The elusive partridge

The call of the Grey Partrige or Grey Francolin as it's now called was one of the first calls I heard when I came to this campus. The birds are one of the commonest in Peninsular India. They have a loud, ringing 'tee--teeu-ka-' repeated about four times. Another call 'is Pee-la-la, Pee-la-la'. The Hindi name is teetar and the birds are also considered a delicacy.

In the wild, they're seen in groups of three or four secretively stepping through the undergrowth. I have not been successful in getting very close to them. Often, when you flush a group of birds they will suddenly fly up from the ground, flapping loudly and scatter deep inside the bushes.
So far, this photograph has been the only chance at capturing a pair. This was taken near the main gate this morning.

Call of the Grey Partridge: at IndiaBirds (Quicktime needed)

Owlets

Our campus has a number of leafless trees, that are excellent perches for birds like the cute Spotted Owlet.
There is a bare tree near the library which used to be the haunt of a pair of Spotted Owlets on our campus. For the last few months they had disappeared from this place. Then late one evening I was surprised to find them sitting on the goalposts on the football field! This seems to be one of their favourite perches. If you check these carefully at night, you may just see them !

Most people think that dead wood, or bare trees are useless, but in fact they can be really important for birds as perches, roosts for the night or if the wood is of a suitable variety as a potential places for a nesting hole. At the same time, it's also interesting to observe how birds are so resilient--they adapt themselves to artificial perches like streetlights, electricity poles, pylons and goalposts!

Here is a Spotted Dove on a lamp post: