Cuckoo Cocoon - Genesis

 Dark, Dull, Dank, Driech (if you are Scottish), Dour and downright Damp but enough about me! That was more or less the weather picture throughout Tuesday which altered little and kept hopes at a very low ebb. But fear not Stout Yeoman as just around one of the bends opposite the Solar Panel fence-line perched a male

CUCKOO

seemingly unperturbed at our approach!
Canon-wise, that was about as good as it got as the now heavier drizzle made camara action difficult, but when at least c3 (and quite likely a fourth) other birds, all female / hepatic type flew out of the woodwork it was a sight never beheld before. As this is all we have to offer for the day the better images / clips are shown in their entirity.

A BRACE

Thought to be an Adult in Display?

While on the way back to Base and over a mile away from that site

but no claims to another Bird, but who knows?
Wrapped up in some powdered wool I guess I'm losing touch.
Don't tell me this is dying, 'cause I ain't changed that much.
The only sound is water drops, I wonder where the hell I am,
Some kind of jam?
Cuckoo Cocoon have I come to, too soon for you?

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - Genesis

PS - DRIECH is considered the most iconic word in the whole of the Scottish language!

Spider in my Web - Ten Years After

Now there's a band to contend with, for those who remember

Alvin Lee - Lead Guitar / Vox,  Leo Lyons - Bass, Ric Lee - Drums and Chick Churchill - Keys.

 Despite the relatively dense mist and the continuing rain again we lean partly on the passed couple of days but there was surely something of the Mountain Coming to Mohamed moment as at early doors we found a First for the Year

FIGURE of 80

perched on a windowsill

while a decent sized 'pod' of

ROOKs
were pillaging the bird-feeders trying to slake the insatiable appetite of

this 'ere juvenile presumed from the local rookery while from the home traps came another 'addition'

CYPRESS CARPET
(relating to the tree rather than the country)
while on the Main Pond

all c7 of the recent hatchlings survive

while amongst them

there is something of a stranger as this is either an

'albino'

or 'leucistic' whatever the difference may be?
The 2 ponds on the way to a mist logged Heath still holds nothing more than a lone

LITTLE GREBE
with the only sign of procreation being the single chick of some 6 or 7 weeks ago.

NO or YES the Heath didn't look at all promising either but once we got throgh the plethora of

FUNNEL WEB SPIDER TRAPs

of which there must be many, many Thousands both

SMALL ANGLE SHADES

along with

THE FLAME
were added to the 2021 List.
It would seem with the passing of each day the Spiders spin larger webs

snarring on this occassion a hapless

CREAM-SPOT TIGER
while what we are calling a

BROWN CHINA MARK
(we don't do Micros)
was hitching a ride via this
POPLAR HAWK-MOTH

Otherwise, all else that showed up was the same

GREY HERON

perched on the very same post inside the
Solar Panel Compound
making it no less unusual to be found there as the wander ended with a pure bred

DOG ROSE BUSH

unlike the 'plastic' ones published last week.

Rosy - Don Partridge

"Rain before 7, dry by 11"? Another myth you can scratch from your psyche, didn't even step 'ashore' yesterday so thankfully a few snaps from previous days!

There were a few more First for the Year Moths, which we recovered during a 30 minute weather window late afternoon, but not before giving more than a passing glace over the ever maturing

CANADA GEESE YOUNGSTERS

SCORCHED WING

and in 'cocked tail' pose, but from here on we have to return to the past couple of days.

A real favourite
ALDER MOTH

BRINDLED WHITE-SPOT

ROSY MARBLED

little bigger than a
Garden Pea

and something of a Wildlife surprise as this

FOX MOTH
laid her eggs before our very eyes - nice bonus and all returned to the Wild.
While sat there musing a female

BLACKCAP

was heading towards us at first reluctant to break cover

but as she did so

the

Male

in full voice

also put in an

appearance.
There was little else to the day but as ever when there is a light wind across the Heath the

ASPENS,
now in full leaf, are at their very best rustling in the wind while as far as foliage is concerned the

ALDER BUCKTHORN
has quickly followed suit while, despite the Autumnal spraying of the

FERNs
still they grow readily, but what a

pattern to the fronds the
KIWI's
can be rightly proud of their emblem although not that welcome here!