18 Jan 19

Priorslee Lake, The Flash, Trench Lock Pool and Trench Middle Pool

Priorslee Lake:  06:50 – 09:35
The Flash:  09:40 – 10:25
Trench Lock Pool:  10:40 – 10:50 // 11:15 – 11:45
Trench Middle Pool:  10:55 – 11:10

0°C > 0°C:  Overcast at high / medium level, lowering and with light snow after 11:20 Moderate SE wind. Very good visibility

Sunrise: 08:12 GMT

Thus far the cold snap seems to have moved birds out rather than bringing anything new in

Priorslee Lake:  06:50 – 09:35

(18th visit of the year)

No ice despite frost

One bird species added to my 2019 log from here
57      Lesser Redpoll

Bird notes
- the gang of 10 geese was sheltering in the lee of the dam and by the light of the LED street lights I was at last able to specifically identify them as, today at least, 3 Greylags and 7 Canadas. Perhaps they always are. They flew off while it was still quite dark at 07:40
- just a single Great Crested Grebe found (the two at The Flash were missing as well)
- what was probably a Woodcock flew W over the dam and in to cover at 07:25 – too dark and too short a view to confirm
- I presume that the SE wind – a head-wind for the passing Jackdaws – enabled them to skim across the fields to the E out of my sight. I only heard one group and found just 12 in flight
- the cold weather seemed to dissuade the Song Thrushes from singing: just 1 bird sang intermittently, a reduction from the seven lusty songsters earlier in the week

Bird totals

Birds noted flying over or flying near the lake
- 1 (0♂) Goosander
- 1 Cormorant
- 7 Black-headed Gulls
- 15 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 31 Wood Pigeons
- 13 Jackdaws only
- 1 Redwing
- 1 Lesser Redpoll

Birds recorded leaving roosts around the lake
- 1 Reed Bunting only

The counts from the lake area:
- 2 Mute Swans
- 3 Greylag Geese
- 7 Canada Geese
- 8 (4♂) Gadwall
- 10 (8♂) Mallard
- 8 (4♂) Pochard
- 30 (16♂) Tufted Ducks
- 2 Cormorants
- 2 Little Grebes
- 1 Great Crested Grebe
- 10 Moorhens
- 65 Coots
- 53 Black-headed Gulls
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

Nothing on the lamp poles or seen elsewhere

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash:  09:40 – 10:25

(17th visit of the year)

No ice here either

Notes from here
- I probably overlooked the pair of Gadwall yesterday: they are still here
- the brownhead Goosander flew in
- 1 Cormorant came overhead but espied the bridge workmen working in the water in chest waders and decided against it. Did not concern the three Grey Herons overmuch
- both Great Crested Grebes were ‘out’ today
- the Ring-necked Parakeet was rather subdued again. A number of people have asked me whether it will survive the winter. It should do, providing it can find enough food – Alder cones and Ash keys seem to be its current diet. Most bird species can survive the coldest weather providing they can find food – their feathers will insulate them well-enough. One species of parakeet lives exclusively on Tierra del Fuego

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash
- 1 Cormorant
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull

The counts from the water
- 2 + 1 Mute Swans
- 4 Canada Geese
- 2 (1♂) Gadwall
- 39 (25♂) Mallard
- 21 (7♂) Tufted Ducks
- 1 (0♂) Goosander
- 3 Grey Herons
- 4 Moorhens
- 23 Coots again
- 21 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull

(Ed Wilson)

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Trench Lock Pool:  10:40 – 10:50 // 11:15 – 11:45

(5th visit of the year)

Two bird species added to my 2019 log from here
34      Herring Gull
35      Feral Pigeon

Notes from here
- just the one Mute Swan
- no Little Grebes located
- one of the Herring Gulls seemed to have a restricted amount of black on the wing tips but I could not turn it in to anything exciting

Birds noted flying over / near here (other than local Wood Pigeons and Jackdaws)
- 1 Feral Pigeon

