19 Oct 18

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

Priorslee Lake: 09:15 – 10:55
The Flash: 11:05 – 11:55

6°C > 10°C: Early fog bank just clearing as I arrived. Then clear and hazy until 10:45 when an area of cloud moved in from the W. Almost calm. Moderate visibility

Sunrise: 07:42 BST

I would have seen very little at my normal arrival time. A later visit today

Priorslee Lake: 09:15 – 10:55

(128th visit of the year)

Best this morning was a Green Sandpiper heard calling and flying around at 09:40. In the hazy conditions I was unable to locate the bird and am unsure whether it was just pausing to look for suitable feeding spots or whether it had been flushed off by a dog-walker. In the absence of any evidence I have logged it as a fly-over. This is, most unusually, my second record of this species here this year after one on 24 August. It is only my 4th ever at this site

Close behind is what seems to have been a 1st winter Yellow-legged Gull which becomes my 99th bird species here this year. I would like to have seen the bird in flight, but photos seem convincing

My later arrival produced many fewer birds overhead with very few visible migrants

Other bird notes:
- 2 pairs of Gadwall this morning
- first Pochard arrival of the season
- 4 of the Skylarks were heading S; the other flew N

Bird totals

Birds noted flying over or flying near the lake
- 1 Green Sandpiper
- 7 Wood Pigeons
- 7 Jackdaws
- 5 Skylarks again
- 2 Meadow Pipits

Warblers noted
None

The counts from the lake area
- 2 + 3 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 4 (2♂) Gadwall
- 9 (8♂) Mallards
- 2 (1♂) Pochard
- 64 (20♂) Tufted Ducks
- 3 Little Grebes again
- 3 + 1 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes again
- 14 Moorhens
- 126 Coots
- 41 Black-headed Gulls
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Yellow-legged Gull

And other notes
- mostly the Autumnal-type moths move off the lamps after it get light and the sun comes up: some did not today as it was well after 10:00 before I checked the lamps and found five
- despite the early frost and dew there were almost no webs from orb-web spiders. There were many small webs wrapped around the heads of both Stinging Nettles (Urtica dioica) and dead Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium): these webs have been present for some weeks. There are photos of this on the web but I can find no identification of the species involved
- so my log today consisted of
- 5 Autumnal-type moths (Epirrita sp.) on the lamp poles
- 1 Episyrphus balteatus (Marmalade hoverfly)
- 2 Common Green Shield Bugs (Palomena prasina)

The juvenile was pursuing a parent at the other end of the lake so this adult was able to get on with its own snack.

Give me a drake Gadwall and sunshine and ‘snap’!

Now you know why they are called quaky ducks! A fine drake Mallard in new breeding plumage.

Was rather unsure initially about the immature gull on the left. It looked smaller than the adult Lesser Black-backed Gull on the buoy.

But it is quite clearly significantly larger than the Black-headed Gull on the left here.

With these two in profile we see too how relatively massive the bill is. This and the pale head combined with the rather scaly-looking mantle suggests this is a 1st winter Yellow-legged Gull. A female would average smaller than many Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

A Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) wrapped up in a spider web.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 11:05 – 11:55

(105th visit of the year)

Notes from here
- just the cob Mute Swan looking after the three cygnets
- the ratio of drake::duck Mallard is much lower than is usual here. Drakes are still in the majority but much less so than normal. It is possible that some of the ‘ducks’ are late-maturing juveniles and will turn out to be drakes in due course ...
- 2 Cormorants came and ‘cased the joint’ but flew back W; later another flew N
- all the Jackdaws were flying W: most in two groups comprising 18 and then 58 birds: unusual
and
- 3 Autumnal-type moths (Epirrita sp.) on the lamp poles

Bird noted flying over The Flash
- 3 Cormorants
- 4 Feral Pigeons
- 1 Wood Pigeon
- 79(!) Jackdaws

The counts from the water
- 1 + 3 Mute Swans
- 22 Canada Geese
- 40 (22♂) Mallard
- 12 (7♂) Tufted Ducks
- 1 Grey Heron again
- 1 Great Crested Grebe still
- 2 Moorhens
- 8 Coots
- 24 Black-headed Gulls

(Ed Wilson)

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

2017
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2009
Priorslee Lake
63 Mute Swan
7 Wigeon
14 Pochard
26 Tufted Duck
c.600 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
6 Herring Gull
1 Yellow Legged Gull
27 Redwings
3 Fieldfare
2 Willow Tits
(Mike Cooper / Ed Wilson)

2008
Priorslee Lake
>100 Tufted Duck
2 Water Rail
107 Redwings
176 Fieldfare 
19 Siskins
4 Sky Larks 
3 Meadow Pipits 
2 Redpolls
(Ed Wilson)

2005
Priorslee Lake
2 Shoveler
37 Redwing
1 Fieldfare
250+ Starlings in the roost
11 Pochard
48 Tufted Duck
202 Coot
5 Moorhen
(Ed Wilson)