Tag: Tim Melling

  Tim writes: Snipe make a weird noise known as drumming, but it does not sound like a drum, more like a humming vibrato sound. During the early years of the twentieth century debate raged as to whether this sound was produced vocally or mechanically as wind rushed past the outer tail feathers. The conundrum…

Tim writes: In Britain, Choughs (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) are rather rare, and probably always have been as there are few English folk names for them. There are many ancient references to Chough but that is because this was the name originally applied to the Jackdaw. Shakespeare refers to Choughs in seven of his plays but at…

  Tim writes:  Goshawks are quite a difficult bird to see and photograph in Britain.  The closely related Sparrowhawk also provides an identification pitfall but this is the genuine article.  Curiously I have never heard of anyone mistaking a Goshawk for a Sparrowhawk, only the other way round.  It is one of those birds that…

Tim writes: Skylarks inhabit a variety of grasslands from sand dunes to grassy moorlands but they were most characteristic of arable farmland.  But from the late 1970s their numbers started to tumble when we switched from spring-sown to autumn-sown crops.  This hit Skylarks in several ways, not least by removing their winter stubble feeding habitat. …