29 Oct 19

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

Priorslee Lake:  05:40 –09:00
The Flash:  09:05 – 09:55

2.0°C > 4.0°C:  Clear overhead and to the N: area of high cloud to S. Some mist in vicinity not affecting immediate area. Ground frost. Light, mainly E wind. Good visibility.

Sunrise: 07:00 GMT

Priorslee Lake:  05:40 –09:00

(256th visit of the year)

Best bird today was a Woodcock seen flying in to its roost at 06:10. My first of the Autumn and a different location to where I usually see this species, though I have seen a bird in this location once before, but many years ago.

Busy overhead although, Wood Pigeons apart, no definitive migration.

Bird notes from today:
- Four of the five cygnets achieved lift-off.
- A duck Pochard new in.
- Very few Black-headed Gulls again.
- The first migrant Wood Pigeons were in a party of 12 at 07:02. Apart from a group of 171 (sad isn’t it?).at 08:35 most of the groups were quite small.
- I managed to locate many, but by no means all, of the Pied Wagtails leaving their roost site and passing high eastwards overhead in the clear sky.
- Reed Buntings started calling at 06:15. I saw none leave the roost until 06:45.

Bird totals:

Birds noted flying over or flying near the lake:
- 3 Greylag Geese: (single & pair inbound)
- 9 Canada Geese: (1 group outbound)
- 1 Sparrowhawk
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 3 Black-headed Gulls
- 14 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: mainly adults
- 1 Herring Gull: (near) adult
- 1 Stock Dove
- 480 Wood Pigeons: 457 of these in 11 migrant groups heading ‘SW’
- 183 Jackdaws
- 3 Skylarks
- 19 Starlings (4 groups)
- 9 Fieldfares (3 groups)
- 29 Redwings (5 groups)
- >30 Pied Wagtails (see notes)

Birds logged leaving roosts around the lake:
- >125 Starlings
- 3 Redwings
- 16 Reed Buntings

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 4 (2♂) Gadwall
- 8 (5♂) Mallard
- 1 (0♂) Pochard
- 43 (21?♂) Tufted Ducks
- 1 Cormorant again
- 3 Grey Herons again
- 4 Little Grebes
- 14 Great Crested Grebes again
- 6 Moorhens again
- 134 Coots
- 1 Woodcock
- 27 Black-headed Gulls only
- 14 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: just two of these first-winter birds
- 1 Herring Gull: first-winter bird
- 1 Kingfisher

Still reasonably busy on frosted lamp poles pre-dawn:
- 4 November Moth-types (Epirrita sp.) again
- 1 Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata)
- 1 Dicranopalpus ramosus harvestman
- 5 Paroligolophus agrestis harvestmen again
- 3 spiders, likely all Nursery Web Spiders (Pisaura mirabilis): frost hiding markings
A single moth was all that was still present at 08:45.

Later sightings elsewhere
- several probable Field Blewit (Lepista saeva) fungus
- 1 Grey Squirrel

Mainly clear start with the high cloud to the S producing a little sunrise colour.

Three cygnets, well in the air and undercarriage almost retracted, take a test-flight with one of the parents. A Black-headed Gull gets out of the way!

I was just a second or two late on to this Cormorant. It had just caught and was swallowing a large fish. All that remains is a rather thicker neck than usual as the prey slides down.

Did I know that Grey Herons had two white patches on the leading edge of each wing and a white patch to the wing root? I do now.

They are rather formidable. Why is it necessary to be so large? I guess smaller birds are more nimble and take smaller fish and that herons have evolved to be large enough to deal with the bigger fish that others cannot cope with.

This gull popped up on this buoy and I never saw it arrive or depart. It seems it is an advanced first-winter Herring Gull with the mantle feathers moulted, unlike most of the immature gulls seen to date. The new feathers have neat black markings. Somewhat unusual is the pale head with the dark eye, reminiscent of Common Gull. Immature large gulls have dark eyes, not usually so obvious when this is part of a dark smudgy area on the face. The bill is too heavy for a Common Gull. The mantle tone is too pale for Yellow-legged Gull which is always a possibility on a pale-head large gull.

Neck ache time again. Not only can this immature Goldfinch hang head-first but it can twist its neck and still not fall off as it digs in to an alder cone.

I think I could cope with this angle OK.

“Three’s a crowd”. These November-type Moths had found one of the lamps under shelter of trees which is not frosted and had decided it was a better resting place.

This fungus appears every year in this location. I think Field Blewit (Lepista saeva)

From underneath.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash:  09:05 – 09:55

(242nd visit of the year)

Notes from here:
- Rather quiet. Where have many of the Mallard gone? Were they hiding inside the island?

Bird noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull
- 7 Wood Pigeons

Counts from the water:
- 3 Mute Swans as ever
- 2 Greylag Geese
- 28 Canada Geese: 8 of these arrived
- 14 (8♂) Mallard only
- 1 (1♂) Pochard again
- 25 (10?♂) Tufted Duck
- 1 Grey Heron
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 5 Moorhens
- 12 Coots
- 10 Black-headed Gulls

Other things:
- on the usual lamp pole
- 1 November Moth-type (Epirrita sp.)
- 1 Dicranopalpus ramosus harvestman
- on lamp poles in squirrel alley
- 1 November Moth-type (Epirrita sp.)
- 1 Paroligolophus agrestis harvestman
- elsewhere on lamp poles
- 1 November Moth-types (Epirrita sp.)
- on the bank of Ivy: although sunny a chill wind and not sheltered today
- >30 wasps
- a few flies

(Ed Wilson)

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

2018
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2016
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2015
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2014
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2013
Priorslee Lake
7 Gadwall
1 Teal
1 Raven
(John Isherwood)

The Flash
Location
1 Pochard
1 Teal
(John Isherwood)

2012
Priorslee Lake
1 Yellow legged Gull
2 Gadwall
1 Shoveler
1 Wigeon
Chiffchaff
10+ Fieldfare
Siskin
Willow Tit
(John Isherwood)

The Flash
Location
3 Pochard
Sparrowhawk
(John Isherwood)

2010
Priorslee Lake
34 Pochard a high count 
500+  Lesser Black-backed Gulls
432 Jackdaws
228 Rooks
171 Fieldfare
5 Redwings
2 Siskins
4 Linnets
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
115 Canada Geese
9 Pochard
52 Tufted Ducks
1 Kestrel
c.200 Golden Plover
23 Pied Wagtails
17 Robins
18 Blackbirds
12 Song Thrushes
70 Redwing
1 Mistle Thrush
9 Fieldfare
1 Chiffchaff
1 Blackcap
1 Willow Tit
195 Jackdaws
206 Rooks
31 Greenfinches
4 Redpoll
10 Reed Buntings
(Martin Adlam)

2005
Priorslee Lake
Buzzard feeding on earthworms, mobbed by Black-headed Gulls
1 Raven
7 Pied Wagtails
3 Grey Wagtail
11 Meadow Pipits
Kingfisher
1700+ Wood Pigeon
192 Redwing
111 Fieldfare
(Martin Adlam)