4 Sep 14

Priorslee Lake: 5:40am – 6:50am // 8:00am – 9:03am
Map

12.0°C > 13.0°C:  very low cloud and mist, lifted only slightly. Light SSE wind. Poor visibility just about allowing the length of the lake to be seen.

Notable this morning were 4 Reed Warblers at the lake with two of them sub-singing. The mist and low cloud meant that there was no point in watching the roost dispersal so my first lap of the lake was earlier than usual. It was on this walk that these birds were seen. My later walk around failed to locate any, despite careful searching and pishing. So have I overlooked them this past week, or were these just passing.

Migrants this morning were just
1 Swallow over the lake

(95th visit of the year)

Other notes
There are 7 Great Crested Grebes at the moment: 2 adults, 4 juveniles and one that I cannot decide about
most of the outbound geese lost in the mist.
16 Mallard but again many flew.
1 drake Tufted Duck at dawn, with 7 more birds arriving.
1 Swallow was the only hirundine.
1 Song Thrush heard calling: no song again.
1 Common Whitethroat again seen at the W end.
No corvid passage in the mist.
and
The same 2 moths in the Priorslee Avenue foot-tunnel: Common Marbled Carpet and Large Yellow Underwing.

Counts
3 + 4 Great Crested Grebes
2 Grey Herons
2 Swans
>7 Greylag Geese (all outbound)
? Canada Geese (all outbound)
16 (?) Mallard
8 (7) Tufted Duck
3 + 4 (2 broods)  Moorhen
? Coots
c.225 Black-headed Gulls
34 large gulls (13 of these over)
1 Barn Swallow
4 (2) Reed Warblers
1 (0) Common Whitethroat
1 (0) Blackcaps
6 (1) Chiffchaffs
Corvid roost dispersal: lost in the mist

Another photo that will not win prizes, but it was c.15’ up a lamp-post. This attractive moth is a female September Thorn. It is very similar to Canary-shouldered Thorn but the exact alignment of the cross-lines differs slightly. Like most of it genus it normally rests with wings half-open.

(Ed Wilson)

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Priorslee Flash: 7:00am – 7:45am
Map

(82nd visit of the year)

Notes
A few more Canada Geese: perhaps put off leaving by the mist.
Kingfishers heard fighting – sadly could not locate to see how many involved.
and
September Thorn moth on one of the lamps: this is a new moth for my Shropshire list. However it was only while double-checking the photo I took against the literature that I realised it was not, as I thought, the very similar Canary-shouldered Thorn. I may therefore have mis-recorded some previously.

Counts
2 + 1 Great Crested Grebes
1 Grey Heron
2 Swans
14 + 1 Canada Geese
The all-white feral goose
34 (22) Mallard
The all-white feral duck
21 (12) Tufted Ducks
4 + 3 (2 broods) Moorhen
20 Coots
14 Black-headed Gulls
and
5 (3) Chiffchaff

(Ed Wilson)