America 2014

Hi readers, long time no post.

I haven't had much spare time recently which means I couldn't go out bird watching which is disappointing really. Anyway, I went back to America, down in Orlando, Florida. I stayed at a different place to where I did last time which means there are different views and different birds. I discovered that there is a small nature walk on the complex so i decided to have a look around the place. I realised first how common the Boat Tailed Grackle is because throughout the holiday i saw a lot of them flying around wherever i went.
Anyway, during this nature walk i saw a Western Palm Warbler fly across the path in front of me, at that point i didn't know what it was because i had only had my book about birds in Florida for a couple of days. I took a couple of photos before it flew off for future identification. As soon as it flew off i saw a Red Bellied Woodpecker on a tree about 2 metres in front of me, I had seen one of these the last time i went to florida but i hadn't been able to take a photo, so i seized the opportunity and took some what i consider average photos of it. i carried on walking around this path which was very well maintained considering how many people stay at the hotel i was at, anyway i came across a small river and i could see quite a few Boat Tailed Grackles in the trees on the other side of the river and i could hear them all calling. i then looked down in the river and low and behold there was a Glossy Ibis, i had never seen one before but i knew what it looked like thanks to looking in different books i have. I actually managed to capture it flying away up the river which i think is a lucky shot to get as you can see all of the colours and features of the bird rather than just a silhouette.
I also saw what i thought were European Collared Doves because they have them in Florida but what turned out to be Mourning Doves these look very similar to collared doves but actually they look better than they do in my opinion. i continued to the end of that without seeing anything else which was slightly disappointing but i was still happy with what i had seen.
I can't quite remember where i saw the other birds that i did, but if you are in Orlando i recommend a trip to Black Point wildlife drive where you can drive around slowly in your car and get incredible views of wildlife. I saw a pair of Black Necked Stilts here which is a new spot for me. I saw a few other birds there too which were spectacular to look at as i had never read about them until a few days previous to then.
I forgot to mention that i witnessed the rocket launch that took place at Kennedy Space Centre and it was spectacular, if you ever get a chance to see it actually happen, do it without a doubt. Also when i saw this happen i saw a least tern on the beaches of Orlando, a photo of this will be included in the photos page.
Throughout my visit to Orlando this year this is what i saw:

Red Bellied Woodpecker
Glossy Ibis
Western Palm Warbler
Boat Tailed Grackle
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Anhinga
Brown Pelican
Snowy Egret
White Ibis
Willet
Laughing Gull
Northern Cardinal
Mourning Dove
Least Tern

I probably saw more species than this but as this was in April i can't quite remember what i saw and this was the list i made while i was there. (All the birds underlined in that list are new birds for me)

Here is one of the photos i took of a Glossy Ibis in flight. I will upload the other photos i took that are worth uploading to my Pictures Page.

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