Bienenfresser

Thanks to their exotic colours and acrobatic lifestyle, most birders retain a special affection for Bee-eaters.  I certainly remember the first time I heard and then saw a flock of migrating birds in the Aeolian Islands off Sicily many years ago.  Too often reports one hears of in the UK are of fast movers in the Spring or later reported breeding accounts, most recently on the IoW I believe.  So, when I moved to Germany, it was with some interest that I learnt that Bee-eaters were breeding quite locally - less than 100 km away from where I live.

Bee-eater - Osmarsleben

Bee-eaters first started breeding in Germany in the 1980s in the Kaiserstuhl in Baden-Württemberg - the warmest place in the country and the source (I think at least) of the only truly good red wine in Germany. Throughout the following decade they spread north, eventually reaching Saschen-Anhalt by the 1990s.  Today, the warm and dry 120 km long by 20 km corridor in the rain shadow of the Harz mountains, provides ideal climatic conditions for bee-eaters and this is where Saschen-Anhalt's population is concentrated.

Bee-eater - Osmarsleben

Finding Bee-eater colonies in Saschen-Anhalt is actually not that difficult providing that you can read German.  This isn't the occasion to bore you with my relationship with the language of Goethe and Schiller, suffice to say that the late night reading of on-line bird reports and other data helps both to find birds and improve my German.  A really good example is the Vogelmonitoring in Sachsen-Anhalt 2012 which you may wish to peruse - the Bienenfressers are on page 32.  On a serious note, you will note that there is almost certainly a great deal more data made publically available than would be the case in the UK. 

Detail of Bee-eater colony - Osmarsleben

In total there were 506 breeding pairs on Bee-eaters in Sachsen-Anhalt in 2012 - 10% less than the previous year.  Despite this probable 'blip', Bee-eaters are continuing to spread north colonising suitable sandy quarries and banks wherever they come across them.  The birds in the photographs were seen close to small village of Osmarsleben and were easy to locate and observe.  Whilst I was there I met a local woman out jogging who, having been completely oblivious to the birds' presence in her own back yard, was thrilled to see them through my binoculars.  Bee-eaters seem to have that effect on people.

 

Bee-eater - Osmarsleben