23 Sep 20

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

13.0°C: Medium overcast pre-dawn. Light rain from 06:30 with lowering cloud and then heavy rain after 08:00 on and off – mostly on. Light S wind, veering NW. Moderate visibility

Sunrise: 06:58 BST

Priorslee Lake: 05:31 – 09:10

(200th visit of the year)

Nothing exciting to celebrate my 200th visit of the year – unless getting soaked was exciting!

Bird notes:

- I logged 277 Lesser Black-backed Gulls flying E/SE between 06:39 and 07:00. 98 of these came in to the lake with the other 179 passing by, many some way to the N. By 07:45 there were just 31 on the water. Thereafter birds arrived low from the E in a constant stream and by 08:30 I counted 430 LBBGs on the water with at least 6, all immature, Herring Gulls. Some of these flew back to the E with a small number leaving to the W. There is no way to tell whether these later arrivals had anything to do with the birds seen earlier.

Birds noted flying over / near here:

- no geese again
- 179 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Stock Dove again
- 29 Wood Pigeons
- 10 Jackdaws
- 24 Rooks
- 15 Starlings (one group)
- 7 Pied Wagtails

Hirundines etc. logged again:

None

Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):

- 5 (1) Chiffchaffs
- no Blackcaps

Counts from the lake area:

- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 13 (9♂) Mallard
- 1 Cormorant: arrived
- 1 Grey Heron: seen pre-dawn only
- 14 + 8 (5+ broods) Great Crested Grebes
- 10 adult and juvenile Moorhens again
- 142 adult and juvenile Coots
- >130 Black-headed Gulls
- >430 Lesser Black-backed Gulls (see notes)
- >6 Herring Gulls
- 1 Kingfisher again

NB: yesterday's Mallard count should have read:

- 17 (11♂) Mallard

Birds on the playing fields c.07:15:

[Wood Pigeons and Magpies excluded]

- 11 Black-headed Gulls on the football field
- 76 Black-headed Gulls on the academy playing fields

On / around the street lights etc. pre-sunrise:

Moths:

None

Other things:

- 2 Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris)
- 1 small wasp sp.
- 1 Orb-web spider, presumed Larinioides sclopetarius again
- 3 Paroligolophus agrestis harvestmen

No insects etc. noted later and no mammals recorded.

With the rain hammering down and poor light it was not the morning for photos. This first-winter Lesser Black-backed Gull shows that it is moulting a few outer tail feathers.

A different first-winter Lesser Black-backed Gull showing a feature I have never noted before. The base of the spread under-tail is dramatically white compared with the rest of the underside. In the conditions this really stood out.

This is the upper side of the same bird looking like a regular first-winter Lesser Black-backed Gull. I guess it was just the way the light (what light?) was catching it.

Compare with the upper side of a first-winter Herring Gull. The paler wing has just one row of dark feathers along the trailing edge and the upper-tail is more mottled – barred even.

This small insect on a lamp pole pre-dawn looks to be a type of wasp – the antennae are too long for most flies and it seems to have a wasp-waist. Beyond that I cannot offer any identification.

Whatever that mess of legs and bodies was yesterday the recycling fly has arrived to clear it up.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:13 – 09:52

(184th visit of the year)

Bird notes:

- >150 geese arrived while I was not well-positioned to make an accurate count. Some disappeared inside the island very quickly.

- In the pouring rain I did not attempt to sex the Tufted Duck

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:

None

Hirundines etc. logged:

None

Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):

- 1 (0) Chiffchaff

Counts from the water:

- 3 + 7 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- >86 Greylag Geese
- 1 Greylag x Canada Goose
- >92 Canada Geese
- 38 (22♂) Mallard
- 63 (?♂) Tufted Duck
- 3 Great Crested Grebes
- 12 adult and juvenile Moorhens again
- 55 adult and juvenile Coots
- 10 Black-headed Gulls

Nothing noted on any of the lamp poles:

Elsewhere:

Fungus:

- all three Shaggy Ink-caps / Lawyer's Wigs (Coprinus comatus) are now just stems, the head having deliquesced away.

Mammal:

- 1 Brown Rat on the brick-edge of Derwent Drive.

(Ed Wilson)

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On this day..........
2019
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2018
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2017
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2015
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2013
Priorslee Lake
2 Whinchat
3 Snipe
1 Wigeon
(John Isherwood)

2011
Priorslee Lake
Common Sandpiper
(Ed Wilson)

2008
Priorslee Lake
Water Rail
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
Ruddy Duck
Kingfisher
696 Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martin
55 Meadow Pipit
(Ed Wilson)