7 - Sparky’s ‘May Time’ World

Howdy, Sparky here.

Ø  There is a saying, ‘April showers bring May flowers’. May is here and so are the flowers. The showers which came down in April not only gave us our mangoes but lots of greenery and flowers too. It is nature’s way of telling us that in every dark cloud there’s a silver lining. Showers in April though accompanied by thunder and lightning helped bring down the temperature when it started to get too hot while also providing precious water to the plants and trees to survive the hot summer before the monsoon rains come. If you pay attention, everything in nature is a cause for wonder.       

Ø  The Gulmohar tree on our island is awash with red, so are the African Tulip tree, the red coloured Plumeria, Indian Coral tree and Red Silk-Cotton tree, all of them on other islands and mainland across the river. It’s like they are all competing with each other to see who can produce the most and brightest of the flowers. This is just like with the fruit trees which produce delicious fruits to attract birds and animals to help disperse their seeds so do these flowering trees sport beautiful flowers to attract insects and birds to pollinate them. The trees need our service and in return give us food. It’s a relationship of mutual benefit. A situation of Quid pro quo, as the human lawyers would put it. Everything in nature is truly a cause for wonder. Bees, birds, butterflies and the like visit the trees across the river but most of us are happy to take in the beautiful sight and smells of the many flowers in bloom all around as we go about our routine on the Banyan Island.    

Ø Last week, I wrote of the beauty of ‘Dawn Chorus’ and how humans mark it with an ‘International Dawn Chorus Day’ celebrated each year on the first Sunday of May.  Like the previous years, this year too a group of humans came to our Banyan Island in a boat well before the sunrise.

Ø Most in the group were interested in nature but there were 3 boys who seemed to have been brought here against their will but soon decided that they rather not waste their outing. The dawn chorus itself was a little subdued due to their constant chattering not unlike the chattering of Madam Asian Koel. (She is busy these days finding another nest to lay her egg in and by the looks of it she’s being doubly careful to not to get caught, so I am hoping she will miss reading this week’s magazine.)

Ø After the sun rose and birds got busy with their daily routine, the 3 boys broke off from the group, came to the mango tree and when they couldn’t climb the tree to get at the mangoes, they started throwing stones at the mangoes. Those who could fly had flown by then, the monkeys and squirrels remained, initially unable to understand where the stones were raining down on us from and then unable to move due to disbelief and shock. A stone narrowly missed hitting a baby monkey who went squealing to her mother. Mr. Goldback, the leader of the monkeys became furious and started climbing down the tree. A couple of humans came there just in time to take the boys away from the scene and save the boys from the wrath of Mr. Goldback.   

Ø  Then when the group was having food, one of the boys stuffed his half eaten food packet in a hollow of our Banyan tree. A baby squirrel and a couple of laughing doves found it and ate it after the group left and fell sick. It took a couple of days for them to become better. The squirrel was a baby and didn’t know any better but the doves should have known that food which is packed in something that’s not natural cannot be any good. Look at all the plastic that ends up in our water and the harm it does to all of us. Those boys even left behind some plastic wrappers of some brown coloured stuff they were eating. Luckily for us, someone picked it up and took it away with them before they left the Island. Well, I wonder if this is how human guests behave in someone else’s house when they go visiting.

Ø  Mr. Drongo who was keeping a close watch on the snakes to guard the clutch of eggs in his nest, later told me that a snake was just 2 feet away from a boy as they were running around. Had he been bitten, can you imagine his pain, his parent’s anguish, and then a bad reputation for the snakes and us animals, who were just being ourselves in our own homes. I hope that’s the last of those 3 boys we have seen. If they do return, Mr. Goldback would be giving them a very nasty welcome present. 

Here are some activities for you as you cool off under a tree in the evenings.

• Solve the riddles one by one and get a word that solves another riddle.

	I am Crookshanks and I am Tom, The mighty Aslan and cute Simba are also just me.
	Greeks entered the city of Troy hidden within me, The Black beauty in the story by the same name is also me.
	I am the wisest creature in The Hundred Acre Wood, I am Headwig, who by Harry Potter stood.
	I am Winnie-the-Pooh’s close friend, It was down my hole that Alice fell to reach Wonderland
	I look like Black Beauty but my forehead has a horn, Am a creature of imagination, many pages of literature I adorn.
	I am the one who’s doing this writing, Scroll down, you will find me dung-eating.
	The final riddle – first letter of the answers above will also solve this riddle below:
	Sing alone and it’s just a song to the ear, Sing in a group, together and it’s this we hear.

• A Proverb is a saying based on common sense and experience. They develop with the language over time much like an Idiom. Here are some proverbs on animals which are jumbled up, can you match the 2 columns to form complete proverbs.

