#birdperday: 1. Hoopoe

I've decided to start a thing: tweet a link to a Flickr photo of a different bird species every day. With c10,000 species (and counting), it should be good for the next 27 years or so...

So here's my 1st #birdperday, hurtling magnificently through the air... Hoopoe! http://t.co/TpCpbDiBAp
— Katie (@bogbumper) February 1, 2014

Limited success

Today was a funny old day.

Mid-morning, I received a phone call from Darren to say one of his colleagues had seen a Firecrest in the gardens. At lunchtime, Mark Ward and I went to have a look for it - without much optimism, it has to be said. There's a lot of habitat for a 'crest to hide in and my previous success in refinding them has been zero.

We'd been searching in the right spot for about 15 minutes and it wasn't looking too promising.

Then, all of a sudden, the bird popped up in some shrubbery in front of us. It quickly flew up into a tall yew tree and vanished into the branches.

'S***! It's a Firecrest!'

I had a rather brief view, mainly of its backside, but got a glimpse of the eyestripe which made my heart race.

(Have a look at Steve Round's stupendous Firecrest photos)

Next, I reached into my pocket and phoned Darren's mobile.

'This person's phone is currently switched off.'

Doh! Tried again, and then his landline, but he'd gone to lunch and was uncontactable! So that was a tad annoying, to say the least.

After work, we spent an hour or so trying to relocate the Firecrest (without any joy) before heading off to Fowlmere to see the Hoopoe which was found there earlier today.

Sadly, by the time we arrived it had gone to roost in a dense hedge, and if a nice man with his scope already on it hadn't given us a look, I don't think we'd ever have been able to find it ourselves. You could see some pinky-brown bits and occasionally some black and white wing, but that was it. Just bits of Hoopoe in isolation, never the whole bird in all its glory.

It was decidedly unsatisfactory. I hope we'll manage to go for another one later this year.

Hoopoe artwork

I've realised I can't really draw birds properly so I might as well go down the stylised route to mask my inadequacies. It's a sort of representation of last month's Hoopoe flying up the Nene valley.

This was inspired by Carry Akroyd, except she does it infinitely better than me, of course. I love her swans especially.

"Good morning. Have you just woken up?"

I was rudely awoken from my sleep this morning by my mobile phone. I didn't recognise the number. My first dozy thoughts were a) is it Monday and should I be at work? and b) it'll be someone trying to flog me something. Fortunately, I answered, for it was Martin Coates telling me that there was a Hoopoe at Stibbington. That was enough to get even me out of bed on a Sunday morning, so I woke up a bit and went to see it.

By the time I'd found my way there, a few other birders were already on the scene, including its finder, Brian Stone (he found another one at Elton Furze last year but it vanished and wasn't seen again). The bird was last seen poking around on the edge of an unmade track.

Of course, Hoopoes are famous for feeding on lawns belonging to vicars, and Stibbington Hall, just around the corner, had what we considered a highly attractive lawn, ideal for a hungry visiting Hoopoe. It obviously disagreed, because it popped up again in its original position and we all had a good eyeful until it flopped away.

Most people left at this point, but a few of us decided we might as well wait, since we were there now, and our patience paid off. The Hoopoe returned and seemed happy to feed quite close to where we were. Though it was scared off twice by dog walkers and a Magpie, it always came back to the same spot, and the last I saw of it was when it trotted off round the corner and out of sight.

My first Hoopoe in the PBC area - what a fantastic bird! I got some OK photos of it, which you can see at the top of this post and also here.

What's in my CD player: Hail To The Thief - Radiohead