Tag: Tim Melling

Tim writes: what’s the difference between a Weasel and a Stoat?  I remember the old joke from my childhood about one being weasily recognised as the other is stoatally different but they are not easy to separate unless you get a good view.  Weasels are small, from head to tail ranging from 21-27cm including a…

Tim writes: this was one I took of an obliging male Dotterel on Lancashire’s Pendle Hill in late April.  I was particularly pleased with this shot as you can even see the semi-palmations between its toes which are obscured when it is in vegetation.  An old Norfolk folk name for Dotterel is “Stone Runner” and…

Tim writes: It was more than thirty years ago when I first saw a Black-browed Albatross; a lost individual that resided in a Gannet breeding colony at Hermaness on Unst on the Shetland Isles.  This one was photographed off the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic where they breed in good numbers.  Many albatrosses have…

Tim writes: here are two Hourglass Dolphins belting through the water alongside our ship.  You cannot quite see the wavy, white hourglass flank marking that gives rise to the name on these individuals.  They are only found in Antarctic and sub-Antarctic waters, usually in deep water.  We saw several groups coming to bow-ride our ship…

Tim writes: these are all Southern Rockhopper Penguins (Eudyptes chrysocome) returning from a foraging trip to their noisy nesting colony in the Falklands.  Arthur Cobb, after whom Cobb’s Wren is named, once described the noise of a Rockhopper colony  “as if thousands of wheelbarrows, all badly in need of greasing, are being pushed at full…

Tim writes: this baby Gentoo Penguin was wide awake while its parent standing guard is seizing the opportunity for a little snooze.   They normally lay two eggs so it is likely that one egg or small chick will have been taken by a South Polar Skua.  The parents share incubation and child-minding duties, having daily…

Tim writes: I had some good fortune photographing Bitterns at Old Moor RSPB reserve in South Yorkshire recently.  A brood of three nearly-fledged youngsters were clambering about in the reeds waiting for their mum to return with a crop full of fish.  The photos show the adult female setting off on a foraging flight, plus…

Tim writes: this beautifully sculpted iceberg was floating in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea.  I thought that the three birds would barely show as it was taken with a wide-angle lens but I now think they add a special something and they give it scale.  The birds are Snowy Sheathbills, affectionately known as Shit Chickens because they…

Tim writes: Cobb’s Wren (Troglodytes cobbi) is endemic to the Falkland Islands, which means it occurs nowhere else on the planet.  And even within the Falkland Islands it only occurs on smaller offshore islands where rats have not been introduced.  On the larger islands introduced rats have driven them to extinction.   I photographed this…

Tim writes: this Wilson’s Petrel has rather spoilt its perfect reflection by dipping its feet into the water, but you can see the diagnostic yellow webs between its toes which identifies it from all other storm petrels.  It is thought that they attract prey by dipping their yellow webs in the water.  They feed on…