A bird in the hand	flock together
The early bird	cannot change his spots
One swallow	is worth two in the bush
Birds of a feather	Seldom bite
Honey catches	new tricks
Barking dogs	does not make a summer
The leopard	catches the worm
If you pay peanuts	the mice will play
When the cat is away	you get monkeys
You cannot teach an old dog	but you cannot make him drink
You can lead a horse to the water	and hunt with the hounds
You cannot run with the hare	more flies than vinegar

• Conjunctions are words that are used to connect other words and phrases together. ‘And’, ‘but’, ‘or’, ‘because’ and ‘so’ are few of the common conjunctions. Here’s a story for you but it will be complete only if you fill the blanks with the correct conjunctions.

My cousin, Champu loves chasing butterflies ____ dragonflies ____ her mother does not like it ­­­_____ says it is not a very nice thing to do ______ chasing something could either get her hurt ______ the flies could hurt themselves. Neither of it a nice thing to happen nor does it serve any purpose. ______ Champu never listened to her mother. She even had a diary where she recorded all the different kinds of butterflies _____dragonflies she chased. She said it was her hobby.

One day in winter, Champu saw a Southern Birdwing Butterfly fly by. The butterfly was leisurely flying around as if playing music on the gentle breeze. Champu was immediately fascinated _____ took off after the butterfly _____the butterfly was flying _____Champu could only follow her by running on the branches of the tree. While running after the butterfly, she nearly bumped into a snake which was slithering towards a sunny spot to bask in the warmth of the sun ______snakes are cold blooded creatures _____cannot control their body temperature ­­­­______when it gets cold they become sluggish _____cannot function properly. She was lucky that the snake hadn’t yet warmed up else she would have become ‘breakfast’ for the snake. Since that day, Champu learnt her lesson ____ does not go chasing after flies _____ watches them from a spot _____ she now agrees, this way no one gets hurt.                 

• My Elephant friend, Ms. Indlovu from Kruger National Park sent me a photograph of herself and her family. But, she’s cut it and sent it to me. Could you help me piece it together, so we can enjoy the photograph of her lovely family? She has also shared a few interesting things about elephants with us, luckily for us, she didn’t think of scrambling it up like the photo.

Hello Sparky,

My family and I love reading ‘Sparky’s World’. My grandmother sits with us every Sunday evening and reads out the magazine and makes us solve the riddles and puzzles. We are 4 children of various ages in the family and we all love our ‘magazine sessions’ and look forward to them. Here is something for you to include in your magazine for your readers.

We, the elephants are the biggest of the land animals. Some more interesting facts about us for you:

v  We live in close-knit families led by the grandmother, who would be the eldest female in the group consisting of her sisters, her daughters and all of their children.

v  Male elephants leave the group after a point and either stay alone or in small male-only groups.

v  We are important seed-dispensers. We are like the gardeners of the forests.

v  We eat up to 18 hours a day and quite a bit of what we eat comes out undigested in our dung, so a lot of smaller animals find their meal in our dung. There is nothing weird about this, this is nature’s way of smaller animals getting nutrients from fruits and berries from tall trees that they can’t get to. Have you heard of the humans in Indonesia who make coffee called Kopi Luwak out of coffee seeds from the Asian Palm Civet’s poop and humans in Thailand making coffee called Black Ivory Coffee from the coffee beans found in the dung of elephants?

v  We have an amazing sense of smell and an excellent memory.

v  Using the keen sense of smell and our memory, when we go in search of water we create and enlarge water-holes which are then used by a lot of other animals.

v  Someday, do come and spend some time watching us in our home, you will see we are intelligent, kind, brave, loyal and majestic animals.

Love,

Indlovu          

Here’s the jumbled up photograph:

Sparky’s Note: In the ‘Answers to last week’s puzzles’ section, in the ‘Animal quiz’ photo, if you were to look at the squirrel’s photo carefully you will see that the squirrel is eating from elephant dung.

• Now, for a mathematical puzzle. Find the next number in the sequence. For this, you will have to understand the relationship between the first 4 numbers, then apply the same logic and get the last number in the sequence. The first one is answered to show you how it’s done. 

10	20	40	80	160
5	25	125	625
3	5	7	11
50	100	200	400
20	27	34	41
4	8	12	16
3	6	11	19
2	4	8	16
8	10	14	20
100	125	175	250

See you all next week with more news, activities and answers to this week’s puzzles.

In the meanwhile, if you would like to write to me, email me at Sparkyatbanyan@gmail.com

Answers to last week’s puzzles:

•  Solve the riddles one by one and get a word that solves another riddle.

