5 Oct 17

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

10.5°C > 12.0°C: After overnight rain and wind cloud breaking and clearing with strong W wind veering NW and decreasing moderate, even light. Very good visibility

Sunrise: 07:17 BST

Not promising when I left home but soon cleared: I decided to brave the wind to see whether anything had been blown in overnight. I was rewarded with an adult Common Gull amongst the 500+ Black-headed Gulls at The Flash. My first Common Gull here for at least 4 years which becomes the 69th species that I have logged there this year

The unusually high number of Black-headed Gulls were probably using the island as shelter from the wind – there had been an unexceptional number at the lake

Priorslee Lake: 06:30 – 09:25

(110th visit of the year)

Only falcon today was a female Kestrel heard calling and then seen over Castle Farm Way

Other notes from today:
- on several days recently I have logged 3 duck Mallard staying close together and largely hiding in the vegetation at the edge of the lake. I got a better view today and it seems like they might be a duck with two well-grown juveniles; perhaps even three juveniles. This might explain why they have escaped the attention of the drakes so far
- it was still rather windy when the Jackdaws passed and they did so as high as I can recall making even finding the groups difficult. As Rooks often fly higher than Jackdaws the lower number of those recorded today is likely to be that they were just too high to locate pre-dawn
- one of the Starlings seen might have flown out of a roost in the reed-beds: the other six in a group looked as if they might land in the bushes alongside the M54 but in the end did not do so
- yet another late Blackcap record: and a fine adult male seen very well, unlike many previous encounters with unseen birds calling from the undergrowth
and
- nothing on the lamps today – too wet and windy overnight

On with today’s bird totals

Birds noted flying over the lake:
- 8 Greylag Geese: 1 outbound; 7 inbound
- 73 Canada Geese: 2 outbound; 71 inbound
- 1 Kestrel
- 6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 8 Feral Pigeons (2 group)
- 1 Stock Dove once more
- 38 Wood Pigeons
- c.575 Jackdaws
- 36 Rooks
- 7 Starlings (2 groups – see notes)
- 1 Skylark
- 6 Pied Wagtails

Hirundines etc. seen today
None

Warblers counts: number in brackets = singing birds
- 1 (0) Chiffchaff again
- 1 (0) Blackcap: male

The counts from the lake area
- 2 + 3 Mute Swans
- 6 Canada Geese early only
- 1 (1♂) Eurasian Wigeon remains
- 2 (1♂) Gadwall remain
- 11(6♂) Mallard
- 35 (14♂) Tufted Ducks
- 1 Cormorant
- 1 Grey Heron
- 5 + 6 (2 broods) Great Crested Grebes
- 7 Moorhens
- 149 Coots
- c.150 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull

Scudding clouds as the rain clears away.

These too soon dispersed leaving clear skies for a while.

This adult Great Crested Grebe seems to be good at fishing for its off-spring.

The hand-over (beak-over?)

Typical: no thanks, junior just swims off with fish.

Even if you are a bulky house fly sp. you still have to be careful of spider webs. There are many similar species of house fly, this probably of the genus Phaonia.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:30 – 10:20

(83rd visit of the year)

Other notes from here
- as usual more geese inside the island not included in my totals
- Grey Wagtail yet again
and
- a wasp sp. seen apparently feeding on spider prey wrapped up in a web on one of the lamps
- 2 Red Admiral on and around the ivy near the Academy again

Bird noted flying over
- 1 Pied Wagtail only

Hirundines etc. noted
None

Warblers noted
None

The counts from the water
- 2 + 2 Mute Swans
- >42 Greylag Geese
- >48 Canada Geese
- 1 white feral goose
- 25 (16♂) Mallard
- 34 (22♂) Tufted Ducks
- 2 Great Crested Grebes still
- 5 Moorhens
- 10 Coots again
- >500 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Common Gull
- 1 Kingfisher again

If it going to pose like this it will get its photo taken: a first-winter Black-headed Gull of course.

From the photo this ID looks easier than it was when searching through all 500+ Black-headed Gulls. Key features are the bill colour, the dark eye and the rounded head. The back colour is also somewhat darker than the Black-headed Gulls – difficult in the bright light this morning and also dependent upon angle.

Another group shot.

Here we see another feature, often surprisingly easy to see: the ‘dotted hind-collar’ acquired by adults in winter.

The black eye can be very obvious to pick this species ‘out of the crowd’.

I submit that you could not find a better specimen Red Admiral than this. I can’t say I have ever noticed the small blue marks along the edge of the forewing previously.

Again: incidentally I checked my logs and it will be a couple of weeks before the Ivy flowers and I can expect to see a wider-range of late-flying insects.

A big silver bird! One of the Army’s latest Chinook helicopters clattered over The Flash and scared many of the geese from within the island.

(Ed Wilson)

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

2013
Priorslee Lake
1 Chiffchaff
(Ed Wilson)