Upton warren

During my week off I went to Upton warren and Bartley green reservoir.

I went to both of these places with my grandad as per usual. We went to Upton warren on 29/10/13 and we saw quite a lot of birds including a first for me, but I'll get onto that in a moment. When we got there it was just our luck that the work party was there, but fortunately it looked like they were just finishing. Anyway we went round to the lapwing hide on the far side of the pool and it was empty apart from one person, so it was nice and peaceful, we asked him if their was anything different there and he said that there was the jack snipe which after being there three times when it has been there I still haven't seen it. But I wasn't too bothered, we started off by seeing a group of snipe flying around in a group of 6 or 7 and they came to land on the middle island by the paving slabs. We got quite a good view of them along with a grey heron that flew up as they went past it. We saw the usual coot, mallard etc and what surprised me was the amount of shovelers there, I mean there must have been about 50/60 males and females which is more than I have ever seen at once. There was also a group of about 10 pochard near the hide where all the photographers normally are. Just after this I looked down just below the hide and I saw a bird moving and I thought it looked like a moorhen sized bird, so I told the other bloke in there and just as it flew into the reeds he said that it was a water rail which is a new bird for me, I must admit I was a bit disappointed that I only saw it for a few seconds but I decided I would wait and see if it would come out again. Now I must have waited for about half an hour for it to come back out and I was seeing quite a few birds during this time and low and behold I looked down and I saw it fly out of the reeds and behind a small bush on the shoreline, I had hoped to get a photo of it at this point but my lens was too heavy to swing around and keep up with it, so in an attempt to get at least a poor shot of it I changed to my smaller zoom lens which is a lot lighter and at this point the water rail had gone into a different bush and could either fly off or come back towards us. Fortunately it came towards us, but again it went into a bush. As I saw it fly out of that bush about a minute later I took some snapshots of it which I shall post at the end of this. We stayed their for a while longer and a few more people came in and it became noisier than before. This made me and my grandad decide to head over to the other side of the pool to the photographer hide. When we got there it only had two people in it, which was good again because it was peaceful. The one man told us about how a kingfisher had landed on a branch about 3m away and another man that was in there with a massive lens swung it round just as this man focused and the bird flew away because of the swinging lens. This made me realise even more of the importance of keeping your lens inside the hide. I showed him the photo I took of the water rail and he complimented me on it which I was happy about. After being in there for about 20 mins and seeing some tits and reed buntings on the feeders we decided to move onto the two floored hide. As we always do we went into the bottom floor to see if there was anything interesting and we could hear everybody upstairs laughing an chatting so we decided to stay down the bottom for once. This was a good call because moments later a female reed bunting landed on one of the feeders and I have wanted to get a picture of one ever since I took some horrible ones at Middleton lakes a while before. To top this off, there was a branch next to the feeders and on this branch suddenly there was a flash of blue and this kingfisher landed on it. At this time I was eating a bag of crisps and my camera strap was underneath my bird book so I thought as I pulled it out it would have scared it off but no it stayed there, this made me very happy because I wanted to get a decent up close photo of a kingfisher before the year was out and I took a few that were blurry but then it flew off from the branch and landed on a post literally 2m away from me and my grandad where unfortunately it didn't turn it's head when I was trying to photograph it but I have some extremely good shots of a kingfishers back so if you ever need them give me a shout. After it had flown off a dragonfly landed less than a metre away underneath the hide window and I took some of the best shots I have ever taken of anything at that time. We ended the day there after popping back to the other side to have a quick look because someone said the jack snipe had returned but they were no longer there. Although I would have liked to we didn't go up to the flashes because it was getting late and apparently there was nothing up there (which I doubted because I class even a blue tit a nice spot let alone if there was some curlew or sandpiper there) but we went home anyway. At the end of this day this is what I had seen:

Cormorant

Magpie

Blue tit

Mallard

Grey heron

Snipe

Grey lag goose

Shoveler

Lapwing

Water rail!!!!!!!!!

Pochard

Teal

Moorhen

Coot

Bhg

Herring gull

Tufted duck

Great crested grebe

Starling

Wood pigeon

Great tit

Greenfinch

Dunnock

Kingfisher

Chaffinch male

Reed bunting fem and male

Long tailed tit

Buzzard

The conclusion

Hello readers

As you know I went to America and here is a list of the birds I saw: 

American White Ibis

Northern Mockingbird

Blue Jay

Sandhill Cranes

Northern Cardinal

Anhinga

Great white egret

Cattle Egret

Wood stork

Black Crowned night heron

Black vulture

Great blue heron

Tricoloured heron

Snowy egret

Double crested cormorant

Red bellied woodpecker

Brown pelican

Sanderling

I saw these birds around Orlando, Florida where I spent two weeks. I saw many of these at Gatorland which is a great place to go bird watching if you ever get a chance to visit there.

