Flocks of the over 85 varieties of birds that we have identified so far on our property are flying around.  Getting to eat their fill day after day, the warblers among them, always hopping around in groups, never seem to tire of making pleasant music;  the Koel (Indian Nightingale), the symbol of summer in the northern Indian plains, shyly sings its sad song plaintively from behind the obscurity of thick foliage; the Brainfever Bird tries his best to drive us nuts with his persistent and long drawn scream; and the Peacocks call out raucously every time they see a passing dark cloud in the sky.

The humidity set off by the recent rain showers has given birth to an explosion of insect life. We are not only welcoming back the usual ants and beetles of all sizes, but also the exotic red beetle, seen only during the pre-monsoon weeks every year where do they come from?), and the dramatic looking yellow-blue-bottle green grasshoppers that migrate here from Africa every year to lay their eggs and raise new families before they all return to their native continent at the end of the monsoons.  Nobody is happier to see the array of insects than the birds who, after gorging themselves on ripe grains through late spring and early summer – when we harvested our wheat, mustard and quinoa crop -,  are now enjoying a more diverse non-vegetarian fare!