Boys, birds and bees.

A fairly uneventful week here compared to the various blogs around with 'birthings' going on, especially those who  do DIY births of different types of animals, with little sleep (take a bow - Debbie, Barnacre alpacas).  Occasionally sunny, it was also wet and quite cold again this week but we decided to pen the boys for a check over (above).  The sky darkened and suddenly we had a downpour of hailstones which the boys don't really like.  We opened the pen and they all ran around the corner into the shelters...

Fergus is in the nearest shelter on his own (with both of us), getting cover from the hailstones hammering down on our heads....

Whilst the rest of the gang crowd into the other shelter.  As soon as the hailstones stopped, the boys came out into the paddock again.  Hardy, mountain animals  - with a high level of intelligence!

Lately Gully seems to be following Fyta's daily trick of tipping his feed onto the ground when eating it.  Both Fyta and Gully will eat from their bowls but after a while they tip them over with a foot then eat off the grass.  If the bowls overturn they will turn it the right way up with their noses.  Clever chaps!

Wee Eck displaying a healthy fringe which is black with reddish tips.

We always have a busy bird table, like Heathrow on a normal day, but this year it's busier than ever.  We have house and tree sparrows, dunnocks, 3 types of tits, chaffinches, siskins, robins, woodpeckers, greenfinches, starlings, blackbirds and even a red squirrel regularly visiting.  The close cut Leylandii hedge running behind the house holds loads of nests but this year, because we no longer have a cat prowling about, baby birds and their parents are tamer than ever.  This is a photo of one of three baby blackbirds regularly on the table this Spring, learning from mum and dad.  In previous years when we had Pansy Potter and Flo-Jo our cats, dad blackbird was constantly making the "chink, chink" warning call to the chicks.  This year the youngsters are hopping around our feet because there is no danger!

And finally...........we love flowering currant bushes and have them dotted around the various hedges because they are colourful at this time of year and add lots of interest to the hedge, as well as being attractive to the bees.  This one is at the back of the veg garden.