Oh Happy Day!

I did my Beer Head walk this morning in thick fog, so not very interesting. I did however see my first Sand Martin of the year when one appeared out of the gloom flying in off the sea passing within a couple of feet me which was the only reason I saw it at all. This afternoon I was just getting ready to leave the house to get a few supplies when my phone rang. It was Bun. There was only a Hoopoe in his brother-in-law's garden, spotted by his young nephew on arriving home from school. I've previously dipped three of these on patch (one horribly, as any former readers of the legendary 'Backwater Birding' might remember) so was over there pronto! The bird was very flighty, so those assembled ( myself, Steve, Gav, Sandra, Ian M and Bun) got some nice flight views at least. It did always return to the same garden though ( usually unseen - how do they do that?) where it appeared to be feeding from an ants' nest. I was thrilled to have seen one on patch at last. They're at least annual here but almost always in private gardens, usually of non-birders and often not reported until ages after the fact. This one chose wisely! ;-) I got a couple of record shots with the super-zoom.

Whoops. nice one of the plant.

That's better.

 

 A PATCH HOOPOE!!! :-)