9 - Sparky’s ‘Hot & Happening’ World

Hi, Sparky here.

Ø  Just a couple of months back we were discussing winter that had overstayed its welcome and now there’s the same to say of summer. One more week of blistering summer has gone by and we are beginning to sense the change in the air. The summer is coming to an end as surely as winter left and spring came along, so will the monsoon rains be here soon. That’s the cycle of nature. One follows the other, just as day follows night.    

Ø  I wrote last week of how animals and birds keep their bodies cool in the heat of summer, this week I write of how important it is to keep the mind cool as well. If one doesn’t keep a cool head, then fights and brawls ensue which shatter the peace both within and without.

Ø  There is a colony of Spot-billed Pelicans and a few Painted Storks who live on the other side of Banyan Island. They are big birds but live very peacefully together, sharing space and food source just as if they were of the same species. However, this week, in the heat of summer, things took a nasty turn. While the parents were away fishing, a little stork started humming a tune and this is how it went:

“A wonderful bird is the pelican,

His bill will hold more than his belly can.

He can take in his beak,

Enough food for a week.

He claims he’s from here but looks more like a Martian.”

The stork kept at it for a good while till a little pelican across the branch got very annoyed and launched himself at the stork. The parents came back to find the two birds all entangled, each trying to dislodge the other from the branch. Having pulled the children apart, as the parents heard their respective chick describe what had happened, the parents lost their minds and started fighting too. They began to snap their big strong bills at each other and started calling each other names. Someone fetched Madame Not-So-Common Coot, the leader of the birds’ welfare association. A Coot is a small bird compared to pelicans and storks and while she tried to restore order and harmony, someone of the warring party poked her with their bill and she flew off shrieking. Things would have taken a turn for the worse if Mr. Goldback, the leader of the monkeys, disturbed by the commotion hadn’t reached there just then. His commanding presence brought some sense to all those who were fighting and being silly over a child’s poem. They then settled down grooming themselves and their chicks to restore some calm to their disturbed spirits. Here’s a nice photograph of the pelicans and storks after the peace was restored. Also, a few photos of pelicans to help you visualise the poem.       

Sparky’s Note:

The poem on pelican is a ‘limerick’ written by Dixon Lanier Merritt, an American poet and humorist in 1910. This poem has been slightly altered keeping my young readers in mind.

A limerick is a poem of 5 lines, usually humorous, where the first, second and last lines rhyme with each other and second and fourth lines are shorter and rhyme with each other but not the others. 

The photographs have all been taken by Vasudha Gulyam at various places:

1. Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary, Tamil Nadu

2. Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, Mysore and

3. Jakkur lake, Bengaluru.

Ø  The eggs of Mr. & Mrs. Drongo have hatched including the egg of Madam Asian Koel. If you remember, a little more than a month back, Madam Koel was caught laying her eggs in the drongos’ nest and it was settled that she would help feed the babies when the eggs hatch. Well, the birds have hatched but Madam Koel is nowhere to be found. Now, the drongos can’t possibly abandon the koel chick which they have helped hatch, so although they know the koel is not their child, they have adopted the chick and treat her as their own. Asian Koel might be brood parasites but the Drongos are just being parents – loving, caring, giving and forgiving.

Ø  Drongos feeding a koel chick is nothing, I once saw a sunbird take care of a Grey-bellied Cuckoo. The sunbird is one tiny thing and the baby cuckoo was so much bigger than the foster parents that even we animals gaped at the sight of a small bird feeding a giant and wondered what was running on in the sunbird’s mind. Well, parents will be parents.

