The Story of Gita, Part Three: A Bird in the Home

 If you haven't read Parts One and Two, here are links:

A Bird on the Wire: Part One

A Bird in the Hand: Part Two

 After Gita and her mate abandoned the fan,  I really believed that was it. No more bird visitors.  I still
saw them, and heard them, and  they still came occasionally for mango snacks. But I knew there'd be  no baby chicks in the ceiling fan -- which, quite honestly, was a bit of a relief.

But once again, I was wrong.

The pause lasted about a week, and then they were back, flying around the place, inspecting everything.
They were looking for a new place to build a new nest.

They finally made a decision:  a blender!

It was an old blender that doesn't work, belonging to my landlady, which I had put on the fridge to be out  of the way. As ever, it started with increased visits, hopping around, and then bits of dry grass lying on the ground next to the fridge.

Mama bulbul was very busy building her nest, and this time I could watch her from not too far away. I could see her little head bobbing, tucking in the twigs, wrestling with particularly stiff bits of grass. 
(Sorry for the shakey camera -- put it down to excitement!)

The evidence was, of course, left on the floor for others to sweep up!

When she was absent, I climbed on a chair, and took a photo.      This is what I saw.

I was rather concerned. I'd forgotten there was machinery inside the blender. It looked very uncomfortable. But what did I know? She surely knew what she was doing. And she did.

The next morning, we had this. A perfectly round, beautifully crafted nest.
All done with only a beak.

Then began the most important time the laying of eggs
. She sat in her nest, hour after hour after hour. Every now and then, when she flew out to eat or stretch her wings, I had a peek.
First I saw this.

An egg!

And, the next day, just like the last time:

Two eggs!

But this time was different. Because, two days later, there was this:

Three eggs!

During all this time, Gita was completely unflustered by any activity in the kitchen. I'd come and go, open the frisge below her, clatter around on the countertop, wash dishes, and so did Shanti, my claeaning lady. Here's Shanti in the kitchen, with Gita quite happy in her nest.

Once she had laid the eggs, which took place over a period of three or four days, a new era started.

At the time of writing, that era is ongoing. We are on Day Six of her laying the last egg. 

Bulbul eggs take 12-14 days to  hatch. So we are all waiting.

She sits on th eggs almost all day, with several very short pauses. She returns for the night at around six pm, and sleeps on the eggs. She sleeps without moving all night long (I checked) and flies out between 5:45  and 6:30 am, returning very soon.

A few days ago, I had the idea to set up a mini camera to watch the process of hatching, and marvelling at the birth of three baby bulbuls. But I'd need help for this, so I bought a simple mini camera and sent out a call to the local community here and soon I had the perfect helper, Vinod. 

Vinod is an ecologist and has studied orthinology. He's as excited as I am, and is helping me set things up.

We've got the software in the camera, but there wasn't a suitable place to fix the camera so I've had a new idea, bought a new gadget, and when it comes tomorrow we should be all set for live-cam.

Watch this space!

Part Four is coming soon.