Cock-a-Hoopoe

So there we were this morning, sitting inside the French windows sipping our filter coffees and waiting for it to start raining, when my better half froze and said, "Don't move! We have a visitor".

Now, there are quite a few pretty birds that we get here every summer and not a few that we still have here during the winter months too. If you've been reading this stuff for any length of time you'll have read my "waxing lyrical" posts [now so old they've been removed and placed in the book "A Plethora of Posts"] about the European Bee Eaters, which grace us with their presence every summer and we often watch them during summer evenings as they wheel above us, taking their evening meal on the wing. We watch them too as they gather on the wires in October making preparation to fly south again for the winter months.

Another bird that we've often caught all-too-brief glimpses of is the Hoopoe. If you've ever seen one you'll know that they are quite spectacular, especially when they raise the crest on the top of their heads. They arrive about now and spend the summer here, breeding here too apparently. But you only have to move and they're gone. They are very timid. Thankfully, though, our French windows tend to make our situation resemble that of a "hide" on a bird reservation or nature preserve somewhere. If we sit there long enough we usually see something. Trouble is, by the time I get the camera whatever it was is long gone.

So, today, when the beloved said the words quoted above, I was cock-a-hoop, we both were, to see a Hoopoe casually strolling right past us on the flower bed, foraging for grubs. He (or maybe she?) was not more than three feet away and quite oblivious to our presence. I did manage to grab the camera and, by the time I returned to the French windows the bird had walked on around to the side of the house, but I was still able to snap the photos below out of a few different windows as it did a complete circuit around the building.

Here then folks, are the shots. I hope you like 'em (I'm sure that by now you'll know how to open them in a larger view)...