13 Sep 19

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

Priorslee Lake:  05:30 – 08:55
The Flash:  09:00 – 10:00

9.0°C > 12.0°C:  Some thin high cloud, mostly clear. Light SW breeze. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 06:39 BST

The mornings are getting darker and the academy is starting earlier this year. In order to avoid meeting school children and their parents while toting camera and binoculars I am now on ‘winter schedule’ completing both laps of the lake before visiting The Flash.

Priorslee Lake:  05:30 – 08:55

(220th visit of the year)

Bird notes from today:
- The 06:45 ‘football’ field count gave me 31 Black-headed Gulls, 14 Wood Pigeons, seven Magpies, two Starlings and 71 Pied Wagtails. There were another nine Black-headed Gulls and six Wood Pigeons on the academy playing field at this time.
- So where were all the geese today? Just a single mixed species party outbound. Must have found another area to feed.
- Seven unsexed Tufted Duck flew out W (to The Flash?) at 05:55. Same (?) two ducks as the last few days remained.
- Two Tawny Owls having a prolonged and noisy conversation on opposite sides of Teece Drive at 05:35 near the last house.
- First migrant Sky Lark of the Autumn.
- Small number of House Martins heard overhead c.06:50: nothing seen.
- An apparent family party of Blackcaps seen with a male, a female and a juvenile noted in the same area.
- So where have all the Greenfinches gone? A few all summer with confirmed breeding. None seen or heard for at least 10 days.
- Goldfinches seen attacking the unripe-looking Alder cones – “wait for the Siskins to arrive and get a look in”!

Bird totals:

Birds noted flying over or flying near the lake:
- 28 Greylag Geese (28 outbound in one group)
- 4 Canada Geese (4 outbound in same group)
- 10 unidentified large gulls: too dark to ID
- 3 Stock Doves
- 1 Feral Pigeon
- 76 Wood Pigeons
- 18 Jackdaws
- 149 Rooks
- 1 Skylark
- 2 Meadow Pipits
- 10 Starlings

Hirundines etc. noted:
- House Martins (heard only)

Warblers noted (singing birds):
- 16 (3) Chiffchaffs
- 6 (0) Blackcaps

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 6 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 10 (6♂) Mallard
- 9 (?♂) Tufted Ducks: 7 departed
- 3 Cormorants: arrived separately
- 2 Grey Herons
- 1 + 1 (1 brood) Little Grebes again
- 8 + 5 + 9 (3 broods) Great Crested Grebes
- 3 + 8 (4 broods) Moorhens
- 91 + 1 (1 brood) Coots
- 65 Black-headed Gulls
- 5 Lesser Black-backed Gulls : two of these first-winter birds
- 3 Herring Gulls: all of these first-winter birds again

On the lamp poles pre-dawn:
- 1 Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperia carnea)
- 3 unidentified small flies – this seems to be a new feature: flies while still dark.
- 1 slug sp., perhaps Chestnut Slug (Deroceras invadens)

The following logged later:
Leaving earlier meant few insects about:
- Butterflies
- Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)
- Hoverflies
- Common Drone-fly (Eristalis tenax)
and
- a few Common Crane-flies (Tipula oleracea)
- 4 Grey Squirrels

It was definitely a morning that repaid an start with another excellent and varied sunrise. This taken at 05:50 – sunrise was 06:39: 50 minutes away.

More light by 06:05.

Colouring up at 06:15. The eight Mute Swans are asleep (at the bottom of the photo).

Excellent sky here with colour at its peak just after 06:20.

From a slightly different angle a few minutes later.

One of today’s three Cormorants arriving. An immature bird with some white flecking on the belly. The more white the younger the bird is. Takes up to five years to get all-black.

Always obstinately distant, the NW family of Great Crested Grebes has two adults feeding three juveniles. Here one of the adults with one juvenile on its back and one each side.

