That Indescribable Feeling!

February, 2026.
Calangute Goa.

10 days short of March and early morning temperatures still warrant a light sweater. (Although as a Mumbaikar I’ll be the first to admit that that is not saying much.)

One of the Malabar silk cotton trees has decided to get ahead of the pack and sprout flowers. Overnight the dull leafless tree has transformed into a traffic-stopping vision in red.

Malabar cotton tree (Ceiba Bombax)flower and buds

The tree is already full of flowers and for every one of the large, crimson, leathery-petalled blooms are a dozen more buds just waiting to unfurl.

Judging by the attention they receive it is obvious that the nectar they hold is special. Swarms of tiny stingless bees buzz around each inflorescence.

Stingless bees around Mamabar cotton tree flower

Birds too can’t seem to get enough.

Chestnut-tailed starling surrounded by flowers

A bunch of intimidating ashy drongos, their scarlet irises revealing their identity, try to monopolise the tree noisily chasing away other species.

Ashy drongo

They meet their match as a mixed murmuration of rosy and chestnut-tailed starlings fly in. In a manner very similar to what the Indian Army did to the Portuguese garrison in Goa in 1961, their sheer numbers force the drongos into giving up without a fight.

Rosy starling (left) and a chestnut-tailed starling (right) amidst the flowers

A shikra settles on one of a bare branch of another cotton tree seemingly oblivious of the broad triangular thorns, focussed on the freshly caught rodent in its grasp.

Shikra with small mammal kill

Nearby a young male Loten’s sunbird in its eclipse form proudly flaunts its yet undeveloped breeding colours.

Loten’s sunbird male (eclipse form, i.e. not yet attained full breeding plumage)

The extra long beak and the hint of a maroon band across its chest confirms its identity, differentiating it from the similar but equally spectacular Vigor’s sunbird below. Unlike the former this male has already attained full colouration and appears ready, willing and able to entice a prospective mate.

Vigor’s sunbird male in full breeding plumage

It’s not only the cotton trees that have fast forwarded their reproductory cycle. The cashew tree too had decided to flower early and is now laden with fruit. It takes me a couple of days to figure out that the regular thump I was hearing outside our bedroom window was not an intruder but the ripe fruit dropping to the ground.

Cashew tree loaded with flowers and fruit

The relief from the dawn of that knowledge was short lived. A couple of nights ago I was awakened by a a brand new sound of rustling leaves beneath the tree. Fearing the worst I peered out of the window into the dark. Barely discernible in the pale moonlight were the shadowy silhouettes of a couple of wild boar that had moved in to feast on the cashew fruit on the ground.

CCTV screenshot of wild boar under the cashew tree

While on the topic of strange sounds at night I must touch upon the strange bird that visited me around midnight for four straight nights in the second week of February.

Although I never actually got a visual sighting it’s loud, aggressive chirping in the middle of the night just outside the bedroom window demanded that I take notice. I had never heard this bird before. The Merlin bird ID app on my phone identified the sound as belonging to a Savannah nightjar. It was a far cry from the soft soothing calls of Jerdon’s nightjars that are a regular fixture after sunset, nonetheless I was delighted to discover another species on the property.

There is a belief that the recently departed attempt to communicate through animals and birds. I’ve already covered this topic in an earlier blog and I really do think it best that I leave it at that as any further elaboration will only harbour doubts of my flight over the cuckoo’s nest.

With the breeding season approaching, pairs of birds are busy looking for a place to nest. This male oriental magpie robin was trusting enough to check out my rafters in my presence.

Oriental magpie robin (male)

Indian robins, orange-headed thrush, Blyth’s reed warblers, white-breasted kingfishers, blue-faced maklohas, small minivets, shikras, crested serpent eagles, brahminy kites, oriental honey buzzards, red spurfowl, lesser goldenback woodpeckers, golden orioles, bulbuls and a several other birds species pose regularly and even as I type this I am constantly setting aside the laptop to reach for the camera.

Indian robin (male)

Goa is still beautifully green and peaceful. The abundance of bird and animal life even in one’s backyard holds the promise of interesting sightings and experiences around every corner. I’m not sure how long that is going to last but I am determined to continue to enjoy as many of these moments as possible for as long as I can. For me personally they elicit a wonderful feeling that is not easily described.

It’s a heady mixture of a host of emotions, occasionally even conflicting, that eventually boil down into one warm, happy glow that has me eager to see what the next day has on offer. Robert Browning nailed it in this couplet from ‘Pippa’s Song’:

‘God’s in his heaven
All’s right with the world”

Greater coucal or crow pheasant

Postscript: It’s funny that it was not so very long ago that I experienced that very same, indescribable feeling in all its emotional splendour on instances akin to that allehluia moment when a surgical patient, after a long and anxious wait, finally managed to pass a bit of wind.