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Pagham Birder: The Blog

A regular account of the birds seen mainly on and around Pagham Spit, the Lagoon and the North Wall plus other birding exploits from time to time.
Any news of interest regarding the ongoing erosion problems on Pagham Beach will, from now on, be shown on my other blog together with general beach photos.. Click on the link... Pagham Beach Blog on this page.

Monday, April 14, 2025

A Hoopoe at Pagham!!



 It is common knowledge by now that there has been an influx of Hoopoes to the UK this Spring but a sighting on my local patch was a tremendous surprise.  A Whatsapp shout of a sighting was received when food shopping in Bognor so......this was a 'must' see!!

Initially showing at a distance in a field behind the North Wall stables but not easy to see in the long grass.





Not one but two birds but both difficult to see!

One of them took flight and flew west behind a line of trees out of sight. A few minutes later and the other took off and flew east behind the path behind the now gathering admirers. As we approached its approximate whereabouts it started calling and we could have been in Mallorca or  the south of Spain...a wonderful Mediterranean  'hoop,hoop' sound!  It was well hidden amongst the higher branches when it was spotted at the far side of a tree.  Not only was it was partially hidden by the branches it was back lit so photographing it was tricky.





















Then this bird took flight and headed for the big tree in Little Welbourne








A great bird to see and hear!!!!

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