3 Sep 16

The Flash:  06:55 – 07:20
Location

Sunrise: 06:24 BST

12°C > 14°C: Mainly clear start; clouded by 08:00 and rain started by 08:20. Light S wind. Very good visibility reduced somewhat at onset of rain

(91st visit of the year)

No more work on the trees. The felled trunks have been reduced to chippings and used to dress some of the areas used as fishing platforms. So no chance of natural rotting of the wood and the nutrients returning to the soil

Notes
- all three adult Great Crested Grebes seen; still only 1 adult with the juvenile
- no idea why so few adult Coots seen
and
- I found my first-ever moth in the tunnel under Telford Way (the A5): was not resting at the best of angles but I think a Garden Dart

Birds noted flying over
- 1 Feral Pigeon
- 5 Wood Pigeon
- 4 Starlings
- 1 Pied Wagtail

Hirundines etc. seen here today
- 6 House Martins

Warblers seen / heard around the water: numbers in brackets are singing birds: song very sporadic now
- 2 (0) Chiffchaffs again

The counts from the water
- 2 + 1 Mute Swans
- 8 Greylag Geese
- 2 Canada Geese again
- 1 all white feral goose
- 30 (23♂) Mallard
- 16 (5?♂) Tufted Ducks
- 1 Grey Heron yet again
- 3 + 1 Great Crested Grebes
- 2 + 4 (3 broods) Moorhens
- 9 + 4 (3 broods) Coots
- 6 Black-headed Gulls (2 juveniles)

This moth was resting in the tunnel under Telford Way (the A5): I think a Garden Dart, a common-enough moth and one of the few that is regularly so dark in tone as this specimen.
(Ed Wilson)

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Priorslee Lake: 07:25 – 08:55
Location

(126th visit of the year)

A somewhat abbreviated visit. The clear sky when I left home and the forecast of rain by 11:00 left me unprepared for the rain at 08:20 and I decided that discretion was the better part of valour

Notes from today
- the 2 Canada Geese left alone by the Swans; no sign of the bird with the broken wing seen on Wednesday
- no sign of the Little Grebes this morning
- 2 Kingfishers seen together and several more single sightings: suspect some were juveniles from the local breeding birds
- a lone Barn Swallow flew NE
- no Reed Warblers noted – possibly more to do with the wet conditions than anything else
and
- 3 moths on the lamps: all Pearl Veneer (Agriphila straminella) moths
- no butterflies or dragonflies
- a dead shrew sp. seen: I think a Pygmy Shrew. Shortly afterwards one of the local Buzzards flew off with a (different) prey item in its talons

Counts of birds flying over the lake (in addition to those on / around lake)
- 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 3 Feral Pigeons (1 group)
- 1 Stock Dove
- 14 Wood Pigeons
- 2 Rooks
- 2 Pied Wagtails
- 4 Greenfinches
- 3 Goldfinches

Hirundines etc. seen here today
- 1 Barn Swallow only
- 15 House Martins

Warblers seen / heard around the water: numbers in brackets are singing birds: song very sporadic now
- 9 (0) Chiffchaffs
- 4 (0) Blackcaps

The counts from the lake area
- 2 + 1 Mute Swans
- 2 Canada Geese
- 9 (5♂) Mallard
- 11 (2♂) Tufted Ducks
- 7 + 6 (3 broods) Great Crested Grebes
- 1 + 2 (2 broods) Moorhens
- 47 + 10 juvenile Coots
- 127 Black-headed Gulls
- 38 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 3 Herring Gulls

A portrait of one of the juvenile Great Crested Grebes

This dead shrew is, I think, a Pygmy Shrew. This I have identified by its hairy tail. This species is also noted as having a domed head which this seems to lack. However Common Shrew should show paler flanks which this seems to lack. Need to take a ruler with me in future!

This is the underside.

(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
2 Yellow Wagtails
(John Isherwood)

2011
Priorslee Lake
Kingfisher
(Ed Wilson)

2009
Priorslee Lake
Kingfisher
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
Kingfisher
(Ed Wilson)