Bee-eaters

 Thursday May 7

The birds were first reported last night as 'heard' over Eccles.  This morning, a group of 13 bird was found near Hempstead, Eccles area.We were at Cley for the weekly moth session, which was disappointing - as it has been all year. 5 Muslin moths, all in the Centre trap, was the poor total. The other two traps did not even have any flies or other insects in them. Roger was around the area last night and only saw one lit trap, the Centre trap. Are the batteries being charged?

After a drink and a chat, we set off home, passing our road to drive on to Lessingham via Happisburgh. A tell-tale sight, about eight cars parked at a steep angle on the verge of a narrow lane. Even better, birders with scopes gazing into the distance. Pam saw the birds on the distant wires, too far for me, turned round as soon as possible, stopping in a wider bit of the lane from which I took a quick few photos before traffic moved us on. Most of the five photos I was able to shoot were out of focus, two were passable. 

This is the cropped photo of five very distant birds. I did see all thirteen fly around as we stopped.

 



This photo is of the massively cropped centre bird in th photo above. The only one showing any colour as I was looking into the sun.

 


Bee-eaters are always exciting, such beautiful birds, with an attractive chirruping call.

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