Ø  Let’s get back to Mr. & Mrs. Drongo, the ever-cool-headed ones. There are 3 ever-hungry babies to take care of, the promised help has quietly left the scene and nobody has time on hand to go in search of her. The danger of snakes sneaking on an unguarded nest is always present and on the parent’s minds. So, Mrs. Drongo this week just had enough of this guarding business and made a short trip to the island across us where she met her cousin and settled down on a tree within hearing of a Smooth Coated Otter family and spoke at length of the abundance of fishes, particularly catfishes in the river on our side of the island which the pelicans and storks on our island have been catching and feeding their young ones. Atleast 2 Smooth Coated Otters who had been looking out to venture out on their own must have felt elated at the unexpected information of abundant food that came their way and soon came to our Banyan Island to take up residence. They seem to have taken a liking for Mrs. Drongo and have started to build their dens under the roots of the Banyan very close to the Drongos’ nest. That’s problem solved. Although these Otters prefer fish they wouldn’t hesitate to take on a snake.  The drongo parents are now attending to their little ones with no fear of a snake raiding their home while they are away. If one can keep the mind calm and apply it right, a lot can be accomplished with relative ease. You are welcome to quote me.

Ø  My favourite humans – the father and son who have visited Banyan Island twice before, were back this week too. They came in well before the day started to cool down so for the first hour they both settled down as before under the shade of the Banyan. Knowing that they are nice humans who take care not to disturb us, I went quite close to them to observe and listen to them. The son had brought a lot of small pieces which he patiently put together to build a tree. As I sat watching him work on the tree, he looked around, saw me and then built me! I couldn’t take my eyes off his hands. There was creativity, skill and imagination and as all of that came together, so did a piece of art come alive. What creatures these humans are, so full of intelligence, vision and talent and yet the world they inhabit is not so happy today. From their conversation I gathered that there is a virus that has brought their world to a standstill. All humans are keeping away from one another so as not to catch this virus. All their activities have stopped, they are all waiting for the virus to go away. I wonder where it came from and more importantly, why? If it does go away will the humans get any wiser for having faced this virus? Only time will answer these question. As for the more immediate concern, I hope the father and son didn’t bring the virus to our Banyan Island.

Author’s Note:

Thank you, Aniket Goyal from Mumbai for reaching out to me with a cute video message about your love for Legos and your ‘Lego journey’ thus far. I enjoyed the video and I hope you enjoy reading my story inspired by your message.

          

Well, till I write next week, keep a cool mind, it helps beat the heat for sure and hopefully will keep the virus at bay too.

• Solve the below riddles, all of them are related to summer time activities.

	Fun to get on this and go around, It will keep both the body and mind, sound.
	Let your feet take you far and wide, By your house or by the lakeside, Don’t get lazy, get up and take that stride.
	It’s fun to cool off in water, You get some exercise and also beat the hot weather. Now, what could be better?
	I am best enjoyed frozen, In hot weather, I feel like a soothing potion.
	Time for me, you will have to make. Else you will miss out on the magic of words. And that would be a mistake.

• Complete the Crossword below. There are more than one meaning to all the words but to make it easy for you all the words end with the letters ‘ell’ 

• Here’s some Analogical reasoning questions for you. Understand the relationship between the two words in Column 1 and apply the same logic to choose an answer for word in Column 2. Choose the answer from a, b, c or d. I have solved the first one to show you how it’s done:

1	2	a	b	c	d
Mango : Tree	Rose :­­­­ Bush	Flower	Climber	Bush	Weed
Light : Heavy	Strong :	Tiny	Weak	Little	Easy
Hope : Despair	Happy :	Elated	Sad	Lucky	Delighted
Piano : Music	Paint :	Art	Skill	Artist	Painting
Goldsmith : Gold	Blacksmith :	Coal	Iron	Silver	Wood
Triangle : 3	Rhombus :	4	5	6	10
Parrot : Bird	Bat :	Mammal	Reptile	Bird	Amphibian
Economy: Thrift	Extravagance:	Expensive	Provident	Costly	Improvident

• There’s life all around us, not just in forests, but even in the middle of cities and villages. Even a single tree in the middle of the city is home to many creatures, both big and small. We just have to pay attention. Here’s a drawing of a ‘serene scene’ of a couple of trees with many creatures on and around the trees. Let’s see if you are able to identify all the creatures that Ms. K.V. Rakshita has drawn.

