The Welcomed Guests 3

I know I owe some friends on the story of the progress of my welcomed guests – the bird(s).

Remember the entries on the two eggs? And the nestlings? Well, on one scorching hot day in May, one of the lil birds died. Apparently the nestling couldn’t survive the heat since the nest was facing the beastly hot evening sun on that May 13. My maid Nani took the dead bird and buried it on the side of the road. Poor birdie.

So we were left with one, which was named "Spikey".

We waited for it to grow its feathers and all, and we were so amazed with the rapid changes it made. The feathers seemed to grow like an inch a day!

The first four pix were taken on May 15.

*We put it on the Golden Chain plant while it waited for its mom. Feathers are not fully grown yet


*Still waiting for Mommy...

*Mommy's finally here!


*Hanis was so excited. Her Spikey was so manja with her!


* May 17 - Spikey on Hanis's shoulder


* June 8 - Another new egg in the same nest. I'm not sure whether it came from the same couple or not. The egg is quite small compared to the old ones. I doubt it will hatch though :{


Spikey left us when he knew how to fly on May 20. But we could still hear him chirping away up on that tall tree behind our house and my Hanis would go "Pie-tee, tumb here!" Budak pelat, LOL!

The Welcomed Guests 2 - Eggs Hatched!

I’m THRILLED! The eggs have hatched! Yay!

I took the two-featherless-baby-birds' photos while the mother was away. I wasn’t able to get the best shots since I was in a hurry to get ready to send Dear Hubby to KLIA this morning. I hope to get the best angle and post later - with their mouths open and necks extended.

See - the nestlings aren't that pretty lah, in fact they look rather ugly! But I’m sure when their feathers have grown, they’ll look like their handsome parents :)
The nestlings- eyes closed and naked.

I'll keep on updating their photos. And you know what ... I guess I'll never be able to eat Burung Puyuh Goreng after this!

***update: pics taken at 7pm on 5th May



Notice the insides of its mouth?


Aww... the hungry lil birdies...

The Welcomed Guests 1

Two weeks ago, this young couple started coming to our house. They seemed like a nice pair. We didn’t know where they were from, but it didn’t matter coz we actually liked them. They loved to stay in the garden and would talk incessantly near my potted palm tree on my side terrace. I didn’t quite get what kind of language they were using, but their voices were soothing to the ear.

They appeared when the morning arrived (since the house was quiet without the kids screaming about) and stayed until dusk came. They were planning something big for sure, and my guess at that time would be on their new home. My maids would watch them thru the kitchen windows and would sometime walk by them to let them know that there were people living in the house. They were trespassing alright, but we didn’t mind, as long as they didn’t give us any trouble.

Over the weekend when I was home, I’d peep at them thru the sliding door. At times I’d use my binoculars and watched them working. Such patience they had, and I wished I could be like them. How well they planned their work and how hard they worked towards getting what they wanted. And such a loving couple they were.

Yesterday was a special day for the pair. I came home from work to a beaming Hasya. She *whispered* to me that the gal has given birth! I was overjoyed! (*the whispering was a crucial one since we didn’t want Haifa-The-Curious-One to know about the couple just yet or that would be the end of tranquility for them*).

This morning, when the gal left (I think to get her breakfast), I sneaked to her new abode and took this pix.



That was before I left to work this morning.







When I came home this evening, there was a surprise – another one!

Notice how intricate their new home is. Such delicate work. Weaved with love and affection.

Now there are two! Maybe there'll be more tomorrow. Who knows? And you know what, I'll be happy if they decided to stay here permanently :)

Our Flying Guest

Today’s a sad day for the kids. The bird that they were taking care of since Saturday evening died this morning. Until it was buried, we still didn’t know the species of the bird.

I was getting into the car to fetch the girls from their taekwondo class on Saturday when I saw this bird near my car tire. It was soaked obviously due to the heavy rain earlier and the feathers were glued to its body. I asked my maid, Nani, to wrap it in a towel and feed it. After getting the girls, we went to a nearby petshop to get a birdcage. The girls were very excited of nursing the bird back to its normal self.

But we have to free the bird when it’s well enough to fly ok...

Alaaa Ibu... came the simultaneous replies....


Anyway, this was not the first time a bird came into our possession... the first was in January when this bird flew into the pantry and got itself inflicted by the wall fan. We let it go after putting some ointment on the bloodied spot near its beak.


Ok, back to the second bird. It was all black and wet and we were hoping that it was not a crow. It looked pretty hideous... This pix was taken on Saturday.

Yesterday, when the feathers were dry, we could see the colors - grey and brown. Still we had no clue of the species. By evening, the feathers were more visible and all dried up except for the area around the neck that still looked slightly wet... And this was taken on Sunday.


I told the girls... Tomorrow evening we have to let it go, ok? The bird will be 100%recovered by then.

But the bird died anyway. The girls were devastated when they learnt of the news. I guess the bird was sick. The thunderstorm must have affected it somehow.

Hhhmmmhhh.. RIP dear bird...

A Strange Larva

Have you ever seen this caterpillar? This guy was feeding on my 6-foot mango tree leaf the other day. I saw the droppings but couldn’t find the source.


When my children and I looked closely then only we saw it! Look at the camouflage. It was a near-perfect.

A sudden itchiness on our skin was straightaway felt. Geli geleman when we observed it closely. Mr Grissom would love to see this larva. It has just emerged from its first cycle of being an egg. Now it was in the second stage before going to the third stage being a pupa (chrysalis). Then only this guy will emerge from the pupa into an imago (butterfly).

Probably this green thing will turn into a handsome imago when its time is ripe. But we’d never see it turning into one, would we? What can I say... I love my mango tree more... so sue me :)