Tag: Tim Melling

Tim writes: I stumbled across two large caterpillars of Fox Moth in mid-October within a metre or two of each other, but no others despite searching.  This one was crawling around on the recently deceased flowers of heather on the moors.  They are big too, as long as my longest finger though not quite as…

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…

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 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 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…

Tim writes: the two British Godwits are easy to tell apart if you see them in flight.  Black-tailed Godwit has a black tail and a huge white wing stripe whereas this Bar-tailed Godwit has a barred tail and no wing stripe, rather like a Curlew.  The names of both of these birds were coined in…

Tim writes: so how does Spotted Redshank (Tringa erythropus) differ from Common Redshank (T. totanus)?  Spotted Redshank is slightly bigger and more elegant with longer legs and a longer, thinner bill that has a tiny downward kink at the tip.  Spotted Redshank also has a more well-marked face pattern with an obvious eyestripe and pale…

Tim writes: these two Spoonbills flew over me at St Aidan’s RSPB reserve in West Yorkshire in September.  Spoonbills fly with their necks outstretched unlike herons and egrets that tuck their necks in while flying.  This is an adult on the left plus a juvenile with black wing tips and I was pleased to catch…