28 Dec 18

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

Priorslee Lake:  06:45 – 09:45
The Flash:  09:50 – 10:50

8°C > 9°C:  medium-level cloud early: some brighter spells for a while. Almost calm again. Good visibility

Sunrise: 08:22 GMT again

Priorslee Lake:  06:45 – 09:45

(193rd visit of the year)

Highlights today, not included in the counts, were
- a Woodcock flying W along the N shore at 07:30
- a Snipe flushed out of rank grass near the sailing club shelter at 09:20. Rather strange because I had walked past several times earlier and there had been dog-walkers passing as well. My first on the ground here this year – my previous sighting was a fly-over

Other bird notes
- 2 Mute Swans back on the lake. One of these with blue Darvic ring 7JNU: must be from a different pair
- 10 Black-headed Gulls arrived at 07:35 and soon left. c.55 arrived after 07:55 bringing the Lesser Black-backed Gull with them (the bird seen at The Flash later?)
- drake Pochard replaces the duck seen recently
- all the Jackdaws passed by together this morning at the ‘normal’ time of 07:43
- Song Thrushes now singing from eight locations
- Meadow Pipit over is rather unusual at this date
- 13 Reed Buntings left the roost at 08:10

Bird totals

Birds noted flying over or flying near the lake
- 5 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 2 Herring Gulls
- 9 Wood Pigeons
- c.190 Jackdaws
- 1 Meadow Pipit

Birds recorded leaving roosts around the lake
- [Magpies not counted]
- 1 Redwing only
- 13 Reed Buntings

The counts from the lake area:
- 2 Mute Swans
- 2 Greylag Geese
- 14 Canada Geese
- 8 (4♂) Gadwall
- 10 (5♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) Pochard
- 30 (12♂) Tufted Ducks
- 1 Cormorant
- 1 Grey Heron
- 1 Little Grebe
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 10 Moorhens
- 74 Coots
- c.65 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull again

My log of other things, all on lamp poles
- 3 Winter Moths + another flying around
- 8 Mottled Umber moths
- 1 Early Moth: new for the year
- 1 stretch spider, Tetragnatha sp.
- 1 harvestman Paroligolophus agrestis
- 1 crane-fly, likely Limonia nubeculosa.

Thanks to digital cameras it is possible to read the rings even when swans are paddling fast. Only one of the birds read – 7JNU.

A Cormorant hauled out. No sign of the white thigh-patch shown when they come in to breeding condition. There are a very few white feathers on the belly and this looks more or less a full adult.

The Grey Heron this morning does show signs of the approaching breeding season – this species is an early nester, often by late February. We see the long feathers on its back and the base of the bill colouring up.

The Pied Wagtail came to visit me again today. In better light a sharper photo.

“is this is my better side?”

The shape and colour all suggest this is just an unusually plain Mottled Umber. I was concerned about the wavy cross-line near the back of the wing and checking the literature this revealed it to be a (very) Early Moth. The first time I have seen this species before the turn of the year and my first in 2018 (my only previous record in Shropshire was on 08 January 2017) [I now realise that the moth I photographed at Trench Middle Pool yesterday and remained unsure about was almost certainly a poorly-marked Early Moth and not an unusually large and rather brown Winter Moth].

Here we seem to have a small crane-fly alongside a stretch spider, Tetragnatha sp. The crane-fly is likely Limonia nubeculosa, a species active all year.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash:  09:50 – 10:50

(152nd visit of the year)

Bird notes from here
- the Ring-necked Parakeet calling and flying around. So long as it remains around I will no longer mention it
and
- 1 Winter Moth on a lamp pole
- 1 Mottled Umber on a different lamp pole

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash
- 1 Cormorant
- 1 Sparrowhawk
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Herring Gull
- 2 Wood Pigeons
- 2 Jackdaws

The counts from the water
- 2 + 1 Mute Swans as ever
- 2 Canada Geese
- 34 (22♂) Mallard
- 24 (11♂) Tufted Ducks
- 45 (10♂) Goosanders
- 1 Cormorant
- 1 Grey Heron again
- 1 Great Crested Grebe again
- 2 Moorhens
- 15 Coots
- 44 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull

It is just about possible to ID the bird in this photo. The orange foot colour and dark rear mean it is ....

