wisdom: what is heaven & hell

A holy man was having a vwith God one day and said, 'God, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.'
God led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water.

The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles, that were strapped to their arms and each found it impossible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful. But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths. The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. God said, 'You have seen Hell.'

 They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equiped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.

The holy man said, 'I don't understand..' It is simple,' said God . 'It requires but one skill. You see they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.'

Remember to be happy you should always share your spoon with others; in simple terms, help others and get benefitted.

puzzle solved...

I was wondering what the bird could be since yesterday... Early in the morning, I woke up by the calls of myna..which includes croaks, squawks, chirps, clicks and whistles,  I just peeped through the balcony door and found it is indeed "myna". So the myna is trying to occupy the sparrow nest box.. and I could realize that It is unable to move in smoothly to complete the nest as the diameter of the hole is not big enough to allow myna eaither. The myna is tapping the side of the hole to widen.. I could see a behavious of wood pecker in this myna. Infact, it was trying to widen the hole of the wooden nest box..

Then I made a study on "myna":

The Common Myna is readily identified by the brown body, black hooded head and the bare yellow patch behind the eye. The bill and legs are bright yellow. There is a white patch on the outer primaries and the wing lining on the underside is white. The sexes are similar and birds are usually seen in pairs. I came to know that they breed through much of the year depending on the location, building their nest in a hole in a tree or wall, in this case they try to occupy the sparrow's nest by force!!!!

The nesting process is shabby, and not clean like sparrow, as myna the nesting material used by mynas include twigs, roots, tow and rubbish. Mynas have been known to use tissue paper, tin foil and sloughed off snake-skin.

Ha ha .. the notorious behaviour identified form wiki:-

The Common Myna uses the nests of woodpeckers, parakeets, etc. and easily takes to nest boxes; it has been recorded evicting the chicks of previously nesting pairs by holding them in the beak and later sometimes not even using the emptied nest boxes. This aggressive behaviour is considered to contribute to its success as an invasive species.

Food and feedings of Myna.

Like most starlings, the Common Myna is omnivorous. It feeds on insects, arachnids, crustaceans, reptiles, small mammals, seeds, grain and fruits and discarded waste from human habitation. It forages on the ground among grass for insects, our 'myna' is feeding rice & bajra from the bird feeder. see the pic below...

The myna is considered as one of most worst invasive species. It is considered as a pest in many countries. I earned a nickname of "flying rat" owing to its scavanging nature.

Pretty SAD... As usual today morning also the Ex-tenants!?? of the nest box, the pair of sparrows came for feeding from the birdfeeder. But they are terrified even to go near their old dwelling nest box.. i think they might got some nasty blows from the invasive mynas.. so terrified the meek sparrows after having a few morsals of feeds..just fly away!!!! see a pic...

Dilemma:- I am confronted with a dilemma and catch-22 situation now!!! whether to allow the myna to occupy the sparrow nesting box and to continue and comple the nesting cycle...or to consider it as an invasive species and still modify the dia of the hole for access only to sparrows?

After pondering over the issue, I decided to allow the myna.. to continue its nesting cycle.. after all I should not be partial to one species, as per the law of nature.. let the fittest survive, or survival of the fittest..according I had facilite the myna a smooth entry by widening the entry hole in the nest box.. see the picture below:

Hope my decision is Fair....

To know more about the invasive nature of the myna.. please refer to the handbook by following the link
http://www.indianmyna.org/documents/Indian_Myna_Handbookl.pdf

puzzled- nest box

As i mentioned earlier in my previous blog post, the nest box was occupied by a sparrow pair and it was in the nesting cycle.

For the past 15 days, I could see lot of activity in the nest box. Last week I was away and my house was locked.

Yesterday when i returned back, I was shocked and surprised !!!!... as the nest box was in complete disarry, the twigs and tweets were spread around and unusual sized feathers were found inside the nest, (definately a sparrow cannot hold such a big feathers). It looked like a war zone around the nest box.

I don't have any clue what had happened?

I persume, some other bird, a much larger bird, might have trying to occupy the sparrow nest box by force, using brutal force, see the pic.. threads and twigs hanging out of the nesting hole.!!!

I am observing for the past two days and could not find any birds movement around the nest box, however, today  morning, I could see a "myna" near the balcony. Is he the culprit?
on the other hand, I could see the regular sparrows around the nest box area in my balcony, but it has come for other purpose, and it is not going into the nest, It came just for bird feeder; they had its grains, water and just flew away.
I am still wondering what could have happened to the sparrow nest..why the sparrows are not going into its nest?  which bird is trying to forcefully occupy the sparrow nest? No Answers till now.

Anyhow, the developments are interesting, Just in a few days, we will come to know.. till then.. it is  suspense-thriller !!!!!