4 Apr 21

Priorslee Lake, Woodhouse Lane and The Flash

2.0°C > 9.0°C: Rather hazy start with light mist over the water. Slight frost. Thereafter fine and sunny. Light and variable wind. Moderate visibility becoming good..

Sunrise: 06:38 BST

* = a photo today

Priorslee Lake: 05:35 - 09:30 

(54th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Some of yesterday's Great Crested Grebes seemed to have moved out. I was told up to four speedboats were on the water yesterday and that might explain it.
- Significant arrival of Blackcaps.
- The three Meadow Pipits overhead were a fluke: I was doing my other hobby - aircraft spotting - and these flew through my binoculars. They were too high to hear their flight calls and the clear sky made seeing small birds in flight almost impossible.
- A Greenfinch seen carrying nesting material. Scarce in this area these days. 20 years ago I recall a winter roost of over 400 birds.

Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 11 Canada Goose: three pairs and a trio outbound; pair inbound
- 6 Greylag Geese: pair and quartet outbound
- 1 Stock Dove
- 31 Wood Pigeons
- 30 Jackdaws
- 1 Rook
- 2 Starlings
- 3 Meadow Pipits
- 1 Lesser Redpoll

Count of hirundines etc. noted:
- none: clear skies = no passing hirundines

Count of warblers noted (the number in brackets is singing birds)
- 1 (1) Willow Warbler
- *20 (17) Chiffchaffs
- 12 (11) Blackcaps

Counts from the water:
- 2 Canada Geese throughout
- 2 Greylag Geese: arrived and chased away by Canadas
- 2 Mute Swans: pen sitting throughout
- 4 (3♂) Mallard again
- 2 (1♂) Tufted Duck again
- 6 Moorhens
- 33 Coots
- 5 (6?) Great Crested Grebes
- 3 Black-headed Gulls: one adult, two first year, together very briefly

On the lamp-poles pre-dawn again.

Nothing

Otherwise noted:
- *1 Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax)
- 1 Grey Squirrel

And I have some catching up to do with spiders from 31 March. With help from the Shropshire spider recorder I have at least a partial ID. Many spiders need microscopic examination to ascertain the precise species. I have included the photos below with comments. The species involved were most likely:
- *A Clubiona sp. - likely C. neglecta or C. reclusa
- *Dictyna arundinacea
- *Larinioides cornutus, probably a male

A rather hazy start with wisps of mist over the water.

A Wood Pigeon on its 'nest'. Just a few sticks to stop the eggs rolling away will do. Not the bird-world's greatest construction workers.

This Chiffchaff might even be a new arrival - I have not had one singing at this spot before. It is getting mighty crowded with up to 17 songsters around the lake and the Teece Drive area.

Mr. Fairly Angry too.

It is easy when you see a male Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax) - they, unlike the females, are quite obviously 'tapered'. The pale on the foreleg helps to confirm.

Here's one I missed the 'first date' of - flowering Wild Cherry (Prunus avium) though how 'wild' any of these are around the lake is a moot point.

And the spiders from 31 March:

This is most likely Larinioides cornutus. An orb-web spider in the same family as the Garden Spider.

This I suspected might be a Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis) but I was concerned that the abdomen was not patterned and the front two pairs of legs were not held tight together. I was right to be concerned. While the shape is similar this is a Clubiona sp. - possibly C. neglecta or C. reclusa. This is a species of sac spider - they fold leaves over are often found hiding inside in silk sacs.

This is one of the mesh-web spiders and probably Dictyna arundinacea.

(Ed Wilson)

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Woodhouse Lane: 07:40 - 08:25

(8th visit of the year)

A full walk down and up here seemed a good idea while the composting facility was not working. There is a row of 'finished piles' of compost in an adjacent field and feeding on and around this were:
- 1 Meadow Pipit
- 2 Pied Wagtails
- *3 Linnets
- 1 Yellowhammer

A few other things to note:
- Two Skylarks in song. No non-singing birds seen.
- Four Chiffchaffs: two singing. One non-singing bird was calling and exploring the scrubby understory by the Wesley Brook, perhaps looking for a nest site?
- Two singing Blackcaps
- One other Meadow Pipit seen in flight.
- A single Siskin fly-over
- *Four other Yellowhammers: three males and one female. None was heard to sing.
also noted
- very many Wood Anemones (Anemone nemorosa). Because of last night's frost and the slight warmth since then the flowers were all weighed down with water droplets and not a suitable subject for photography.

There was no chance of getting very close to the Linnets feeding on the ground in one of the fields. The dark bill and streaky back of the female help to ID.

Probably the most distinctive feature of these small finches when they are on the ground is the white in the folded wing, as seen here.

One of my 'through the branches' specials. This is a female Yellowhammer, much less colourful and less boldly marked than ....

