After returning home at lunchtime from my daily check of the Dippers nest……. everything is going well by the way……. I read on line that a Hoopoe had been seen near to Teignmouth, in fact on the golf course on the hill above the town. I didn't realise when I decided to go and see if I could find it, what a great experience it was going to be. At first when I arrived, I was greeted by a couple of other birders who I know well, it was nice to see them!  They told me that the bird had developed a habit already, of flying to a specific spot next to one of the "tees".  At first, even when it flew in, I was too far away for anything other than a nice distant view. Eventually as you would imagine, golfers put it up and it flew to an area just down the hillside, but was back at his favourite spot within a few minutes only to be scared off again this time, by a chap having a stroll along the path.  When it flew off, I grabbed my gear and quickly put on my gillie suit, lay in the grass completely covering myself with dry grass and very painful prickly dead gorse.  I was pretty confident that it would turn up again, and if it did, I would only be 20 feet away now and with the light coming from the perfect direction.   I got genuinely excited, including butterflies in the stomach as I waited for it to arrive…….. and there it was, right in front of me but totally unaware that I was there. It was feeding on leatherjackets, the larva of Cranefly which it frantically dug out with it's long beak, a perfect tool for the job. The brilliant views that I was experiencing  couldn't last because people without any care, or common sense, just walked towards it, I watched them getting closer and closer in their bright jackets and gaudy gear and obviously it wasn't having any of it, and off it went!  One chap, who I won't embarrass by describing or mentioning by name, didn't know that I was there, hidden as I was in the grass and gorse.  His behaviour was reprehensible, he thought that he was alone with the bird and he tried to get as close as he could, disturbing it from it's feeding with no regard for it whatsoever.  It flew off from it's feeding which I have to be honest really annoyed me.  I emerged from my concealment, now there was just me and him, and I passed on some advice to him about his lack of proper fieldcraft and frankly his poor behaviour. He stood with a guilty look on his face knowing that he was totally out of order and he had been caught being  the kind of person that we all despise……. or should!