Priorslee Lake: 6:21am - 9:00am
Map
Telford sunrise: 7:14am
0.5°C > 1.5°C Clear start but band of snow / sleet showers came down the Cheshire Gap after 06:30. Moderate NW wind. Good visibility but poor / very poor at times in snow.
A work-party from CFSG (Castle Farm Specimen Group) – the official fishing club – is making another attempt to clear some of the encroaching vegetation along the N side access from Castle Farm Way – last year it was so overgrown that the path never dried out even at the height of the rather dry summer.
Access from the Teece Drive end remains blocked. Yesterday the road workers cut the chain and opened the gate: there are dozens of people who have keys to the padlocks. Despite this they then barred the way with their own linked fencing and padlocked that!
(18th visit of the year)
Notes
- the Wigeon have returned (if they ever left)
- and the 3rd pair of Gadwall has gone again
- Sparrowhawk seen doing its slow-flap display flight over traditional nest area
- >125 Wood Pigeons flushed out of the fields in to the trees in the NE copse
- very small Starling roost in the reeds this morning
Counts of birds flying over the lake (in addition to those on / around lake)
All counts affected by very poor visibility in snow showers
- 20 Canada Geese
- 19 Black-headed Gulls
- 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 3 Herring Gulls
- 102 Jackdaws
- 38 Rooks
- 3 Pied Wagtails
Counts of birds leaving roosts around the lake
- 67 Magpies (count in poor weather)
- 5 Starlings
Redwing roost not visited
The counts from the water
- 2 Mute Swans
- 2 (1♂) Wigeon
- 6 (3♂) Gadwall
- 5 (2♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) Pochard
- 27 (18♂) Tufted Duck
- 3 Cormorants
- 1 Grey Heron
- 1 Little Grebe
- 11 Great Crested Grebes
- 9 Moorhens
- 71 Coots
- 26 Black-headed Gulls
- 5 Herring Gulls
Map
Telford sunrise: 7:14am
0.5°C > 1.5°C Clear start but band of snow / sleet showers came down the Cheshire Gap after 06:30. Moderate NW wind. Good visibility but poor / very poor at times in snow.
A work-party from CFSG (Castle Farm Specimen Group) – the official fishing club – is making another attempt to clear some of the encroaching vegetation along the N side access from Castle Farm Way – last year it was so overgrown that the path never dried out even at the height of the rather dry summer.
Access from the Teece Drive end remains blocked. Yesterday the road workers cut the chain and opened the gate: there are dozens of people who have keys to the padlocks. Despite this they then barred the way with their own linked fencing and padlocked that!
(18th visit of the year)
Notes
- the Wigeon have returned (if they ever left)
- and the 3rd pair of Gadwall has gone again
- Sparrowhawk seen doing its slow-flap display flight over traditional nest area
- >125 Wood Pigeons flushed out of the fields in to the trees in the NE copse
- very small Starling roost in the reeds this morning
Counts of birds flying over the lake (in addition to those on / around lake)
All counts affected by very poor visibility in snow showers
- 20 Canada Geese
- 19 Black-headed Gulls
- 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 3 Herring Gulls
- 102 Jackdaws
- 38 Rooks
- 3 Pied Wagtails
Counts of birds leaving roosts around the lake
- 67 Magpies (count in poor weather)
- 5 Starlings
Redwing roost not visited
The counts from the water
- 2 Mute Swans
- 2 (1♂) Wigeon
- 6 (3♂) Gadwall
- 5 (2♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) Pochard
- 27 (18♂) Tufted Duck
- 3 Cormorants
- 1 Grey Heron
- 1 Little Grebe
- 11 Great Crested Grebes
- 9 Moorhens
- 71 Coots
- 26 Black-headed Gulls
- 5 Herring Gulls
a dusting from the first shower
then cleared for a while
then all nice and sunny again
(Ed Wilson)
-------------------------------------------------------
Priorslee Flash: 9:04am - 9:44am
Map
(17th visit of the year)
A quick run-around trying to dodge the showers
Notes
Minor changes in numbers again
- 3 Great Crested Grebes here: an adult and an immature together at a traditional nest site on the island; another adult at the opposite end of the water.
- local Sparrowhawk and Buzzard circling over
No other birds noted flying over
The counts from the water
- 2 Mute Swans
- 1 Greylag Goose
- 13 Canada Geese
- 1 all-white feral goose
- 31 (20♂) Mallard
- 1 white feral duck
- 5 (4♂) Shoveler
- 5 (2♂) Pochard
- 41 (22♂) Tufted Ducks
- 4 (3♂) Goosanders
- 3 Great Crested Grebes
- 4 Moorhens
- 18 Coots
- 54 Black-headed Gulls
- 4 Herring Gulls
(Ed Wilson)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On this day in 2006, 2012 and 2013
Juvenile Iceland Gull
2nd winter Yellow-legged Gull
(JW Reeves)
------------------------------------------
20121st winter Iceland Gull
4 1st winter Great Black-backed Gulls
(John Isherwood)
------------------------------------------
2006Barn Owl
(Ed Wilson)