I learnt from the UEA Bird Club noticeboard that a Hoopoe was present at Horsford, to the north of Norwich and has been hanging out for at least a week. As my afternoon was free of lectures, Philip and myself decided to hitchhike up the coast road from our student digs in Fifers Lane, in north Norwich. After a couple of minutes by the roadside, we got picked up by a couple of birders who had seen the binoculars round our necks. As luck would have it, they were heading to Horsford for the Hoopoe! This was fortunate as we didn't know where in Horsford the Hoopoe had been hanging about and they did. On arrival a couple of other UEA birders were already there, but they hadn't see the bird. They told us that a local resident had seen the Hoopoe about 30 minutes ago, so at least it was still around, despite the cold snowy conditions.
After twenty tense minutes, Philip suddenly shouted "there it is!". The bird flew along the back of the field and into the front garden of the house of which we were standing. It then proceeded to feed right in front ot us for about 30 minutes when we left with the men who had given us a lift earlier. The Hoopoe was a little drab with many new and many very worn feathers, giving the bird a disshevelled appearance. However, the excellent close views made up for this and we enjoyed our first British Hoopoe immensely.
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