Farthing Down's Hoopoe (20/8/11)

 

This is Farthing Down's

3 days ago I booked some tickets to go to Coulsdon South station which was near Farthing Down's where a Hoopoe was frequently seen. I had booked the tickets a day early because we had to change train quite often. the next day (20/8/11) we left on the train to go to Farthing Down's our first stop was Watford Junction from there we went to Clapham Junction then to East Croydon and finally to Coulsdon South. When we arrived we walked the rest of the way to the park. When we first arrived at the park we walk briskly as to cover the whole area after about 5 minutes of walking we came across a bunch of birders who had already found the the Hoopoe. They told us were it was and my brother set up the scope to take a look at it. When I looked through I realised how far away it was if we had not come across these birders we would have never found it. maybe after 5 minutes of looking at the Hoopoe it flow we followed it and after a while it flow out of a bit of long grass to a tree a bit closer to us. When it landed on the tree it opened its crest allowing us to see it.

The Hoopoe with its crest down unfortunately.

It then flow back down to the ground to feed luckily this time it landed on the path where the grass was a lot shorter. We looked at the bird just sitting and feeding very close to where we were. Unfortunately not long after it had flown down a jogger came over the hill and and flushed the bird away. We followed it but lost it me and my brother carried on walking in the way it had left but did not see it. After this we decided to head back to were we had first seen it as it had seemed to like that area. on our way we gathered a group of two birders who seemed to follow us as we had seen it already. We set up our scopes to scan the field were we had first seen it. As we waited more birders joined our small group thinking we had found it after a while we were surrounded by about 9 birders not including me and my brother, then suddenly some said they had found it the whole group looked through there scopes to find the Hoopoe feeding in front of a bush. It stayed there for quite a while until all of us payed no attention to it and then it slipped away.

After a while our group with a few less people joined another group to find the Hoopoe again. It was about 1 o'clock when we came across the Hoopoe again this time it was very close. It left that place and moved to another place were we had a brilliant photo opportunity and if thing could not get any better we managed to get even closer to allowing me to film it and my brother to take some pictures.

A bunch of clips of the Hoopoe put together and music added.

The Hoopoe with its crest open.

All these photos are taken when the Hoopoe was about 9m away.

All the photos above are taken by my brother but I filmed the film.