24 Dec 14

Priorslee Lake: 

Late Morning Update

2 Yellow-legged Gulls
1 Mediterranean Gull.

 More on my Blog Here.

(Malcolm Royal)


Early Morning Report: 7:09am - 9:49am

5.0°C > 6.0°C:  a few clouds only. Light SW wind. Very good visibility.

First day with large number of gulls on the lake: >3000 birds on the lake when I had to leave for a family Xmas. Significantly more of the large gulls were Herring Gulls. Possibly the result of recent strong winds.

(156th visit of the year)

Counts of birds flying over the lake (therefore in addition to those on / around lake)
- 18 Canada Geese
- c.150 large gulls
- 11 Feral Pigeons
- 2 Pied Wagtails
- 2 Fieldfares
- 1 Redwing
- 596 Jackdaws
- 7 Rooks
- 6 (8?) Ravens
- 6 Starlings

Counts of birds leaving roosts around the lake
53 Magpies
103 Redwings
21 Starlings

The counts from the water
2 Little Grebes
3 Great Crested Grebes
2 Swans
6 (3) Gadwall
4 (2) Mallard
1 (1) Shoveler
2 (2) Pochard
77 (43) Tufted Duck
1 Water Rail (heard only)
18 Moorhens
182 Coots
>400 Black-headed Gulls
>1000 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
>1500 Herring Gulls
11 Great Black-backed Gulls

Other notes
Drake Shoveler glimpsed flying very low – assumed leaving the lake.
2 Ravens early: 6 later as a 4 and a 2 – the two birds perhaps being the birds seen earlier.
Two separate small Starling roosts this morning: also 6 birds seen high to E chasing a Sparrowhawk.
Some colour to the dawn sky to start Christmas Eve.

Not a Wedge-tailed Gull, a new species to science, but an immature Herring Gull trailing rubbish, probably from the tip.

What a conk! Here you can see the feathering on the base of the upper mandible of this Raven. It is the dawn light that is colouring the well-spaced primaries.

Just part of the large number of gulls this morning. Note the Little Grebe lurking by the reeds in the distance.

(Ed Wilson)

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On this day in 2009
Priorslee Lake
2009
3 Yellow-legged Gulls (adult, 2nd-winter, 3rd-winter)
1000 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
60 Herring Gulls
Black-necked Grebe
(Dawn Balmer / Peter Wilson / Ed Wilson)