Samburu National Reserve, Kenya, AfricaOn Safari
Out in the rolling hills of Samburu the hum of crickets fill the air like a morning chorus punctuated by a sharp snapping sound. Scanning the scene before me some flits of bright green and blue make their way to a tree near me. No time to register what I’m shooting the bee eater stops and poses on the tree, looks in the perfect direction to allow a spark of sunlight to bring life to it’s eye then flits off to another tree. “Bee eater!” my local guide says “And do you hear that snapping sound? It’s the bee eaters knocking the stingers off the insects until all the venom is released”
A pretty remarkable experience to not only see these birds snatch bees right out of the air, but also hear them preparing their breakfast.
Photographic details: I had not choice but to just fire at the thing that was moving in front of me, no time for a change of settings, I just had to hope what I was using to photograph the Guineafowl previously was good enough to shoot the bee eater. The time it took to realize the birds were there, aim my camera and squeeze out a shot must have been 1 second, my next shot was a blur of yellow and green, I’ll upload that for a laugh, it goes to show how quickly an opportunity can turn into an empty branch.
1/400s f/7.1 ISO320 400mm
The flurry of feathers just 1 second later:
P.S. Bonus points if you can tell me exactly which Bee-eater this is!