Rainbow Bee-eaters

On 5 March I was delighted to hear the calls of Rainbow Bee-eaters coming from the direction of Whiskers Creek.  I was even more delighted to see 4 of them hawking amongst the trees a little North of our property.

Unfortunately I have never managed to get an image of them flying.  This is mainly because they move very quickly and can turn on a sixpence (for young folk, that is roughly the size of a 5c coin).  When doing so they display beautiful chestnut primaries.  Truly a rainbow!

The call is very distinctive.  For those who wonder what the call sounds like ask and ye shall receive from the wonderful McCauley Library at Cornell U.  As far as I can work out it was recorded at Tumut, so has our local accent!

My sighting was the 7th in this project with most of the others being in November, suggesting that the birds were migrating through this area.  The deluge of recent days may have disturbed in their usual haunts in river banks.  They are regarded as annual 'regulars' at Hoskinstown while an observer on Widgeiewa has only seen them once in 10 years.