rainbow bee-eater

Rainbow Bee-eater

Miraculously we had heavy rain last night which put the fires out. Two houses lost.

these birds arrive in the south of western australia to breed before heading north

Making our way back towards the car, we spotted a distant bee-eater. Fortunately he flew towards us, but didn't make life that easy, as we spent the next five minutes or so chasing him from tree to tree before I could get a picture. It seems ages since I had last seen one.

After lunch we went off exploring more of the reserve and turned up at the delightfully named Gum Hole. A large water hole in the middle of nowhere. These lovely bee-eaters are found over most of Australia and really are very colourful.

On a dead tree in the middle of the dam was a pretty Rainbow Bee-eater.

We took the track down towards the beach, but it took an awful long time to reach it, as the land to the right of the path had ummm.... well.... quite a bit of interest for us birders! A small flock of Little Corellas flew noisily around the top of a distant tree, but an old dead tree nearer to...

they are back again for the summer

Rainbow Bee-eater http://johnfoss.yolasite.com/rainbow-bee-eater.php

This Bee-eater stopped long enough to pose nicely for the camera.

Taken at Nullagine river near Marble Bar,WA. It is hard to do justice to this bird in flight.When the sun shines through the wing panels it is spectacular but it is difficult to take a photo when the bird is between you and the sun and still get the exposure right!And yet we try!

There back again for the summer

Extended tail feathers present on the adult birds .

They have such super coloured plumage.

Must have been a good season lots of immature birds around. Info for Delia this was a dull day with dark birds set against the sky , the 7D doesn't handle a high ISO very well so this is the max I will use :- ISO 1250 . F 7.1 .1/1250 Sec and an exp bias of +1.7 . All needed to get any detail...

Another image from the Queensland trip.