My origins in birding

Caption: Zebra Finch

My daughter bought me a Birdbuddy for Christmas 2025. We aren't Christians, but any excuse to celebrate and get the family together, right?

The Birdbuddy is an excellent idea. It's a bird feeder with a solar panel and a built in camera that takes up to 2k resolution videos (of up to 60 seconds at a time) when it detects that a bird has landed on the feeder. 

Over the years, I've had other less ambitious feeders. Prior to installing feeders I did a lot of birding and have photographed many of the species that visit New England. I've also tried to pursue the hobby when I've traveled, e.g. to Orlando, Florida and Provo, Utah.

The first feeder I installed was unabatedly ransacked by Gray Squirrels. After many failed attempts I finally hung it between two tree trunks that were about 10-12 feet apart. So the midpoint was about 5-6 feet from either side. And I have video of the squirrels jumping 5-6 feet from tree trunks onto the feeder. So, that idea had to be scrapped.

I then bought a squirrel-proof feeder that thankfully did the job. On weekends I sat on my front porch with my camera and a book and waited patiently for opportunities to photograph birds as they perched on and around the feeder.

At one point I also setup a hummingbird feeder and got some amazing close ups.

As I shared my Birdbuddy videos with the family I got to wondering about how and when my interest in birding developed.

I recall that as a kid one of my favorite writers (Khushwant Singh) often wrote about nature and birds. He even published a book solely on that topic (among the 100 or so books he published during his 100 years living in Delhi).

At some point while digging through my rusty brain I suddenly remembered that my parents had bought us a pair of what I (for some odd reason) remembered as Tiger Finches. When I discussed that with my brother (he lives in Sydney, Australia) he seemed to remember them as Zebra Finches. When I looked it up I realized that -- sure enough -- there's no such thing as Tiger Finches!

Memory is such a weird thing! I recently also just remembered that I wrote a short article (just a few sentences) in grade 2 about the birds that was printed in the Sandesh (the school's magazine at Modern School, Humayun Road). I think I have a cutting of it somewhere or used to before it went missing.

As it happened, after a period (I don't recall how long, but hopefully not an embarrassingly short one) one of the birds died. I also don't recall whether it was the more colorful male or the female but perhaps my grade 2 article can shed some light on that detail. The other bird seemed distressed and kept poking her dead mate and chirping mercilessly. So, we decided to open the cage and let it fly away.

My brother reminded me that my father had a book on birds, which I'm sure I used to pick up and read often. Why don't I remember some of these details? Don't ask me! But I did read somewhere that a child's brain prioritizes learning concepts rather than storing memories, which is why we often don't remember as much about our childhoods as we do about our later years (aka Infantile Amnesia).