... rather easier when you can see the green head. A drake Mallard having a bathe.

As the water settles.

Not easy to photograph flying birds at The Flash. They are usually flying away or towards you. If not then the background changes between water, trees and houses confusing both the exposure and the focus. The camera did a pretty good job of getting it right on this pair of flying Mallard.

Lurking in the gloom in the lee of the island were these two ducks. The left-hand bird is clearly a duck Tufted Duck. With all that white on the face could the other bird be a duck Scaup?

On slightly more of an angle we see that the head shape is all wrong fro Scaup and it has the tell-tale vestigial ‘tuft’. Other reasons we can dismiss Scaup (or a hybrid come to that) are the identical bill markings (Scaup has a much smaller black tip), the size (Scaup is slightly larger) and flank colour (Scaup is browner: our bird is paler).

Do I get any points for artistic merit? Or do they go to the Black-headed Gull?

Talking of Black-headed Gull here is your chance to examine all the wing-feathers in a 1st winter bird. Slightly marred by the confusing background: apologies.

Wood Pigeons are a randy species and more or less any time of year will do. I won’t show what happened next as it is before the watershed and there may be children watching (in truth it was all over in a blur ...).

(Ed Wilson)

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On this day..........

2016
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2015
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2014
Priorslee Lake
Today's sightings Here

2013
Priorslee Lake
7 Gadwall
10 Pochard
64 Tufted Ducks
1 Scaup
1 Goosander
218 Coots
28 Redwings
386 Jackdaws
209 Rooks
(Ed Wilson)

2012
Priorslee Lake
1 drake Scaup
4 Gadwall
19 Pochard
1 Peregrine
(John Isherwood)

Priorslee Flash
4 Goosander
1 Pochard
(John Isherwood)

Little Wenlock, Candles Landfill Site
1 Caspian Gull
2 Yellow-legged Gulls
15+ Great Black-backed Gulls
(Dawn Balmer & Pete Wilson)

Horsehay Pool
1 Yellow-legged Gull
(Kriss Webb)

2011
Priorslee Lake
1 Caspian Gull 
9 Yellow-legged Gulls
(Dawn Balmer/Peter Wilson/David Fairhurst)

2009
Priorslee Lake
Black necked Grebe
4 Gadwall
1 Water Rail
(John Isherwood)

2008
Priorslee Lake
1 Peregrine
 2 Wigeon
(John Isherwood)

Trench Pool
1 Yellow-legged Gull
1 Great Black-backed Gull 
1 Gadwall
(John Isherwood)

2007
The Flash
11 Goosander
(Martin Adlam)

Priorslee Village
9 Siskins
7 Redwing
(Martin Adlam)

2006
Priorslee lake
1 Great Crested Grebe
1 Pochard
15 Tufted Ducks
13 Lapwings
c.100 Black-headed Gulls
c.1100 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
26 Herring Gulls
2 Yellow-legged Gulls
1 Great Black-backed Gull
12 Pied Wagtails
6 Redwing
1 Fieldfare
160 Jackdaws
97 Rooks
20 Chaffinches
5 Reed Buntings
(Martin Adlam)

2005
Priorslee lake
30 Pochard 30
32 Tufted Duck
6 Great Crested Grebe
200+ Coot
1 Water Rail
c.3000 Black-headed Gulls
c.2000 Lesser Black-backs
4 Herring Gulls
21 Pied Wagtails
247 Rooks
172 Jackdaw
5 Redwing
5 Fieldfare
46 Siskin
19 Reed Bunting
(Martin Adlam)