Tim writes: Yellow-browed Warbler is a puzzling bird in many ways. Its closest breeding area is just west of the Urals, which is at least 3000km from Britain, yet hundreds turn up in Britain each year, particularly in autumn. The species breeds right across the taiga zone and winters widely in Nepal, southern China and…
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Tim Melling – Red-flanked Bluetail
Tim writes: on 28 September the weather was good for photography and I hadn’t taken a photo for a few days so I decided to head for Spurn Point on the Yorkshire Coast where I had a wonderful time. This Red-flanked Bluetail was the star bird, though it was first found by someone else. I…
Tim Melling – Brown Shrike
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Tim writes: despite being an adult male, this shrike is proving problematical to identify. There seem to be three possibilities; Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus), Turkestan (Isabelline) Shrike (Lanius (isabellinus) phoenicuroides), or a hybrid between the two. Though very few hybrids involving Brown Shrike are known. When I started birdwatching these were all treated as races…
Tim Melling – Hoopoe
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Tim writes: in early October a Hoopoe turned up not far from where I live in West Yorkshire so I decided to go to see it. When I arrived there was nobody else around and I stopped the car as it walked down the road in front of me. I took several photographs of it…
Jones Hill Wood (and brood meddling)
Yesterday, Justice Lang stopped the felling of Jones Hill Wood in the ‘licensed area’ (as defined in License WML-OR58, issued by Natural England on 30 March 2021) and granted the Claimant, Mark Keir, permission for an expedited rolled up judicial review of Natural England’s licensing of the felling. This hearing will take place in the…