18th
April
A RARE
visitor to the Isle of Wight was spotted by bird watchers at Brading.
A hoopoe,
which is a rare migratory bird, was seen yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon.
Bird
watcher Alan Brown, shared this video with the County Press.
The RSPB
says Britain enjoys around 100 individual hoopoes that visit each spring as
birds migrating north to Europe from Africa overshoot and land on the south
coast of England.
Alan
said: "They are a scarce visitor to Britain. We had one at Shanklin last
year, but generally go several years between sightings.
"I
go birding for hours everyday and it’s only my third in 50 plus years on the
Island.
"They
are of course more common in the Mediterranean countries.
"These
birds are often seen on golf courses, where they feed on their favourite food,
leather jacket beetles.
"It
was first spotted by the land owner who posted on the Facebook nature group, so
obviously I went straight over with a couple of birding mates and that’s when
we saw it.
"We
are very grateful to the lady land owner."
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