Skip to main content

An audience with a Hoopoe

 


If its avian bling that you are after you would be hard pressed to beat a Hoopoe, a scarce passage migrant to the UK.

 


In preparation for its passage to Africa, a very showy individual of said bird has been fattening itself up on grubs for the past few days on a Warwick  industrial estate just 40 minutes from home. I’ve seen a number of Hoopoes, both in the UK and in their winter home of Africa, but have never got a decent photo. I hence found myself sitting on the grass by the reception of IBM late morning today with a handful of other birders and photographers watching this exotic visitor.

 

Hoopoes are fairly common and widespread across Europe, Asia, and Africa but only occur as a scare spring and autumn passage vagrant to the UK. In a good year perhaps 50 birds  are seen in the UK. There are three recognised species, the Eurasian Hoopoe which spends the warmer months in Europe before migrating to Africa for the winter and the resident African and Madagascan Hoopes. In all honestly, having looked at pictures of all three, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference! As an interesting aside, there was a  fourth, essential flightless, Hoopoe species, the extinct Saint Helena Hoopoe, which suffered the fate of many endemic flightless birds in the 16th century when man introduced predators.

 

To say the Hoopoe is an unusual and exotic looking bird would be somewhat of an understatement.  They have a very long wader like downcurved bill which they use to probe the ground to find insects. Perhaps their most startling feature, however, is their long pinkish-brown crest which is raised in spectacular fashion when they are excited. For such a stunning bird they have, what to our senses anyway, is one very unappealing habit. The female has a gland which secretes a noxious and foul smelling liquid which intimates rotting flesh which she smears on her nest hence deterring unwelcome predators!

 






Watching the Warwick visitor it was immediately obvious what the attraction of this one patch of grass was – it was absolutely loaded with some form of large white juicy grub which I could not identify. It would spend maybe 10 to 15 minutes vigorously probing the grass to locate and gobble down these tasty morsels then fly off to a perch for a short post meal rest. I started counting how many of these grubs it was pulling up and in one ten minute period it woofed down 8 of them. I would hence guess that it is very successfully putting weight on prior to its long migration to Africa. It would occasionally have a good old stretch and raise its crest to the great appreciation and joy of all who were watching. At one point several Pied Wagtails feeding near by shouted their piercing alarm call and flew off taking the Hoopoe with them. The reason for the alarm was soon obvious as a Sparrowhawk passed over. Thankfully our exotic visitor was not on the Sparrowhawk’s lunch menu on this occasion!

    

 



 

  Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!   

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Albert the Albatross

    High quality framed and unframed prints available at   https://www.etsy.com/shop/BirdlifeStudio If you don't see what you want please ask! What is more improbable -   a)     England’ football team    beating Germany in the knockout stages of a major competition   b)     Seeing an Albatross in England   Actually the answer is a) because it has not happened since 1966 rather than b) as Albert the Albatross, as he is affectionally known, has made a number of passing visits to the UK since 1967!   On Monday evening reports started to emerge of Albert associating with the Gannet colony at RSPB Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire, almost one year after his    last brief visit to the same site. During the intervening period there have been a number of sightings of Albert across Europe, particularly from the Baltic Sea where he appears to have spent much of the last 12 months. In fact there were reports that he had been att...

Ok I'll admit it - I'm in love with Wrynecks and Autumn fun on the farm!

  High quality framed and unframed prints available at   https://www.etsy.com/shop/BirdlifeStudio If you don't see what you want please ask! There are precious few birds that I’ve both seen and photographed well that I will drive 2 hours to see but I will make an exception for my favourite UK bird, the enigmatic Wryneck. No autumn birding in the UK is complete for me unless I have seen at least one of these beauties. So Monday morning found me in the Volvo driving 2 hours to see an exceptionally showy individual located at Exminster Marshes RSPB in Devon.   As it had already been present for a couple of days, I waited for it to be reported before setting off  and so it was near midday when I arrived at the small RSPB car park adjacent to the railway line. It was then a 30 minute or so walk down a pleasant leafy footpath to the welcoming looking Turf hotel. The hotel is next to Turf lock from where stunning views can be had over the river Exe estuary towards Exto...

The Hawfinches of the Forest of Dean

   Hawfinch - Forest of Dean, winter 2017 High quality framed and unframed prints available at   https://www.etsy.com/shop/BirdlifeStudio If you don't see what you want please ask! A highlight of my winter birding is my annual trip to the Forest of Dean to see Hawfinches. I was unable to go last year due to the post-Christmas lockdown so this year’s visit was even more richly anticipated than normal.   Parkend in the Forest of Dean is my usual chosen location for watching Hawfinches. Here the proven technique of using your car as a hide normally works well. I must also say that,  after a number of quite strenuous twitches recently, I was also looking forward to a much more leisurely birding session!   The story of Hawfinches in the UK is, to my mind at least, a fascinating one. It is what is known as an eruptive species meaning that it occasionally erupts from its traditional breeding grounds to invade on mass countries much further away. This is thoug...