A few years in the past my good friend Martin Tickler known as me late on a gray Sunday afternoon. “You received’t consider this, David, however there’s a flock of 9 Bee-eaters sitting on the wires within the discipline behind my home.” Bee-eaters are one of the vibrant, and delightful, of all European birds, however they’re very scarce guests to Britain. The prospect of seeing 9 in my dwelling county of Suffolk was irresistible. “I’m coming!” I informed Martin, grabbing my binoculars and digicam as I spoke.
Martin lives within the quaintly named village of Pixey Inexperienced: it took me half-hour to reach at his home. He greeted me on his drive. “Sure, they’re nonetheless right here, and there’s 15 of them.” Fifteen? I’d have been proud of only a couple. I used to be led via Martin’s densely vegetated backyard to a spot within the hedge, looking over his neighbour’s fields, one in every of hay, the opposite winter barley. As we walked I may hear the Bee-eaters calling to one another, that stunning, distinctive, rolling name that at all times jogs my memory of sun-baked hills within the Mediterranean.
One of many Pixey Inexperienced Bee-eater flock, Could 2022. This was the most effective {photograph} I managed on a uninteresting, gray Could afternoon
All of the sudden, there they have been, a complete line of birds on the wires, plus people swooping after bugs. The phrase swooping is commonly misused, however no different fowl swoops fairly like a Bee-eater. Martin mentioned that he had famous that the birds have been paired, as there was courtship feeding happening, with particular person birds returning to their companions to current them with a alternative bug. As I watched I saved on counting, not simple with a lot occurring, however I reached a peak of 17, a rating echoed by Martin’s spouse, Homosexual. There was in all probability an 18th someplace round that we didn’t handle to see.
As I used to be armed with my digicam and lengthy lens I used to be anxious to get photos as proof of this extraordinary sight, however this wasn’t as simple as you may think. The wires the birds have been utilizing have been about 60 yards away, so nearly out of vary of the digicam, whereas the birds themselves have been surprisingly cautious. As if this wasn’t a enough problem, there was the sunshine, or relatively the shortage of it. It was uninteresting and flat, the solar obscured by thick cloud. If there’s a fowl that want daylight to be seen at its greatest, then it’s undoubtedly the Bee-eater. My dream of getting a shocking {photograph} was to not be. I took 150 pictures, of which a couple of have been OK, however no extra, and I did get {a photograph} with 15 birds in view without delay. An image of all 17 eluded me.
A part of the flock of 17 birds in Suffolk. The sunshine was dreadful for making an attempt to take pictures
I had been having fun with watching the birds for maybe 40 minutes after I heard the alarm calls of Home Martins (Martin has a colony of between 20 and 30 pairs nesting on his home): they’d been alarmed by a passing sparrowhawk. The Bee-eaters clearly heard the warning calls, too, as abruptly they have been up and away. I used to be certain that such a big flock of those beautiful birds can be reported elsewhere in Suffolk or Norfolk, however they simply disappeared, by no means to be seen once more. By the way, it’s price mentioning that Martin is satisfied that it was the Home Martins that decoyed within the Bee-eaters within the first place, and I’m certain that he’s proper. The Bee-eater flock was little doubt flying over when it heard the calls of the Home Martins, so got here down to research.
Watching the Bee-eaters: the RSPB watchpoint, June 2022
Three weeks after our sighting of the flock the RSPB introduced that three pairs of Bee-eaters have been nesting in a disused quarry close to the coastal village of Trimingham, in North Norfolk (50 miles to the north). This was the primary time Bee-eaters had nested in Britain since 2014 (the first-ever profitable nesting in Britain was in Sussex in 1955). Due to a pleasant land-owner, the Norfolk website was opened for guests, and 1000’s of individuals got here to see them. It might have been fascinating to know whether or not any of the Trimingham bee-eaters have been the identical birds that I had seen in Suffolk.
Most views of the Trimingham birds have been fairly distant, like this pair sitting on wires. Superb for birdwatchers, not so good for photographers
I visited the Trimingham website a number of occasions that summer time, taking pals who wished to see the birds. Every time there was a small crowd of fellow watchers. Some have been severe birdwatchers, however many have been individuals who have been simply and had come to see what all of the fuss was about. The RSPB had volunteers available with telescopes to make sure that everybody bought good views.
About my greatest shot of the Trimingham birds. They by no means got here near me
The Trimingham Bee-eaters bred efficiently, and far to everybody’s shock, 5 birds returned the next spring. This was the primary time that Bee-eaters had returned to a nesting website in Britain. Frustratingly, they weren’t profitable: it was suspected that their nest was predated by both Weasels or Stoats. (Bee-eaters are floor nesters, laying their eggs in tunnels that they excavate, making them susceptible to floor predators like Weasels). The RSPB had opened its watch level for a second yr, however it was closed early as if the birds remained within the space for a while, they not often returned to the quarry.
This pair of Bee-eaters was photographed in Northern Greece, the place they’re frequent breeding birds
After final yr’s failure hopes aren’t excessive the Bee-eaters will return to the identical website once more this yr, however in latest summers growing numbers of Bee-eaters have been recorded in England, so there’s a superb probability that they may try to breed someplace else. They’re late migrants right here, as the most effective time to see them is in late Could or early June, whereas there’s a definite southerly and easterly bias to the counties the place they’ve been seen.
Bee-eaters are floor nesters, making them susceptible to predation
The flock of 17 at Pixey Inexperienced holds the file for the largest flock within the UK this century, and the second greatest ever. The file, a flock of 18 birds, was seen in Oxfordshire in 1997. The variety of birds recorded in Britain has been growing yearly in recent times, for evidently they like our warming local weather, so it’s a definite risk that these beautiful birds will turn out to be common nesters right here within the UK within the years to come back.
