10th
September
A MOHICAN
feathered visitor struck an unusual sight in Grange Park gardens, bringing keen
birdwatchers to West Swindon.
Tanya
Hill first spotted the hoopoes in her Poynings Way garden on Friday, prodding
its beak into her lawn in search of ants.
The
mum-of-one said: “It was beautiful to watch, slow moving and placid.”
Normally
found in Africa or southern Europe, hoopoes are about the size of a magpie. The
long-beaked birds have orange plumage, with a black and white pattern on their
wings. A crown of feathers sticks up around an inch from their heads.
While it
is uncommon to find hoopoes in the UK, they sometimes get blown off-course as
they migrate from Africa to Europe.
Tanya
posted a picture of the bird onto the West Swindon Facebook page on Saturday:
"I wondered if it had been a baby bird and if anyone else had seen
it."
A message
was also sent to thousands of keen birdwatchers through programme Rare Bird
Alert.
By
Sunday, there were a dozen birdwatchers touring quite suburban streets in the
hope of spotting the hoopoe.
“If you
looked out the back windows there was the bird,” Tanya said. “If you looked out
of the front windows there were birdwatchers.”
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