Tag: Tim Melling

This is an adult Great Black Hawk (Buteogallus urubitinga) the split second before snatching a fish from the water.  Its bizarre scientific name urubitinga is a native Brazilian (Tupi) word for this bird.  It is found in wooded and watery habitats throughout Central and South America. Taken with Nikon D500 Nikkor 300mm f4 lens  f4…

I photographed this male  Jaguar (known as Geoff) a few seconds after he had made an unsuccessful attempt to catch a large Caiman.  He pounced and disappeared under the water but emerged only with a mouthful of Water Hyacinth.  I photographed him in Brazil’s Pantanal region. Taken with Nikon D500 Nikkor 300mm f4 lens  f4…

The bright yellow Meadowlarks of North America are familiar but less familiar is this scarlet breasted species from southern South America.  This male had just caught a large ant and was photographed in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. Taken with Nikon D500 Nikkor 300mm f4 lens with 1.4 converter  f6.3        1/1250 ISO…

I don’t know what it is about Capybaras but many species of bird and animal use them as a perch, and they don’t seem to mind.  In fact there is Tumblr page dedicated to animals sitting on Capybaras. This one is a Wattled Jacana, sometimes known as a Lilytrotter but maybe more appropriately Capybaratrotter.  There…

These are the smallest of the three steamer ducks and the only one that can fly.  It is also the only species that is found on freshwater lakes (but can occur on the sea).  They are called steamer ducks because the two flightless species do the butterfly stroke across the surface moving rather like a…

This tiny, beautiful bird occurs in montane forest all along the Andes, but occurs more generally in Patagonia right down to the coast.  But they did not seem particularly common, and they were always on the move when I saw them so never easy to connect with.  I photographed this individual in a Southern Beech…

This is another species I have wanted to see since watching the BBC series “Flight of the Condor” way back in 1982.  Their size is absolutely amazing with a 3m wingspan (10 feet 10 inches is the biggest recorded), yet they don’t look that big in flight against the backdrop of the Andes.  In springtime…

Ocelots are elusive and highly sought-after forest cats from Central and South America.  I photographed this one in the Pantanal in Brazil after dark.  I took it without flash, but by torchlight at a very high ISO (51,200).  It was occasionally coming for small fish that had been left out though it was not guaranteed. …

Tim writes: Blooming heather is rich in nectar and attracts butterflies high onto the moors where you would not normally expect to see them.  This was photographed high on the moors of the Peak District and necessitated crawling through the heather to get an eye-level view of the butterfly.  The Painted Lady cannot survive the…