20 Oct 17

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

10.5°C > 11.5°C: Heavy shower at start, otherwise mainly cloudy. Light / moderate W wind. Very good visibility

Sunrise: 07:44 BST

Priorslee Lake: 06:50 – 09:40

(124th visit of the year)

Best today was a group of 20 Goosanders that arrived at 07:45. As to be expected, at this date they were all ‘brownheads’, though two looked somewhat more contrasting and likely to become drakes. This number is quite unprecedented at the lake. Not only that: instead of dropping in for just a few minutes as they usually do these birds stayed for over 30 minutes and spent the while fishing as a single group until they all left together. My first in the water here since 4 January

Other notes from today:
- 31 additional inbound Canada Geese stopped off at the lake for a while, much to the annoyance of the cob Mute Swan
- three duck Eurasian Wigeon new in: two of these consorting with an ‘extra’ drake Gadwall
- otherwise just a pair of Gadwall this morning
- 11 Great Crested Grebes: the 4 breeding adults and their remaining 3 juveniles were present. Not 100% sure whether all the others were adults or not
- a Water Rail calling from the main N side reed bed this morning – a new location for them?
- probably 3 Grey Wagtails today: 2 early birds seemed to be leaving very high S over the M54 – local birds usually fly rather low. A bird later on the dam-face
- at least 5 Goldcrests around the lake today: more than I have seen for weeks
and
- nothing on the lamps this morning
- a shoal of small fish under the Wesley Brook bridge was unusual
- more fungus seen

On with today’s bird totals

Birds noted flying over the lake: (all totals affected by low cloud / restricted visibility)
- 41 Canada Geese (16 in 3 groups outbound; 15 in 2 groups inbound): see also notes
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 5 Feral Pigeons
- 55 Wood Pigeons
- c.575 Jackdaws
- 3 Rooks
- 6 Pied Wagtails again
- 65 Starlings (4 groups)
- 3 Fieldfare (1 group)
- 168 Redwings (6 groups)
- 1 Meadow Pipit again
- 3 Chaffinches
- 2 Greenfinch
- 5 Siskins
- 6 Linnets (1 group)

Warblers seen or heard today
None

The counts from the lake area
- 2 + 3 Mute Swans as usual
- 31 Canada Geese (see notes)
- 3 (2♂) Gadwall
- 3 (0♂) Eurasian Wigeon
- 14 (8♂) Mallard
- 34 (14♂) Tufted Ducks
- 20 (0?♂) Goosander
- 1 Cormorant
- 8 + 3 Great Crested Grebes (see notes)
- 1 Water Rail heard
- 2 Moorhens only
- 131 Coots
- c.80 Black-headed Gulls

Here is one of the two duck Eurasian Wigeon at the E end – they were not very cooperative!

And here is the duck Eurasian Wigeon at the W end.

Soon after they arrived here are 18 of the 20 Goosanders on the water (Black-headed Gulls and Coots as well).

Here are 12 of them: note #2 and, especially, #5 have whiter breasts suggesting they are eclipse drakes.

8 here with #1 perhaps an eclipse drake.

And centre-stage here.

As they moved in to shaded water exposure was harder.

Perhaps this is what the Goosanders were after: perhaps they drove this shoal up the Wesley Brook. This is the view from the bridge. I originally though the disturbance in the water was because of a Water Rail or Moorhen scampering away under overhanging vegetation. When nothing appeared I looked harder and found these small Perch.

A number of large toadstools appeared today. Here are three of them jammed together.

The underside – often important for identification. These look like Field Blew it (Leister sieve) to me. As ever with fungus I am far from certain!

As there was rather poor lighting under the trees I tried with the flash on – a very different tone. Did not help with the ID!

The shape of the fruiting bodies of this species are supposed to domed until the specimens age. This was the first time I had seen this fungus here but we see one here pushing its way through the leaf-litter suggesting that it may in fact be quite old. I had done quite a lot of ‘gardening’ on the previous examples to remove the leaf litter and other debris.

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Flash: 09:45 – 10:30

(91st visit of the year)

Notes from here
- geese back early today and some already inside island
- first Cormorant in the water here since 02 April
and
- what seemed likely to be a road-kill Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus)

Birds noted flying over
- 2 Herring Gulls
- 5 Feral Pigeons
- 2 Wood Pigeons
- 8 Jackdaws
- 5 Starlings

Warblers noted
None

The counts from the water
- 2 + 2 Mute Swans
- >90 Greylag Geese
- 1 Greylag x Canada Goose
- 42 Canada Geese only
- 1 white feral goose again
- 26 (18♂) Mallard
- 36 (19♂) Tufted Ducks
- 1 Cormorant
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 7 Moorhens again
- 11 Coots again
- 22 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Kingfisher

Don’t look if you are too squeamish. A crow was finding this an excellent meal. The long and almost hairless tail and the clawed feet suggest it was a Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus). As it was in the middle of Derwent Drive I suspect it was road-kill.

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

2015
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2010
Priorslee Lake
Water Rail heard
>500 Black-headed Gulls
>530 migrating Wood Pigeons
(Ed Wilson)

2009
Priorslee Lake
1 Little Grebe
65 Mute Swans
7 Wigeon
7 Herring Gulls
1 Yellow-legged Gull
47 Greylag Geese
56 Canada Geese
9 Pochard
19 Tufted Ducks
1 Water Rail
236 Coots
4 Buzzards
Chiffchaff 
27 Starlings
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
Water Rail
Goldeneye
100 Fieldfare
(John Isherwood)