My best moment as a birder: finding a Hoopoe on my patch.
My worst moment as a birder: watching it fly out of view before Karen got a chance to see it.
There has been an unprecedented influx of Hoopoes into Sussex this month (about 15 birds so far) but the lockdown has meant that even those birds that have hung around have been out of reach, which has been frustrating. Having been religiously checking paddocks, vicar’s lawns and all short grass around us it was a massive surprise to flush one out of long grass in the evening. It landed on some cut wood and scrub about 100 m away and sat there for a while: long enough for some record shots. Before Karen could get to it, it upped and left and we couldn’t refind it. Having done the same to her the night before with a Turtle Dove, it’s not the best time to ask her to cut my hair.
Here are the dreadful Hoopoe shots and a few other things from the last week.