... the male.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:35 - 10:30

(42nd visit of the year)

Rather quiet bird-wise as I tried to avoid the world and his wife (well actually the world and the de rigueur dog(s)) walking around in an often non-SD manner.

Bird notes:
- Two Great Crested Grebes confirmed. Not together.

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:

None

Count of hirundines etc. noted:
- none: clear skies = no passing hirundines

Count of warblers noted (the number in brackets is singing birds)
- *3 (3) Willow Warblers
- 7 (7) Chiffchaffs
- 5 (5) Blackcaps

Counts from the water:
- 30 Canada Geese again
- 1 Greylag Geese: others heard unseen inside the island
- 3 + ? eggs Mute Swans
- 17 (13♂) Mallard
- 18 (13♂) Tufted Duck
- 9 Moorhens only
- 27 Coots
- 2 Great Crested Grebes

Also noted:
- 1 Dark-bordered Bee-fly (Bombilius major)
- 1 Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
- *1 female Common Drone Fly (Eristalis tenax)

So near .... The Willow Warbler that has been so elusive for the last few days was in a somewhat smaller trees and I thought I must try .... The leg colour is right!

That's better. Note too the long wings needed as this bird will have flown from sub-Saharan Africa. This species is unusual (unique I think) in that it moults its wing feathers twice a year: once before it sets off in Autumn, when most small birds moult; and then again to return on a fresh pair of wings. Chiffchaffs mostly winter in the Mediterranean basin so don't need to expend all that extra effort growing more new feathers. (Some Chiffchaffs do winter in the UK but many of these are not 'our' birds, indeed some come here from Siberia)

Happily singing away. A very different song from the very similar-looking Chiffchaff.

This species no longer seems to stay and breed in the Priorslee area and anyway soon the leaves will make it even harder to see the bird. So I took a few photos.

Here singing rather excitedly and with wings akimbo.

And here with just about everything akimbo - wings and tail.

My best 'portrait' view.

A Common Drone Fly (Eristalis tenax). Clearly not 'tapered' but then it is a female (the eyes do not meet) so the shape on the abdomen is not a reliable way to separate this species from a female Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax). It is the absence of yellow on the front legs that confirms it as a Common Drone Fly.

(Ed Wilson)

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On this day

2020

Priorslee Lake

Today's Sightings Here

2019

Priorslee Lake

Today's Sightings Here

2018

Priorslee Lake

Today's Sightings Here

2017

Priorslee Lake

Today's Sightings Here

2016

Priorslee Lake

Today's Sightings Here

2015

Priorslee Lake

Today's Sightings Here

2014

Priorslee Lake

4 Great Crested Grebes

3 Cormorants

1 Grey Heron

3 Greylag Geese

5 Common Teal

4 Wigeon

31 Tufted Duck

1 Kittiwake

c.12 Sand Martins

2 Swallow

3 Blackcaps

6 Chiffchaffs

2 Willow Warblers

(Ed Wilson)

The Flash

2 Great Crested Grebes

1 Shoveler

43 Tufted Ducks

2 Blackcap

4 Chiffchaffs

(Ed Wilson)

Trench Lock Pool

4 Great Crested Grebes

23 Tufted Ducks

1 Chiffchaffs

(Ed Wilson)

Nedge Hill

Red-legged Partridge

4 Sky Larks

6 Meadow Pipits

1 Blackcap

3 Chiffchaffs

1 Willow Warbler

1 Linnet

2 Yellowhammer

(Ed Wilson)

2013

Priorslee Lake

2 Little Grebes 

5 Great Crested Grebe 

2 Gadwall 

13 Tufted Ducks 

(Ed Wilson)

The Flash

Cackling Goose

(JW Reeves)

Leegomery

Woodcock

(JW Reeves)

Long Lane, Wellington

1 Redshank

(JW Reeves)

2012

Priorslee Lake

2 Swallows

20 Sand Martins

2 Meadow Pipits

(Martin Grant)

2009

Priorslee Lake

4 Shoveler

2 Sand Martin

(John Isherwood)

The Flash

2 Shoveler

1 Snipe

1 Willow Warbler

Nedge Hill

1 Wheatear

1 Blackcap

(John Isherwood)

2008

Nedge Hill

Whinchat

(Paul King)

2007

Priorslee Lake

1 Teal

(John Isherwood)

2006

Priorslee Lake

6 Great Crested Grebes

2 Herons

6 Tufted Ducks

2 Ruddy Ducks

318 Jackdaws

105 Wood Pigeons

1 Sky Lark

5 Meadow Pipits

22 Wrens

24 Robins

25 Blackbirds

58 Fieldfares

3 Willow Warblers

6 Chiffchaffs

2 Willow Tits

15 Greenfinches

1 Siskin

2 Redpolls

4 Reed Buntings

(Ed Wilson)