Spring and autumn are always good times to be in Sark for anyone interested in birds as dozens of species stop by on migration. There are plenty of wheatears around at the moment and twice in the last couple of days I’ve caught a fleeting glimpse of a ring ouzel on the Gouliot Headland, a bird similar to a black bird but with a crescent of white on its breast. Most exciting was a call to say that local bird expert Chris had a hoopoe right outside his window. Despite the wind and rain, I was on my bike in no time and spent a wonderful half an hour watching this beautiful, if slightly bedraggled, bird feeding from Chris’s window. Hoopoes spend the summer in Africa and migrate north to breed, sometimes overshooting and landing on the south coast of England. This one has been in Sark for a few days and, as lovely as it to see it, let’s it realises its mistake soon and heads back south a little to France or Spain to find a mate.

Hoopoe feeding in the grass

Sheltering from the rain