11 Nov 20

Priorslee Lake, The Flash, Trench Lock Pool and Trench Middle Pool

9.0°C > 12.0°C: Initially scattered cloud below a thin medium/high overcast. The typical 'Telford hat' of low cloud soon developed even giving occasional (not forecast) light rain. Clearer at Trench. Moderate SE wind. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 07:26 GMT

* = a photo today.

Priorslee Lake: 06:04 – 09:14

(247th visit of the year)

I was told this morning that the council are talking to Severn Trent about using some of the land in the SW part of the area to make new allotments. I can find no information on the council web site about this. If I have understood the possible location correctly it would be on the unkempt grassy area which is favoured by several species of moth and butterfly and their associated food-plants. Until 10(?) years ago much of it was mown at least annually, though at my request the contractors avoided the flowering areas. It is possibly true that something needs to be done to avoid the whole area 'scrubbing over'. Its wholesale conversion to allotments would be detrimental to the plant and insect diversity.

Bird notes:

- Apart from a high number of passing Jackdaws it was a very quiet morning. Noteworthy were three drake and three duck Pochard together: drakes normally significantly outnumber ducks and a group like this is unusual (there was another drake elsewhere).

Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 6 Cormorants: two singles and one group
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 31 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 25 Wood Pigeons
- >600 Jackdaws
- 29 Rook
- 2 Fieldfare: one group
- 59 Redwings: four groups
- 2 Pied Wagtails only
- 1 Siskin

Birds seen leaving roosts around the lake:
- >80 Starlings: two groups
- 9 Redwings
- 8 Reed Buntings

Counts from the lake area:

- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 7 (4♂) Gadwall
- 15 (9♂) Mallard
- 7 (4♂) Pochard
- 26 (19♂) Tufted Duck
- 2 Cormorants: arrived separately
- 1 Grey Heron
- no Little Grebe
- 12 Great Crested Grebes still
- 2 Moorhens only: why?
- 162 Coots: same as yesterday!
- c.250 Black-headed Gulls
- 63 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: 57 from the Hortonwood roost direction: six more later.
- 3 Herring Gulls: all first-winter birds

Playing fields:
Not visited

On / around the street lights etc. pre-sunrise:
- *1 mayfly sp.!
- *1 froghopper-type.
- 1 Tetragnatha stretch spider sp.

Noted later:
- 1 Common Wasp in flight (Vespula vulgaris)
- *an even larger specimen of the fungus, perhaps The Miller, also called Miller Fungus (Clitopilus prunulus). First noted yesterday.
- 1 Grey Squirrel

Most unexpected: a mayfly in November. I have hardly ever seen these here, so it was even more unexpected. My insects book does show some of these insects flying as late as November. Specific identification relies upon detailed examination of wing venation so I am not going to get far here. This taken by flash photograph pre-dawn. The tail(s) are waving around in the breeze.

I was surprised to find it still in almost the same place much later. A 'flash assisted' photograph here. It seems it has two tails, though they are hard to see.

Unexpected insect #2. This is a froghopper sp. and that is about as far as I can go, They are difficult to ID at the best of times and 15' up a lamp pole in the dark is not the best of times.

Yesterday I wondered whether I had photographed the the world's largest fungus. Certainly not as this is even bigger. Perhaps The Miller, also called Miller Fungus, (Clitopilus prunulus). Limited 'gardening' to remove as many leaves possible without damaging it.

And again from underneath showing the gill structure. There are numerous large fungi with this basic shape but almost all of them have the rim curled under and not as here.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:17 – 10:28

(231st visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- The three 'white' Mute Swans spent most of the time well-apart. Two of the cygnets are now often well away from the others or their parents. I do not know whether it is always the same two.
- Tufted Duck numbers building back.
- I have logged the five Fieldfare as fly-overs. In practice they stopped for all of c.15 seconds in trees around The Priorslee pub.

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 1 Sparrowhawk
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: adults
- 5 Feral Pigeons: one group
- 1 Wood Pigeon
- 19 Jackdaw
- 5 Fieldfare: one group
- 8 Redwings: one group
- 1 Siskin

Counts from the water:
- 3 + 7 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 21 Canada Geese
- 38 (22♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) Pochard
- 63 (?♂) Tufted Duck
- 20 (>5♂) Goosanders
- 1 Grey Heron
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 5 Moorhens
- 43 Coots
- *47 Black-headed Gulls
- *3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: two adults and a second-winter
- *1 Herring Gull: adult

On one of the lamp poles
- *1 Mottled Umber moth (Erranis defoliaria)

Around the Ivy
- >1 Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris)

Of interest elsewhere:
- apparently real *Sulphur Tuft fungus (Hypholoma fasciculare) as well as the previously misidentified fungus which could be *Brick Tuft (Hypholoma lateritium).

