31 Dec 19


Priorslee Lake and The Flash

Priorslee Lake:  07:05 – 09:40
The Flash:  09:45 – 10:45

6.0°C > 5.0°C:  Overcast at medium level. Later more low cloud. Light / moderate E wind. Good visibility.

Sunrise: 08:22 GMT once again

Good wishes for 2020 to all my readers

Best of the day were the second-winter Common Gull at the lake and a drake Teal at The Flash

Priorslee Lake:  07:05 – 09:40

(300th visit of the year)

300 up!!!

A small arrival of Pochard and a pair of Great Crested Grebe new.

Bird notes:
- The fifth Mute Swan cygnet left to the W and was away for just about one hour.
- A different challenge today with the Jackdaws and Rooks. Many of the Rooks preceded the Jackdaws. Some of the Jackdaw groups were skimming the fields to the E and partially hidden behind hedges. Others groups were high overhead with some Rooks mixed in.
- Six singing Song Thrushes.
- One Linnet flew NE: later one flew SW – same bird?
- No Reed Buntings seen or heard in the roost area. One was calling in the SE area pre-dawn – an unusual location for this species. Then three flew together over the N side at 09:15: no idea where they had come from.

Bird totals:

Birds noted flying over or flying near the lake:
- 9 Greylag Geese: outbound in one group
- 24 Canada Geese: 22 outbound in one groups; two inbound
- 3 Black-headed Gulls
- 19 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Herring Gull
- 28 Wood Pigeons
- 4 Collared Doves: pairs
- c.750 Jackdaws
- 127 Rooks
- 3 Fieldfares
- 7 Redwings
- 3 Pied Wagtails
- 1 or 2 Linnets

Birds logged leaving roosts around the lake:
- 12 Redwings
- no Reed Buntings (see notes)

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 4 (2♂) Gadwall
- 7 (5♂) Mallard
- 8 (6♂) Pochard
- 41 (23♂) Tufted Duck
- 1 (0♂) Goosander: arrived
- 6 Cormorants
- 1 Grey Heron again
- [no Little Grebes seen]
- 5 Great Crested Grebes
- 10 Moorhens
- 122 Coots
- 1 Kingfisher

Gulls:
The first Black-headed Gulls arrived at 07:35. Again c.250 arrived at this time. Twenty large gulls arrived at this time as singles / small groups separately from the Black-heads

As usual almost all these gulls left. As they did so I noted a second-winter Common Gull departing with them. Later a similar number of Black-headed Gulls was present but whether these were returning birds, new birds or a mixture is impossible to say. Sadly the Common Gull was not with them. More large gulls all drifted in as a spread-out group.

Early arrival counts
- >250 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Common Gull: second winter
- 12 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 8 Herring Gulls

Gull count at 09:15
- >250 Black-headed Gulls
- 43 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 4 Herring Gulls

On the lamp pole pre dawn:
- 1 Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis)
- 1 unidentified spider sp.
There was also a small moth flying around, likely a Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata) but just possibly the first Early Moth (Theria primaria) of the winter.

Other sightings
- 1 Grey Squirrel

This Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis) was unusually low down and allowed a photo by torch light rather than the camera’s flash. The left pair of front legs are held typically close together pointing ahead. The right pair not quite so neatly arranged.

Not at all sure about this spider. No real features to begin to identify it.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash:  09:45 – 10:45

(285th visit of the year)

A postscript to yesterday’s note about the man throwing a weighted object in to the water. It was suggested that he was not fishing but throwing a magnet in to the water, searching for metal objects.

Bird notes from here:
- My second Teal record here this year – previously on 19 April when no doubt on Spring passage.
- I had only found six brownhead Goosanders. One seen in flight is recorded as a fly-over but may have been lurking on the water earlier.
- A calling Great Spotted Woodpecker was my first record this month.
- A group of 18 Goldfinches around the island.

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 1 (0♂) Goosander (see notes)
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 9 Feral Pigeons
- 2 Wood Pigeons

Counts from the water:
- 3 Mute Swans
- 5 Canada Geese
- 1 (1♂) (Common) Teal
- 40 (23♂) Mallard
- 8 (8♂) Pochard again
- 25 (14♂) Tufted Duck
- 6 (0♂) Goosander: departed
- [no Grey Heron seen]
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 5 Moorhens
- 13 Coots
- 56 Black-headed Gulls
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gull: 1 adult; 1 second-winter
- 2 Kingfishers flying about

No other sightings.

Today’s star bird at The Flash: a drake (Common) Teal. A small duck on dark water all the way across to the island does not make for a stunning photograph. Behind it a drake Mallard of course and behind that a second-winter Lesser Black-backed Gull.

This illustrates the difficulty of counting the number of Goosanders present. Tucked up under overhanging vegetation on the island there are six brownheads (and two Black-headed Gulls).

Here endeth 2019!

(Ed Wilson)

Note:

Click Here for the FoPL 2019 Summary

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On this day..........
2018
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

 2016
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

 2014
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

 2013
Priorslee Lake
Two 1st-winter female Scaup
(Ian Grant)

 2012
Priorslee Lake
Drake Scaup
(Jim Almond and Paul Spear)

 2010
Priorslee Lake
c.1500 Black-headed Gulls
1 Common Gull
1 Great Black-backed Gull
Water Rail
(Ed Wilson)

 2005
Priorslee lake
11 Great Crested Grebes
31 Pochard
48 Tufted Duck
237 Coot
Golden Plover
1 Water Rail
700 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
c.1250 Black-headed Gulls
300 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
1 Yellow-legged Gull
37 Herring Gulls
6 Great Black-backed Gull
374 Jackdaws
178 Rooks
1 Kingfisher
1 Willow Tit
2 Redpolls.
2 Redwings
14 Robins
19 Blackbirds
13 Greenfinches
5 Reed Buntings
(Ed Wilson)