Cuckoo Cocoon - Genesis

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?

It would strike us as a little churlish to once again bemoan our fortunes at the Moth Traps but fact is it appears to be getting worse! Given our rare capture of Sunday, the Shining Marbled, from which we got a great deal of satisfaction, we now hark back to Wednesday when there was nothing of note at all. Given the persistent, daylong and sometimes heavy rain on that day it was lucky we got to the traps at all, but with some moderation at 15:00 we made a dash for it clicking one of the fruit ladened

 CRABAPPLE TREEs

with Wicker Donkey

 on the way.

The dash slowed to a canter as approaching the Irrigation Pond, as the rain also eased to a moderate drizzle, but driven by a stiff westerly breeze, things were still prohibitive to say the least! There we found a moment of respite in the shape of a new brood of

 MOORHEN

chicks

 with all but this one scampering for cover. 
We will be trying for better images when the rain abates.
At the Gravel Pit more success on encountering a

 GREENSHANK

 which is considered 'rare' here

 but while no stats have been kept it is doubtful

if even half a dozen have been seen here since records began in 2013.

Not 5 minutes from here and driving along the
Solar Panel Fenceline
what looked to be a Kestrel flew atop one of the posts but was reluctant to allow a closer look!

 At some distance and with the rain directly on our starboard bow,

we managed to gain position only to fine that it was in fact a

 CUCKOO

but not of the ordinare type

but in fact a 

 'HEPATIC'
(the name deriving from the colour if Liver -yes the meat)
and looking every bit like a 'juvenile' bird. 

 Only a change in 'morph' and exactly the same as the ones more familiar to us,
shown below, it is confined to female birds with some authorities claiming that about

10% of female Cuckoo's are affected with this colouration.
Not quite sure how such conclussions are come by but when considering scientists,
and helpers, find such things as the staple diet of Nightjar's is almost exclusively that of the
True Lover's Knot Moth
then, "where there's a will, there's surely a way"!
Since my conversion to Bird Watching in 1973
it is unlikey that double figures of sighting of this delightful 'form' have been seen!

 Some images along with

a couple of video clips

 for

comparison with the archetype

 Smart Birds!
Thinking back, had it not been for the inclement weather delaying my progress this bird would not have been seen at all but that was not the end of it as settling to rummage through the fairly depleted traps the long overdue song was heard of a

WOOD WARBLER
(this only the 3rd ever for our Recording Area)

 With a good number of other Warbler of the same family group, we hope our images above
are those of the right bird - they looks good to me?

Otherwise, and to save confussion, we have 'borrowed' this image from the Internet.
Another, and Final, example of the Ill Wind providing some Good

(Belted Galloway)

the surface water is proving popular with the 

(Shetland)
RARE BREEDS CATTLE
refreshing the herbage and providing a convenient drink at the same time.

I wonder if I'm a prisoner locked up in some Brooklyn jail
Or some sort of Jonah shut up inside the whale.
No, I'm still Rael and I'm stuck in some kind of cave,
What could've saved me?
Cuckoo cocoon have I come to, too soon for you?

from the album - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

No rush to swing out of the hammock this morning

with wind speeds already 'kissing' 35 m.p.h.!