5 May 20

Priorslee Lake and Woodhouse Lane
Another extended exercise walk encompassing Woodhouse Lane

6.0°C > 8.0°C:  Strange day. Started clear but with high cloud to S and W from the rain and gales forecast in that area. Clouds occasionally spread in at lower level and it became very cloudy for a while. Later the clouds started to clear. Keen, fresh E wind. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 05:28 BST

Last Sunday (3rd) was International Dawn Chorus Day. Already the amount and duration of song from some species is starting to decline as they become busy with feeding hungry chicks. Particularly noticeable among Song Thrushes.

Priorslee Lake:  early

(72nd visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- One visiting adult Lesser Black-backed Gull used several different buoys, apparently finding none to its liking and it flew off.
- As yesterday, a high-flying group of Wood Pigeons noted: eight in the group today.
- Just two singing Garden Warblers. But note one logged later just across Castle Fame Way by the sluice exit.
- I cannot decide how many Reed Warblers there are singing at the W end. Certainly three. Sometimes I think four but then I am not so sure. Two elsewhere around the lake.
- Four different Mistle Thrushes seen. Only one in song. Two birds feeding on the academy playing field were ‘bounced’ by a pair of Magpies. Seemed unnecessary.
- House Sparrows noted in two locations.

Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 4 Greylag Geese (quartet inbound)
- 1 Greylag-type Goose (inbound: strange call – hybrid?)
- 1 Canada Geese (outbound)
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: five (near) adults; one first year
- 3 Stock Doves
- 20 Wood Pigeons
- 6 Jackdaws
- 5 Rooks

Birds noted on the academy playing field:
- 2 Canada Geese
- [no Pheasants]
- 2 Mistle Thrushes
- 26 Starlings

Count of hirundines etc logged:
- >70 Sand Martins
- >10 Barn Swallows
- 1+ House Martin(s)

Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 13 (11) Chiffchaffs
- 22 (21) Blackcaps
- 2 (2) Garden Warblers (see notes)
- 2 (2) Common Whitethroats
- 5 (5) Reed Warblers (see notes)

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 Mute Swans
- 2 Canada Geese: arrived from playing field
- 13 (11♂) Mallard
- 6 (5♂) Tufted Ducks: 4 (4♂) departed
- 1 Grey Heron
- 3 Great Crested Grebes again
- 4 Moorhens
- 19 Coots
- 1 Common Sandpiper again
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: (near) adults, both briefly
- 2 Herring Gulls: one adult(?), one third summer very briefly, together

Noted on / around the street lights:
Nothing

Postscript to report from The Flash yesterday:
- A report of seven goslings seen. Perhaps the council contractors did not visit the island to sterilise the eggs this year because of the lock-down. It was also reported that only a single gosling remained this morning.
- A dead Mallard (sex not mentioned) was reported floating in the water.

A clear start as the sun rose. Pity about the buoy!

Sunk!

What seemed to be an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull over.

Zoomed right in there is black on both mandibles so a ‘near-adult’.

Here it is again. Is that just a remnant of the immature black tail band I can see?

These two Herring Gulls dropped in for less than two minutes. My ‘safety shot’ unwittingly caught a House Martin passing by. The right-hand bird with brown in the wings is a third (perhaps even fourth) summer bird. The other looks like an adult but the bill is not really visible to check for black markings.

Another in the short series of “what I ate for breakfast”. A Garden Warbler in full song. For some reason all the shots this morning, while taken in good light, have ended up slightly pixelating when I have edited them.

Quite!

Here it tries to convince it is really a whitethroat.

This gives the best view of what few features this species shows. The bill is rather thick, short and dark for a warbler. There is a hint of a grey collar and also a faint supercilium, none of them at all obvious in the field.

As the head is turned the grey collar and supercilium disappear.

The Starlings were busy again today. After a few people arrived at the academy the Starlings decamped from their playing field to run the gauntlet of the dog-walkers on the football field. They allowed a somewhat closer approach than usual. Beaks well loaded here.

The left-hand bird is a male with the blue tone at the base of the bill. Males tend to lose the spots on the breast in Spring, as here. That suggests the bird on the right with breast spots and without blue at the base of the bill is a female. That means that both sexes are actively feeding young in the nests.

Also a pair, male at the back.

A busy gang.

I had to double-check this. I was sure it was a Mistle Thrush rattling away when I took the photo. However this species normally looks small-headed and obviously larger than a Song Thrush and I had to look hard. The best separation feature here is the just-visible pale edging to the wing coverts. A Song Thrush would show a yellow-buff tone across the breast and the spots would not extend on to the lower belly. So Mistle Thrush it is.

This is a different Mistle Thrush singing.

(Ed Wilson)

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Woodhouse Lane area:

(3rd visit of the year)

I am sure the chill wind had an effect on the numbers. It had an effect on me!

Notes from here
- No Pheasants heard again.
- Definite Willow Warbler this visit – a very persistent songster in a different place to last Thursday’s suspected bird.
- The Garden Warbler was close to the sluice exit and perhaps the ‘missing’ songster from around the lake.

Notable species counts (singing birds in brackets):
- 4 (3) Skylarks again
- 1 Long-tailed Tit party
- 2 (2) Chiffchaffs
- 3 (3) Blackcaps
- 1 (1) Garden Warbler
- 6 (6) Common Whitethroats
- 6 (6) Song Thrush
- 4 (4) Chaffinches
- 1 (1) Goldfinch
- [no Linnets]
- 6 (3) Yellowhammers

Additional flower species noted:
- Smooth Sow-thistle or Milk Thistle (Sonchus oleraceus)

When I set off it was sunny. Not for long and this was the only photo I took in the area with the birds all hiding from the wind.

(Ed Wilson)

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If you are on your daily exercise and keeping a safe distance from others, we would love to see any photos or sightings you have, from Priorslee Lake and The Flash, by emailing them to us at priorsleelake@hotmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you.😊

(Martin Adlam and Ed Wilson)

Note:
Here are a few Garden Sightings from Ed Wilson Here on our Readers Corner from the past few days

And

A few of Martin Adlam's Sightings from the Isle of Portland Here.

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

2016
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2014
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2012
Wrekin
Several Pied Flycatchers
2 male Common Redstarts
2 Wood Warbler
3 male Tree Pipits
(Glenn Bishton)

2011
Priorslee Lake
2 Common Sandpiper
(John Isherwood)

Nedge Hill
1 Wheatear
(John Isherwood)

2007
Nedge Hill
2 Wheatears
(John Isherwood)

2006
Priorslee Lake
1 drake Ruddy Duck
(Ed Wilson)