Well girls, am I pretty, or am I pretty?

We are very lucky to have a large population of common eider duck on our door step. The drakes enjoy a really spectacular plumage but the females, who alone incubate the eggs, are beautifully camouflaged.

The scientific name for the common eider is Somateria mollisssima, where mollissima is a Latin word meaning 'softest'. The name derives from the soft down which the females pluck from their chests and use to line their nest. Eider down is harvested in Iceland, and elsewhere, to be used as insulation in outdoor clothing and in duvets, or eiderdowns as they used to be known.