Willowherb. One of my favourite plants, and at the moment it’s exploding with great swathes of candy floss seedheads, although most of them have been harnessed with gossamer like the willow twig and agrimony here:
I heard the twittering of Goldfinches as I walked along, so they are presumably enjoying the seeds. The Cuckoo Trail is one of the few places I see Greenfinches this days so I will be looking out for those too. Willowherb is a food plant for the magnificent elephant hawkmoth and bees love the flowers so it is one of my top plants.
Speaking of fluff, the poultry are all in full moult, so I am down to about 3 eggs a week! I did scavenge enough to make a rather glorious Pistachio & White Chocolate cake for Camille’s birthday but I had to hide them to make sure they didn’t get accidentally scrambled.
One of my roosters, Nelson, seems reluctant to come out now that he looks a bit scrappy, and the Welsummers are being even more dim than usual about finding their way back to their coop. The Cream Legbars are finally growing some feathers on their backs and I am loath to allow them back in with Nelson as they are very light birds and he just seems to shred this breed; the Welsummers and the little Light Sussex cross are fine. I do have saddles for them but they must be so uncomfortable while their feathers are coming through so at the moment I am keeping them in another coop during the day.
I lost my original little Call duck, John, a few weeks ago, but he was about 12 so had done very well, and I felt sorry for him since his son (and constant companion for 11 of those 12 years) Fudge, died a couple of months before. The Welsh Harlequin drakes are so handsome, and are getting more tame although they still scarper if I get too near them unannounced.
It’s dry at the moment but I am getting a preview of exactly what the ducks will do to the garden once the bad weather properly sets in and the grass doesn’t put up a fight! Calls are much less destructive as their little bills and feet make much less of an impression. Ho hum. I can put them in the Henclosure but that will mess things up for the chickens so I will probably allow the ducks the run of the garden and accept the mud…
Here is a drake tail feather. Isn’t nature wonderful?
Wayward Bee 
Lovely! Thank you 😊
You’re welcome 🙂
😊🙏👍