30 Sep 19

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

Priorslee Lake:  05:55 –09:20
The Flash:  09:25 – 10:25

11.0°C > 14.0°C:  Very strange: clear to N and E; cloud to S and W with dividing line overhead almost throughout. Some distant mist at times. Calm start with light S breeze later. Very good visibility except for the few mist patches.

Sunrise: 07:08 BST

As a postscript to the passage of Meadow Pipits noted yesterday. At Belvide Reservoir, about 12 miles to the E, the birdwatchers made a count of all migration overhead between 08:00 and 09:30. They logged >500 Meadow Pipits. There must have been many thousand birds moving on a wide front, vacating northern hills for more temperate coastal areas to the south.

Priorslee Lake:  05:55 –09:20

(235th visit of the year)

Bird notes from today:
When I did the 07:15 ‘football’ field count there were already dogs on the grass. It produced 42 Black-headed Gulls, 11 Wood Pigeons, just 1 Magpie, and 16 Pied Wagtails. The Black-headed Gulls quickly vacated to the academy playing fields where there eventually 74 were noted.
At 09:00 another disappointing repeat count produced two Magpies and two Pied Wagtails.

Other notes:
- 11 Tufted Ducks on the water at 06:20: Six of these left to the W at 06:25. Later only three ducks found.
- The early large gulls almost all flew on with just eight birds at the tail-end of the movement pausing on the water. Very few large gulls later.
- Once again c.50 Wood Pigeons put up from fields to E and N, not included in fly-over totals. Higher number flying over today anyway.
- At least three, possibly more, Chiffchaffs were feeding and chasing around at the W end in the Ricoh hedge. At this time none of them was calling. One (of these?) had been singing in the area earlier. Two calling elsewhere, one of which was also in song.
- A single small thrush flew over. It is always rewarding if Redwing can be found in September. Sadly this bird did not call – as Redwings almost always do: it was probably just a Song Thrush.
- The often clear sky made finding small birds flying over, especially the Meadow Pipits, a struggle. Many fewer than yesterday were heard calling in flight.

Bird totals:

Birds noted flying over or flying near the lake:
- c.138 Greylag Geese (18 in one group outbound; c.120 in one group inbound)
- 16 Canada Geese (1 group outbound)
- 1 (1♂) Mallard
- 2 Common Buzzards
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: adult
- c.170 unidentified large gulls: too dark to ID
- 2 Stock Doves: singles
- 169 Wood Pigeons
- 111 Jackdaws
- 116 Rooks
- 5 Starlings
- 1 thrush sp. (see notes)
- 2 Skylarks
- 5 Meadow Pipits

Hirundines etc. noted:
None

Warblers noted (singing birds):
- 5+ (1) Chiffchaffs

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 6 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 1 (1♂) Gadwall only
- 4 (2♂) Mallard
- 11 (?♂) Tufted Ducks (see notes)
- 1 Cormorant again
- Little Grebe(s) heard only
- 7 adult + 3 immatures + 9 juvenile (3 broods) Great Crested Grebes
- 6 Moorhens yet again
- 113 Coots
- c.75 Black-headed Gulls
- 8 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: six of these first-winter birds
- 2 Herring Gulls: both of these first-winter birds
- 8 unidentified large gulls: too dark to ID
- 1 Kingfisher

Pre-dawn sightings on the lamp poles:
- 1 Brick Moth (Agrochola circellaris)
- 2 Leiobunum rotundum harvestmen
- 2 small flies

Later sightings:
- 1 Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum aka Helix aspersa)
- several fruiting bodies of the Shaggy Inkcap or Lawyer's Wig (Coprinus comatus) fungus
- 1 Grey Squirrel

Very strange clouds at the lake this morning. Brooding and dark to the S; clear to the N. The light on the N shore is a fisherman attending his lines.

The cloud moved very little. Here later as the sun begins to add colour.

Later some good colour as two of the cygnet Mute Swans swim by. Seen it all before!

The long view – perhaps ‘wide view’ is a better description.

The adult Mute Swan is no more impressed than the cygnet was.

Last one. Was rather special this morning.

A handsome creature with a bill not to be messed with. Designed for tearing meat – usually only dead meat. The yellow flesh above the base of the bill (the cere) tells us this Common Buzzard is an adult.

Here it is on its perch – with an annoying shadow across its chest. The barring on the breast confirms it is an adult – one a juvenile the breast is streaked.

Mr. Blackbird among the hawthorn berries eyeing up breakfast.

Meanwhile Mrs. Blackbird is tucking in. Need to be acrobatic to access the berries. Perhaps females are slightly lighter than males and more able to hang on like this?

And another. So soon.

Burp! Pardon.

One fungus I can identify is this Shaggy Inkcap or Lawyer's Wig (Coprinus comatus). Not able to do any ‘gardening’ as all the small group were inside the academy fence.

This moth is a Brick (Agrochola circellaris). A new moth for me in Shropshire and after a recount this is species #73 that I have identified at the lake this year."
(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Flash:  09:25 – 10:25

(223rd visit of the year)

Six Skylarks overhead were my first here this year: bird species #79 for 2019 at The Flash.

Other notes from here:
- One Sparrowhawk flew high W. Later two flew W more or less together. So were there three individuals?
- Two Starlings directly over: then 25 seen circling to N.
- As at the lake the often clear sky means that numbers of all species flying over are likely to have been under-recorded.
- At least 10 Goldfinches in trees on the island in addition to the birds flying over.
and
- 1 Common Drone-fly (Eristalis tenax)
- 1 wasp sp.
- 1 red spider (but no harvestmen) on a lamp pole
- 1 Grey Squirrel yet again

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 2 (3?) Sparrowhawks
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: adult
- 11 Feral Pigeons
- 7 Wood Pigeons
- 3 Jackdaws
- 2 Ravens
- 27 Starlings
- 6 Skylarks
- 1 Grey Wagtail
- 2 Pied Wagtails
- 9 Meadow Pipits
- 9 Goldfinches

Hirundines etc. noted.
None

Warblers noted.
- 1 Chiffchaff

Counts from the water:
- 3 Mute Swans
- >48 Greylag Geese
- >196 Canada Geese
- 2 hybrid / feral geese
- 47 (24♂) Mallard
- 52 (8?♂) Tufted Duck
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 5 Moorhens
- 17 Coots
- 12 Black-headed Gulls: just one of these a first-winter bird

The light was just right on the Magpie and shows the blue gloss. Now I will have to try a different angle to catch the gloss when it shows more green – there is the merest hint around the edges of the blue.

I can still find no photos on the web of any spider species resembling this very distinctive individual. Is that a cranefly leg I see in front of its left forelegs?

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

2018
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2011
Priorslee Flash

This morning an adult Wryneck, popped up on a wall while I was walking along the footpath along the West side of The Flash at c.09:45. I managed a quick record shot and when I looked up from the camera the bird had gone - probably dropped in to the garden the other side. The gardens are higher than the path so looking over the wall is not possible. Hung around for some 10 minutes but nothing appeared. (Ed Wilson)

Wryneck - 2011 (Ed Wilson)