14 Dec 17

Priorslee Lake: then Trench Lock Pool and Trench Middle Pool

2.0°C > 5.0°C: Good sunny spells. Lying snow melting. Light WSW. Good visibility

Sunrise: 08:14 GMT

After another inch of snow last evening and overnight frost I ‘left it a while’

Best today was yet another Goldeneye: a duck at Trench Lock Pool. It is at least four years since I have seen this species at Trench

Priorslee Lake: 09:35 – 10:55

(159th visit of the year)

c.10% ice diminishing rapidly with breeze rippling water

Notes from today:
- still 4 additional adult Mute Swans. The residents made a few rather half-heated attempts to move them and then appeared to give up. I learn that the bird with an orange Darvic ring was ringed in 2015, already an adult, in Worcester
- dire number of gulls
- Gadwall numbers back to ‘normal’
- VERY little overhead with no Redwings seen or heard
and
- nothing on the lamps

Today’s bird totals

The only birds noted flying over / near the lake were:
- 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Sparrowhawk female
- 1 Rook

Roost counts:
None

The counts from the lake area
- 6 + 3 Mute Swans
- 14 Canada Geese
- 11 (6♂) Gadwall
- 31 (20♂) Mallard
- 12 (10♂) Pochard
- 65 (36♂) Tufted Ducks
- 1 Grey Heron again
- 2 Little Grebes
- 4 Great Crested Grebes again
- 7 Moorhens
- 187 Coots
- 18 Black-headed Gulls
- 5 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

Coot numbers ‘best effort’ and this is why: they were gathered together and moving around a lot.

About the only thing posing for photos today was this Song Thrush.

A bit distant: something you don’t see too often – a Long-tailed Tit on the ground: snowy ground at that.

Not sharp but look! A projectile Long-tailed Tit.

(Ed Wilson)

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Trench Lock Pool: 11:05 – 11:30 // 12:05 – 12:30

(36th visit of the year)

>50% ice, disappearing rapidly

Notes from here
- apart from the highlighted Goldeneye not much to say. A few things in bigger number; a few in smaller numbers
- a mystery first-winter large gull photographed: either a Yellow-legged Gull or a ‘funny looking Herring Gull’

Birds noted flying over here [apart from the local Wood Pigeons and Jackdaws coming and going]
- 1 Buzzard
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 14 Starlings

The counts from the water
- 1 + 6 Mute Swans again
- 16 Canada Geese
- 31 (19♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) ‘feral’ Mallard
- 3 (2♂) Shoveler
- 2 (1♂) Pochard
- 46 (25♂) Tufted Ducks
- 1 (0♂) Goldeneye
- 20 (12♂) Goosanders
- 3 Cormorants
- 1 Little Grebe
- 1 Great Crested Grebe
- 3 Moorhens again
- 131 Coots
- 121 Black-headed Gulls
- 12 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 5 Herring Gulls

Another rather distant shot: no mistaking the shape of this duck Goldeneye.

A not infrequent view of a disappearing Goldeneye: 12 retrices (tail feathers)?

Look at those legs: dark red on adult Black-headed Gulls, paler orangey-red on the first winter bird on the left. Yellow, to varying degrees, on the three Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Flesh coloured (if you are Caucasian!) on the Herring Gull.

Spent a long while looking at this gull. I eventually concluded it might be a Yellow-legged Gull but could not rule out it being ‘just a funny Herring Gull’ – there are so many races of these species and hybrids cannot be ruled out either. It looked rather small, even for a female. The mantle was rather more scaly than usual with the head paler. The rather weak-looking bill is all-dark which does not really tie-in the extent of grey on the mantle.

Here we see it with an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull – a species that averages smaller than Herring Gull.

A similar age Herring Gull looking much bulkier, with an obviously larger bill and less of a ‘scaled’ effect on the mantle. The bill is also paler at the base.

Here are the two birds together, the smaller on the left. They would not both orientate at the same angle to enable a more direct comparison to be made.

(Ed Wilson)

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Trench Middle Pool: 11:35 – 12:00

(33rd visit of the year)

About 80% iced over. As it is sheltered from the wind nothing to break the ice other than the odd over-fed Canada Goose crashing through

Notes from here
- Great Crested Grebes seem to have vacated
- record count of Coot: perhaps only because there was no open water ‘behind’ the island and they could all be seen from one place

Birds noted flying over here
None

The counts from the water
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans remain
- 9 Canada Geese
- 26 (16♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) ‘feral’ Mallard
- 7 (4♂) Tufted Duck
- 2 (0♂) Goosander
- 1 Cormorant
- 9 Moorhens
- 51 Coots
- 23 Black-headed Gulls

(Ed Wilson)

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

2016
Priorslee Lake
Today's sightings Here

2014
Priorslee Lake
Today's sightings Here

2013
Priorslee Lake
>550 Wood Pigeons
41 Magpies
1 Siskin
4 Gadwall 
2 Teal 
4 Pochard 
64 Tufted Ducks 
228 Coots
127 Black-headed Gulls
34 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
12 Herring Gulls
12 Great Black-backed Gull
10 Fieldfare
19 Redwings 
78 Jackdaws
7 Rooks
(Ed Wilson/John Isherwood)

The Flash
1st winter female Scaup
167 Tufted Ducks
(Ed Wilson/John Isherwood)

Horsehay Pool
A leucistic large species gull, probably Lesser Black-backed Gull
4 Yellow-legged Gulls
(Jim Almond)

2012
Priorslee Lake
2 Gadwall
9 Pochard
27 Tufted Ducks
c.155 Coots
265 Black-headed Gulls
244 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
42 Herring Gulls
3 Greater Black-backed Gulls
(Ed Wilson)

2010
Priorslee Lake
Curlew
Mallard x Pintail
>25 Herring Gulls
>500 Wood Pigeons
(Ed Wilson)

2009
Priorslee Lake
Black-necked Grebe
Little Grebe
2 Gadwall
Goosander
c.50 Siskins
1 Redpoll
4 Great Crested Grebes 
21 Swans
31 Pochard
92 Tufted Ducks
291 Coots 
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
22 Pochard
48 Tufted Ducks
3 Buzzards
69 Coots
>1300 Black-headed Gulls
>2600 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
23 Herring Gulls
1 Yellow-legged Gull
5 Great Black-backed Gulls
25 Robins
16 Blackbirds
c.60 Fieldfare
c.162 Redwings
32 Magpies
230 Jackdaws
96 Rooks
22 Starlings
14 Greenfinches
1 Reed Bunting
(Ed Wilson/Kevin Pryce)

2005
Priorslee Lake
3 Ruddy Ducks
Water Rail
1500 Black-headed Gulls
700 Lesser Blacked Gulls
2 Little Grebes
6 Great Crested Grebes
29 Pochard
54 Tufted Duck
234 Coot
Sparrowhawk
176 Jackdaws
179 Rooks
11 Siskins
15 Pied Wagtails
2 Grey Wagtails
3 Redwings
1 Fieldfare seen.
164 Wood Pigeon
5 Reed Buntings
10 Greenfinches
(Ed Wilson)