The other day we drove over to Caix where the Prince of Denmark has a nice little castle that we always ride past when biking up to Crayssac. Today we turned off right before the castle to look at an example of a masonry gatepost at a very ordinary modern house. Our gatepost contractor had told us this house belonged to a friend and he would call them to say we were going to be looking it over.
Ever since going on a bird walk in Gourdon a couple weeks ago, I've been carting along my excellent old Leitz binoculars with me everywhere I go and it really paid off this day. The reddish bird that landed just at the gate turned out to be a HOOPOE! The crappy photos we took aren't half as dreamlike as what I saw through the binox: the long crest and the long beak joined into an impossible surreal headdress with two azure balls at the tips of the crest when it was folded up.
I knew the name of this creature from the Aristophanes play, The Birds where a king, Tereus, has been turned into a hoopoe, a king of birds even though he is presented with his body feathers all molted off and ridiculed for his pretentiousness.
Could this one have been the King of Denmark touring his royaume in disguise? As if a bird he just flew off wordlessly so I guess I'll never know.