Rice	I am a grass, grown in paddy fields that are slushy,  Cook me with spices or eat me as a porridge that’s mushy.
Ant	I live in a colony, a queen rules over me, We work together as one creature, but I am not a Bee.
Ice Cream	When the weather gets hot, everyone eats me with relish, Best to be quick, while still frozen, am delish.
Night	I come between sunset and sunrise, Spend me well, and arise, rested and wise.
Boast	Pride goes before a fall, Hare lost the race, but before that, he did this to all.
Opinion	If you have me, you have a view on something. Read the experts, fine tune your understanding, And that will be the right thing.
Whale	Of all creatures, both of water and land, Am most big and most grand.
	The final riddle – first letter of the answers above will also solve this riddle below:
RAINBOW	When it has rained and then there’s sunlight, Be sure to look for me, am not an everyday sight.

• Here’s an analytical reasoning exercise for you: Read the below scene and answer the questions based on it.   

The sky is orange with tinges of yellow and red. The fluffy white of the clouds are lined with red, as if a child has taken a red coloured pencil and traced the outline. The birds and animals are finding their spot on the mango tree. Many birds are jostling with one another for space. Amidst the euphony of chatter of various birds, the murmur of the water can be heard, like someone is telling a story but no one is really listening.

1.    A male Indian golden oriole, dressed in dazzling colours is conversing with a Black Drongo. Orioles build their nests near the drongos’ nests as the latter are very good at driving away predators.   

2.    The many Rose-Ringed Parakeets perched near a bunch of raw mangoes look like raw mangoes themselves but then these mangoes are a noisy bunch, they are sharing the day’s stories with each other. 

3.    The male Baya Weavers are wearing newly bought lemon coloured helmets as they weave their long nests on the branches hanging over the river.

4.    A male Asian Koel opens his mouth and a melodious tune ensues instead of a caw one would expect from someone who resembles the one who caws. The male Koels are giving a concert and the entire Banyan Island residents are tuned in.

5.    The tiny Oriental White-eyes and Purple-Rumped Sunbirds are buzzing around the yellow-flame tree looking like the flowers themselves.

Questions and answers, of course:

1.    What time of the day is it?

The sky is orange and the birds and animals are finding their spot, jostling for space, they are all settling down for the day. It’s Dusk.

2.    What season is it?

There are raw mangoes on the Mango tree, so it’s spring.

3.    Describe the scene and where is it taking place?

It’s obviously taking place on the Banyan Island. There is the Mango tree, the river is flowing close by, everyone’s settling down for the day, a few are still having a last bite before heading off to settle down. Various birds are involved in some dusk-time activities before they fall asleep. 

4.    How many birds are there in the scene?

Let’s count…

1.    Indian golden oriole

2.    Black Drongo

3.    Rose-Ringed Parakeet

4.    Baya Weaver

5.    Asian Koel

6.    Oriental White-eye

7.    Purple-Rumped Sunbird

So, there are 7 species of birds.

5.    How many yellow coloured birds are in the scene?

Again, let’s count.

1.    Indian Golden Oriole – He’s Golden, that’s yellow.

2.    Baya weavers, wearing yellow helmets – that’s yellow

3.    Oriental White Eyes and Purple Rumped Sunbirds looking like the Yellow-flame tree flowers which are as the name of the tree suggests is yellow.

So, that’s 4 types of birds with yellow on them.

6.    Who does a male Asian Koel look like?

The male Asian Koel looks like the one who caws. The one who caws is a Crow.

7.    What are the various noises described in the scene?

Let’s check

1.    Chatter of various birds

2.    Murmur of the water

8.    How many trees have been mentioned in the scene?

Let’s count

1.    Mango tree

2.    Yellow-flame tree

•  A Mathematical Puzzle – Use addition, subtraction, multiplication or division between numbers below to get the answer given.

• Here are a few of my animal friends, can you identify them?

Sparky's Note: All photos are taken by Vasudha Gulyam at Kruger National Park, South Africa except for the photo of Spotted Deer which was clicked at Jim Corbett National Park, India.

• Here are various sounds that Birds make. Match the sounds with their meaning:

Sing	When birds are making a musical sound
Shriek	A very loud, piercing sound made by a bird
Caw	The sound made by a crow
Cock-a-doodle-do	The sound that a rooster makes
Squawk	Loud unpleasant noise
Tweet / Twitter	When birds chirp, making short, high sounds
Hoot	The deep sound made by an owl
Cluck	The short, low sound that a chicken makes
Quack	The sound that ducks make

·         Solve the Crossword puzzle below. All the questions are related to ‘time’. (The black square in the puzzle is a space)