tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post4809050041206375081..comments2024-03-22T21:58:18.933+00:00Comments on ShukerNature: HOOPOE, HOOPOE - WHEREFORE ART THOU, BRIGHT BUTTERFLY BIRD OF MY YOUTH?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15628598508836601012noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-20351657010611875012011-03-18T07:28:36.513+00:002011-03-18T07:28:36.513+00:00As a child, and still today, the Hoopoe is one of ...As a child, and still today, the Hoopoe is one of my favorites. I remember having a similar experience to Karl's childhood enchantment with it. At age 4 I had a book of Eurasian wildlife, which featured the Hoopoe, I liked it so much because at first sight, I thought it looked like a Phoenix.<br /><br />One could imagine getting obsessed with such an amazing bird, seeing one is almost inconceivable for me, living so far from its range. I was thrilled just to see footage of it for the first time when I was 12.<br /><br />My earliest experiences with childrens-books gave me a sentimental love of European and British birds, which I guess is fitting given my Anglo-Saxon background.Timothy-Donald-Morrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00297140670811904034noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-44210511705565326532011-03-14T20:20:04.177+00:002011-03-14T20:20:04.177+00:00Very true. I well remember the water boatmen, and ...Very true. I well remember the water boatmen, and the slightly larger backswimmer, upon which I even based a school science project. The darting, electric blue damselflies, those shameless wasp-impersonating hoverflies, and that keen thrill of delight whenever I ticked off a new species of bird. Yesterday, on a whim, I took out of their battered yet still sturdy leather case my old trusty but seriously scuffed and very heavy pair of Greenkat 10 x 50 binoculars, long since replaced by a lighter, more modern pair. But as I inhaled their characteristic scent, a unique suffusion of leather and preservative crystals, I was instantly transported back through time to those far-distant, happy days of my childhood, and just for a moment it was a warm Sunday afternoon once more, back in the Shropshire countryside with my family, looking for birds and feeling truly alive again, alive and happy in a way that can never be replicated in adulthood. Yes, perhaps nostalgia is indeed best only in small doses, for in greater ones it has too much power, and can inflict too much pain.Dr Karl Shukerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06222845702628862829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-69450206663320339552011-03-14T20:07:50.635+00:002011-03-14T20:07:50.635+00:00I too was a child-birdwatcher in the UK Midlands b...I too was a child-birdwatcher in the UK Midlands but it was another fifty years before I saw <i>my</i> hoopoe as I walked round the Palace at Knossos, Crete.Wuffinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05907742792992419897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-34401418650313098942011-03-14T20:05:11.487+00:002011-03-14T20:05:11.487+00:00It certainly is a reunion of ornithological nostal...It certainly is a reunion of ornithological nostalgics in this blog. I was a 'young ornithologist' for the RSPB in the early 80s and still remember part of their address, 'Sandy Banks.'The magazines were much less memorable!<br /><br />The Hoopoe is forever associated with a bird-spotting book I had and remained one of the few I never got to tick off. Gold Crests, kingfishers and some obscure wagtail (yellow something or other) were happily recorded. The Golden Oriole was in the same book. If I go and dig out that book, I've got a feeling I ticked off the Oriole despite never seeing it. <br /><br />Nostalgia isn't something I subscribe to very often, but who else recalls waterboatmen, fresh water shrimp and nymphs? Being out in the fields looking for birds seems to have included all manner of critters our modern equivalents never see any more.<br /><br />A colourful childhood of kingfishers and dragonflies...nostalgia can be quite poetic in small doses.Kandinskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11598864214791609926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-66147088222799360052011-03-14T17:17:52.715+00:002011-03-14T17:17:52.715+00:00It´s true that they are harbringers of war up here...It´s true that they are harbringers of war up here.Its swedish name is härfågel,the army-bird,because of their plumes looking like the headgear of a military man.<br />Also,its colour can have something to do with that,birds with red breasts and even squirells were seen as omens of war since their red color forsaw bloodshed on a bigger scale.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-81498412412577245062011-03-14T15:13:06.146+00:002011-03-14T15:13:06.146+00:00Hi Terry, Obviously hoopoe obsession is not going ...Hi Terry, Obviously hoopoe obsession is not going to occur in an area where the species is commonly sighted. No doubt the equivalent in Thailand would be to see a bird common here in the UK but only occurring as a rare vagrant there. Everything is relative in this world, even hoopoes lol. All the best, KarlDr Karl Shukerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06222845702628862829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-56985481151317801422011-03-14T14:33:58.494+00:002011-03-14T14:33:58.494+00:00Karl, hoopoe obsession seems to be way down on the...Karl, hoopoe obsession seems to be way down on the totem pole of little known and seen animals. We see hoopoes a few times each year in the months of November and December. I have photos from last year when our pool construction began.<br /><br />Terry W. ColvinTerry's Bazaarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06806614524981774181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-65703511906002427622011-03-14T14:02:01.316+00:002011-03-14T14:02:01.316+00:00Hi Lars, Yes I do, but they are all sufficiently s...Hi Lars, Yes I do, but they are all sufficiently similar for it not to matter to me. In the grand scheme of things, to misquote Gertrude Stein, "A hoopoe is a hoopoe is a hoopoe is a hoopoe". All the best, KarlDr Karl Shukerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06222845702628862829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-48637127241781330382011-03-14T13:58:16.743+00:002011-03-14T13:58:16.743+00:00I suppose you do know, that some ornithologists co...I suppose you do know, that some ornithologists consider the african hoopoes to be at least one and probably several different species, all distinct from the european one? Perhaps you haven't seen the dream bird of your youth after all! (Sorry, just being mean here). But I know the feeling. I saw my first hoopoe in Tunesia in 1978 - one hour before leaving for the airport to go home, having spent a week birdwatching all over Tunesia, and missing 17 different hoopoes seen by the other members of the group. Since then I have been fortunate enough to see them several times - once even in Denmark.<br />Oh, and you don't have to go to the hoopoe to find this mysterious stone or rock breaking plant. They grow in Denmark, and are even called stone-breakers (stenbræk in danish).Lars Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00415256626457393784noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-34851135528281634902011-03-14T13:38:37.158+00:002011-03-14T13:38:37.158+00:00Happy days! I dragged my long-suffering family all...Happy days! I dragged my long-suffering family all over Britain as a child and teenager in search of birds, but sometimes I was lucky enough for them to come to me, such as the waxwing that turned up in Wolverhampton, and the black-throated diver that appeared one winter's day on a pond in Pensnett, just outside Dudley. Happily, I managed to see both of them, though I missed the bluethroat that turned up in my own town of West Bromwich!Dr Karl Shukerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06222845702628862829noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3739684561063978507.post-17692776946786196992011-03-14T13:15:40.449+00:002011-03-14T13:15:40.449+00:00Gosh, this brought back memories! I too was keen o...Gosh, this brought back memories! I too was keen on birdwatching as a kid and was equally entranced by the images of the hoopoe (and the roller and bee-eater) in the Collins Guide to British Birds. Like you, it was top of the list of birds I wanted to see and also recall the disappointment of realising this just wasn't going to happen, not in North Wales, anyway. However, I did glimpse one - I'm fairly sure - when I was on Elephantine Island in the Nile at Aswan, Egypt, back in 2003. It sort of flopped into a bush, and I just caught a glimpse of the distinctive pinky colour and the black-and-white wings. You've also reminded me of dragging my poor dad around the Vale of Clwyd in search of a glossy ibis that turned up there in the mid-70s but we didn't see that either!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com