Northycote farm

Today i went back to Northycote farm for some more voluntary work and i didn't see many birds but we did go on a fungi walk.
Here is what i saw:

Jackdaw, Pied wagtail, Nuthatch, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Robin, Buzzard, Greenfinch, Sparrow hawk, Wood Pigeon.

On the fungi walk we saw a lot of mushrooms including:

Candle snuff
Earth Ball
Liberty cap (better known as magic mushrooms)
And a lot more

I shall post again about Northycote farm on the 8th of november and i shall probably do a post on the blog about my garden before then

update

I am updating my pictures page and my life list.
Enjoy
James

roesells cricket

here you go jason

The Summer Update

Hi readers this is what youve all been waiting for and here it is. This is what i have been doing all summer starting from the 16th of june to the 3rd of september. (Any important photos i shall post in the pictures page).

On the sixteenth of june me and my dad walked along the canal from wolverhampton to where i live and in total we saw:
Walk along the canal- 16/6/12
Coot x24 and x18 chick and 2 nest and 2 eggs, Swift or house martin x6, Mallard male x30, Mallard female x20 and 21 chicks, Woodpigeon 10+, Magpie 10+, Mute swan x2 and 2 signets, Moorhen x12 and chicks 21+, House sparrow 10+, greater black backed gull x1, Canada goose 5+ and chicks5+, Blackbird  5+, Pintail male x1, Starling 10+.

On the 25th of july i went birding with my grandad to saltwells wood, we didnt see much but here is what we did see:
Saltwells wood- 25/7/12
Woodpigeon, Grey squirrel, Magpie, Robin, Carrion crow, Jay, Common tern, Mallard, Mute swan, Coot, Black headed gull, Great crested grebe, Lbb gull, Blackbird, Canada goose, House sparrow.

On the same day we were passing leasowes park so we stopped in there briefly and we saw:
Leasowes park- 25/7/12
Magpie, Greenfinch, Blue tit (juvenile), Blackbird, Canada goose, Mute swan, Coot, Woodpigeon, Mallard, Moorhen.

On july the 28th i went on holiday with my family to france, we stayed near the city of limoges at a village called lussac les eglises and just outside the village there is a place called les bouiges and we discovered that there is a lake just down the road with a hide. It is called etang du murat (check it out on google maps) i did most of my birding there but we went cycling a lot so i did birding on the road aswell. we came back on the 3rd of August but during my time there this is what i saw (by the way i wrote it down for day and evening because i knew there would be different birds) I also wrote down wildlife:

France- 28/7/12
Coot, Beaver, Grey heron, Purple heron(new), Large birds of prey (they were silhouetted so i couldnt tell),  Medium birds of prey(they were silhouetted so i couldnt tell), Great crested grebe, Mallard, Deer, Jay, Blue tit (juv), Blue tit, Swallow, House sparrow, Slug, Bat, Goldfinch.

29/7/12

Day-
Swallow, Blue tit (juv), Great tit, Black redstart, House sparrow, Goldfinch, Cormorant, Grey heron, Great crested grebe, Pied wagtail, Great crested grebe (juv), Buzzard, Blue tit, Kestrel, House Martin, Collared dove, Stonechat(new), Carrion crow.
Evening
Grey heron, Great crested grebe, Deer, Beaver, Buzzard, Pied wagtail, Fox.
30/7/12
Early morning
1 Grey heron, 2 Beaver, 5+ Great crested grebe, Cormorant, Coot, Buzzard, Some kind of warbler?, Purple heron(new), 4 foxes, 2 rabbits, Mallard.
Day
Swallow, Redstart (new), Stonechat, Buzzard.
Evening
Grey heron, Great crested grebe, Beaver, Rabbit, Carrion crow.
31/7/12

Day
Great tit, Heard woodpecker drumming, Buzzard, Swallow, Carrion crow, Possible rough legged buzzard.

Evening
Buzzard, Deer running about 2 metres in front of and along side me as I was cycling.

