Graham Workman column: another rare bird

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This time it was a Hoopoe that had turned up not too far away!

Marcus and I went dashing over to Foulridge Thursday morning hoping to catch up with the Hoopoe that had made an area of rocky ground by the reservoir home for a short while. Luckily we did manage to find it feeding like mad in and around the rocks. The last Hoopoe I'd seen was a world away in Cape Province so it was superb to see one much closer to home.

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It's unmistakable, with its down-curved bill, black, white and sandy brown plumage – not to mention its crest – which it did raise but it was mostly hidden by the tall plants. It was feeding like mad probably fattening itself up before heading back south, through Europe and probably next stop Africa, One of the reasons I think they've never become a regular visitor or breeding species is we don't have the abundance of grasshoppers, crickets and small lizards that are the favoured prey within its core breeding range.

The family had a beach house in Cape Infanta and we were awoke every morning by a male calling. The call where it gets its name from, is a very distinctive "oop-oop" or "oop-oop-oop". This gets repeated after a short pause. This call is only made by males and is usually only heard during the mating season.

HoopoeHoopoe
Hoopoe

Some Hoopoe factoids

· Hoopoes are largely silent outside the breeding season, but the male will utter his monotonous but attractive song for long periods in the spring and summer, often taking part in song duels with neighbours.

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· Hoopoes like warm temperatures, so are most numerous around the Mediterranean, but climate change may well see their breeding range move north with more birds turning up in the UK. Then hopefully a pair will be pioneers and breed here!

· No other European bird can be confused with the hoopoe, but it does have a very similar cousin in Africa.

· In Stellenbosch (South African wine making area) Hearing a singing hoopoe before wine pressing is meant to foretell a good vintage.

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· When feeding, hoopoes can often be closely approached as they take little notice of humans. When disturbed, they will take flight, invariably erecting their crest when they land.

· Hoopoes are particularly enthusiastic foragers of animal droppings and dung heaps, searching for beetles. They use their long, decurved beak to probe the ground.

This Sunday morning and the Snow Goose was still around so off we went!

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Was it a wild goose chase? Nope, a very rewarding search! Marcus and I first saw the snow goose last Saturday but the light conditions were dire but the Gods of light lit the bird up pretty perfect today.

Snow Goose (Anser caerulescens) light phase Adult.

This snow goose arrived with Pink Feet Geese first on the coastal marshes and then over at Martin Mere WWT Reserve.

An absolutely stunning bird even if it was a couple of hundred meters away and pushed my 800mm lens to the limit! I've another hundred or so photos to go through to see which are worth saving.

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