Taxidermy, bird mounted uncased, hoopoe, Upupa epops, found Tadfield Road, Romsey, Hampshire, 1993
Cold and rain too much for hoopoe. The English winter proved too harsh for a wayward hoopoe, when the exotic bird, which normally winters in Africa, died in a cardboard box in a house in Tadfield Road, Romsey. The dying bird's last hours were spent on Friday in the tender care of Mike Rafter, a birdwatcher for 20 years. Mr Rafter said this week that he did not know what to do with the body and has thought of having it stuffed. He wondered if it was rare enough to be of interest to someone in the ornithological world, or to a museum. 'I've got it in the freezer at the moment' he disclosed. The doomed hoopoe, described in the new 'Birds of Hampshire' handbook as a 'very scarce passage migrant' was first spotted in Whitenap, Romsey, in late November and had since been sought out by hundreds of ornithologists. During the heavy rain of Thursday last week, it tapped on the bathroom window of a house in Viney Avenue, before falling off the window sill. Mrs Jan Beard emerged from the house and rescued the bedraggled pink, black and white bird from her garden. The bird's plight was brought to the attention of Mr Rafter, who put the exhausted creature in a cardboard box in his home, to give it a chance to dry out. Next day, he was encouraged by active 'hovering about' of the hoopoe, but it proved too weak to fly away. He decided to take it to the 'Back to the Wild' bird rescue centre at Crow, near Ringwood. Before starting the journey, however, he checked inside the box and found that the hoopoe had died. 'I think it was continuous rain that did it', he said. 'I imagine it had great difficulty feeding. I'm afraid nature doesn't tolerate mistakes. Instead of migrating south it headed north'. Even with the bird dead, Mr Rafter admitted he was unable to to determine its sex or age. He said that in the last four or five years, eight hoopoes had been sighted in Hampshire, but only one had been spotted here in the winter, in January, 1940. That bird also died.
two large holes either side of head, many small holes all over skin. Right leg severed, two tail feathers, breast and flank and some secondaries missing on bird's right side