I guess it is because they get fed frequently. Black-headed Gulls cane be very confiding. This adult winter bird is so close that the bill tip is slightly out of focus.

A real bruiser of a gull. It is a Lesser Black-backed Gull moulting in to second-winter plumage. Unusually there is, as yet, no pale base to the bill, normally shown at this age.

Compare with a first-winter Black-headed Gull.

Always complaining!

Flight comparison with an adult winter Black-headed Gull. Not enough light to freeze the action completely.

This adult Herring Gull dropped in. I wondered whether it was the bird with the unusual wing-tip pattern that I photographed yesterday. Nothing unusual in the plumage here.

I managed a distant flight shot as it departed and the wing-tip pattern looks normal. There seems to be less black on the outer primaries and I think it is therefore not the bird from yesterday.

A Mottled Umber moth (Erranis defoliaria). Moth species #38 here in 2020. I did not see one here during the first winter period.

I was not able to get very close to this group of small fungus. I think they are Sulphur Tuft fungus (Hypholoma fasciculare) - a poisonous species.

This group more or less alongside is clearly different. Today they look less waxy, perhaps because it has not rained recently. I now think they are likely Brick Tuft (Hypholoma lateritium).

(Ed Wilson)

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Trench Lock Pool: 10:37 – 11:05

(34th visit of the year)

The fishermen showed me photos of a tame Black Swan that was present for several days recently. It has been recaptured and returned to the collection from which it had escaped. This species surprises most people as all the flight feathers are white - a feature normally hidden when the bird is on the water.

Bird notes:
- The adult Mute swan was blue 7JTZ again - the cob. The fishermen reported that "the other adult and cygnets" (unspecified number) "left together three days ago".
- Now I know where all the Canada Geese are.
- Grey Wagtail again.

Birds noted flying over / near here:
[The local Wood Pigeons and Jackdaws not included]
- 22 Starlings: one group

Counts from the water:
- 1 Mute Swan
- 141 Canada Geese
- 3 (1♂) Tufted Duck
- 1 Great Crested Grebe still
- 2 Moorhens again
- 14 Coots
- 17 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull

Around the Ivy patch:
- 1 Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris)

Of interest elsewhere:
- 1 Grey Squirrel

(Ed Wilson)

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Trench Middle Pool: 11:10 – 11:40

(34th visit of the year)

Another unexceptional visit

Bird notes:
- I don't go hunting them but no Robins seen or heard during my walk around was most unusual.
- Grey Wagtail about the most exciting.

Birds noted flying over / near here:

None

Counts from the water:
- 2 Mute Swans as ever
- 3 Greylag Geese
- 53 Canada Geese
- 1 all-white feral goose
- 24 (16♂) Mallard
- 19 (12♂) Tufted Duck
- no Goosander again
- 1 Grey Heron
- 1 + 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 10 Moorhen
- 47 Coots
- 78 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull

(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

2009

The Wrekin

Firecrest

(Andy Latham)

2008

Priorslee Lake

10 Great Crested Grebes 

10 Cormorants

8 Pochard

107 Tufted Ducks 

c.1600 Wood Pigeons

c.1700 Fieldfare

c.460 Redwings

359 Jackdaws

124 Rooks

105 Starlings

c.12 Siskins

(Ed Wilson)

2007

Priorslee Lake

140 Lapwings

150+ Golden Plover

1 Snipe

1 Gadwall

1 Shoveler

15 Pochard

60 Tufted Ducks

2 Water Rails

6 Meadow Pipits

21 Redwings

20 Fieldfare over 

3 Goldcrests

c.400 Starlings

1 Siskin

(Ed Wilson)

2006

Priorslee Lake

28 Pochard

58 Tufted Ducks

15 Lapwings

670+ Black-headed Gulls

2008+ Lesser Black-backed Gulls

1207 Wood Pigeons

88 Fieldfare

24 Redwings

254 Jackdaws

229 Rooks

795 Starlings

10 Reed Buntings

(Ed Wilson)