Anyone who has visited the Farne Islands will know how relentless Arctic Terns can be while defending their nests. But it's not just humans they attack. I have seen them attack Arctic Foxes, Polar Bears and other birds, such as this Glaucous Gull. When I was photographing a Grey Phalarope I was close to nesting Arctic Terns. I put my hood up and pulled the sleeves over my hands so the only thing exposed was my shutter finger. One Arctic Tern repeatedly pecked my finger until it bled from several puncture wounds. This Glaucous Gull had its eye on Barnacle goslings, but happened to be too close to the Arctic Tern's nest, so the tern repeatedly dived at the gull until it was forced to move. And not content with beak attacks, they also launch bowel attacks. It took me ages to clean the smelly guano off my coat after my phalarope photography. But you have to suffer for your art and I'm glad I endured it: www.flickr.com/photos/timmelling/53058967198/in/dateposted/

Tags:   Arctic Tern Sterna paradisaea Glaucous Gull Larus hyperboreus attacking Spitsbergen Svalbard Tim Melling

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I'm back from a trip round the island of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard Archipelago so I'll be uploading pictures from there for a while. These Polar Bears were photographed in the pack ice north of Spitsbergen which is where most Arctic seals breed and the natural habitat of Polar Bears. When we arrived one male bear was feeding on what appeared to be a dead Walrus. It had no skin but was huge, much longer than the Polar Bears. Two more bears arrived and muscled in on the food. They growled loudly at each other but there was no real aggression and all three bears enjoyed a feed. Walrus prey is unusual as Polar Bears cannot tackle an adult Walrus so I wondered if they found a dead one. These bears are both males but the third bear was a female. Incidentally this was above 80 ° North, so if you imagine the world as a clock face with the North Pole at midnight, we were less than two minutes to midnight.

Tags:   Polar Bear Bears fighting Ursus maritimus Spitsbergen Svalbard pack ice Arctic Tim Melling

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This morning I decided to check on a second Tree Pipit that I found about a week ago. He was still singing and displaying with his spectacular parachute flight so I don't think he had managed to attract a female. I managed to catch him here just as he was coming in to land with all his flight feathers fully spread. Pipits have unusually long tertials (the innermost wing feathers) which typically cloak the primaries on a perched bird so no wing tips are visible, like here on this Tree Pipit: www.flickr.com/photos/timmelling/52968201046/in/photostream/ But on this parachuting bird the long tertials protrude backwards, a bit like the tails on a swallowtail butterfly, or vampire teeth as Ben suggested.

It's not just Tree Pipits that parachute as here's a Meadow Pipit doing the same: www.flickr.com/photos/timmelling/27124200398/in/photolist

Tags:   Anthus trivialis Tree Pipit parachuting parachute display flight West Yorkshire Tim Melling

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This is a breaching Grey Whale in San Ignacio Lagoon on Mexico's Baja peninsula. Grey Whales are "Baleen Whales" meaning they have filtering baleen (whalebone) plates instead of teeth. An old term for Baleen Whales is Rorqual, which comes from Norwegian meaning "ridged whale" as most species have expandable ridges down the throat so the whale can gulp huge quantities of plankton-laden seawater like this: www.flickr.com/photos/timmelling/10622305786/in/photolist But you will notice that the throat of this Grey Whale only has three throat grooves. Grey Whales feed on benthic (bottom dwelling) invertebrates so they plough the seabed and filter out the tasty bits. To feed in this manner they need to have a robust lower jaw, and their scientific name robustus reflects this. Also feeding Grey Whales have a preferred side for bottom feeding, usually the right side, so one side of their head is usually free from barnacles and whale lice that live on Grey Whales: www.flickr.com/photos/timmelling/8553265697/in/photolist

Tags:   Eschrichtius robustus Grey Gray Whale Baja Mexico breach breaching Tim Melling

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I was walking on the Peak District moors yesterday afternoon with my wife when we heard the distinctive baritone bark of a grouse, but this one was really close. We hadn't seen him until he called but we was just a few metres away, poking his head out of a bilberry patch. Living near the moors I see Red Grouse almost daily, but it is very unusual for them to be so confiding. This is almost straight off the camera.

Tags:   Lagopus lagopus scoticus Lagopus Red Grouse South Yorkshire Peak District Moors Tim Melling

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