Tag: Tim Melling

Tim writes: These are Magellanic Penguins braying next to their offspring.  They are closely related and very similar to the African Penguin, which is often known as the Jackass Penguin, because of its donkey-like braying call.  And Magellanic Penguins make a similar donkey call, which these were both making when I took the photograph.  All…

Tim writes: This is one of the largest King Penguin breeding colonies on the planet.  It is at a place called Salisbury Plain on the British Dependency island of South Georgia.  King Penguins take about 14-16 months from egg-laying to fledging, so only nest once every two years.  But this means there can be eggs,…

Tim writes: This is a male Tibetan Macaque, sometimes known as Milne-Edwards’  or Chinese Stump-tailed Macaque (Macaca thibetana).  They are the largest species of Macaque and occur mainly in Eastern Tibet and Western China.  He was watching over his harem of females when I took this and did not like me stopping to take his…

Tim writes: superficially this looks like a Blackbird, but when you look closely you see the beak and tail are too long. This is a Plain Laughingthrush (Garrulax davidi),  which is only found in the mountains of China (1600-3500m) and is not particularly common in the limited range where it does occur.  Moreover, like other…

Tim writes: I have posted photos of Red Pandas before but this was an unusually confiding wild individual that I thought it was worth sharing.  They spend most of the year hidden in bamboo thickets, venturing into the trees in autumn in search of berries and rosehips.  This one was down a bank so I…

Tim writes: that tiny white patch on the throat gives rise to the common name of this Redstart.  It occurs mainly in China and Tibet at high altitudes (2500-4500m), descending to lower altitudes in winter.  It feeds on insects in summer, but feeds mainly on berries in winter.  It is particularly fond of Sea Buckthorn…

Tim writes: the Swinhoe’s Striped Squirrel (Tamiops swinhoei) is only found in high altitude forests (usually 2500-3000m) in China, northern Myanmar and northern Vietnam.  I photographed this individual at about 2800m at Labahe in Sichuan, China.  It is a tree-dwelling squirrel, though I managed to capture this individual freezing, when it was half way across…

Tim writes: Unlike released pheasants in the British countryside, wild pheasants are typically elusive and catching a glimpse of one in the open is difficult enough.  This was my first truly wild Lady Amherst’s Pheasant (or White-bellied Golden Pheasant as they call it in China), although I did see several in England during the period…

Tim writes: I came across two female Takins in the forest, and each female had a calf, one from this year and one from last year.  The two-year old calf kept trying to show dominance over the younger calf, and this is the moment when the older calf with horns charged at the younger calf…

Tim writes: This attractive bird lives in forests in the Himalayas and Southern China.  It was once a common cagebird and I saw my first ever one in Britain several decades ago, when it went by the name of Pekin Robin.  But it isn’t related to Robins.  It is in the Laughingthrush family, but it…