Rajiv K. Singh Bais -
SCOPE complex Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium New Delhi Delhi
5 March 1993. SCOPE Complex near Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium, Lodi Road, New Delhi. This is a piece of information dug out from an old diary. My office was located in this building from 1991 to 1995 and I used to keep short diary entries of bird sightings for further investigations on a more convenient future date (most remained unexplored though; just like this one!). On this date I discovered a cup shaped nest of Dusky Crag Martin (Hirundo concolor) made up of mud pallets attached to the vertical face of one of the boxes of the coffered roof. It was well protected from the sun and rain but still close to the open area. Size was just about a normal tea cup. Two martins were seen flying around the nest. Once they alighted on the ground to pick up a dry blade of grass without success; this was probably to line the nest. And now the most important piece from this record: Martins were seen scaring away the House Sparrows who had also built a nest in the same area. I revisited the place on 28th April 2012 but did not find any sparrow or martin.
5 March 1993. SCOPE Complex near Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium, Lodi Road, New Delhi. This is a piece of information dug out from an old diary. My office was located in this building from 1991 to 1995 and I used to keep short diary entries of bird sightings for further investigations on a more convenient future date (most remained unexplored though; just like this one!). On this date I discovered a cup shaped nest of Dusky Crag Martin (Hirundo concolor) made up of mud pallets attached to the vertical face of one of the boxes of the coffered roof. It was well protected from the sun and rain but still close to the open area. Size was just about a normal tea cup. Two martins were seen flying around the nest. Once they alighted on the ground to pick up a dry blade of grass without success; this was probably to line the nest. And now the most important piece from this record: Martins were seen scaring away the House Sparrows who had also built a nest in the same area. I revisited the place on 28th April 2012 but did not find any sparrow or martin.
