it all started out with trying to de-weed the pots, clean up the balcony, plant some seeds, get some new plates for the pots etc. I also missed the birds a lot. All my birdie and wild animal pics have served me to make calendars and customized gifts for friends, relatives and other animals over the last 3 years. Now I have run out of them. Last year did not really help much, locked up as I was (and still continue to be) inside the house. Though I heard a lot of birds, I did not see very many of them. Time to do something to attract them to my balcony.

Thus it came to be that a few "non-performing assets" were "dismantled" (veggie plants which were not doing well) and replaced with flowering plants like bunch roses, red cypress vine (which is said to attract hummingbirds and butterflies), bougainvillea etc. It's barely 10 days since they arrived, but believe me (though I couldn't believe it myself), within 2-3 days I heard a racket outside in my balcony and rushed with my camera to see what was on. 3-4 sunbirds were hovering around those flowers and around a black night shade or chundakkai tree (yes, you heard right - a tree!!!) growing in my pot.

Murphy's laws seem to apply 100% to me. I try to plant so many veggies, but they rarely do well. Plants I don't plant like greens and tomatoes grow on their own in my pots like weeds, and so did this black night shade tree. Not just that, it has grown in a pot in which NOT ONE plant which I tried to plant so far, has to my greatest mystification, ever grown. I had tried to chop down that tree a week ago, but it was so strong, I could not. But now I see the birds coming for that plant, it has earned its right to life. It is official. That plant will live and occupy the 'pot of honour' in my balcony till it chooses to.

So coming back to the sunbirds, they would not sit for a moment and I could not take any pics. From there they flew to the tree just outside the balcony and I managed to get a pic of one of them. Yesterday, I again heard a sound in the balcony and went with camera and saw a sunbird. Could not get a proper shot and was disappointed. This morning it was a bulbul. I managed to get a shot and in checking out the pics on the camera found one of the sunbird on my plant taken yesterday!!!

Well, well, well! Life is not just mysterious, it is also extremely fascinating and amazing. Here are the pics.

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The hovering female sunbird and the bulbul have been taken through a mesh door, so as not to frighten them away, hence they are not too sharp.

 

Thanks a lot, Balajee! You could consider waterproofing the terrace and covering it with 2 coats of water proof paint and then tarpaulin. That should make it less pervious to water. Plants outside the gate? Don't people filch them?