14.0°C > 15.0°C: Started with just broken medium level clouds. After 06:00 cloud lowered and after 07:00 several sharp showers. Very light and variable wind. Good visibility.
Sunrise: 04:52 BST
* = a photo today
Priorslee Lake: 04:05 – 05:30 // 06:20 – 08:00
(136th visit of the year)
Highlight this morning was a Red Kite drifting W at 07:30. My 103rd bird species here this year.
Other bird notes:
- The Mute Swans were behaving normally today.
- Both duck Mallards have the same number of ducklings as two days ago: broods of two and four.
- Six Swifts by 05:05 but gone by 05:20, A single over at 07:50 the only other sighting.
- Seems some of the Coots were staying sheltering in the reeds?
- The second Common Sandpiper of Autumn passage was present throughout.
- A pair of Great Crested Grebes seen nest-building, albeit rather intermittently.
- A second and very noisy Sedge Warbler was singing more or less continuously. Probably a bird moving locations between broods or after a failed nesting attempt.
- After five quiet days a Chaffinch was singing lustily. Another male was calling continually.
Overhead:
- 1 Feral Pigeon
- 18 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Red Kite
- 1 Herring Gull: immature
- 8 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: ages not all determined
- 11 Cormorants: single and two quintets
- 6 Jackdaws
- 13 Rooks
- 1 Starling
Hirundines etc., noted:
- >6 Swifts
- 1 Barn Swallow
Warblers noted (the number in brackets is singing birds):
- 10 (10) Chiffchaffs
- 2 (2) Sedge Warblers: see notes
- 6 (4) Reed Warblers
- 8 (8) Blackcaps
- 3 (3) Garden Warblers
- 3 (2) Common Whitethroats again
Count from the lake area
- 2 + 5 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 12 (10♂) + 6 (2 broods) Mallard
- 2 Moorhens
- 31 + 9 (5 broods) Coots
- 10 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Common Sandpiper
- 1 Grey Heron
On / around the street lamps pre-dawn:
- 1 Knapweed Conch (Agapeta zoegana): my first in Shropshire
- 1 Ruby Tiger moth (Phragmatobia fuliginosa) dead in a spider's web
- 1 unidentified caddis fly
- 1 probable Common Green Capsid plant bug (Lygocoris pabulinus)
- 1 Bridge Orb-web Spider (Larinioides cornutus)
Noted later today: not much before rain stopped play.
Moths:
- Common Marble (Celypha lacunana): new hatch?
- Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
Other Flies:
- Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
So its a belly-skid to slow down!
Rather distant but with a distinctive silhouette – my first Red Kite of the year here.
A juvenile and hence rather colourless (if something black and white cane be colourless!) Pied Wagtail.
I suspect this is a Common Green Capsid (Lygocoris pabulinus) though there are a number of basically green plant bugs to choose from. Quite what it was doing ten feet up a lamp pole pre-dawn and quite what it was apparently sucking the juices out of will remain a mystery.
Between the lake and The Flash:
- Single adult Moorhens on the grass around each pool and others heard calling. I cannot see in to the vegetation to provide any report on the number of juveniles.
- No warblers seen or heard.
On the roof of the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:
- 1 Garden Grass-veneer moth (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
(Ed Wilson)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Single adult Moorhens on the grass around each pool and others heard calling. I cannot see in to the vegetation to provide any report on the number of juveniles.
- No warblers seen or heard.
On the roof of the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:
- 1 Garden Grass-veneer moth (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
(Ed Wilson)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(121st visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- With the Canada Geese split in to four manageable groups and all on open water this probably represents my most accurate count of the moulting birds. I could not find the juvenile. I did note the sole survivor from 2020 with its distinctive 'angel wing' deformity.
- Another brood of eight small Mallard ducklings.
- One pair of the Tufted Ducks flew off.
- One juvenile Coot from the nest alongside Derwent Drive was exploring toward the island; the well-grown juvenile was still by the nest next to one of the bridges; and the well-grown juvenile was by the island.
Birds noted flying over here:
- With the Canada Geese split in to four manageable groups and all on open water this probably represents my most accurate count of the moulting birds. I could not find the juvenile. I did note the sole survivor from 2020 with its distinctive 'angel wing' deformity.
- Another brood of eight small Mallard ducklings.
- One pair of the Tufted Ducks flew off.
- One juvenile Coot from the nest alongside Derwent Drive was exploring toward the island; the well-grown juvenile was still by the nest next to one of the bridges; and the well-grown juvenile was by the island.
Birds noted flying over here:
None
Hirundines etc., noted:
None
Warblers noted (the number in brackets is singing birds):
- 3 (3) Chiffchaffs
- 4 (4) Blackcaps
On /around the water:
- 141 Canada Geese
- 42 Greylag Geese again
- 1 Greylag x Canada Goose still
- 3 + 2 (1 brood) Mute Swan
- 26 (16♂) + 8 (1 brood) Mallard
- 14 (11♂) Tufted Duck
- 4 + 3 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 3 juvenile Coots (3 broods): see notes
Also noted:
- 1 Grey Squirrel again
- 3 (3) Chiffchaffs
- 4 (4) Blackcaps
On /around the water:
- 141 Canada Geese
- 42 Greylag Geese again
- 1 Greylag x Canada Goose still
- 3 + 2 (1 brood) Mute Swan
- 26 (16♂) + 8 (1 brood) Mallard
- 14 (11♂) Tufted Duck
- 4 + 3 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 3 juvenile Coots (3 broods): see notes
Also noted:
- 1 Grey Squirrel again
The duck Mallard and her eight very new ducklings.
(Ed Wilson)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On this day
2020Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here
2016
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here
2015
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here
2012
Priorslee Lake
Kingfisher
(Ed Wilson)
2011
Priorslee Lake
A female Ruddy Duck. First site record since January 2009 - formerly semi resident in the district, with several breeding records from both the Lake and Flash.
(John Isherwood / Ed Wilson)
2010
Priorslee Lake
Common Sandpiper
(Ed Wilson)
2006
Priorslee Lake
Common Tern
Kingfisher
2 drake Ruddy Duck
(Ed Wilson)