on sat nov 14th my friend and i went to the wirral wader festival at thurstaston country park . we recently joined wader quest and helped on the stall . there were other stalls there too in the old station visitor centre which also has an indoor bird hide and i spent a bit of time in there watching chaffinches , coal tits , great and blue tits on the feeders and some greenfinches came too . there were 2 moorhens on the ground and 2 squirrels on the feeders then 2 of them went on the birdtable and had a fight sending seed everywhere!, the weather wasnt great but we didnt get the chance to go to the dee estuary to spot waders but heard a lot where there. there were talks and an artist at work and on the whole we had a great day doing our bit to help waders . we did see a couple of buzzards on the way to the festival

On Nov 16th i went with our RSPB group to Martin Mere WWT in Lancashire and had a brilliant day!, weather good .

Birds I saw were  ;   pinkfooted geese,gadwall,mallard,coot,wigeon,eider ducks ,moorhen,whooper swans,,blue its. great tits, coal tits,blackbirds, thrush, fieldfare, redwings, robins, wren,chaffinches, greenfinch, kestrels, buzzards, shelduck,  heron, pochard, tree sparrows—they were nesting—tufted ducks,crows,magpies, nuthatch,pintails, mute swans,greylag geese, pheasants, starlings, pied wagtail, teal,blackheaded gulls, ruffs,cormorants, greater blackbacked gulls, lapwings, wood pigeons,  freal pigeons, grey partridge, and goldfinches. the highlight were the sighting of 2 tawny owls high up in a tree. I managed to see them through a camera lens like a big scope and they were amazing    47 species notched up so not a bad day`s  birding. I even saw some spring flowers out !

ON Sept 30th my friend and i were at sandwell valley park farm and on the pond at the back of the farm there were some mallards ferreting in the blanket weed . some dragonflies were flying about and suddenly one mallard jumped up out of the water and tried to catch one. he missed but we had never seen this happen before . is it usual for mallards to eat dragonflies ?

my friends and i were at chasewater light railway on monday  in staffordshire and enjoyed trips on the steam trains as i`m a rail buff . on the return journey the loco had to be taken off and put on the other end of the train and while it was being coupled my friend noticed a bird fly out of a square hole in a buffer of a wooden truck on the rail next to us. i watched and a great tit flew out of the hole! then another flew in and came out a few seconds later. they have a nest of young inside the buffer! even a bee flew in but soon came out! i`d never seen great tits in an unusual  nest sie before so was amazing to watch them . brilliant!

saw my first swifts on thursday .

H i , I  saw my first swallow today in a field near Aldridge , west midlands as I was on the bus going to my parents !.   The field has horses in it and quite a lot of birds frequent the field. Good view of the swallow flying past .

I  watched  2  Buzzards circle overhead at beginning of the week over the flats where I  live and saw 1 Peregrine on Walsall town hall tower.

A couple of weeks ago I watched  Peregrine flying near ST Peter`s church , Wolverhampton, chasing an unidentified bird but plenty of squawking going on ! I  was going home from Wolverhampton university when this happened.

hi , I saw one peregrine on top of the town hall tower in walsall last week as i got of the university bus in town. its great to see it and now hope they will breed again . walsall rspb are having a peregrine watch on saturday april 5th from the art gallery –hideous building but good for scopes etc!  i`ll miss it as on a girl guiding event in birmingham.

heard my first chiffchaff last sat at a wildlife trust event at moseley bog and joy`s wood celebrating spring.  its near birmingham and a great reserve with great wildlife and great archaeology  going back to triassic times and used in bronze age up to last century. ,sue

HI , my friend and i went over to sandwell valley this morning to see if we could see the great northern diver on swan pool–and we were not disappointed!  we had good views of it albeit it was on the other side of the lake.  other species we saw were kestrel, BHG,  canada geese,  swan, coot, pochard, tufted duck, moorhen,  pied wagtail, magpie, wood pigeon, greaterblack backed gull, cormorant, mallard, great crested grebe,  young herring gull, robin, crow, blue tit , great tit,  blackbird, wren and great tit.. 

theres a great northern diver on swan pool in sandwell valley near birmingham and has been here a few days now . hope to go and see it tomorrow .   should be exciting. heard about it last night at our Sandnats meeting at rspb sandwell and saw photos of it .