AMEET OBEROI
GANGTOK: Finally some good news for bird lovers of the capital, the swallows are back. Five recently born chicks can be seen waiting with their beaks open for their parents to fly in food to their nest on the ceiling of GS Agency at MG Marg here in town.
“This is the third year in continuation that the swallows have raised a family in the ceiling of our shop,” informs 58 year old CL Kandoi, the owner of the shop. In 2009 there were four chicks, in 2010 there were another four and this year [2011] there are five chicks, he informs.
“We have been living here in Sikkim for the past 130 years and our family has been running this shop for the past 50-60 years. Earlier the swallows used to come and make their nests. Then they stopped coming, but now again over the last 5-6 years they have started to come back and making their nests and in the last three years they have been hatching their eggs right here,” he further informed.
He further stated that it usually takes the eggs about 15 days to hatch, about another 15 for the chicks to learn how to fly and after few days of practice, they take off.
