Valbuena and The European Bee-eater

May 26, 2020 Off By Chris and Chris

Birding Spots on our Journey Between UK and Portugal – Valbuena de Pisuerga

There’s a particular section of the E80 running between Burgos and Palencia, in Spain, with little to recommend it. It is usually busy with heavy traffic, and the countryside is marred by commercial buildings that follow the route. However, if you turn off the main drag, things can change.

Several years ago we tried the turn to Valbuena de Pisuerga. The narrow road winds up through holm oak for half a kilometre before reaching a large derelict building on the right. Opposite this there is space to pull over, giving a view of fields backed by a low wooded hill (sadly now topped with a new communications mast).

It’s an extraordinary little oasis of tranquility and has become our lunch spot of choice. It’s a wonderful place for birds at any time of the year, and at different times we expect to see Common Buzzards, Booted Eagles, Kites, and Griffon Vultures through to Black Redstarts, and various warblers and larks.

Our stop in late April 2019 was especially memorable for Bee-eaters. We heard them before we saw them and clambered up a couple of rough sandy banks into the scrub, and in front, on a slender tree, was a group of ten to twelve.

They congregated around the tree, making short forays back and forth, and centre stage, a couple were displaying and mating – an extraordinary sight, a photographer’s dream, and a long lunch break!

We stopped there on our return to UK at the end of June and the group was still there. We saw them individually hawking bees and other insects in the vicinity of the picnic spot. They had obviously found a sandy bank somewhere close to create nesting burrows. Perhaps it is a well established site, but if so, I am sure we would have seen them there before.

Distribution of the European Bee-eater

The European Bee-eater is an extraordinary looking bird with plumage more associated with the tropics than Europe. They are summer migrants from Africa, breeding in the Mediterranean area and eastwards across Turkey and into Asia. They appear in UK occasionally, and this is likely to increase as the impact of climate change increases.

In 2023 they were recorded nesting near Cromer in Norfork for the second year running. https://woodcockwood.com/where-to-see-bee-eaters/

We often see them in Portugal and Spain, mainly in the centre south but sometimes in the mountains in the north, especially in autumn. There we’ve watched them in mixed groups of martins and swallows, hawking insects. But normally they hunt from perches, selecting a dead branch offering clear views of the surrounding area.

Social behaviour and excavation of the nest hole

They are gregarious at all times and nest in colonies in holes that they excavate in sandy banks. Occasionally pairs have un-mated helpers as part of their team. The procedure for excavation seems extraordinary given the apparent delicacy of their beaks. This extract is taken from Guy Mountford’s 1954 description of their nesting behaviour in the classic study of Bee-eaters from the Camargue in France:

“… the earth of the gravel-banks was sun-baked to a very hard consistency and it was astonishing that the slender bills of the birds could make quite rapid progress in digging … The banks were roughly vertical and too smooth to offer footholds. The first assays were therefore necessarily made in flight. The birds swooped at the banks here and there, striking with partly open bills, as though testing the surface … After 15-18 attempts the bird retired exhausted to a perch near-by, where it sat panting while the work was continued by its mate.

As soon as a foothold was gained the process of digging became much more rapid; the birds supported themselves on their outspread tails, woodpecker-fashion … When the holes had progressed to a depth of 4-5 inches it was possible for the feet to be brought into play and this again resulted in a noticeable increase in effective output. The Bee-eater’s feet are too short and are set too far back to be of practical value in excavation on the face of the tunnel, but are admirably suited for the disposal of the spoil, which is kicked out backwards in a vigorous stream.”

https://britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/article_files/V50/V50_N06/V50_N06_P263_267_A038.pdf

What extraordinary birds – but aren’t they all!!