Living in Hertfordshire you get used to having to travel some distance for your "mega" birds. There have been some exceptions, notably the little bittern and pallid harrier a few years ago. We do get a good number of rare birds dropping in though and this week has created a bit of a stir. On Tuesday a hoopoe was spotted in the north of the county and by late in the day it had been located to a series of horse paddocks in a small village called Hinxworth. For a series of reasons, including twitching the bee-eaters in Norfolk, I couldn't go till today. ?Fortunately the bird has decided it quite likes it there and has been showing well. Hoopoes are rare but regular in this country, popping across the channel from southern Europe. Together with the bee-eaters they add a splash of exotic colour.
Anyway, it was a shorter drive than normal for a twitch and I parked up near the church about 7.45 and took the short walk to the horse-paddocks behind the church. I was the only birder on site. Initially there was no sign of the bird, just a few horses wandering around aimlessly. Within 5 minutes though I spotted an orange and black shape in the grass of the middle paddock. The hoopoe was having a dust-bath quite near the fence!
It stayed there for a minute or so then flew to the back of the paddock, quite some way away.
Hoopoes are surprisingly small birds. They are about the size of a blackbird but somehow you think they should be bigger. By now two other people had arrived and as we watched it feeding by the far hedge we all agreed on the size point!
As well as the other birders, two or three people together with some dogs had arrived to feed and exercise the horses. This caused the hoopoe to spook and for 15 minutes it disappeared. We spread out and eventually I ended up back at the third horse paddock, well away from the disturbance. The hoopoe had ovbviously realised this as well and was tucking into its breakfast in the field.
There were even some chickens trying to photobomb it!
The crowd had now swelled to 5 people, slightly surprisingly low, but it had been around for a few days I suppose. We watched it for an hour as it gradually moved across the paddock, eating as it went, and getting closer and closer.
After its breakfast it then decided to have a bit of a preen and put 5 minutes or so getting its plumage into order.
With its ablutions completed it then flew off to the back of the paddock where we first had it. I took this a sign to leave and I headed leaving it to the few more birders starting to arrive. Hoopoes can be long-staying birds sometimes and as it has lots of food I suspect it could well be there for a few days or even weeks more.
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