17 Oct 19

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

Priorslee Lake:  06:25 –09:25
The Flash:  09:30 – 10:25

4.0°C > 7.0°C:  Initially broken medium level cloud in otherwise clear skies. Low cloud from fog banks soon spread over taking until after 09:00 to start clearing. Light E / SE wind. Good visibility, poor for a while.

Sunrise: 07:38 BST

A busy day overhead somewhat limited by the mist and fog. The start of the Autumn passage of Wood Pigeons.

Priorslee Lake:  06:25 –09:25

(246th visit of the year)

Bird notes from today:
- Gadwall now ‘evened up’ with an additional drake.
- yesterday’s duck / immature Pochard not noted.
- Some of the Tufted Duck seem to have gone back to The Flash.
- No big parties of Jackdaws seen or heard – they would have passed at time of maximum mist. Still surprised not to have heard them. Four birds seen later seemed likely to have left trees along the N side – seen them use these trees previously when it has been foggy.
- More Redwings heard pre-dawn: unable to determine whether these were nocturnal migrants or birds calling / flushed from surrounding trees.

Bird totals:

Birds noted flying over or flying near the lake:
***numbers again affected by, today, mist***
- 6 Greylag Geese (2 pairs; 1 pair inbound)
- 1 Sparrowhawk
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: just one of these a first-winter bird
- 4 Feral Pigeons: 1 of these in with a migrant group of Wood Pigeons
- 8 Stock Doves: all of these in with two migrant groups of Wood Pigeons
- 102 Wood Pigeons: 67 of these in 5 migrant groups
- 1 Collared Dove
- 42 Jackdaws only (see notes)
- 11 Skylarks
- 18 Starlings (1 group)
- 113 Redwings (4 groups)
- 16 Pied Wagtails at least
- 3 Meadow Pipits
- 2 Siskins
- 1 Yellowhammer

Birds logged leaving roosts around the lake
- 10 Redwings
- 8 Reed Buntings

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 6 (3♂) Gadwall
- 10 (7♂) Mallard
- 33 (9?♂) Tufted Ducks: 1 flew off E
- 1 Cormorant
- 2 Grey Herons again
- 3 Little Grebes
- 14 Great Crested Grebes: ages not determined
- 9 Moorhens
- 123 Coots
- >220 Black-headed Gulls
- 27 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: 15 of these first-winter birds
- 11 Herring Gulls: 10 of these first-winter birds

Pre-dawn sightings on the lamp poles:
- 1 Common Marbled Carpet moth (Dysstroma truncata): fourth morning in same place
- 6 November Moth-types (Epirrita sp.)
- 1 cranefly / midge-type
- 1 probable Common Stretch-spider (Tetragnatha extensa)

No later sightings.

The mist / low cloud rolls in to spoil what looked as if would be a great sunrise.

This one of six November Moth-types was perhaps the best candidate for a ‘real’ November Moth (Epirrita dilutata) by virtue of the uneven, almost zigzag, marking at the outer edge of the mostly faint cross-line. I’ll leave it as November Moth agg.

This dew-bespattered example certainly does not allow identification. There was a ground frost this morning so it may in fact be hoar frost rather than dew. Rather it than me.

Also covered in dew or hoar frost is what looks to be Common Stretch-spider (Tetragnatha extensa).

Looking further at what I thought was a cranefly I am now not so sure. I cannot match it against any on the usual web sites I use. More importantly the head seems wrong for a cranefly – most of them have prominent round heads on long, thin necks. This is more like a large gnat – about five times the size of the usual plumed midges. I can find nothing in the literature or on the web.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash:  09:30 – 10:25

(233rd visit of the year)

Two Fieldfares flying over were new for me here in 2019. #81 in my annual bird total here (after recount!).

Other notes from here:
- My first Grey Heron here since 12th September.
- Three Great Crested Grebes seen again: the immature was on its own today – but they all were.
- The calling Chiffchaff was a surprise. Flew off W across the water.
- The six Meadow Pipits overhead were all well-spaced singles.
together
Other things:
-       nothing on the usual lamp pole
-       on lamps in squirrel alley
- 1 cranefly / midge-type
-       on the Ivy flowers: still rather chilly for too many insects to be about – wasps excepted.
- 1 drone flies (Eristalis sp.)
- 1 Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
- >10 wasps sp.
- 3 different fly sps.

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 1 Common Buzzard again
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Herring Gull
- 2 Feral Pigeons
- 29 Wood Pigeons
- 27 Jackdaws
- 5 Sky Larks
- 2 Fieldfares
- 3 Redwings
- 6 Meadow Pipits
- 1 Linnet

Warblers noted:
- 1 Chiffchaff

Counts from the water:
- 3 Mute Swans
- 36 Greylag Geese
- 43 Canada Geese
- no hybrid / feral geese
- 31 (18♂) Mallard
- 32 (7?♂) Tufted Duck
- 1 Grey Heron
- 3 Great Crested Grebes again
- 2 Moorhens again
- 19 Coots
- 8 Black-headed Gulls

This is not dissimilar to the cranefly / midge at the lake. The head is even less like that of a cranefly and the antennae are too long. This shows very striped legs. One day ....

(Ed Wilson)

Note:
Here are a few images from Venus Pool on 14 Oct 19. Click Here.

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

2018
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2017
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2012
Priorslee Lake
1 Shoveler
3 Wigeon
12 Pochard
1 Little Grebe
(John Isherwood)

2008
Priorslee Lake
182 Wood Pigeons
10 Skylarks
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
16 Pochard
84 Tufted Ducks
1 Ruddy Duck
1 Kingfisher
21 Wrens
11 Dunnocks
38 Robins
22 Blackbirds
9 Song Thrushes
139 Redwings
30 Starlings
3 Redpolls
(Ed Wilson)