Back in 2006 I had the opportunity to do an RSPB sabbatical colleagues to assist with some bird surveys in the Gola rainforest in Sierra Leone, West Africa. This is the largest remnant of Upper Guinean Tropical Rainforest left in Sierra Leone. It covers nearly 700 square kilometres with more than 330 bird species,…
Category: THE PHOTOGRAPHS: by Tim Melling, Oscar Dewhurst, Paul Leyland, Guy Shorrock, Brian Leecey
Paul Leyland – Dark-edged Bee Fly
Paul writes: This is an early spring fly, which I’m hoping to see in the next week or so, however the recent cold weather may put things back a week or more. This one I found last year, on 30 March, at Burton Riggs Nature Reserve, near Scarborough. The Dark-edged Bee-fly (Bombylius major) occurs throughout…
Tim Melling – Siberian Meadow Bunting
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Tim writes: Well I normally like to isolate my photographic subjects but this perch wasn’t quite what I had in mind for my first Siberian Meadow Bunting (Emberiza cioides), which is usually now known simply as Meadow Bunting. I have long been fascinated by this species which was illustrated in Thorburn’s Birds as it…
Paul Leyland – Tawny Mining Bee
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Paul writes: This is one of my favourite bees, mainly because it’s one of the first solitary bees to emerge in Spring. This is a freshly emerged female and is wonderfully striking with its rich orange fur and dark black legs. Its common name is the Tawny Mining Bee. It’s very easily spotted in late…
Tim Melling – White-capped Water Redstart
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Tim writes: This will be a familiar bird to anyone who has spent time near a river in SE Asia. They are noisy, bold, and very photogenic. They were once placed in a genus (Chaimarrornis) but molecular studies have shown it is definitely a typical redstart, in the same genus as our two British species. …
Paul Leyland – The Footballer
Paul writes: This is a beautiful brightly coloured hoverfly. It is sometimes known as The Footballer, probably from the days when lots of teams wore striped shirts! It’s one of the commonest and most widespread hoverflies and is seen throughout the UK. It has a long flight period. I usually see them from the…
Tim Melling – Przewalski’s White-throated Dipper
This is the same species of Dipper that occurs in Britain but is of the Tibetan and Chinese subspecies Przewalski. I posted it for interest because it does look subtly different from European Dippers. This one has a wholly dark belly, lacking the brighter orange band that we have on British Dippers.. I’m finding it…
Paul Leyland – Gasteruption jaculator
Paul writes: This strange looking creature, with a marvellous name, is a parasitic wasp. It is quite harmless to humans as the appendage to its abdomen is not a sting but an oviposter. The wasp searches out for nests of solitary wasps or bees. Once a nest is found the wasp bores its oviposter into…
Tim Melling – Crested Kingfisher
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Crested Kingfisher (Megaceryle lugubris) ranges from northern India, across China to Japan. They seem to occur at pretty low density on large, fast flowing, clean rivers. They perch on wires, branches and rocks but they do not hover. Like most Kingfishers they excavate nesting tunnels in river banks. I photographed this one with its tail…
Paul Leyland – Clytus arietis
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Paul writes: This is a small longhorn beetle, averaging about 14mm body length, commonly known as the Wasp Beetle. This mimicry of the Common Wasp (amongst others) helps protect it from predators, mainly birds, even though it is harmless. It’s a good pollinator of flowers as it likes sunbathing in hedgerows and woodland rides in…