Guest blog by Jenny Shelton, RSPB Investigations
When you see a bee-eater for the first time, darting from a treetop to swipe a bee out of the blue sky, in a flash of rainbow wingbeats, it’s easy to see why these birds are a treasure worth seeking out.
This summer a Nottinghamshire quarry was unexpectedly brightened by the arrival of seven of these southern European stunners. We think around 10,000 people flocked to see them, aged from four to 94 years old, and from as far afield as Durham and Devon.
Bee-eaters have turned up on our shores a handful of times before – but never successfully nested. It was a real ‘birding’ event and watching people break into smiles was a joy: after all, enthusing people about nature is what the RSPB is all about!
Then, at the end of July, I received an email from the Autumnwatch production team saying they’d like to come and film the bee-eaters. What's more, they wanted to bring Michaela Strachan! We were delighted at the prospect of millions of viewers learning about bee-eaters and how the RSPB protects rare species. Besides, who could turn down the chance to go birding with Michaela Strachan?
I’m not sure what you were doing on 1 August this year, but I spent the day sitting in a quarry car park drinking cups of coffee with the film crew, waiting for seven now-famous bee-eaters to show up. The early summer heatwave felt like a distant memory as we huddled in rain macs against the drizzle, Michaela entertaining us with tales of her time on Splash! and how she’d much rather do Strictly (seriously, how have they never asked her?!).
The birds had been obliging the crowds with stunning views all summer, but now the TV cameras were here, they’d come over all camera shy. Typical.
Finally, several cups of coffee and Co-op sandwiches later, my boss Mark Thomas’s voice crackled out over the radio: "They’re here!". We dashed outside in time to see a flurry of bee-eaters flying overhead and alighting on a row of nearby trees. It was time to get the cameras rolling.
The RSPB's Mark Thomas with Michaela Strachan
I also managed to do a little filming with Michaela myself, just as the birds turned up...
Sadly the cold spell meant more than just us feeling a little bit gloomy and getting cold fingers. The odd and absent behaviour of the bee-eaters that day had set alarm bells ringing for bee-eater mastermind Mark and, sure enough, shortly after filming, it was confirmed that the bad weather had caused the bee-eater chicks to perish. There’s really nothing more we could have done – the birds were carefully and diligently protected from predators and from disturbance, but we just couldn’t do anything about the weather.
Still, it was a big disappointment, especially for the volunteers and wardens who had spent hundreds of hours guarding the birds.
Says Mark: “I’ve been involved in five bee-eater summers since 2002 and it’s the public’s reactions that really gets us excited. I love seeing people experiencing the wonder of birds for the very first time, and if seven misplaced, wandering rainbows can ignite a passion for the natural world in a few more souls, then that’s got to be a good thing. My own two children will remember the bee-eaters forever. We’ll also remember the humble juvenile robin that was literally running between the legs of the hundreds of visitors at the view point each day, as if to say ‘look at me! I’m worth watching too!’.”
Three generations of Smiths on a family outing to see the bee-eaters
I myself spent a lot of time at the quarry, talking to the people who’d come to see the birds. It was great to see families and friends getting out in the fresh air to share in the bee-eater ‘buzz’. People were painting them and doing school projects on them. I ran into three generations of Smiths (Dad Phil, his teenage son James and his father Bernard) who’d made a special trip to see the birds together. Look how happy they are! Birdwatching – that great bridger of generations.
Another big fan was Sheila, from Derbyshire, who told me “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful flying free in the countryside.”
So the bee-eaters' appearance was as fleeting as it was beautiful, painting a grey sky with colour then vanishing as quickly as it came. It’s expected that climate change will deliver more bee-eaters, though it’s almost impossible to predict exactly where they’ll turn up next time. But the call will come, and when it does, we will dust off the manual and leap into action again, such is the pull of a rainbow and the gold we are trying to secure at its end.