Early this morning we had a thick fog and as it started to clear the warmth of the sun was good enough for me to wander around the garden eating my breakfast cereal. In the distance I could hear European Bee-Eaters and before I could blink a large group of between 25 and 30 of them appeared out of the fog. Almost dropping my bowl as I ran to the house to grab the camera, I was lucky that they decided to perch on a nearby electricity cable and stop to hunt for their breakfast. Photos aren’t my usual close-ups (see some past photos at the end) as I was still some distance away and of course the clearing fog didn’t help.
So Lucky To Have 3 Of My Favourite Bird Species Nearby (Plus A Rare Flyby!)
This morning, I was sat on the terrace drinking a Coffee and a pair (male and female) of Golden Orioles came into plain view in a Eucalyptus tree about 50 meters away. I wasn’t quick enough to grab the camera and get the female, but I got the male. This isn’t the same location as the nearby “Oriole Terrace” this is so much closer. They actually woke me at 6am with their stunning song, I suspect they are going to nest in this tree which is fantastic news. They also have the choice of many Fig trees nearby so is the perfect location, their Portuguese name is actually Papa-figo as Figs are their food of choice. All of the photos below are shot on my D850 and then transferred with SnapBridge to my smartphone and edited in Lightroom.
Here is a quick shot of the male.
European Bee-Eaters Hunting Through The Storm
We have just had a large and loud Thunderstorm roll through and the last thing I expected to see was a group of Bee-Eaters out hunting. Perhaps it is easier to pick off the bees in the rain?
I was perfectly huddled under a Palm Tree which not only was the perfect hide, but also the perfect umbrella.
Of course, in these conditions, the photos are never going to be perfect, but worth sharing as you don’t see this very often. They seem to be visiting this area a lot already, probably due to the fact that there are Bee Hives close by (don’t worry, they don’t have an effect on the numbers of bees). If they continue then I will be making this a more permanent location and get the big lens out!
See if you can spot the difference between the Male and Female. Hint, the male has far more chestnut brown colouring on his wings than the female.
Bee-eater Alarm Clock
As I knew it was going to be another terrible morning for light, I had a lazy morning. Around 8:30am I woke to the sound of a pair of European Bee-eaters outside the bedroom window. As the light was so bad (only nighttime could possibly be worse) I took this shot when one of them sat on a cable that didn’t have the dull grey sky in the background, it’s still fairly high ISO for a static shot at 2800.
The pair were both males, I’m unsure if this is the same pair I keep seeing as still there seems to be very few here.
European Bee-Eaters Update…..Are They Back…….?
…..sort of…..!
None of the local colonies have established yet, but there is the odd occasional Bee-Eater flying around. I suspected this cold and wet spring would delay them slightly. I remember from 2018 when we had a lot of rain in February and April, they were 2 weeks late, they are currently 9 days late.
As for photographing the ones that are here, well the light is also terrible, but here is a quick shot that I grabbed this morning of one flying quite high.
UPDATE : Since this morning the noise of these amazing birds has been increasing so it seems they are returning in numbers now. More tomorrow…..
Framed Single Edition Collection of European Bee-Eaters
Back in June I displayed at the International Show at Fatacil, Lagoa and I created a one-off collection showcasing some of my European Bee-Eater photos from 2018 and 2019.
It has been created as a never to be reproduced collection. Whilst there was a great deal of interest in this collection it remained unsold at the show. This collection is mounted in a white deep box frame measuring 30x90cm with each of the 5 photographs measuring 13x18cm.
It is now available to purchase as a unique single edition in the Web Shop. Please note, as with all my framed prints, this is collection (or meet and greet in Central Algarve) only.
{Click image to view in the shop}
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All of the content displayed on this website (unless otherwise stated) remains the copyright of Craig Rogers. It is illegal to download, copy (including copy by reference) or distribute any content without prior permission and/or licensing. Please read my Copyright Statement.
All of the content displayed on this website (unless otherwise stated) remains the copyright of Craig Rogers. It is illegal to download, copy (including copy by reference) or distribute any content without prior permission and/or licensing. Please read my Copyright Statement.