Most nocturnal birds are reticent during the day, winding themselves like a clock to unleash quiet furies once dusk settles in… pretty obvious in a way, for everyone needs to rest, be it in cocooned in the dark or shrouded in bright light… but there is a silent undertone to their existence, these hunters of the night, one that confutes their predatory nature… the night is a canvas of deception that they unravel with a gait seemingly unassuming yet characterized by a cold precision… daytime is when they ponder, with stoic expressions and reluctant movements…

‘Twas a sultry March afternoon, one where the salinity of the mangroves matches that of your sweat… and all avifauna was coming in unitary – one kingfisher, one egret and one soaring sea eagle – except for a pair of cormorants with their capes up… on a whim I wandered up to a small creek… and a startle flew away to perch on a tree on the opposite bank… a black-crowned night heron rather annoyed by the intrusion… dismayed at having to quietly pose in front of this perceived threat… one of the most widespread of its kind but rarely seen due to its nocturnal feeding habits, postulated to have evolved to avoid too much competition… the night raven, a precocious sifter of shallow waters… naively benevolent to bring up anyone’s eggs that find their way into its nest… like the pond heron it keeps the neck folded, looking demure… they’re social birds, and in their large colonies they are noisy, cacophonies resembling those of the corvids, but hunting is usually done alone… this one was probably just enjoying some me time before flying back to its siege… I was getting tired with the muggy weather, and the bird was getting of me, so after this two-minute rendezvous, away we went to our respective tribulations…

Musing on a Black-crowned night heron, Malvan, Sindhudurg, Maharashtra