19 Sep 18

Priorslee Lake only

13°C > 16°C: Scattered cloud increasing from the SW. Moderate SSW wind increasing fresh at times. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 06:50 BST

Priorslee Lake: 05:25 – 09:20

(110th visit of the year)

Site levelling on the old Celestica site adjoining the N side of the lake now well underway

Bird notes:

- all 3 cygnets went for a short flight this morning

- all the geese flying over did so when I was not in a position to accurately count them

- my first Gadwall of the Autumn: likely to be present all Winter now. Last noted by me here on 5 April

- one of the juveniles from the first Great Crested Grebe family was not noted again

- many juvenile Moorhens and Coots now difficult to separate from adults and no longer counted separately. Just 2 Coots still trying to get fed by the adults

- many Black-headed Gulls flew straight over post-dawn apparently to fields to the E / NE of the lake. Most(?) of these seemed to fly back and forth to the lake with at least 325 on the lake being my maximum ‘point’ count. At least 25 others flew over and headed S

- I was rather surprised to see no Barn Swallows on migration (or anything else for that matter)

- no House Martins remain around the estate

- Chiffchaffs the only warblers present: these will probably be around for another 6 weeks or so

Bird totals

Birds noted flying over or flying near the lake:

- c.80 Greylag Geese [c.10 (1 group) outbound; c.70 (1 group) inbound] (see notes)

- >25 Black-headed Gulls (see notes)

- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull

- 1 Stock Dove

- 4 Feral Pigeons (1 group)

- 92 Wood Pigeons

- 5 Jackdaws

- 3 Rooks

Hirundines etc. noted

None

Warblers noted:

- 4 (1) Chiffchaffs

The counts from the lake area

- 2 + 3 (1 brood) Mute Swans

- 2 Canada Geese

- 3 (2♂) Gadwall

- 5 (3♂) Mallards

- 3 (?♂) Tufted Ducks

- 1 Grey Heron

- 2 Little Grebes

- 4 + 3 (2 broods) Great Crested Grebes

- 13 Moorhens

- 129 Coots

- >325 Black-headed Gulls

- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

And other notes

- rather few insects etc. However there were >100 Common Crane-flies in the grass etc. on the west, uncut bank of the football field. One of these was pounced upon by a wasp sp.

and

- no butterflies, moths or damselflies / dragonflies

- hoverflies

- 1 Episyrphus balteatus (Marmalade hoverfly)

- flies etc. identified

- a few wasps

- >5 Greenbottle-type flies (Lucilia sp.)

- >100 Common Crane-fly (Tipula oleracea) [Daddy Long-legs]

- 1 Robin's Pincushion: Bedeguar Gall Wasp (Diplolepis rosae)

- no beetles or bugs noted

- spiders noted

- 1 possible Anelosimus vittatus spider

- snails etc

- - 1 (Great) Black Slug (Arion Agg.)

- fungus

- 1 or 2 unidentified species with >20 fruiting bodies on the football field

- no different plants noted

- mammals seen

- 1 Grey Squirrel

With storm Ali inbound I had hoped for a better ‘red sky in the morning’.

A slightly different take on he sunrise.

The cygnets went for a short flight this morning and then spent a long while sorting out and preening their feathers. Here we see the wings are now fully feathered.

‘stretch...’

The adults did some preening and wing-shaking as well.

All the geese passing over the lake today were Greylags but these two Canadas dropped in.

The pair of Gadwall back for the winter no doubt. Drake on the left. Note the long brown scapulars on the drake.

This drake Gadwall is a juvenile of this year acquiring adult plumage for the first time. The scapulars are shorter and allow the chestnut patch on the upper wing to be seen – this is normally visible only when the bird is in flight. An adult drake moulting out of eclipse plumage would have the same all dark bill as any other adult drake – here the bill is dark brown with orange sides, so it must be a juvenile.

“Are you looking at me?”. Sexing Tufted Ducks in Autumn can be hard but the rufous tones and extent of white around the base of the bill point to a duck.

A juvenile Great Crested Grebe waves one of its legs. Note how far back along the body the legs are: useful for chasing fish; almost useless out of the water. Note too the dark eye and pale pink patch ahead of the eye.

This older juvenile Great Crested Grebe shows an orange eye and the area ahead of the eye has lost most of its pink tones.

On the right an adult winter Black-headed Gulls. The other three are juveniles in various stages of moult in to first winter plumage.

One of many Common Crane-flies (Tipula oleracea) seen today. This was around the lake: almost all the others were in the grass alongside the football field.

Thanks to research by Martin Adlam this has now been re-identified as one of the Thick-headed or Conopid flies (Conopidae). It seems likely to be Leopoldius signatus or a closely related species in this little-known genera.

A Greenbottle-type fly (Lucilia sp.).

This is what I know as Robin's Pincushion. It is a gall made by the Bedeguar Gall Wasp (Diplolepis rosae), here on a Dog Rose (Rosa canina agg.).

The pattern on this very small spider is distinctive. It might just be Anelosimus vittatus. I was attracted by the piece of small brown detritus and only then saw the spider. We can just see the strands of a web laid across the surface of the leaf. Why the spider has green in the mouth area is a mystery.

These Rowan berries were rather distant but we can just make out that the berries look rather small and some are rather wrinkled and shrivelled. Probably a result of the dry spell. Normally I would have expected the Blackbirds to have stripped the berries by now. Blackbirds are rather less numerous than usual at the moment.

A clump of unidentified fungus.

Close-by was this smaller clump, perhaps the same species a few days more advanced.

After some ‘gardening’ to remove grass and allow better access: a different view.

And the undersides are visible here – the gill structure is important in identifying fungi. But what are these?

(Ed Wilson)

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Priorslee Flash

Excited to see a pair of large birds fly in this morning. They appear to be Divers, being dark grey with white throat, and straight uplifted sword-like beaks.

We also have a pair of Grey Heron again, the male standing typically on an island of twigs. It was marvellous to see him fishing in the sunlight, a large gull trying to steal the fish.

The 3 remaining cygnets are now thriving juveniles, one more reticent than its siblings.

There have been several families of Mallard ducklings, about 10 in one case, but they grow so quickly. Wonderful to have such entertainment on our doorstep.

(Ann Dewhurst)

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

2011
Priorslee Lake
Common Sandpiper
(Ed Wilson)

2008
Priorslee Lake
Water Rail
129 Greenfinches leaving roost
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
Kingfisher
2 Redwings
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
4 Black-tailed Godwit
(Martin Adlam)