bee eaters Archives - Page 4 of 4 - Craig Rogers Photography

The Bee Eater Colony Are Still Here!

16th May 201816th May 2018Craig Rogers

I have been getting quietly worried over the last few days as I have not seen or heard the local Bee Eater colony. The last time I saw them was Friday which was 5 days ago!

However, today they actually spent most of the day around the garden and even relaxing down on “A Rocha”. I always have my Nikon D7100 (Crop Camera) to hand with the 80-400mm lens so that I can grab it for record shots. So here is a few I took without even having to change out of my slippers! We are so lucky to have these around the garden. I’m not sure where they are nest building this year, so this is maybe why I have not seen them for a while.

European Bee Eater Flying Around The Garden

Another Morning With The Bee Eaters

4th May 201830th November 2018Craig Rogers

I was back at the same location as last week to try to capture a few more Bee Eater photos. The intention was to get a Male giving a catch to a Female. Whilst I saw this happen on many occasions, unfortunately, there were some branches between the camera and them, so no photos of this. However, I did manage to get a few shots.

This first one of a Female tossing a Bee in the air to catch and swallow. They do this after they have knocked the stinger against something to dislodge it.

Fluffy Bee Eater

28th April 201828th April 2018Craig Rogers

Here is another photo from my Bee Eater session a couple of days ago.

This photo is him fluffing up his feathers. Birds do this after preening to shake off any debris they have removed.

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A Morning Session With The Bee Eaters (and few others)

26th April 201830th November 2018Craig Rogers

Yesterday whilst on a Community Walk as part of the local Village’s Celebration Day I noticed a colony of Bee Eaters all sitting on a dead tree on the river bank at the other side of the village to the Quinta. The weather forecast promised a clear sunrise so I packed the camera, tripod, chair and pop-up hide last night and set my alarm for 6:15am.

The idea was to get to the river bank and erect my pop-up hide before the Bee Eaters awoke. I was awake before the alarm and after a quick Coffee I headed down to the river bank by just after 6:30am. It was already light, but the sun was still below the horizon, the only birds I could hear were the Nightingales. I set up the hide and waited patiently.

First up a small flock of Common Waxbills arrived with 2 of them sitting on the dead tree, unfortunately, I couldn’t quite get a clean background and this would take a fair bit of Photoshop work to remove.

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Yay! The Bee Eaters Are Back!

4th April 20185th April 2018Craig Rogers

Yesterday I heard my first Nightingale, but today I’ve heard the first Bee Eater of the year. They are late, they always appear on the 1st April in this area, but they are 4 days late, probably due to the weather and of course the wind that we’ve had!

Last year, they even nested on our land, so I’ll bee-keeping (see what I did there!) a keen eye on them and expect many photos.

Here are a few from last year and below a video of them attempting to build nests before deciding this was not a suitable location.

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The Bee Eaters have started to make a nest, but not so sure they are staying

21st April 20179th October 2017Craig Rogers

Early this afternoon, the Bee Eaters (Abelharucos in Portuguese) were absent from around the house so I decided to take a quick look at their handy work and also quickly erect a pop-up hide.

I sat in the hide for a short while and a breeding pair turned up. They seemed a little nervous around the area, possibly with the hide there, but did visit a few times.

Only once did the male (I think it’s the male) go to the hole that they have started but then the pair flew away. It takes up to 20 days to build the nest so hopefully they will return to complete it. I have also left the hide in place for them to get used to it being there.

You can just about work out the start of the hole on the live view on the camera;

I did manage to get this shot of one sitting in a nearby tree.