1/8/12

Day
Swallow, Buzzard, Carrion crow, House sparrow, House Martin, Collared dove, Stonechat, Coot, Great crested grebe, Grey heron, Lapwing.

Evening
Grey heron, Coot, Fox, Great crested grebe, Beaver, Carrion crow, Purple heron, Rabbit.
2/8/12

Day
Blue tit, Black redstart, Great tit, Buzzard.
Evening
Blackbird, Jay, Grey heron, Coot, Rabbit, Fox, Great crested grebe, Mallard, Beaver, Carrion crow, Cormorant.

3/8/12
Day
Blue tit, Blackbird, Carrion crow, Swallow, House sparrow.
Evening
Blackbird, Grasshopper, Grey heron, Coot, Great crested grebe, Mallard, Jay, Beaver, Deer.

On the 7th of august i went birding at sandwell valley nature reserve with my grandad, heres what we saw:

Sandwell valley - 7/8/12
Mallard, Woodpigeon, Coot, Swift, Goldfinch, Cormorant, Moorhen, Tufted duck, Canada goose, Magpie, Black headed gull, Lapwing, Pochard, Goldfinch (juv), Great tit, Stock dove, Starling, Female bullfinch, Reed warbler, Grey heron, House Martin, Blue tit, Wren, Carrion crow, Mute swan and signets, Lesser/greater black backed gull, Mallard, Green woodpecker heard only.

I went to Center Parcs with my family and friends.
Center Parcs Sherwood Forest- 10 august - 14 August

1 mute swan 4 signets, Moorhen, Robin, Mallard, Woodpigeon, Greylag goose, Canada goose, Magpie, Jay, Jackdaw, Great tit, Goldfinch, Chaffinch nest.

During my time at Center Parcs i had a go at falconry. The birds were- barn owl, american kestrel, buzzard, eagle owl and two i cant remember but they were an eagle and a hawk. i shall do a post on this as soon as i get the photos of me doing it. But i have made a montage video that you can watch on youtube at this address http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL1hDfty8wg&feature=plcp.

On august 31st I went to a museum with my grandad and on the way back we popped into upton warren and we saw an Osprey, i was very happy as it was a new bird and i had always wanted to see one. i could have stayed watching it for hours but we had to get back for dinner.
Heres a photo my grandad took:

 

Me and my grandad went to upton Warren on Monday 3rd September. This is what we saw:

Upton warren- 3/9/12
 

Moors pool

Magpie, Blackbird, Wood pigeon, Canada goose, Black headed gull, Mallard, Coot, Osprey, Little owl (new), Grey heron, Mute swan, Moorhen, Greylag, Cormorant, Hobby (new), Buzzard, Kingfisher (new), Raven (new), Greenfinch, Coal tit, Great tit, Great crested grebe, Bullfinch.
 

North moors pool

Great tit, Blue tit, Blackbird.

 

Sailing pool

Great crested grebe, Black headed gull.

The flashesMoorhen, Wood pigeon, Carrion crow, Osprey, Green sandpiper x5 (new), Snipe, Lapwing, Curlew 20+, Teal, Starling, Pied wagtailx2, Mallard.

 

 

Thats all for the moment. there will be an update of my life list  and photos of my birding outings on the pictures page

coming up

Hi readers just to let you know i haven't posted since june so i have a lot to catch up on. i shall be writing a blog post including photos and should be posting it tomorrow evening. It will include:

• days out birding with my grandad (eg. saltwells wood, upton warren, sandwell valley etc.)
• my trip to france
• my falconry experience (There won't be photos of me but as soon as i get hold of them i shall upload them in a seperate post)
• a walk along the canal with my dad.
• an update of my life list

Keep Reading, James

PS.I am also changing the blog name to Taylor Birding In Europe because of my trip to france and my easter trip to ireland earlier on in the year

bridgnorth

Hi readers this is a bit late but i was occupied with revision these last few daysOn sunday 10th june my dad asked me if i wanted to go to bridgnorth because my next door neighbour had told him that there should be kingfishers on the river banks now. Firstly we didn't see any kingfishers because the river was so high and secondly we saw some other good stuff.

