16 Oct 19

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

Priorslee Lake:  06:15 –09:30
The Flash:  09:35 – 10:20

11.0°C:  Overnight rain clearing. Initially low cloud and some drizzle, gradually clearing from SW and some sun after 09:30. Light SE at first, veering SW and then moderate W with clearance. Barely ‘moderate’ visibility ahead of clearance: thereafter very good.

Sunrise: 07:36 BST

Priorslee Lake:  06:15 –09:30

(245th visit of the year)

Bird notes from today:
- Three new Gadwall: unusually a drake with two ducks – drakes normally outnumber ducks
- So where were all the Mallard? Just a lone drake seen.
- duck / immature Pochard new in and first of season here.
- Tufted Duck count ‘best effort’. There were groups scattered all around the lake all being continually hassled by the Black-headed Gulls and diving and moving about.
- Similarly the Great Crested Grebe count needs to be treated with caution as these too were being hassled. The family groups are now split and no longer ‘on territory’ adding to the difficulty.
- Possibly many more Black-headed Gulls. Birds seemed to continually arrive from the W though many soon flew back again. It was impossible to know whether subsequent arrivals were new or returnees.
- The only big party of Jackdaws noted (at least 180) was right on the limit of the visibility at the time. A scatter of small groups later.
- Now four Song Thrushes (sub)singing
- First significant movement of thrushes W-bound. Just one Fieldfare noted in with one of the ten groups.
- Five Reed Buntings left the roost at around the usual time of 07:45. Two seen flying off c.09:10 perhaps on a more local foray?

Bird totals:

Birds noted flying over or flying near the lake:
***numbers again affected by early low cloud***
- 2 Greylag Geese (inbound)
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: just one of these a first-winter bird
- 25 Wood Pigeons
- >220 Jackdaws
- 8 Skylarks
- 6 Starlings (1 group)
- 1 Fieldfare
- 160 Redwings (10 groups)
- 10 Pied Wagtails
- 1 Meadow Pipit

Birds logged leaving roosts around the lake
- 5 Reed Buntings

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 5 (2♂) Gadwall
- 1 (1♂) Mallard
- 1 (0♂) Pochard
- 49 (10?♂) Tufted Ducks
- 2 Cormorants
- 2 Grey Herons
- 2 Little Grebes
- 15 Great Crested Grebes: ages not determined
- 8 Moorhens
- 111 Coots
- >180 Black-headed Gulls
- 33 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: 22 of these first-winter birds
- 20 Herring Gulls: 18 of these first-winter birds
- >10 unidentified large gulls: arrived and departed before ID

Pre-dawn sightings on the lamp poles:
- 1 Common Marbled Carpet moth (Dysstroma truncata): third morning in same place
- 1 November Moth-type (Epirrita sp.)
- 1 gnat sp.
- 4 small flies, apparently all different species

No later sightings.

Little more than a record shot of this Pochard. The rather ‘smiley face’ and lack of white on the bill suggests this is a first-winter duck.

The first ‘November Moth’ of the season amongst the rain-spattered debris on one of the lamp poles. This moth one of the group of moths from the genus Epirrita that cannot be separated except by examination of the genitalia with a low-power microscope – hmm! On date it is more likely this is a November Moth (E. dilutata) but I will keep it as ‘November Moth-type’.

I’ve logged this as a ‘gnat’ but with a beaked appearance it could be a small cranefly. Cannot ID it from this angle

(Ed Wilson)

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

The Flash:  09:35 – 10:20

(232nd visit of the year)

Notes from here:
- Just three Great Crested Grebes seen. The immature with remnant face stripes with an adult by the island; and a lone adult elsewhere
together
Other things:
nothing on the usual lamp pole
on a lamp pole in squirrel alley
- 1 Common European Earwig (Forficula auricularia)
on the Ivy flowers
- 1 Red Admiral butterfly (Vanessa atalanta)
- many drone flies (Eristalis sp.)
- >5 Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
- >5 wasps sp.
- 1 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata)
also
- 1 Grey Squirrel

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 4 Jackdaws
- 6 Starlings
- 1 Redwing again
- 1 Pied Wagtail

Counts from the water:
- 3 Mute Swans
- 32 Greylag Geese
- 26 Canada Geese
- 1 hybrid / feral goose
- 28 (16♂) Mallard
- 18 (5?♂) Tufted Duck
- 3 Great Crested Grebes
- 2 Moorhens
- 16 Coots
- 9 Black-headed Gulls

This Blue Tit has been watching Nuthatches at work and decided to copy them. Even using its tail as a ‘prop’ like a woodpecker.

Zoomed right in I was surprised how sturdy the bill looks. Checking with photos on the web suggests it is indeed slightly bigger than usual.

This 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata) demonstrates how water-repellent the elytra (wing covers) are.

(Ed Wilson)

Note:
Here are a few images from Venus Pool on 14 Oct 19. Click Here.

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

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

2018
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2017
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2008
Priorslee Lake
150+ Tufted Duck
5 Pochard
Kingfisher
(Mike Cooper)

2006
Priorslee Lake
10 Cormorants
15 Pochard
87 Tufted Ducks
34 Robins
8 Song Thrushes
9 Redwings
3 Redpolls
(Ed Wilson)