Hoopoe makes rare visit to Collingham
I had been to see the rare Rosy Coloured Starling when it stopped off near Collingham earlier in the year and didn't expect there to be another rarity so close to home again this year. I had seen reports of a Hoopoe in York and then Wetherby in the previous days and on Tuesday morning I heard that one had been spotted on Millbeck Green in Collingham. So I drove down in the hope that it might still be about and as I reached the far end of the road I spotted it moving along the pavement, the last time I had seen a Hoopoe was in Tuscany in 1996! The Hoopoe is normally found in Southern and Eastern Europe with around 100 visiting the UK during the autumn migration and this is the first recorded sighting of a Hoopoe in the Leeds area for more than 40 years! I managed to take a few pictures as more people started to turn up, the Hoopoe didn't seem at all bothered by its growing audience!
