Tag: Tim Melling

Tim writes: this is a wild Northern Harrier giving me eye-to-eye contact as it flew right over my head at Reifel Bird Sanctuary near Vancouver.  It is a youngster, hatched this year and identifiable by the rufous wash on its underparts.  I can also identify this as a juvenile male because it has greenish eyes. …

Tim writes: The Anna’s Hummingbird is about 10cm from bill tip to tail and weighs less than five grams.  It was named after Princess Anna d’Essling the 19th century  Duchess of Rivoli, wife of Prince Victor Massena and son of one of Napoleon’s Marshalls.  It was named by René Lesson, a French naturalist who also…

  Tim writes: This butterfly is declining right across its European range and Britain has not bucked the trend.  This individual was photographed at Finglandrigg National Nature Reserve in North Cumbria.  It typically occurs on marshy grassland where its foodplant Devil’s-bit Scabious occurs, but some colonies occur on chalk downland in the south.  The plant…

Tim writes: Northern Eggar (Lasciocampa quercus callunae) is a large day-flying moth that is currently considered to be the northern form of the Oak Eggar (L. quercus).  Northern Eggar is darker with distinct wing marking differences (eg paler shoulders and an S-shaped cross band), it has a two year life cycle (not one year like…

  Tim writes: Whinchat is now largely an upland bird in Britain having suffered a 47% range contraction since 1968-72.  A range contraction means that a 10km square that had breeding Whinchats (could have been one or dozens of pairs) in the 68-72 Atlas, did not hold breeding Whinchats in the 2007-11 Atlas.  Monitoring of…