We saw Lapwing x2, woodpigeon 50+, Starling 5+, Buzzard x2, Mallard 10+, House Sparrow 5+, Blackbird 5+, Swallow 2+, Song Thrush x1, Chaffinch x1, Jacdaws 10+, some sort of bird of prey but i can't tell from the photo(ill post it later), Blackcap x1(also photo), Magpies 10+, Robin x1, Carrion Crow 5+, I also saw a bird that looked like a wren but at closer examination i wasn't sure so heres a photo

 

Blackcap

 



This is what i thought was a wren

slimbridge

the other day(6/6/12) me, my dad, my grandad and my mate jason went down to slimbridge because it was my birthday. I have been there once before but now i have a brilliant camera i took some brilliant images. these images will be on my pictures page that i will be creating. We saw tons of birds including captive ones. This is what we saw: House sparrow, Buzzard, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Starling, Woodpigeon, Black Headed Gull, Mallard, Rook, Moorhen, Mute Swan, Shelduck and chicks (new one for me), Greylag Goose (there were 100's, literally), Tufted Duck, Feral Pigeon, Nene(captive) (otherwise known as hawaiian goose. They were introduced by peter scott), Lesser black backed gull, redshank(captive), Black winged stilt (new)(captive), Egyptian Goose (new), Black Tailed Godwits(new), Shoveler, oystercatcher, Grey Heron, Pochard, Barnacle Goose(new)(captive), Smew (captive), Goldeneye(captive), Canada Goose, Cuckoo(new), Gadwall(new, Reed Bunting, Reed warbler(new), Greater Black Backed Gull, Goldfinch, White hooded merganser(captive), American Wood Duck(captive), Andean Goose(captive), Chilean Flamingo(captive), Andean Flamingo(captive), Black Necked Swan(captive), Ringed Teal.

New Widget

Hello readers I just wanted to tell you about an online petition i have created. It is a petition to ban smoking in cars because children or non smokers don't want to breathe in the smoke but they would have no choice because 80% of smoke is invisible.
We aim to try and reduce the number of deaths because of passive smoking. At the moment it is 11,000 per year.
I have created this with a group of other friends including Jason(westmidlandsbirding.blogspot.com)

I would like you to sign it because it would be very helpful.

Thanks for reading and i am going birdwatching at slimbridge next week so there will be an update then.

middleton lakes and kingsbury water park

on tuesday and thursday this week i went birding with my grandad, this is what we saw.

17/4/12- middleton lakes:

• Long Tailed Tit
• Chaffinch
• canada goose
• grey heron- lots were nesting
• chiffchaff
• mallard
• goldfinch
• great tit
• coal tit
• blue tit
• woodpigeon
• greenfinch
• carrion crow
• dunnock
• robin
• female great spotted woodpecker
• rook
• great crested grebe-quite a few pairs
• mute swan
• tufted duck
• coot
• black headed gull
• lapwing
• magpie
• pheasant
• wheatear
• greylag
• little ringed plover
• pied wagtail
• moorhen
• blackcap
• blackbird
• jay

Kingsbury water park- 19/4/12

• blue tit
• woodpigeon
• magpie
• carrion crow
• blackbird
• jay
• goldfinch
• robin
• mallard
• canada goose
• moorhen
• chaffinch
• tufted duck
• black headed gull
• dunnock
• coot
• swallow
• great crested grebe
• sand martin
• house sparrow
• mute swan
• greenfinch
• lapwing
• oystercatcher
• shoveler
• little egret- might have seen one at middleton lakes also
• lesser black backed gull
• willow warbler
• song thrush
• blackcap
• great tit
• coal tit
• reed bunting

From these two days birding i saw 7 new birds. they were:

• wheatear
• little ringed plover
• swallow
• sand martin
• little egret
• willow warbler
• reed bunting

