Seldom have much luck getting close to Rainbow Bee-eaters (Merops ornatus) when I've a camera in hand. Large flocks close up against blue skies are memories of non-photographic yesteryears.
But there have been a few pirripping here and there in paperbarks and launching out after dragonflies and other insects - almost certainly not bees. (At risk of repeating myself, Rainbows rarely show any interest in Tyto honeybees, which four years ago swarmed in to a large tree hollow and took over from a pair of Masked Owls.)
Two of the birds this week proved a little less wary than the rest. The light was ever changing as clouds white and grey rushed west, now and then leaving frustratingly small blue holes and some sunlight.
Just my luck, though, to find the one bird that stayed low and let me walk up to it looked as if it recently went through a car wash - backwards! It seemed healthy, without any sign of parasites. Just moulting, I suppose. The other bird let me even closer, without ever presenting itself in good light or at good height. B..... bee-eaters!
Beautiful birds WHEN you catch them! That one is certainly scruffy.
ReplyDeleteTony, Tony, Tony, not what we expect from you, surely you could nave used the clone tool in the Gimp and clothed the bird properly! ;-) Seriously though, beautiful birds, very nice pictures, I've found bee-eaters very hard to approach too. Haven't been at their usual haunt since the big floods year before last took all their perching trees away.
ReplyDeleteHi Mick: And now they've all vanished again.
ReplyDeleteHi Duncan: Among the many mysteries of life I count the precision use of clone tools. I just bang away with a soft brush and get lucky now and then.