23 Feb 21

Priorslee Lake

6.0°C > 9.0°C: Excellent sunrise. Patchy cloud thereafter. Moderate / fresh SSE wind . Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 07:11 GMT

* = a photo today

Priorslee Lake: 06:15 - 09:50

(14th visit of the year)

Notes:
- A single immature Mute Swan again seen in flight passing from W to E. The adults are amazingly alert. They seemed to be busy at the nest site. I noted the immature still some distance away in binoculars and the adult were instantly both in the water with wings arched.
- A single Lapwing flolloped over
- The only Grey Heron I noted was a bird flying over the fields to the E - it may just have flown from the lake but it looked to be more interested in the pond located in the small copse there.
- *In addition to the fly-over Siskins several birds were giving their wheezy song from trees near the Teece Drive gate.
- A single Reed Buntings left the W end reeds. Two others heard in song.

Birds noted flying over / near here: low numbers of everything:
- 6 Canada Geese: two pairs outbound; one pair inbound.
- 1 Greylag Goose: single outbound
- *1 immature Mute Swan again
- 1 Feral Pigeon
- 47 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Lapwing
- 9 Herring Gulls
- 26 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Grey Heron
- 1 Common Buzzard
- c.300 Jackdaws
- 36 Rooks
- 2 Siskins

Counts from the water:
- 2 Canada Geese: arrived and departed
- 2 Mute Swans
- 11 (7♂) Mallard; 4 (3♂) flew off
- 5 (3♂) Tufted Duck
- 10 Moorhens
- 34 Coots
- 3 Great Crested Grebes
- c.350 Black-headed Gulls
- *4 Herring Gulls: including first, second and third winter birds. all briefly
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull, briefly together
- *2 Cormorants: arrived separately

My 2021 bird species list for here moves on to 62 with the Lapwing sighting.

On / around the street lights pre-dawn:
- a very plain-looking micro moth flew off before I could get a photo to hope for an identification.

Also noted:
- 1 Grey Squirrel

The first hint that there might be a good sunrise this morning. This at 06:30. Hand-held at about half a second.

Progressing nicely. Red sky in the morning portend wind and rain. Just wind today.

By 07:00 colour across the whole sky. Worth getting out of bed for.

A couple of close-ups of part of the sunrise. Number one ...

.. and number two.

A couple of very strangely lit clouds. Number one ....

... and number two. Hanging like a curtain suggests this was possibly precipitation that was evaporating before it came near the ground.

A direct pass overhead by the immature Mute Swan today. Seems not to have a Darvic ring. Not all the birds raised here were so fitted so its origin cannot be determined.

Before I start with today's gull here is an update on my 'gull puzzle' from Sunday. I am again indebted to Tom Lowe for his identification of this bird as an immature Great Black-backed Gull. The rather indistinct tail band is a feature of that species and I should have twigged that at the time. I took a number of photos and selected what I thought 'the best'. In the light of Tom's ID I went back to some of the others ....

I have enlarged this more distant shot which shows other supporting feature is a large all-black bill, the way the head seems to lack any crown as it slopes to the bill as well as the lack of head-streaking. This latter feature is less distinctive as all immature gulls moult out of winter plumage.

An upper wing view of an adult winter Black-headed Gull. I looked hard at the tail tip: was there some remnant black there? I concluded not and that it was merely shadow.

A side-on view of the same bird. While the head shows no sign of acquiring the breeding 'black head' the bill is now all red-toned having lost the black mark of winter.

This seems to be a first-winter Herring Gull showing off its tail-band. The inner primaries are not significantly pale and that suggests this might be a Yellow-legged Gull but the upper-tail looks too well-marked for that species.

The underside of what I think is a different first-winter Herring Gull. The low light on the underside of this bird really shows the markings well. Normally a bird this well-marked would be a Lesser Black-back.

A second-winter Herring Gull. This bird is moulting in to second-summer plumage and has, like many of the large gulls, lost the head-streaking it showed during the winter.

It's a tiring life.

A third-winter Herring Gull unusually with an all-white tail - there would normally be some dusky remnants of the tail-band shown by younger birds.

A view of a swimming Cormorant showing the green-blue eye. This more-or-less adult is showing only the merest hint of the white head-plumes acquired in the breeding season.

A smart male Pied Wagtail was on the dam-top.

A male Greenfinch 'giving it some welly'. Not the best angle to see the plumage features but I knew if I moved the bird would fly.

I had to make do with this non-singing male. These are rather handsome birds, the black around the eye making them look rather fierce.

Behaviour I cannot recall seeing before. This male Siskin seems to be feeding on the emerging Willow catkins (the 'pussy willow' seen in some species of willow)

(Ed Wilson)

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On this day

2020

Priorslee Lake

Today's Sightings Here

2019

Priorslee Lake

Today's Sightings Here

2016

Priorslee Lake

Today's Sightings Here

2015

Priorslee Lake

Today's Sightings Here

2014

Priorslee Lake

5 Cormorants

3 Grey Herons

8 Pochard

8 Tufted Duck

1 Water Rail

1 Kingfisher

6 Redwings

391 Jackdaws

217 Rooks

(Ed Wilson)

The Flash

201 Tufted Ducks

2 Goosanders

(Ed Wilson)

Trench Lock Pool

4 Great Crested Grebes

(Ed Wilson)

Hortonwood

21 Redwings

(Dave Tromans)

2013

Priorslee Lake

Glaucous Gull

(Observer Unknown)

The Flash

Drake Scaup

(Richard Vernon)

2012

Priorslee Lake

1 Glaucous Gull

1 Caspian Gull

1 Yellow-legged Gull

(Observer Unknown)

2010

Priorslee Lake

2 Wigeon

55 Pochard

104 Tufted Duck

1 Common Gull

2 Ravens

22 Linnets

(Ed Wilson)

2009

Priorslee Lake

Iceland Gull

200 Black-headed Gulls

400 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

20 Herring Gulls

1 Yellow-legged Gull

Glaucous Gull

(Ed Wilson, Martin Adlam)

2008

Priorslee Lake

Iceland Gull

(Pete Nickless)

2007

Priorslee Lake

1 Little Grebe

3 Cormorant

5 Pochard

9 Tufted Duck

2 Kestrel

556 Wood Pigeon

27 Robin

23 Blackbird

1 Fieldfare

14 Redwing

47 Magpie

100 Jackdaw 

96 Rook

16 Greenfinch

3 Reed Bunting

(Ed Wilson)

2006

Priorslee Lake

2 Little Grebes

6 Great Crested Grebes

1 Heron

2 Cormorants

9 Pochard

36 Tufted Ducks

3 Water Rails

c.420 Wood Pigeon

c.60 Starling

29 Pied Wagtails

23 Blackbirds

6 Greenfinches

17 Siskins

1 Redpoll

6 Reed Buntings

(Ed Wilson)