No Sightings in today.
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31 Jan 21
30 Jan 21
No Sightings in today.
29 Jan 21
No Sightings in today.
28 Jan 21
No Sightings in today.
27 Jan 21
No Sightings in today.
26 Jan 21
No Sightings in today.
25 Jan 21
No Sightings in today.
24 Jan 21
No Sightings in today.
23 Jan 21
No Sightings in so far today...................
22 Jan 21
No Sightings in today.
21 Jan 21
Priorslee Lake
20 Jan 21
No Sightings in today.
19 Jan 21
No Sightings in today.
18 Jan 21
No Sightings in today.
17 Jan 21
No Sightings in today.
16 Jan 21
No Sightings in today.
15 Jan 21
No Sightings in today.
14 Jan 21
No Sightings today.
13 Jan 21
No Sightings in today.
12 Jan 21
No Sightings in today.
11 Jan 21
10 Jan 21
No Sighting in today.............
9 Jan 21
To be in line with the latest Government exhortations and in order to stay well clear of the latest fast transmitting form of the Covid virus I am suspending my visits to both Priorslee Lake and The Flash as from today.
Meanwhile a short narrative summary of my 2020 sightings is available here.
A longer set of tabulated sightings of my 2020 records covering birds, moths, butterflies, dragonflies and hoverflies is available here
Thanks to everyone for their interest. Don't forget that any sightings or questions can be sent to priorsleelake@hotmail.com
We will all get through this. I will return as soon as circumstances permit
(Ed Wilson)
8 Jan 21
Priorslee Lake and The Flash
1.0°C: Cloudy with occasional light rain, sleet and snow. Calm. Moderate visibility.
[Sunrise: 08:19 GMT]
* = a photo today
A visit to The Flash for my permitted exercise walk (slither) and then a visit to the lake for a coffee and a quick check.
Priorslee Lake: 11:58 – 12:30
(6th visit of the year)
>80% ice with two open patches of water holding most birds other than many of the gulls that seemed happy-enough to stand around on the ice.
Birds noted flying over / near here:
- c.20 large gulls
c.8 Tufted Ducks were seen flying W: I think these were birds I had counted that were spooked off by a dog-walker that got close to the open water.
Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 5 (3♂) Mallard
- 3 (3♂) Pochard still
- 46 (26♂) Tufted Duck
- no Moorhens again
- 126 Coots
- 3 Little Grebes
- 4 Great Crested Grebes: one of these an immature
all gull numbers approximate:
- c.350 Black-headed Gulls
- c.30 Herring Gulls
- c.175 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
plus
- 1 Grey Heron
My 2021 bird species list for here remains at 51
Not the same mystery bird but a puzzle anyway. On the left a Herring Gull - a rather small bird, probably a female. On the right a Lesser Black-backed Gull. In the middle another 'intermediate' bird. I find it is easiest to resolve these from the wing-tip pattern in flight. In the gloom flight shots would have been difficult. The birds did not fly anyway!
Gull and (bits of) three Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Here the Herring Gull looks obviously larger than any of the Lesser Blacks, which this species typically is.
(Ed Wilson)
The Flash: 11:21 – 11:52
(6th visit of the year)- >90% ice
Very little open water where most of the birds were congregated.
Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
None
Counts from the water:
- 11 Canada Geese
- 3 + 5 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 38 (21♂) Mallard
- 14 (5♂) Tufted Duck
- 5 Moorhens
- 30 Coots
- 89 Black-headed Gulls
The only non-regular record was of a calling Redwing. I could not determine whether it was calling from trees or flying over.
My 2021 bird species list for here remains at 40
(Ed Wilson)