Robin at middleton lakes

wheatear

Little Egret

grey heron

About an hour ago there was a grey heron on a fence two doors away from me and it took off after a few minutes and flew round and landed in a tree, if it was still there now then there may have been a chance of nesting but its not unfortunately. it was amazing when it took off though.

ireland

i have been in ireland for the first week of easter and have seen many birds while i was there, this is what i saw:

• house sparrow
• rook
• starling
• song thrush
• blue tit
• great tit
• long tailed tit
• blackbird
• mallard
• hooded crow (new one for me)
• rock dove(new one for me)
• fulmar (new one for me)
• cormorant
• lesser black backed gull
• herring gull (new one for me)
• jackdaw
• great black backed gull(new one for me)
• chaffinch
• buzzard

i also have a few pictures with birds on this list and some pictures with birds on i am not sure of

starling

chaffinch

i think this is a herring gull but im not sure. if anyone knows please comment

house sparrow

i think this is a dunnock because of the greyness of its head but if anyone is sure please leave a comment

i think this is a cormorant

 at first i thought this was a cormorant but after i took this photo saw the board in the next picture. i am sure that the spot isn't result of rain because it wasn't raining.

seeing this board made me think that it was a black guillemot but the spot was too small and then i looked closely at the great cormorant photo and saw a small white spot in the same place as the one on the picture i took.

fulmar

rook

i don't know what this duck is but it had a yellow beak

Bray

In bray in ireland and i saw a hooded crow on the beach which is a new bird for me. I've seen tons of rooks and starlings but unfortunately I've left my binoculars in england. I will upload a photo of the hooded crow when I get back to England as at the moment I am using free wifi

northycote farm birdwatching 25/3/12

yesterday i went to northycote farm as usual and i saw quite a few birds and learnt a few more songs and got three new birds for my life list. this is what i saw

• goldfinch
• nuthatch
• greenfinch
• blue tit
• stock dove
• great tit
• pheasant
• woodpigeon
• mallard
• pied wagtail- two males, one female
• magpie
• jackdaw
• collared dove
• dunnock
• robin
• chiffchaff (new one for me)
• wren
• sparrowhawk-female doing a butterfly display
• rook
• carrion crow
• buzzard- 6 at one time
• blackbird
• linnet (new one for me)
• marsh tit (new one for me)
• great spotted woodpecker
• treecreeper
• lesser black backed gull (about 5 flew over)

this morning i had a bird that I hadn't seen in my garden before which was a pair of goldfinches.

i have some photos which i will upload tomorrow.

photo from a while ago

This is a photo i took of a robin at the stables where my moms horses are

last few days of birdwatching

On monday the motherboard in my laptop failed so I haven't been able to blog about where I've been and what I've seen, so here it is.

Brierley Hill Pools-13/2/12

• Lesser Black Backed Gull
• Coot
• Mallard
• Canada Goose
• Mute Swan
• Moorhen
• Dunnock
• Blackbird
• Great Tit
• Greenfinch
• Woodpigeon
• Goldcrest
• Blue Tit
• Magpie
• Bullfinch
• Long Tailed Tit
• Jay
• Jackdaw
• Robin
• Crow
• Black Headed Gull

Northycote Farm-14/2/12

• Magpie
• Redpoll
• Great Tit
• Blue Tit
• Dunnock
• Chaffinch
• Woodpigeon
• Greenfinch
• Robin
• Blackbird

Bartley Green Reservoir and Bromwich Woods-15/2/12

• Dunnock
• Great Tit
• Blue Tit
• Canada Goose
• Black Headed Gull
• Tufted Duck
• Pochard
• Crow
• Magpie
• Blackbird
• Grey heron-7 flew off
• Lesser Black Backed Gull
• Little Grebe
• Jay
• Robin
• Long Tailed Tit
• Goldcrest
• Nuthatch

