24 Dec 19

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

Priorslee Lake:  07:00 – 09:35 again
The Flash:  09:40 – 10:25

7.0°C > 8.0°C:  Broken cloud with some often heavy showers. Moderate WSW wind. Good visibility.

Sunrise: 08:21 GMT

Season’s Greetings to all my readers.

Priorslee Lake:  07:00 – 09:35

(293rd visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Six Canada Geese present when I arrived. These left to the W at 07:45. Two arrived from the W at 08:10 and then stayed throughout. Two more arrived at 08:45 and were soon chased away by the Mute Swans.
- Continuing decline in Tufted Duck numbers. They have not gone to The Flash. So where?
- Just one Great Crested Grebe located.
- Again rather too dark for an accurate Coot count: there do seem to be fewer here than there were two weeks ago.
- A huge Jackdaws passage. c.450 birds in single group at 07:44. Then c.500 at 07:51 – this even harder to estimate as there were six concurrent groups on different flight-lines. There seems to be a consistent c.5 minute gap between big groups at the moment. Might they come from different roosts? Another c.90 a few minutes later and a few stragglers thereafter.
- Five different singing Song Thrushes.
- The only Reed Bunting seen departing left the N side reeds. At least three calling at the W end and although they made calls as if they were about to depart they were not seen to do so.

Bird totals:

Birds noted flying over or flying near the lake:
- 1 Cormorant
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 48 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 19 Wood Pigeons
- c.1050 (!) Jackdaws
- 5 Rooks again
- 2 Starlings
- 1 Redwing

Birds logged leaving roosts around the lake:
- 2 Redwings
- 1 Reed Bunting

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 10 Canada Geese (see notes)
- 6 (4♂) Gadwall
- 3 (2♂) Mallard
- 36 (20♂) Tufted Duck
- 3 Cormorants
- 1 Grey Heron
- 2 Little Grebes
- 1 Great Crested Grebe only
- 11 Moorhens
- 113 Coots

Gulls:
No birds until 07:25 when c.25 Black-headed Gulls spiralled down from high overhead. Another c.100 arrived at c.07:45. Then c.225 arrived high from the W after 08:00.
All the large gulls came from high overhead.

They gradually drifted away: no large exodus as in previous days.

Early gull arrival counts
- c.350 Black-headed Gulls
- 44 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 9 Herring Gulls
- 1 Great Black-backed Gull
No obvious later arrival

Also: on a lamp pre dawn:
- 1 Winter Moths (Operophtera brumata)
Several winter midges flying around the lamps

No other sightings

Two first-winter Herring Gulls. Makes a change to find ‘normal’ gulls. On the left-hand bird we can see a few new grey feathers on the mantle. This is a slightly larger bird – likely this is a male and the other bird a female, though there is considerable size variability within the sexes.

And here a second-winter Herring Gull in front of a first-winter Herring Gull.

This moth was sitting alongside the lit LEDs of a street lamp and the camera failed to properly focus on it. It seems to be the most clearly-marked Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata) I have ever seen. Most often this species shows grey wings with just a few black streaks.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash:  09:40 – 10:25

(278th visit of the year)

Bird notes from here:
- I guess no-one had been feeding the birds as yet: many of the Mallard were presumably still hiding away. Or perhaps they had been fed and were sleeping it off somewhere. Anyay, a low number recorded.
- Whether there has really been an increase in Pochard numbers or whether they were just all visible is hard to say.
- Just one Sparrowhawk today but did not stop it displaying overhead.
- Song Thrush was here but not singing.

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 1 Sparrowhawk
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 7 Feral Pigeons (2 groups)
- 32 Jackdaws
- 1 Rook

Counts from the water:
- 3 Mute Swans
- 2 Canada Geese
- 29 (15♂) Mallard
- 11 (10♂) Pochard
- 19 (11♂) Tufted Duck
- 7 (0♂) Goosander
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 3 Moorhens
- 15 Coots
- 41 Black-headed Gulls
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: 2 adults; 1 first-winter
- 2 Herring Gulls: first-winters
- 1 Kingfisher yet again

A postscript to the rather strange gull I photographed yesterday: having shown it to several gull enthusiasts it is agreed that it is a second-winter Lesser Black-backed Gull showing exceptional wear or bleaching on some of its wing feathers.

Other sightings
- on a different lamp pole from yesterday in squirrel alley
- 1 Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata)

 Here a first-winter Herring Gull fronts a slightly smaller first-winter Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Against the Mute Swan’s plumage we see just how far from being ‘white’ these two gulls really are. The first-winter Herring Gull in front shows pale around the edges of the folded tertials (in front of the black primaries). On the first-winter Lesser Black-backed Gull the tertials are dark and unmarked.

This is one of those two first-winter Herring Gulls. Through binoculars the paler inner primaries seemed both restricted in extent and lacking in contrast. I needed to check other features to eliminate first-winter Yellow-legged Gull. I ruled this out because the head is not obviously pale and the upper-tail is much too mottled.

(Ed Wilson)

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

2018
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2017
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
5 Gadwall 
7 Pochard 
34 Tufted Ducks 
204 Coots counted 
123 Black-headed Gulls
16 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
22 Herring Gulls
3 Great Black-backed Gulls
(Ed Wilson)

The Flash
2 Grey Herons
126 Canada Geese
110 Tufted Ducks 
(Ed Wilson)

Trench Lock Pool
3 Great Crested Grebes 
2 Shoveler 
71 Tufted Duck 
1 Goosander 
125 Coots
>40 Redwings
(Ed Wilson)

Trench Middle Pool
1 Tufted Duck 
19 Goosander 
(Ed Wilson)

2012
Priorslee Lake
2 Gadwall
13 Pochard
35 Tufted Ducks
178 Coots
Peregrine
14 Redwings
(Ed Wilson)

The Flash
1 Pochard
38 Tufted Duck
5 Goosanders
(Ed Wilson)

Little Wenlock, Candles Landfill Site
4 Yellow-legged Gulls
(Dawn Balmer & Pete Wilson)

2009
Priorslee Lake
Black-necked Grebe
4 Great Crested Grebes 
10 Swans
28 Pochard 
77 Tufted Ducks
3 Yellow-legged Gulls
1000 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
60 Herring Gulls
1 Water Rail heard 
299 Coots counted 
4 Redwings 
2 Willow Tits again 
c.5 Goldfinches
c.10 Siskins
(Ed Wilson/Dawn Balmer/ Peter Wilson)

2006
Priorslee lake
2 Great Crested Grebe
1 Little Grebe
41 Pochard
38 Tufted Ducks
8 Redwing
2 Fieldfare
1 Redpoll
4 Reed Buntings
(Martin Adlam)