A Flash of Beauty: Bee-eater Quattro

An early morning ride up the coast to Broadland Sands holiday park area revealed little in the way of new migrants. The Sand Martins were busy collecting dry grass for their sandy burrows, with a few Swallows moving northwards. A Lesser Whitethroat rattled unseen in the tamarisk.

Heading back along the coast road, a rolling prruup faintly sounded overhead: the unmistakable call of a Bee-eater. This peripatetic chromatic nomad is often heard before it is seen - if it can actually be glimpsed high in its aerial realm. I swiftly triangulated the calls: multiple birds heading rapidly south. 1, 2, 3…a quattro of this loquacious rainbow overshooter. I watched them glide and dart as they descended towards Corton (St. Bartholomew’s) church where they were lost to view (and, inevitably, a few minutes away from flying over my garden). I have been fortunate to find several vis-mig Bee-eaters over the years, but this is the largest group of this charismatic species to date.

Alerting birders to the south enabled several fortunate observers to intercept the party as they speedily headed down the Suffok coast and back to the continent. The quattro were presumably the party seen at Kilnsea, East Yorkshire, the previous day.

Bee-eater quattro east coast sightings track (all south):

Friday, 2nd May 2025

Kilnsea, East Yorks, 13:39

Saturday, 3rd May 2025

Corton, Suffolk, 08:19

Southwold, Suffolk, 09:03

Walberswick, Suffolk, 09:06

North Warren, Suffolk, 09:37