Standing up for Nature
Tim writes: this is a Gentoo Penguin photographed at Neko Harbour on the Antarctic peninsula. This far south the place is full of snow and ice, but penguins usually climb to bare ground at the top of hills to nest as most species will not nest on snow. The two main reasons for this seemingly…
Tim writes: this is the rare white morph of the Southern Giant Petrel (Macronectes giganteus). I have tried and failed to find out how rare this white morph is, but I have only seen about 6 during two trips to Antarctica, whereas I have seen thousands of brown ones. Usually white morph birds have a…
Tim writes: the Falkland Steamer Duck (Tachyeres brachypterus) is a flightless duck that is endemic to the Falkland Islands. They are called Steamer Ducks because they paddle across the water surface using their wings in the manner of a paddle-steamer. Charles Darwin described this movement much better in his Voyage of the Beagle (1833) “These…
Tim writes: Southern Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonina) is the largest species of pinniped (seals and sea-lions) in the world. It is 40% heavier than Northern Elephant Seal and more than twice as heavy as a Walrus. The largest ever male Southern Elephant Seal was 6.85m long with an estimated weight of 5000kg. Research has shown…
Tim writes: Striated Caracara is now a very rare bird. It breeds on a few islands off Tierra del Fuego but is commonest on the Falkland Islands. But the numbers on the Falklands are massively depleted so the population there is only around 500 pairs. They are totally indifferent to humans, which led to their…
Tim writes: skuas are closely related to gulls but differ in their bill structure. In summer a lid develops from the base of the bill covering the nostrils. In fact, the old name Pomatorhine for Pomarine Skua translates from Greek as lidded nose, and that lid is visible here in the sitting bird. These are…
Tim writes: according to the RSPB, 2019 was a record year for Hen Harriers in England with 33 young fledged from 9 nests. But it is within my memory that 30 pairs nested in Lancashire’s Forest of Bowland alone. Nine nests for the whole of England is perilously low. Quoting from RSPB recently “Hen harriers…
Tim writes: I’m old enough to remember when Cetti’s Warblers were a very rare bird in Britain. The first one ever to be recorded in Britain was in 1961 and breeding was confirmed in 1972. But since initial colonisation numbers have increased to around two thousand singing males. But most of these are in the…
Tim writes: penguins usually seem to stick with their own species, even when they nest in the same area. So this was a rare instance of inter-specific aggression between a Macaroni and a Chinstrap Penguin. I took the photograph at the south end of South Georgia where both species breed. This was at the beginning…
Tim writes: Great Shearwater was my final one of the regularly occurring bird species that I managed to see in Britain (back in 1990). Though it is very rare in Britain away from the Southwest, and even there it only occurs in late summer/early autumn after strong westerly gales. Most bird migration is generally in…
