The forecast for the weekend was decidedly iffy but Rob Cross, Steve Spy and myself decided to try and photograph the Hoopoe at Sand point, Somerset. This would be a first sighting for Steve so we were confident that this time he would be awake on time!

At 6.30 a.m Steve and Rob were at my house ready to go. We made the trip to our neighbouring county and arrived in good time to be faced with rain!! We walked to the site and quickly located the bird which was just resting completely in the open (if only the light had been good). After about an hour the rain had eased and the light was getting slightly better so we decided to try our luck. We found the bird but this time it was in amongst the grasses as usual, making photography difficult (see video clip). After a few shots were fired by the ever growing amount of photographers and birdwatchers the bird flew off. 3 or 4 hours later we were beginning to think that maybe the bird had left the area when someone had almost stepped on it amongst the long grass. This time once the bird had been located it stayed around for a long time allowing over twenty people to take thousands of photographs. The bird was very tolerant and would at times walk quite close to some of the photographers allowing good views and shots before finally flying off to land about 40 metres down the path, by this time most people decided to leave the bird in peace all, I am sure left feeling very pleased.

At the time of writing this I have seen no further reports so maybe the bird has finally moved on!Hoopoe