19 Jul 14

Priorslee Lake: 4:33am – 6:57am
Map

16.5°C.

Mainly medium / high overcast after overnight storm: lightning seen to SE and this soon spread in with heavy rain. Calm / light S wind. Good visibility, becoming poor.

An attempt at a watch: sometime storms bring down interesting birds – terns for instance: not today!

(78th visit of the year)

Other notes
All three immature Great Crested Grebes reappeared this morning.
Single party of Greylag Geese over.
Just 1 Swift passed rapidly over – no party replacing the bats over the N side poplars today.
Kingfisher again.
More corvids but hard to see against the darkest cloud.
and
2 bats this morning.

Counts (limited to view / listening from W end)
3 + 3 (2 broods) Great Crested Grebes
1 Grey Heron
2 + 1 Swans
20 Greylag Geese outbound
20 (?) Mallard
2 + 3 (1 brood) Moorhens
No meaningful count of Coots
35 Black-headed Gulls and 40 large gulls over using unusual flight lines
1 Common Swifts
6 (6) Song Thrushes
4 (2) Reed Warblers
4 (3) Blackcaps
1 (1) Chiffchaff
Corvid roost dispersal: only 35 Jackdaws and 41 Rooks

(Ed Wilson)