Tag: Tim Melling

Tim writes: It is an amazing experience making eye contact with a wild Puma. This was photographed just outside Torres del Paine National Park in the south of Chile which must be the best place in the world to see these elusive animals. This one was creeping stealthily towards some Guanaco (a South American Camel…

Tim writes: What amazing headgear this tiny Malachite Kingfisher has. Looks like it is dressed up for Ascot Ladies’ Day. Malachite Kingfishers are only about two thirds the size of the British Kingfisher but they have much longer crest feathers and have a different shade of blue on their backs. They are common and widespread…

Tim writes: The Augur Buzzard (Buteo augur) is found in upland areas of Ethiopia, plus many areas further south in Africa. It has two colour forms; a pale morph with a white body and underwing coverts, and a black morph like this one. They have an easy-to-recognise shape with bulging wings and a very short rufous…

  Tim writes: It is a myth that the name Red Admiral is a corruption of Red Admirable. The earliest recorded use of Red Admiral was posthumously by Thomas Moffet in 1634 (Moffat died in 1604 so the name must have been in use by the early seventeenth century). The name Admirable was first used…

Tim writes: Although Little Owls look totally at home in Britain they are a nineteenth century introduction that had never been recorded here historically (not even as bones or fossils). The first attempt at establishing Little Owls in Britain was actually in Yorkshire at Walton Park near Wakefield in 1834 when Charles Waterton released five…