Bee-eaters have arrived

24 birds of 10 species was a reasonably good catch for an October morning. The wind (or rather the lack of) was on our side however it got hot quickly in the sunny weather. The bottlebrush trees in the car park were bursting with flowers so that site was particularly good for catching honeyeaters.

Brood patches were obvious and plentiful particularly in Silvereyes and honeyeaters.
The highlight was a male and a female Rainbow Bee-eater caught together in the car park net. These were the first bee-eaters netted for the season, newly arrived from the north in preparation for breeding - we first saw them at Herdsman the week before.

Male Rainbow Bee-eater

Yellow-rumped Thornbill (photo by Lizzy)

Species - new (retrap)
Brown Honeyeater - 3
New Holland Honeyeater - 1
Rainbow Bee-eater - 2
Rufous Whistler - 1 (1)
Silvereye - 2 (7)
Singing Honeyeater - (1)
Striated Pardalote - 2 (1)
Western Gerygone - 1
Willie Wagtail - 1
Yellow-rumped Thornbill - (1) 
Total - 13 (11) = 24