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26 Sep 15

Priorslee Lake: 05:52 – 08:30
Location

Telford sunrise: 07:01

5.0°C > 7.0°C. Clear and fine apart from 06:25 – 07:00 when fog rolled in and then out again. Calm. Moderate visibility but poor / bad for a while

(126th visit of the year)

Another frustrating day with the weather: the fog rolled in just as the corvids were about to fly over and the geese started to leave. Then when this was about done the fog rolled away again!

Other notes
- >300 geese on the lake early with at least 1 Greylag Goose calling. A few more geese flew in and parties of both Greylag and Canada Geese flew over later
- 7 of the Mallard logged flew off pre-dawn (with a drake Tufted Duck) and seemed not to return
- again a few Great Crested Grebes absent this morning – should be 8 + 9 and I could find only 7 + 7 again. The calm water ought to have made it easy to find all the birds this morning, so perhaps there really are a few missing?
- no hirundines again – possibly the weather was too clear to see them [at c.11:30 when I was at a farm pool near Newport a mixed group of c.35 Swallows and c.25 House Martins passed over without stopping to drink]
- 3 Chiffchaffs (2 in song): no other warblers heard today [later at the same farm pool there were still at least 2 Reed Warblers present, one of which gave a short burst of song]
- 1 Redpoll flew over and another pitched in to the hedge alongside the new academy where there were already Greenfinches and Goldfinches feeding. (The now regular small group of House Sparrows were there too)

And
- no bats seen: too cold? (was 2.5C en route)
- 1 Common Marbled Carpet moth on the lamps
- no moths in the Priorslee Avenue foot tunnel
- no other insects seen: combination of low temperature and my early departure

Counts of birds flying over the lake (in addition to those on / around lake)
Another fog affected day
- 11 Greylag Geese
- 19 Canada Geese
- 6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 17 Jackdaws after the fog lifted
- 3 Rooks after the fog lifted
- 18 Pied Wagtails again
- 1 Meadow Pipit
- 1 Redpoll

Hirundines etc
None

The counts from the lake area
- 2 Mute Swans
- 1+ Greylag Goose
- c.300 Canada Geese
- 22 (>8♂) Mallard
- 30 (16♂) Tufted Ducks
- 2 Grey Herons
- 2 Little Grebes
- 7 + 7 Great Crested Grebes again
- 17 + 17 Moorhens
- 183 Coots
- c.275 Black-headed Gulls
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Herring Gull again

The mist rolled in when it was still dark – here it is rolling away again!

Today’s ‘classic’ and unmistakeable Common Marbled Carpet

Turned out a nice morning – eventually

(Ed Wilson)

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Devil's Dingle: 07:30
Location

1 Wheatear
1 Snipe
12 Teal

(John Isherwood)

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On this day in 2011
2011
Priorslee Lake
115 Greylag Geese
420+ Canada Geese
Shoveler
Common Sandpiper
Kingfisher
3 Blackcaps
12 Chiffchaffs
(Ed Wilson)