Here we seen four fully grown immature and one adult Great Crested Grebes. The adult is at the centre-back with head plumages and no trace of head stripes.

One of the immature Great Crested Grebes takes off showing the unexpected amount of white in the upper wing. Grebes always patter across the surface to get airborne because the legs are set so far back to aid diving and underwater swimming. From the photo it rather looks as if they ‘cup’ their partially-webbed feet and use them like a scoop to aid their progress.

There were two taking off in parallel and we see the ‘trail’ of one bird as the other attempts lift-off.

A second winter Lesser Black-backed Gull twists to shake the water off itself. Note here the mantle is essentially all dark at this age. While the inner primaries are somewhat paler than the outers and the secondaries, the contrast is not very obvious as it would be on any immature Herring Gull.

Slightly different lighting on the same bird accentuates the paler feathers but still ‘not pale enough’. All immature large gulls have pinkish legs and feet even though adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls have yellow legs.

A juvenile Goldfinch attacks the Alder cones. The cone closest to the bird seems to be an old one from last year and fair game for attack. However the green new cones look a bit the worse for having been attacked by something before they can possibly be ripe.

I don’t think there was anything wrong with this Blackbird. It seemed to just be having a rest. Blackbirds, especially males, are prone to white or white-tipped feathers and I don’t think the mottled head has any other significance.

An almost perfect pose from this Speckled Wood butterfly (Pararge aegeria). Spoiled by the shadow on the tip of the right upperwing.

Yesterday’s Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperia carnea) was covered in dew and its features hidden. This is better!

Not a particularly exciting fly and I cannot identify it. I am rather bemused by the appearance of these flies – there were four this morning – on the lamp posts while it is still dark. I did not know flies were nocturnal or attracted to artificial light. Neither can I recall seeing them in earlier years – certainly not in the numbers I have been seeing recently.

Not at all sure about this – might be a Chestnut Slug (Deroceras invadens). Makes a change from the big Black Slug (Arion ater).

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash:  09:00 – 10:00

(210th visit of the year)

Notes from here:
- The geese had returned before I arrived and certainly even more were lurking inside the island.
- Small number of House Martins heard overhead briefly.
- Strange that there were more Chiffchaffs at the lake this morning but none was seen or heard here.
- This morning’s Grey Wagtail was a fly-over.
- Goldfinches on the unripe Alder cones here as well as at the lake.
also
My later visit meant more insects around:
- 2 Speckled Wood butterflies (Pararge aegeria): ***first of year here
- 3 Red Admiral butterflies (Vanessa atalanta)
- >5 Common Drone-fly (Eristalis tenax)
- >5 Honey Bees (Apis mellifera)
- 3 Dicranopalpus ramosus harvestmen on a lamp pole
- 1 Terrapin sp. (presumed Yellow-bellied Slider)

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 1 Sparrowhawk
- 4 Wood Pigeons
- 2 Jackdaws
- 1 Grey Wagtail
- 2 Meadow Pipits

Hirundines etc. noted:
- >1 House Martin (heard only)

Warblers noted.
None

Counts from the water:
- 3 Mute Swans as usual
- >25 Greylag Geese
- 1 Greylag x Canada Goose
- >103 Canada Geese
- 33 (17♂) Mallard
- 26 (8♂) Tufted Ducks
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 2 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 19 Coots
- 13 Black-headed Gulls: two of these first-winter birds

This Speckled Wood butterfly is not as pristine as the example at the lake. It is missing a chunk from the right-hand hind wing. No doubt in one of the territorial battles that this species seems fond of.

A Red Admiral butterfly (Vanessa atalanta) at a rather unusual angle. Did I know the antennae were striped? I do now.

The presumed Yellow-bellied Slider terrapin soaks up the sun.

It seems to have its neck twisted to keep an eye on me. A picture of contentment though.

(Ed Wilson)

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

2015
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2014
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2007
Priorslee Lake
Shoveler
Redwing
(Ed Wilson)