The yellow-vented bulbuls have returned to nest again. This would be the fourth generation of sorts. They come, amidst great changes to the garden, its  environs and the landscape about us, as urbanization inches its way towards our idyllic rural neighborhood and the ever pressing developments clang and clink. The black bamboos have been decimated by  a massive lightning strike a year ago, and a few hardy shoots remain to remind us of its luscious past. In any case, we remain deeply grateful for the life-cycles of these flora and fauna as they bring nature to our door-steps, and reveal the deep richness of mother-earth and its largess. At Day 21, the empty nest heralds the end of my adventure; but theirs has only just begun.

The day before the nestlings had flown the coop, the parents were extremely busy; alert, as it were, to the slightest risks, while armed to the beaks with morsels for that fateful push for survival into the sun.

 

(Lumix GX85, 14-140 mm lens)