27 Dec 17

Priorslee Lake: then Trench Lock Pool and Trench Middle Pool

1.0°C > 2.5°C: Mostly cloudy with a few light sleet showers: clearer to W. Fresh and very chilly N wind. Good visibility

Sunrise: 08:22 GMT

The very chill wind prevented me being so assiduous in making the counts this morning. That said, the birds seemed to be keeping hidden

Best today (unless you are a fish) was the group of 21 Cormorants that spent a short while on the lake between 08:40 and 08:45. Groups of a similar size have been seen in the distance recently. It is many years since I have seen this number in the lake – I recall sometime in the 1990s when a party of >50 birds arrived and did synchronised diving to drive a shoal of fish in to the shallows where they fed frantically for a few minutes and then left. With them on occasions – large groups dropped in regularly for some weeks – was a Shag, a bird normally restricted to salt water or brackish estuaries

Priorslee Lake: 07:00 – 09:15

(172nd visit of the year)

Notes from today:
- no sign of yesterday’s unringed Mute Swan cygnet
- exact number of Canada Geese not confirmed: the largest of the groups left at 07:30 when still rather dark
- single brownhead Goosander seen leaving at 08:20: the same / another flew high E at 09:00
- Black-headed Gull numbers were building nicely when a Buzzard flew over and they mostly scattered and very few returned
- the Lesser Black-backed Gull on the lake was a very dark-backed bird with a very clean head – likely a Scandinavian race bird – ssp. fuscus
- a Green Woodpecker heard again
- no Starlings seen today
and
- nothing on the lamps again

Today’s bird totals

Birds noted flying over / near the lake:
- 1 (0♂) Goosanders
- 1 Buzzard
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull
- 2 Stock Doves
- 5 Wood Pigeons
- c.125 Jackdaws
- 2 Pied Wagtails
- 2 Goldfinches
- 1 Siskin
- 1 Lesser Redpoll

Birds noted leaving roosts around the lake:
- >20 Magpies
- 1 Redwing only
- 1 Reed Bunting

The counts from the lake area
- 2 + 3 Mute Swans
- c.28 Canada Geese
- 11 (6♂) Gadwall: back to normal
- 7 (5♂) Mallard
- 3 (2♂) Pochard
- 54 (27♂) Tufted Ducks
- 1 (0♂) Goosanders
- 22 Cormorants
- 3 Little Grebes
- 3 Great Crested Grebes
- 8 Moorhens
- [Coots not counted]
- c.110 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull

This gull looks superficially like a Great Black-backed Gull with a very dark back, an almost unmarked white head and a brutish-looking bill. Not so: it is too small and the back is not quite so concolorous with the wing-tips as it would be on a Great Black-backed Gull. It is a Lesser Black-backed Gull, almost certainly a fuscus race from Scandinavia; and almost certainly a male which averages larger with a bigger bill. Most Great Black-backed Gulls would show larger white spots in the folded primaries, though we cannot be sure here as the wings are not folded too neatly.
(Ed Wilson)

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Trench Lock Pool: 09:25 – 09:50

(42nd visit of the year)

Notes from here
- Shoveler seem to have moved on
- rather fewer diving ducks than on my last visit

Birds noted flying over here [apart from the local Wood Pigeons and Jackdaws coming and going]
- c.30 Starlings

The counts from the water
- 1 + 6 Mute Swans remain
- 21 Canada Geese
- 10 (6♂) Mallards
- 1 (1♂) ‘feral’ Mallard again
- 3 (3♂) Pochard
- 47 (27♂) Tufted Ducks
- 5 (3♂) Goosanders
- 2 Cormorants
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- [Moorhen and Coots not counted]
- 33 Black-headed Gulls
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 2 Herring Gulls

I have quite deliberately over-enlarged these two gulls to demonstrate just how variable winter gulls can be. Ostensibly these are both adult Herring Gulls. The bird in the foreground has a mainly black lower mandible which would suggest a sub-adult – 3rd / 4th winter – though there is no other plumage to suggest it is anything other than a full adult. The head shows remarkably little head streaking. The back gull is a much more typical adult winter Herring Gull with only red on the lower mandible and significant streaking on the head and neck.
(Ed Wilson)

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Trench Middle Pool: 09:55 – 10:30

(36th visit of the year)

Notes from here
- my largest count of Moorhens this year
also
- several new clumps of fungus found

Birds noted flying over here
- 1 Buzzard
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull
- 1 Siskin

The counts from the water
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans remain
- 15 Canada Geese
- 15 (11♂) Mallard
- 1 (0♂) ‘feral’ Mallard
- 19 (13♂) Tufted Duck
- 14 (4♂) Goosander
- 1 Cormorant
- 1 Grey Heron yet again
- 1 Great Crested Grebe yet again
- 16 Moorhens
- 51 Coots
- 56 Black-headed Gulls

A lot of fungus in the leaf-litter this morning not noted on my last visit (23 December). Many of the fruiting bodies were damaged. I did wonder whether this was from the weight of snow and I had overlooked them on previous visit. I suspect it as likely that the damage was done by some of the many dogs that are walked around here.

These seem to be of a different species pushing up through the leaves. The leaves were stuck fast and thoughts of ‘gardening’ were dashed. I would certainly have damaged them.

Another species?

And what about this one?

(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
1 Little Grebe
7 Gadwall
7 Pochard
101 Tufted Ducks
1 Scaup
210 Coots
1 Great Black-backed Gull
(Ed Wilson)

The Flash
1 Little Grebe
69 Tufted Ducks
(Ed Wilson)

2012
Little Wenlock, Candles Landfill Site
1 Caspian Gull
1 Yellow-legged Gull.
(Dawn Balmer & Pete Wilson)

2011
The Wrekin
Flock of Crossbills near summit
(Maurice Baker)

2010
Priorslee Lake
2nd-winter Mediterranean Gull
(Observer Unknown)

2009
Priorslee Lake
Black-necked Grebe
4 Great Crested Grebes
18 Mute Swans
59 Canada Geese
4 Gadwall
29 Pochard 
92 Tufted Ducks 
2 Water Rails
327 Coots
2 Redwings
16 Goldfinches
13 Siskins
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee lake
2 Great Crested Grebe
22 Tufted Ducks
86 Coots
2 Great Black-backed Gulls
3 Buzzards
20 Pied Wagtails
c.200 Redwing
4 Mistle Thrush
c.500 Fieldfare
1 Willow Tit
3 Brambling
14 Chaffinches
13 Greenfinches
2 Redpoll
1 Siskin
3 Reed Buntings
(Martin Adlam)