Map
Telford sunrise: 7:03am
7.5°C > 5.0°C Cleared after rain. Moderate / fresh NW wind died away at dusk. Excellent visibility.
With heavy rain an hour away at my normal departure hour I opted to visit after the lunchtime clearance. I stayed out until after dusk to try and find some gull roosts – without much success.
Mainly these are the counts from the water
(23rd visit of the year)
Notes
- no large gulls at all, either on the lake or over
The counts from the water
- 2 Mute Swans
- 4 (2♂) Gadwall
- 7 (3♂) Mallard
- 5 (3♂) Pochard
- 45 (32♂) Tufted Duck
- 2 Cormorants
- 1 Grey Heron
- 10 Great Crested Grebes
- 9 Moorhens
- 71 Coots
- 81 Black-headed Gulls only
(Ed Wilson)
Late Morning: 11:45am
Possible harrier over field across roundabout from lake. Very buoyant flight circling briefly. Can anybody check area? (Mike Cooper)
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Priorslee Flash: 2:37pm - 3:15pm
Map
(21st visit of the year)
For those wondering the hanging basket poles along Derwent Drive are not being removed: a corrosion problem with the fixing bolts requires them to be refitted on new base-plates.
Notes
- back to a single Shoveler; and a different drake to the lone drake on Tuesday
- in flight one of the Goosanders had a ‘drake-like’ wing-pattern but on the water it looked like a duck!
- where are all the gulls? one of the couples walking around the lake was equally bemused – yesterday at the same time it was “carpeted with gulls”.
The counts from the water
- 2 Mute Swans
- 18 Canada Geese
- 1 all-white feral goose
- 25 (17♂) Mallard
- 1 white feral duck
- 1 (1♂) Shoveler
- 63 (37♂) Tufted Ducks
- 3 (?♂) Goosanders
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 10 Moorhens
- 13 Coots again
- 4 Black-headed Gulls and these left
(Ed Wilson)
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Trench Lock Pool: 4:06pm - 4:15pm // 4:50pm - 5:57pm
Map
(13th visit of the year)
Notes
- 8 Canada Geese seen flying away at dusk were probably from the water
- just 2 gulls here: several large groups of Black-headed Gulls and small parties of large gulls looked in but in the absence of any birds already on the water they seemed to reluctant to stay
- >600 Starlings in at least 5 different swirling groups arrived in the area, mainly to the NE, with some settling (for a pre-roost at least) in conifers in the gardens to the N of the water
The counts from the water
- 2 Mute Swans
- 9 Canada Geese again
- 2 (1♂) Gadwall
- 8 (5♂) Mallard
- 3 feral Mallard-type ducks
- 2 (1♂) Shoveler
- 1 (0♂) Pochard
- 30 (15♂) Tufted Ducks
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 8 Moorhens
- 59 Coots
- 1 Black-headed Gull
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull
(Ed Wilson)
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Trench Middle Pool: 4:20pm - 4:45pm
Map
(5th visit of the year)
Notes
- when I arrived I counted 211 Black-headed Gulls; birds continued to drift in and there were c.370 present as I was about to leave. But as I was walking back to Trench Lock Pool almost 300 more birds arrived, flying in from the N and NE and dropping from a great height where they had been unseen. After I got to Trench Lock Pool more birds were overhead but whether these were new arrivals was unclear. While Middle Pool was clearly the most sheltered of the local pools it is not very big and has paths all around it which are quite close to the water. I was somewhat surprised the birds seemed content here. Whether they actually stayed to roost I cannot be sure
The counts
- 2 Mute Swans
- 7 Greylag Geese
- 31 Canada Geese
- 22 (12) Mallard
- 5 feral Mallard-type ducks
- 9 (5♂) Tufted Ducks
- 3 Great Crested Grebes
- 9 Moorhen
- 11 Coots
- >650 Black-headed Gulls (see notes)
(Ed Wilson)
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On this day in 2009 and 2014
2014
1st winter Yellow-legged Gull
(Ed Wilson)
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2009Iceland Gull
2 Curlew
(Ed Wilson)