11 Oct 17

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

13.5°C > 15.0°C: Mostly cloudy with some breaks. Breaks to far E allowed a brief fiery sunrise. Fresh SSW wind. Very good visibility

Sunrise: 07:27 BST

Noise from the traffic and rustling leaves made it hard to hear small birds

Priorslee Lake: 06:30 – 09:35

(116th visit of the year)

Notes from today:
- the cygnets seem to decide it was too windy for today’s test flight
- at least three Gadwall seen today: possibly more as they seemed to be everywhere I looked, though I could never see more than three at any one time
- Buzzards behaved most oddly this morning: normally two leave their roost across the M54, fly over the lake and disappear to the N. Today there were three birds and because of / despite the wind stayed closer to the lake and frequently spooked the Wood Pigeons. They also seem to encourage the Black-headed Gulls to leave the lake, circle high to the NE and then return – the gulls did not seem to visit the fields to the E today
- two days without any Chiffchaffs heard. Birds are likely to be present most of the winter but until they start calling again in March will now be extremely difficult to locate. It is also possible that over wintering birds have yet to arrive from the continent and ‘our’ breeding birds have all left
- the Pied Wagtails overhead included an unusual tight group of 18 birds
- single Siskin over was my first the Autumn
and
- another harvestman on the lamps: one of the more familiar Leiobunum rotundum species
- also on the lamps were several spiders one of which was likely a Garden Spider (Arameus diadematus)
- I flushed both a single moth and a single butterfly from the vegetation but was unable to ID either
- two fungus bodies found looking rather like Field Mushrooms (Agaricus campestris): but not like enough to tempt me

On with today’s bird totals

Birds noted flying over the lake:
- 43 Canada Geese (all inbound: 4 groups)
- 1 Grey Heron
- 3 Common Buzzards
- 12 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 4 Feral Pigeons (all singles)
- 3 Stock Doves (1 group)
- 117 Wood Pigeons
- >700 Jackdaws
- 10 Rooks
- 25 Pied Wagtails
- 3 Goldfinches
- 1 Siskin

Hirundines etc. seen today
None

Warblers seen or heard today
None

The counts from the lake area
- 2 + 3 Mute Swans
- 3 (2♂) Gadwall (see notes)
- 1 (1♂) Eurasian Wigeon remains
- 21 > 13 (7♂) Mallard
- 33 (15♂) Tufted Ducks
- 2 Cormorants
- 2 Grey Herons
- 1 Little Grebe
- 6 + 6 (2 broods) Great Crested Grebes
- 6 Moorhens again
- 147 Coots again
- >220 Black-headed Gulls
- 15 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 2 Herring Gulls

The fiery sunrise nearly caught me out as it was grey overhead.

A few minutes later from a slightly different position.

I have noted previously there are three duck-type Mallard that have been keeping close together and usually in the reeds. Were they juveniles or an adult duck with two well-grown ducklings? Well : here are two of them. Answer: I don’t know! The bird on our right has some brown marks on the bill which suggests it could be a duck, but it is the bird on the left that has a greyer throat.

To complete the confusion here is the third bird.

Here this bird is wing-stretching and there is only a broad white border above the blue speculum with perhaps the secondaries still to finish growing to complete the white border below the speculum. So I think they are probably all juveniles but ...

There is always an element of the angle of the light affecting things but here we see on the left one very dark-backed Lesser Black-backed Gull which also shows a very clean white head. It also shows less white in the folded wings. This means it is likely a bird of the race / subspecies Continental Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus intermedius). While most get some head-spotting in winter some do not.

Shudder to think what is going on here. What I think is a Garden Spider (Arameus diadematus) appears to have wrapped up another of the breed. Meanwhile at least two other spiders – a dark one and a very small one – look on. There also seem to be some stray legs, probably too thin to belong to any of the spiders and from earlier prey.

Another fungus mystery. I am sure this is closely related to the Field Mushroom (Agaricus campestris). However the stem seemed very flimsy – the body was swaying around in the breeze: and as far as I could see lacked any indication of having had a fibrous ring.

See: no sign of the ring. But the gills look just like the familiar ‘mushroom’ – or are they a bit too dense?

It also seemed too large – here is a one penny piece balanced on top for scale.

To demonstrate the speed at which the fruiting bodies of fungus can develop this is the same specimen 24 hours previously (it shows no fibrous ring around the stem even in this early phase).

And here the gills look too pale for a Field Mushroom.

Alongside it was this specimen where the flimsy stem had broken off. The colouration looks somewhat better for Field Mushroom ...

As do the gills – more widely spaced? I did not try either!

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:40 – 10:15

(86th visit of the year)

Notes from here
- once again more geese inside the island not included in my totals
- the Buzzard over was the first I have recorded here since 17 March(!)/ No doubt it was one of the three birds over the lake straying a bit
- I had hoped the strong wind might have caused another bumper-bundle of gulls to shelter behind the island. Not so: just a Lesser Black-backed Gull of note and that flew off
and
- too windy and dull for any insects to visit the Ivy

Bird noted flying over
- 1 Buzzard
- 2 Wood Pigeons
- 6 Jackdaws

Warblers noted
None

The counts from the water
- 2 + 2 Mute Swans
- >34 Greylag Geese
- 1 Greylag x Canada Geese
- >58 Canada Geese
- 1 white feral goose
- 25 (17♂) Mallard
- 25 (17♂) Tufted Ducks (same as Mallard!)
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 5 Moorhens
- 13 Coots
- 51 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull

Two days in succession.... it all goes right and the flying bird is in focus and exposed correctly. Another adult winter Black-headed Gull.

Twice in the same morning again

A drake Tufted Duck of course. The ‘tuft’ needs a bit of work! This bird is well in to breeding plumage now with the white flanks only showing a hint of grey. This likely means it is an adult (rather than a 1st winter). Not noticed white spotting at the base of the neck before. It is not noted in the plumage descriptions in my Field Guides though the pictures show some grey on the lower neck, especially in females.

(Ed Wilson)

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

2015
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2014
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2011
Priorslee Lake
14 Redwing
(Ed Wilson)

2010
Priorslee Lake
Common Gull, though it could have been Mew/Ring-billed Gull!
Yellow Legged Gull
(Mike Cooper/Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
2 Ruddy Ducks 
42 Redwing
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
4 Wigeon
1 Shoveler 
8 Pochard
64 Tufted Ducks
30 Robins
(Ed Wilson)