Mia Grundy

But sometimes that doesn't happen.

And so, you know, it just requires so much patience.

And I saw a sacred kingfisher locally to me.

This would have been a couple of months ago.

And I really wanted a photo of it.

But unfortunately, it flew away as soon as I had everything set up.

So I went back there the next week and I got that photo.

So it requires, you know, persistence, determination.

And yeah, I don't really think there's a hobby quite like it.

I've always been drawn to their colours, as many of us are, but I think they're just, they're so compact and cute and the way they fly, it's like a kite.

You know, you can get, I don't know exactly how many, but I've seen six on one branch before and, you know, they, with all the insects in the mouth, the invertebrates, I just think it's so beautiful and it's a really great species to capture and

I hadn't actually seen a rainbow bee eater until January of this year and so I'd been telling all my friends when they were like oh what's your favorite species I told them it was that but I'd never seen one yeah so I'd actually I'd heard them in 2021 when I went to Central Australia as a land management tour but I didn't see them and so it's kind of been my quest and yeah in January I

My grandpa, my partner and I, we went out to the Flinders Ranges in South Australia and we went to a little town called Hawker on the way and straight away I looked out of the car and I didn't really believe it.

I was like, I think that's a rainbow beater.

And I was like, oh no, it's flown away.

I'm never going to see it again.

And then we hopped out of the car at the camping site and I reckon we saw upwards of 20 to 30 and

I was just in my element.

I think we arrived at 9am that morning and I was just walking around.

It's quite a small town, you know, just walking around this small town during, you know, the middle of summer when it's like 40 degrees, just looking at the sky and, you know, the little wire fences and branches.