7 May 16

Priorslee Lake: 07:15 – 9:30
Location

Sunrise: 05:24 BST

8°C > 13°C Mainly high overcast and scattered below. Light / moderate ENE wind. Moderate visibility and rather hazy

(71st visit of the year)

Notes
- a pair of Tufted Duck when I arrived but gone when I next looked
- low number of Coots likely indicates birds sitting on nests out of sight
- no Willow Warblers again: and no Lesser Whitethroats or Sedge Warblers heard
- Reed Warblers still turning up in strange places – passage birds I assume. One this morning was in the copse at the start of Teece Drive (which is actually just outside my recording area, but I made an exception!); and another in blackberry scrub along the S side

Counts of birds flying over the lake (in addition to those on / around lake)
- 1 (1♂) Mallard
- 1 Black-headed Gull
- 3 Wood Pigeons only
- 9 Jackdaws
- 2 Rooks
- 3 Starlings

Hirundine etc. totals
- 14 Common Swifts
- 1 Sand Martin
- 2 Barn Swallows

Warblers seen / heard around the lake: numbers in brackets are singing birds
- 1 (1) Cetti’s Warbler
- 9 (8) Chiffchaffs
- 15 (8) Blackcaps
- 1 (1) Garden Warbler again
- 2 (2) Common Whitethroats again
- 8 (8) Reed Warblers

The counts from the lake area
- 2 Mute Swans
- 14 (13♂) Mallard
- 2 (1♂) Tufted Duck
- 1 Little Grebe heard only again
- 8 Great Crested Grebes again
- 6 Moorhens yet again
- 23 Coots

Peering out here is a Common Whitethroat. We can just about make out the brown on the wing which the somewhat similar Lesser Whitethroat lacks: but a Lesser Whitethroat would show much darker ear coverts.

Soon I will have photos of each of the Chiffchaffs around the lake. It was a different bird posing this morning.

and from the other side ....

Warming up in a shady spot was this hoverfly Eristalis pertinax, sometimes called Tapered Drone-fly.

Another hoverfly, this is probably Syrphus ribesii but separation from Syrphus vitripennis is difficult except in females when the hind-leg colour separates. Here, because the eyes meet, we have a male so ...?

I think you could make a case for this shell being from either a Black-lipped Snail or a White-lipped Snail! Whatever, the patterning on the shell is worth looking at.

... from another angle.

A head of Cowslip (Primula veris) growing near the Teece Drive gate in the area disturbed to redirect the drainage from the academy grounds.

A cluster of Ramsons (Allium ursinum), 3 heads more or less fully open and another about to open.

(Ed Wilson)

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Woodhouse Lane: [08:00 – 08:40]
Location

Another visit to the fields and lane

Notes
- best here was a Garden Warbler near the sluice exit
- another good count of Blackcaps

Some numbers (numbers in brackets are singing birds)
- 4 (4) Sky Larks
- 2 (2) Goldcrests
- 3 (3) Chiffchaff
- 9 (7) Blackcaps
- 1 (1) Garden Warbler
- 5 (5) Common Whitethroats
- 4 (3) Song Thrush again
- 2 Linnets
- 2 Bullfinches
- 2 (2) Yellowhammers
- 1 (1) Reed Bunting

(Ed Wilson)

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

2015
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2014
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2013
Nedge Hill
Yellow Wagtail
3 Wheatear
(John Isherwood)

2012
Wrekin
2 Wood Warblers
4 Pied Flycatchers
(Mike Stokes)

2011
Nedge Hill
2 Wheatear
(John Isherwood)

2008
Priorslee Lake
18 Mute Swans
(Martin Adlam)

2006
Priorslee Lake
Pair of Ruddy Ducks
(Ed Wilson)