Author’s Note:

I love this drawing and would love to see it filled with colours. So, here’s an offer for my readers. Colour this and e-mail your effort to me at sparkyatbanyan@gmail.com   The best painting I receive by June 10, 2020 will be published in ‘Sparky’s World’ and will also receive a gift from me. Good luck.

       

• A mother of a little reader told me some time back that there wasn’t much here for the little ones, so making amends for that, here are a couple of activities for my ‘very young’ readers.

Match the eyes to the animals, and also identify the animals:
Here's a ‘picture-poem’ of ‘A Dog’s Outing’ sent in by Mr. Ankit Agrawal, a regular reader of the magazine. Ankit has written the poem and his friend Ms. Minu Nandkumar has illustrated it.

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

You can also read the Magazine on SparkysWorldWeekly.blogspot.com

Answers to last week’s puzzles:

• Solve the below riddles, all of them are more or less connected to weather.

Raindows (Chasing Rainbows)	If you are after something that’s impossible to achieve, Then you are chasing me. Later, for wasted time and effort, you will grieve.
Clouds (head stuck in the clouds)	If you are full of ideas that will not work, Then in this, you have got your head stuck
Hay(Make hay while Sun shines)	Make this when the sun shines, Make most of the opportunity, before the tide turns.
Cloud (Not a cloud in the sky)	Things are looking good and sound, There’s not one of me, in the sky to be found.
Fair (Fair weather friend)	When things get rough and a friend doesn’t stay together, Beware, he’s not a true friend, but one just for this weather.

• An animal has a particular skin pattern on its skin for a particular reason. Like the rosette pattern (many spots joined together, looking like a rose) for camouflage or spots and strips for blending into the vegetation. Here, could you match the animals to their skin pattern:
• Fill the crossword puzzle with the names of the countries in which the landmarks, given in the clues are located. The black squares are spaces.

• Mathematical puzzles:

1.    A Squirrel ate 2 mangoes weighing 500 grams. The seed in one mango was 100 grams and the seed in the other mango was 75 grams, so how much of the fruit did the squirrel eat?

Answer: The Squirrel ate 325 grams of fruit. 500 grams – 100 grams – 75 grams = 325 grams of fruit.

2.    A Bee takes 1 gram of nectar from a flower. 10 bees have together taken 1 kilogram of nectar. If all the bees work the same, then how many flowers has 1 bee visited in order for 10 of them to make the 1 kilogram of nectar?

Answer: Each bee visits a 100 flowers to make 100 grams of nectar for the 10 of them to make 1000 grams of nectar. 1000 grams/10 bees = 100 flowers

3.    There are a 1000 trees in the forest, each tree sheds 100 grams of leaves every day. How much leaves are shed by the trees in a week?

Answer: 700 Kilograms of leaves are shed by the 1000 trees in a week.

(1000 trees * 100 grams * 7 days) = 700,000 grams divide this by 1000 to get the answer.

4.    A Baya weaver uses 20 grams of dry grass and 30 grams of palm leaves in a day to weave his nest. It takes him 18 days to finish building the nest. For 10 days he collects and weaves and for another 8 days he just weaves. How many grams of dry grass and palm fronds does he use in his nest?

Answer: 200 grams of dry grass and 300 grams of palm fronds.

5.    A pair of Bee-eater birds use their sharp claws to dig a hole of 1 cm every day in the vertical bank of the riverside. The male digs 60 mm and female digs 40 mm each day. If the hole is to be 20 cm deep, how many days would the nest be ready in and how much of the nest would have been dug by the male and how much of it by the female?

Answer: The nest will be ready in 20 days. As 2 birds together dig 1 cm a day, to make 20 cm deep hole will take them 20 days. The male digs 1200 mm or 12 cm of the hole (60mm*20days=1200mm) and female digs 800 mm or 8 cm of the hole (40 mm*20days=800mm)