Irises on the windowsill

Wood sorrel growing on a dead tree in the woods.

This walk was so much fun, I love crazy nature like this. reminds me of princess mononoke

Yesterday evening I was working on a commission and Tinsel came in looking for mealworms. Then Dino (the black one), then Baba (the beigeish one) and then Guillemot (the stripey one). They all wandered around cherping and looking for mealworm crumbs, then Tinsel settled down and they all had a nap on my doormat! It was the sweetest things, those chickens are so dorky.

Guillemot stood on Tinsel at one point and Tinsel squawked and got up then started displaying to him! It was amazing! He’s only started doing it in the past couple of days but he’s so impressive when he does. I can’t WAIT for him to get bigger!

My brother found this alien under a plank of wood in the garden, turns out it’s an invasive species, the New Zealand Flatworm. It dissolves earthworms with it’s digestive juices then sucks them up and researchers are eager to know of new sightings, hence the thumb. 

Apparently they’re very hard to get rid of in a garden. But at least I now know why there are no earthworms in the garden…

The birds! Some of them, the quails don’t make much of an appearance, I think you can see Harry scuttling around the partridges but the babies were around the corner in the chicken ark.

Milo and I went down to the beach.

Recipe for Luxury Fat Balls

• 2 cups dried mixed fruit
• 1 cup shelled sunflower seeds
• 1 cup “cockatiel mix” (white millet, red millet, sunflower seeds etc)
• 1 cup parmesan rind (chopped)
• 1/2 cup dried meal worms
• 1/2 cup stale bread
• 500g lard 

1. In a bowl mix all the dry ingredients.
2. Melt the lard in pan over a low heat. 
3. Once the lard has melted, pour into dry ingredients and mix well.
4. Leave to soak and cool for about fifteen minutes.
5. Pour into containers (polystyrene cups, old yoghurt pots etc).
6. Place in fridge to cool.
7. Once cool, turn out of pot onto bird table. 

I made these for my birds (japanese and texan A&M quails, french partridges, fischer’s lovebirds, chickens & a turkey) to help them stay warm in the winter. I’ve made them before but never with so many ingredients! I really do spoil these birds.

This picture features:

Three white “texan” quails

One japanese coturnix/”texan” cross

Three chickens (two marans and a cross)

and….

ONE TURKEY!

First photo of my new turkey poult, so exciting!

Close up glamour shot of the giant harvestman in the shed.

Another incredible harvestman in the shed! (That’s my thumb, not my toe.)

“Many people when seeing a harvestman assume it is a spider, but though it is an arachnid it’s not a spider at all. It has eight legs, but the body is all one big blob, at least visually, whereas spiders have a clear cephalohorax (head/body, to which the legs are attached) and abdomen (usually bulbous lump attached, beyond a narrow waist of sorts). Harvestman also lack venom or silk glands and have only two very poor eyes compared to most spiders eight higher-fidelity eyes. Wikipedia has the full details.