A Rainy Afternoon with European Bee-eaters

Today, I’d like to share with you a beautiful afternoon I spent at a bee-eater nesting site. It had been quite a while since I last went out to photograph, and to my surprise, it turned out better than I expected. If only it always worked like this: just head out into nature once in a while and come back with a whole bunch of photos.

The main goal was to photograph European bee-eaters, something I hadn’t tried in two years. The reason for that break is pretty simple. I kept seeing so many bee-eater shots on social media that I just lost the motivation to try something so overdone and always the same. But somehow, I felt drawn to them again this year. Mostly because I had this shot in mind since spring: a bee-eater in the rain. Ideally, that elegant bird all soaked and looking like a wet chicken, or just a simple shake of the feathers that would look lovely in a photo. So I purposely chose a rainy Sunday, hoping for some interesting and slightly different bee-eater shots.

I ended up spending around seven hours at the site, from lunchtime all the way into the evening. I managed to capture the bee-eaters on “my” branch several times. While I did get a few decent shots, unfortunately, none of them were in the rain. There were actually plenty of showers throughout the afternoon, some quite heavy, but the bee-eaters somehow always showed up during the dry spells.

During the very last shower, one bee-eater finally landed on the branch and even did that “dreamed-of” feather shake. But it wasn’t nearly as intense or dramatic as I had imagined.

At one point, all the bee-eaters took off, started chirping, and circled high above the ground. I had a feeling something had happened — that’s how they act when they’re frightened. I looked around in every direction, trying to spot the reason, expecting a bird of prey must have flown by. I scanned through all the windows of the hide, but saw nothing.

The only place I didn’t think to check was my branch. And, as some of you may have seen on Facebook or Instagram, that’s exactly where a beautiful female Eurasian sparrowhawk landed. She had probably come hoping to grab a bee-eater but wasn’t successful. These are actually my first solid photos of this raptor, and I’m really glad I managed to capture them.

The weather that day was truly unpredictable, typical April conditions. One moment a heavy downpour, then an hour and a half of light drizzle, then sunshine, followed by another storm, and by evening, sunshine again. The evening light inspired me to try a few more creative shots from a slightly different angle.

I sat near the bee-eater nesting wall at a safe distance so I wouldn’t disturb them. I didn’t even need any camouflage, as I was partly hidden by a large bush, and almost as soon as I sat down, the bee-eaters kept flying around without any hesitation. For me, that was a clear sign I could continue photographing. The low light lit up the birds’ wings beautifully and also created shimmering reflections on the rain-soaked leaves, which added a really interesting effect to the scene. I wanted to find a way to bring both elements together and make use of them.

I spent quite a while fine-tuning the angle and composition, and the effort paid off. In the end, this photo stood out the most, and I’m genuinely happy with how it turned out.

Normally, I would have been more than happy with this amount of photos, but as I was leaving, another amazing opportunity came my way. And luckily, I made the most of it.

From a nearby bush, I started hearing a wood warbler. I’d never really managed to photograph this singer properly before, so I froze in place, hoping it would show itself somewhere. Although it was already after sunset and the light wasn’t ideal, the stabilization on the OM-1 worked like a charm. The wood warbler actually appeared — perched on probably the best little branch it could find (even with a little spider web :-) ). This is definitely one of the shots I’m most proud of from this spring.

Just to be clear, every single photo in this post was taken on the same day! I could hardly believe it myself. Without question, this was one of the most successful days of the year for me.