The counts from the water
- 1 Mute Swan only
- 58 Canada Goose
- 2 (2♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) Feral Mallard as usual
- 9 (6♂) Shoveler
- 1 (1♂) Pochard remains
- 15 (9♂) Tufted Ducks
- 3 (2♂) Goosander
- 1 Grey Heron again
- 1 Great Crested Grebe still
- 3 Moorhens
- 72 Coots
- 46 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull
- 3 Herring Gulls

This gull immediately struck me as rather pale and with rather less black in the folded wing than normal. Herring Gulls are not that easy to study in this area these days. Now that the tip at Redhill has closed they are few and far between. Perhaps I have just forgotten what they look like. All the ‘interesting’ gulls closely related to and / or subspecies of ‘our’ Herring Gull have darker mantles, not as apparent here, lighter tones. With no black on its bill our bird must be a full adult.

Well it certainly has pink legs! The underside of the outer primary looks white to the tip which suggests it is of the race argentatus. That race from Scandinavia, however, averages darker on the mantle than ‘our’ Herring Gull. The wing-feathers are moulted in late Summer and Autumn. Only the head and body feathers are moulted both then – to acquire the (variable) head-streaking – and again in late Winter to the ‘clean-headed’ breeding plumage. So moult should not explain why the primary feather might look so extensively white. It goes in the log as a ‘funny Herring Gull’.

This illustrates how careful you need to be sexing Shovelers at this time of year. Only bird #2 is a duck with the whorl-shaped fringes to the flank feathers. Bird #3 is obviously a full adult drake. Bird #1 is clearly moulting in to drake plumage. Bird #4 is easy enough from a photo to identify as another drake with slightly rufous-tones in its flank and a few white fringed-feathers on the mantle. However ‘in the field’ without what is probably close to 60x magnification it is not that easy [Bird #3 does not have a white spot on its head – it is a falling snow-flake!].

(Ed Wilson)

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Trench Middle Pool:  10:55 – 11:10

(5th visit of the year)

One bird species added to my 2019 log from here
28      Chaffinch

Notes from here
- apart from a record count of Coot very quiet
- 2 Great Crested Grebes displaying

Birds noted flying over / near here
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull

The counts from the water
- 2 Greylag Geese
- 12 Canada Geese
- 29 (22♂) Mallard
- 8 (4♂) Tufted Ducks
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 12 Moorhens
- 42 Coots
- 37 Black-headed Gulls

(Ed Wilson)

Note:

1. Click Here for a Summary of the 2018 Priorslee Lake Report.

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

2018
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2017
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2014
Priorslee Lake
1 female Velvet Scoter
3 Scaup
2 Yellow Legged Gulls
4 Great Black-backed Gulls
(Ed Wilson, John Isherwood)

2012
Priorslee Lake
1 Yellow-legged Gull
3 Great Black-backed Gulls
(Ed Wilson)

2010
Priorslee Lake
Glaucous Gull
Yellow-legged Gull
Probable "intermedius" Lesser Black-backed Gull.
At least 1 Ring-billed Gull look-alike
(Andy Latham / Ian Grant)

2008
Priorslee Lake
2 Wigeon
5 Gadwall
25 Pochard
100 Tufted Duck 
3 Water Rails
1000 Black-headed Gulls
1 Great Black-backed Gull
c.400 Wood Pigeons
Blackcap
1000 Starlings
30 Siskin
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
14 Pochard
55 Tufted Duck
1 Great Black-backed Gull
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
1 Little Grebe
11 Great Crested Grebes
6 Pochard
26 Tufted Duck
208 Coot
c.900 Black-headed Gulls
c.450 Lesser Black-backed Gull
2 Great Black-backed Gull
13 Herring Gull
2 Yellow-legged Gull
1 Kingfisher
53 Siskins
3 Reed Buntings
(Ed Wilson. Martin Adlam)