Later on in the year I went over to France and stayed at a place just outside lussac les eglises, which is near to Limoges. As you may remember from last year's post there is a pool there called etang du Murat which I have found can be incredible for bird watching. Here is what I saw including wildlife: 

Coot

Kingfisher

Buzzard

Grey heron

Great crested grebe

Cormorant

Great white/little egret

Nuthatch

Blue tit

Goldfinch

House sparrow

Beaver

Redstart

Black redstart

I am happy with the range of wildlife I saw over there but I am gutted that I didnt get a photo of the kingfisher, but before the end of the year I aim to have a photo of one.

Now I know that I haven't posted since Easter but I hope this will make up for it so I bid you goodnight and I shall be posting again tomorrow as I am visiting upton warren.

Thanks for reading

James

Triumphant return

Hello readers I have returned from the point of no return

After I went to America at Easter this year I got caught up in all of my exams so it meant I didn't post at all. Time passed and I kept doing other things, until now. I shall update you on everything I have done over the past year so brace yourselves for the spectacular reappearance of........ James

America overall

Hello readers, I am truly sorry about the lack of posts but I shall be doing some more again soon.
Anyway I have returned from my trip to Florida, which was sublime and I saw a great deal of birds there, especially at Gatorland which I shall say more about in a minute. I was there for two weeks and I saw a grand total of 17 new birds for my list and possibly a few more because there were a few on Melbourne beach that I have yet to identify. I am very pleased to have seen this many new birds, but mainly because all of these birds are truly spectacular and beautiful to watch, apart from one bird which was more interesting than beautiful.
In 8 hours time I shall write in detail, with pictures, about the birds I saw, where I saw them and anything else that comes to mind.

America

Hi readers sorry about the lack of posts

I am in America at the moment in Florida. So far I have seen many birds but I am still working out what they are. So far I know I have seen: American White Ibis, Northern Mockingbird, Blue Jay, Northern Cardinal and I am still trying to find out a bird of prey, a stork like bird and a heron like bird

Thanks for reading
James

Mobile

Hi readers Taylor Birding in the UK is now mobile, I just downloaded the blogger app so I can post when I am out bird watching or even when I am just out and about.
By the way if you know anyone that is interested in birding then tell them to look at the blog, I only need 15 more views until I get 1000 overall views

USA

Hello to everyone reading this from the United States.
During my holiday in April i shall be coming over to Kissimee, Orlando and I am hoping to see some birds there. Are there any good bird watching places around there so I can see some American Birds rather than European birds. If you know any places please comment so I can visit them and hopefully see a bird that i have read about, the Blue Jay.

Fox

I have just looked out from my roof window looking out onto the Wyrley and Essington Canal and have seen an animal that is very common in urban areas at night, I am talking about the fox. In my opinion I am quite lucky because I have just had a brilliant view of not one, but two foxes. They were not fighting or competing for territory. They were probably about 200 metres apart and were unaware of each others presence. There are two paths on the section of the canal by me, one that is wide, leading from the bridge and away from the water (or in this case Ice) lets call it Path 1, and there is a second path which leads from the main path which is more narrow and closer to the water, Lets call this Path 2. I saw the first fox come along Path 2 on the canal and then cut through the undergrowth to get to Path 1, i also saw the second fox do exactly the same thing. Strange or what? I don't know if this is normal behaviour, please comment if you have a knowledge of a fox's behaviour. here is a photo, i know it isn't the best but it is all i could get because it is very dark.

Long awaited Update

Hi readers, sorry i haven't posted for a few months i have had other distractions. if you have any queries don't hesitate to comment and i shall be uploading any photos i have taken to the pictures page. I shall be going bird watching this weekend as well. i will be going to Gailey and to some fishing pools near Yarnfield because i want to look at new places.

Upton warren- 29/10/12

The moors Car park 

Long tailed tit, Wood pigeon, Black headed gull, Magpie, Mallard (fly over), Starlings (2 large flocks)

North moors pool

Mallard, black headed gull, Wood pigeon, Blackbird

The moors

Robin, Blackbird, Dunnock, Sparrow hawk, Goldcrest, Blue tit, Carrion crow, Black headed gull, Goldfinch, Ruddy duck female, Wigeon, Teal, Coot, Snipe, Shoveler, Curlew, Mute swan, Mallard, Gadwall, Grey heron, Great crested grebe, Cormorant, Canada goose, Wood pigeon, Kestrel, Lapwing, Moorhen, Kingfisher, Little grebe, Field fare? Couldn't distinguish colours, Greenfinch, Reed bunting male and female

Didn't go to flashes because it started raining heavily

Ambleside 3/11/12

Robin x2, Jackdaw, Flock of male chaffinches x10, Wood pigeon, Great tit x1, Mallard, Mute swan x3, Buzzard x2, Magpie, Carrion crow

Northycote farm - 10/11/12

Carrion crow
Blackbirdx3
Goldfinch x3 heard 1
Jackdaw 
Heard robin x1
Heard wren x2
Blue tit
Dunnock
Male and Female chaffinch
Greenfinch male and female
Great tit
Coal tit
Nuthatch
Buzzard
Herring gull