Sandwell Valley and Forge Mill Lake/farm-16/2/12

• Sparrowhawk
• Jackdaw
• Long Tailed Tit
• Crow
• Magpie
• Woodpigeon
• Shoveler
• Canada Goose
• Teal
• Black Headed Gull
• Lapwing
• Coot
• Great Crested Grebe
• Mallard
• Lesser Balck Backed Gull
• Mute Swan
• Great Tit
• Blue Tit
• Moorhen
• Oystercatcher
• Starling
• Goldfinch
• Goosander
• Kestrel
• Pochard
• Snipe
• Pied Wagtail
• Pintail
• Goldeneye
• Wigeon
• Buzzard
• Blackbird
• Grey Heron
• Tufted Duck

Pictures While there

Greenfinch at Northycote Farm

Grey Heron at bartley green reservoir

Goosanders at sandwell valley

Oystercatcher at sandwell valley

Great crested grebe at sandwell valley

Lapwings at sandwell valley

Jason at sandwell valley

Black Headed Gulls, a coot and a male tufted duck in the background at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Mallards at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Mallards, tufted ducks and a coot at Forge Mill Lake/farm

A Canada Goose at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Female Tufted Duck at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Male Tufted Duck at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Mute Swan Signets, Mute Swan adult and a Male Mallard at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Mute Swan, Canada Goose and a coot at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Ducks and gulls at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Mute Swan at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Black Headed Gulls at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Male Mallard at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Mute Swan Signets at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Ducks, Geese and Swans at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Black Headed gull at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Male and Female Tufted Duck at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Pied Wagtail at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Ducks and Geese at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Hybrid at Forge Mill Lake/farm

Canada Goose at Forge Mill Lake/farm

northycote farm

Today I went to northycote farm to do some voluntary work again and I was told that I was going to do a bird survey. While I was at northycote farm and doing the bird survey I saw:

• Robin
• Redpoll
• Greenfinch
• Great Tit
• Goldfinch
• Blue Tit
• Pheasant
• Blackbird
• Nuthatch
• Redwing
• Coal Tit
• Dunnock
• Jackdaw
• Chaffinch
• Wood pigeon
• Black Headed Gull
• Jay
• Great Spotted Woodpecker
• Song Thrush
• Field fare
• Bullfinch
• Goldcrest
• Magpie
• Long Tailed Tit
• Lesser Black Backed Gull
• Cormorant (Fly Over)
• Treecreeper
• Siskin
• Buzzard

northycote farm

yesterday i went to northycote farm doing some voluntary work and while i was there i saw quite a few species of birds.The species i saw were:

• Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Great Tit
• Robin
• Kestrel
• Lesser Redpoll
• Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Goldfinch
• Great Spotted Woodpecker
• Jackdaw
• Crow
• Blackbird
• Dunnock
• Nuthatch
• Woodpigeon
• Stock Dove
• Pheasant
• Fieldfare
• Barn Owl
• Black Headed Gull

Birding today

Today i went birdwatching with jason and we went to two places, first we went to some pools and a wood just off brownshore lane and we also went to essington quarry pool.

altogether we saw - mute swans, little grebes, great spotted woodpeckers, starlings, redwings, a fieldfare, bluetits, chaffinches and some great tits.

Mute Swans

On the canal just there was a mute swan and three signets.

school

I was eating lunch at school today and I saw a pied wagtail just run across in front of me and I now actually realise how different it is from how other birds run on the ground. Any other bird like a robin or blue tit or blackbird hops across the groung when they are on the ground and you have to look closely because they hop really quickly but with a pied wagtail it just runs extremely fast and i find it quite amazing.

heathland and gaileys

today i went birding with my mom, we went to gaileys and we saw cormorants 10+, grey heron x3, black headed gulls 50+, pied wagtail x1, blue tit 3-5, kestrel x1. we saw a man there who told us about belvide reservoir and that we needed a permit and he told us about some heathland on cocksparrow lane, so we ate lunch and went there, we didnt see much but i saw some carrion crows and wood pigeons and i saw a yellow bird fly away and i think it was a yellowhammer.

dawn chorus

the dawn chorus this morning was brilliant!!!