of chicks and goslings

Stone pavement leading to the pen for the chicks and goslings:)

Meadow to the left and bamboo bench to the right.

Being back at Janda Baik for less than 24 hours has done nothing but made me fall impossibly in love. I could just watch them for hours and hours, staring at how their tiny feet carries them from the feed, to the water bowl and to each other, huddled up to gain as much heat as possible. And occasionally chasing each other when my brothers throw in an insect; then this calls for a fight between the chicks and goslings in what we can compare to a gladiator arena (insect to a gladiator as the chicks and goslings to the lions). As syarif says: Once we've got our hands on the mantis, its fate is sealed.

But apart from that, having the little chickiyanos curling in your hands is really a totally different kind of delight. At first their legs are unstable balancing on your hands; but after a while they calm down and even get all pampered when you start stroking them. Even if you're not doing anything but sitting in the pen watching them chirp here and there, sooner or later they'd come close to you and start pecking at your feet which brings nothing more than an attempt of tickling feat from their part.

One of the chicks. I can never tell them apart; only my brothers can call them by name.

Overall, there are 5 chicks and 2 goslings. Without my presence, they were all given guy-ish names. Not things like fluffy wings or cutie pie. But names like Houdini (because it keeps 'mysteriously' escaping the pen), White Wings (self-explanatory), "something" Beak (I can't recall this one), Sleepyhead (another self explanatory; it's the first to fall asleep and even dozes off to dreamland after you hold it only for a few seconds) and Super Chick aka Benedict (let's not indulge into the reason behind this one shall we. Even I don't know). The goslings are called.... Gosling 1 and Gosling 2. Or they DO have a name but I forgot (Note to self: Consult Safi on this).

The most adorable thing about them would be when they fall asleep. Not that I was able to watch them fall asleep- that one night I was in Janda Baik, I fell asleep super early! But since the temperature outside was freezing cold, we brought them in just for the night. Before they slept, they were all huddling together and pushing each other to get as comfy as possible. The goslings were already curled up and falling asleep but the extremely energetic baby chickens were jostling against one another and even walking over the goslings. Eventually, the chirpings mellowed down into the night... and the next morning, they're all up and about, chirping at the top of their lungs, ready to carry out their normal routine of eating, drinking, chasing and sleeping.

Ahh I just can't wait to see them again!:)

Note: My upcoming posts may come up a bit slower because I will be entering Microbiology block. I'm really not so sure why I'm announcing this but for some reason, there have been requests of updates (which is quite a surprise- people want to know what's going on in MY life?) so there's my explanation:)