0
Country diary 1926: There was a hoopoe on the lawn
April 20, 2026
Posted 3 hours ago by
24 April 1926: A rare sight in Cornwall, it was bigger than a mistle thrush, rusty pink against the grass There he was on the lawn when I came down to breakfast on Saturday – bigger than a mistle thrush, rust pink against the grass, with wing coverts vividly patterned in black and white, and the tall crest on his head not unfurled. At first sight of that rusty pink I knew him, a hoopoe in England; in a flash memory had collected the pictures of a hoopoe on a woodland road near Belgrade, and a hoopoe with his panache open in full fan on a shadow-barred road through cypress woods in Tuscany.
For five minutes or more we watched him having his breakfast, probing the turf with his long straight beak; and then he flew off on to the croft and we haven’t seen him since. I hear now that a hoopoe – perhaps the same one – was seen a week earlier nine miles away to the south, and several people have been writing to the papers from the southern counties recording other appearances.I do hope our visitant will survive, not be shot by some idiot. He is a lovely bizarre creature, and a cloud of associations hangs about his bizarre name, Upupa epops. Continue reading...
Wildlife | The Guardian
Coverage and analysis from United Kingdom. All insights are generated by our AI narrative analysis engine.