02 April 2018

B for Ball

Welcome! 
We are with the 2018 April AtoZ Blogging challenge and its my fifth attempt. For those who missed it, here is the link to my Theme Reveal post. Do the alphabets still stand for the same things we learnt about in Nursery school? 

Its day two and the alphabet is B

B is for Ball. 

That is the time honoured object that a child relates the second alphabet to. Possibly among her (used the feminine pronoun only for convenience - can just as well be him) first toys as well. As she grows up, the nature of earliest soft round colourful structure changes and possibly only the round shape remains. 

It can become either a football, cricket ball, tennis ball, table tennis ball and so on...

At my stage in life, ball only refers to a golf ball. Rather should I say, its the weird propensity crows on our golf course have found for golf balls. 

I am sure you are scratching your heads in confusion.

Let me clarify... Whenever someone hits a shot, no sooner than the ball lands on the fairway (or bunker) than a waiting crow swoops down and picks it up and flies away. All this happens as fast as one can blink their eyelids. Golf balls are not cheap and losing them on a regular basis can become stressful especially when the player may lose a stroke for the loss. To add insult to injury, the crows invariably steal the ball after a particularly good shot wherein it has landed in a wonderful position for a possible birdie. Suddenly, that word (birdie) doesnt sound funny!
A good shot lands on the green.. now possibly being eyed by a feathered foe sitting on a branch...

We first faced this in the North East many many years ago. However, I guess picking up golf balls from the course has become a very popular avian sport and its common in Pune now. Do the birds confuse the balls with eggs? But then these are pretty heavy and quite unbreakable. I wonder if they stash these in some convenient branch or trunk hollow but  we haven't yet heard of the stolen balls being found. 
This is dear hubby's stash of unopened new golf balls!
The above image is proof of the fear these birds have instilled in the hearts of golfers. They prefer to keep the brand new stuff at home ...
So near yet so far..
Is this bird behaviour seen across India and maybe other parts of the world as well? 
Do share!!

The nasty me surfaces in the first question I ask hubby on returning, "how many pars for you and what's the score for the crows?"

;-)

16 comments:

PJ said...

I did have to chuckle at this as I regularly hear my beloved ranting at the Rooks because they keep stealing the peanuts he puts out for the smaller birds - same family and equally as devious. I'd love to know where they're putting all those golf balls.

Morgan Cartwright said...

I can't believe crows are stealing golf balls! We have a lot of gigantic crows close to my work. I'm sure they could fly off with a small child if they wanted to.
Once Upon a Time

Antoinette said...

I enjoyed your voice in this piece.

Jui said...

Interesting story for B.

Unknown said...

That would be frustrating. Golf has enough to deal with but adding bird brains to the mix is too much.

Happy A to Zing!!

https://moondustwriter.com/2018/04/02/butterfly-children-atozchallenge/

I.L. Wolf said...

Wait, do the crows think you're hitting eggs?

Can you imagine if they do?! They probably think all golfers are monsters!

I had no idea they liked golf balls, by the way. Great B choice.

@IsaLeeWolf
A Bit to Read

Anonymous said...

You have some pretty aggressive birds in your area! (Or very greedy crows!)

Zulu Delta 45 said...

Hello, Nice Blog! Good Luck on the A-Z challenge! Zulu Delta

Archana said...

@Pamela- all the golfers would love to know that too but still no luck! Thanks for stopping by :-)

Archana said...

@Morgan Those crows must be really scary! As long as they dont trouble people, it should be ok i guess.. Thanks for stopping by!

Archana said...

Thank you Antoinette!

Archana said...

Thanks Jui! :-)

Archana said...

You hit the nail on the head Leslie! Thanks for stopping by!

Archana said...

Thank you I.L. Wolf! Interesting the way you have brought out the crows' point of view!! :-)

Archana said...

@simplyinfatuated Greedy crows is right! Thanks for stopping by :-)

Archana said...

Thank you Zulu Delta 45!