“Gruccione!”
We’re walking in Broken Tower Meadow, il Pratone di Torre Spaccata when the Puffin Whisperer says “Gruccione”. I recognise the name. It’s the Italian for the European Bee-eater, Merops apiaste. She can hear the birds, even though I can’t. We both listen intently. There it is, an unmistakable sound, a kind of echoing high-pitched clucking.
It’s poor light and late, after work, but we can see them in a distant tree. They’re launching themselves in long swooping hunting flights and returning to the same tree to perch.
This one was successful:
![Bee Eater - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Bee-Eaters-The-Hall-of-Einar-5-483x725.jpg)
I catch a composite of one in flight across the meadow:
![Bee Eater - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Bee-Eater-The-Hall-of-Einar-7-725x408.jpg)
Their plumage is extraordinary.
Then I manage to get a photograph of a hunt, just before the insect is caught:
![Bee Eater - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Bee-Eater-The-Hall-of-Einar--725x483.jpg)
We stay and watch as fourteen of them call and fly away to roost.
They are amazing.
More from il Pratone di Torre Spaccata
![Starling - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Starling-The-Hall-of-Einar-2-300x300.jpg)
![Hobby - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Hobby-The-Hall-of-Einar--300x200.jpg)
![Eastern Dappled White Butterfly - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Eastern-Dappled-White-Butterfly-The-Hall-of-Einar-7-300x200.jpg)
![Transparent Burnet - Zygaena purpuralis - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Transparent-Burnet-Zygaena-purpuralis-Moth-The-Hall-of-Einar-4-200x300.jpg)
![Trichodes alvearius Beetle - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Trichodes-alvearius-Beetle-The-Hall-of-Einar-3-300x200.jpg)
![Mullein Moth Caterpillar - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Mullein-Moth-Caterpillar-The-Hall-of-Einar-2-300x200.jpg)
![Long-Lipped Tongue Orchid - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Long-Lipped-Tongue-Orchid-The-Hall-of-Einar--200x300.jpg)
![Red-Backed Shrike - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Red-Backed-Shrike-The-Hall-of-Einar-8-300x200.jpg)
![Zitting Cisticola - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Zitting-Cisticola-The-Hall-of-Einar--300x200.jpg)