& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

TANGENTS BY IHTISHAM KABIR

Little Grebe
Early last month I decided to make a foray into Baikka Beel. The beel, part of Hail 1 laor, is a no-fishing-allowed swamp in Moulvi Bazar that attracts winter birds. It was still too early for most migratory birds, but the scenes was spectacular.
The left turn heading to Baikka Beel comes about halfway between Srimongol and Moulvi Bazar. Turning off the main road, it is another ten kilometres of which the last six are unpaved. Because of the late rains, the unpaved road was in atrocious condition. So I decided to walk the last few kilometres to the beel.
Both sides of the road are lined with ponds long and short, fat and thin, the home of many fisheries. After I had walked half a kilometre, I could see something moving among the aquatic plants floating on the pond to my left. It looked like a duck, but as soon as 1 got closer, it dived.
I decided to wait and see. Sure enough, a small ducklike bird surfaced, and, seeing (or sensing) me, it immediately dived. This time it emerged much farther.
After some more hide-and-seek - or is that dive-and-seek? -1 was able to get some photographs. There were two birds, one being colourful, the other a messy gray and white. They were small and dumpy-shaped with a blunt, fluffy rear end.
I asked a local boy about them: was it the duckling of some domesticated bird? No, 1 was told, it was a wild bird. It was too early for winter ducks to have arrived, so I was puzzled.
Back in Dhaka, I searched my bird guidebooks without success. So I sent off a photograph to noted bird expert Enarn III Haque, asking him what kind of a duckling it was. "It is not a duckling, it is a Little Grebe," came the prompt reply.
Indeed, what I had seen were a Little Grebe (pronounced "greb") and its chick. These water birds, known in Bangla as "choto duburi" (small diver), are uncommon but occur all over Bangladesh. Little Grebes are part of the Grebe family, which includes 21 other species worldwide. They are aquatic birds and hunt underwater.
Since that first time, I have seen several more Little Grebes in the I lail Haor area. Interestingly, I never saw them fly. Whenever threatened, they simply dive, although once I saw them skim across the water in a playful manner.
Little Grebes live on aquatic insects, fish, frogs, tadpoles and small crustaceans. They are relatively social; I have seen them in small groups. They breed between April and October, nesting on floating vegetation at the edge of the water
Grebes are not hunted for meat because of the bad taste, but they were once hunted in Western Europe for their white belly skin which was used in women's attire. In Bangladesh, the main threat to the Little Grebe - like other wild birds - is from habitat destruction.
Grebes have the unusual habit of eating feathers. One theory says these feathers line the stomach to prevent damage from fish bones; others think the feathers form a buffer inside the stomach against parasites - a mystery among many other mysteries in the world of birds.
www.facebook.com/tangents.ikabir