I was sitting enjoying the end of the hot sunny day when a large group of European Bee-Eaters came to hunt in an area next to the Quinta. I grabbed the camera and hid behind a bush, I wasn’t as close as I needed to be, but with a bright purple T-shirt on, it wouldn’t have been a good idea. I did manage to get a male coming into land next to his female partner. The early evening setting sun lit up his wings beautifully.
The Nesting Site Of The Local European Bee-Eaters
This morning I awoke to thick hill mist but knew as soon as the sun peaked above the ridges it would burn off quickly. I didn’t really have a plan with so much going on around the Quinta. I knew the Bee-Eaters wouldn’t be around until the mist completely cleared so headed briefly down to the Kingfisher perch. I stayed for an hour but none appeared and soon enough I heard the Bee-Eaters waking up.
I headed to the location where they have started to build their nest tunnels and set myself up inside a large bush camouflaged out of sight. These long tunnels keep the eggs (can be up to 8!) safe from predators. It’ll take them a while to dig the tunnel in preparation for laying at the beginning of June.
I tried something new this morning as not to scare them away. I used the Nikon D850 in live view mode with silent shooting. The D850 actually is totally silent in this mode. I’m not a big fan of the D850’s live view autofocus and rarely trust it, but it seemed to do the job OK, albeit not as pin sharp as it should be.
Proof that European Bee-eaters Grow On Trees! :)
The numbers of European Bee-eaters locally is huge this year and the numbers seem to keep growing. They MUST be growing on trees! This one colony is in excess of 30 birds.
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First Session of 2019 With The European Bee-Eaters
After today we are (hopefully) getting 5 rainy days so as it was the final day of guaranteed sun I decided to have my first session of the year with the local European Bee-Eaters since they returned a few days ago.
I have been sat in my editing studio for 2 days whilst I could hear Bee-Eaters all around the house, this morning I headed out and it was silence everywhere. I checked all the local spots and nothing apart from a quick view of 2 flying off into the distance.
After about 45 minutes of searching and almost giving up I could hear them in the distance so I headed to a spot I had seen them perched many times. Hiding under my camo net inside some reeds I waited. It was a long wait of almost an hour before they turned up but as you can see from the results, a well deserved gift for waiting.
Whilst I was waiting, I also heard my first Golden Oriole of the year!
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Bee-Eaters In The Garden
So, I’m in my processing studio trying to work on some photos from a huge FotoSul shoot a few days ago and all I can hear is Bee-Eaters outside.
It’s a terrible day for photography today with some thunderstorms in the area taking all the light away with thick clouds but I couldn’t resist to have a look and find 3 Bee-Eaters sitting on an electricity cable. They seem to be having an argument which was making me laugh.
It looks like the 2 on the left of the photo are males and the one on the right (shouting!) is a female. The argument seemed to be going on between the male on the left and the female.
Morning Dog Walk: The Bee Eaters Are Back!
I take a camera along on my Dog Walks to bring you some of the sightings that I see on my morning walks, these photos are rarely going to be great quality as its hard enough keeping an energetic Dog entertained and get close enough to anything. They also help me identify where species are so that I can plan to return.
They arrived 2 days earlier than normal which makes up for their late return last year due to the rains. I’m in no rush to try to get up close as it could cause them to panic so I sat an watched them for a while this morning.
I actually think that there are 2 colonies that have arrived, as I could see and hear 2 groups from my high vantage point (which happens to be part of my garden!) but it could just be one large colony split. Here is a photo I got from my vantage point, there are 7 in this shot, but many more where flying low down in the valley I overlook.
I will monitor this tree for the next few days and if it becomes a meeting point then I will plan on getting closer. Of course, these could just passing through too!
If you are planning on getting shots of them, just be careful during the next week or so as they will be looking for nesting spots and human presence can cause them to change location.
If it was April 1st then I would have written this blog differently, suggesting that Bee Eaters don’t migrate, they grow on trees!
