I saw my first rainbow bee-eater south of Townsville, Queensland in 2010. This was the beginning, my hook bird.
The arrival of the Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops ornatus) heralds the start of the warm weather. I didn’t expect to see any this morning when I set out along the Tharwa Sandwash track at 7:30am, the weather was a cold 6 degrees with a light misty rain falling. As soon as the sun came out arounf 9:00am so did the bee- eaters. I ticked 9 in total.