11 Nov 21

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

8.0°C > 9.0°C: Very misty / foggy until a clearance c.08:30. Drizzle and rain c.09:30 then clearing again, remaining cloudy. Almost calm. Very poor visibility, becoming good after 08:30.

Sunrise: 07:24 GMT

* = a photo today

Priorslee Lake: 05:50 – 09:20

(257th visit of the year)

This won't take long! It was a starry night when I left Newport. The Telford 'hat' won again.

Bird notes:
- Further decline in number of Tufted Duck (but at least many more at The Flash today).
- Coots did a strange 'panic' yesterday and a different one today. Yesterday they were, as usual, gathering on and close-by the SW grass pre-dawn when something spooked them and they all dashed some 10 yards or so away. This does happen but I could not see why – I was sitting, probably unseen, inside the sailing club shelter; anyway they usually more or less ignore me. A few seconds later they all panicked again and moved even further away, only to repeat the process a third time to leave them scattered to 'the half way line'. I could see no reason for any of this movement. This morning they had just started to emerge from the reeds when again something spooked them and they all rushed out toward the middle of the water. On both days after these panics they behaved as normal, using the grass and all the edges of the lake.
- The Cetti's Warbler gave just one partial song at 06:55 and then was silent.

Overhead:
- 12 Wood Pigeons only
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- c.20 Pied Wagtails heard only
- 2 Siskins

Birds noted leaving roosts around the lake:
None
-? Starlings: none seen and none heard – I usually hear the birds winding up ready to leave and did not.
- No Redwing
- 3 Reed Buntings heard at the W end roost: none seen to leave

Warblers noted:
- 1 Cetti's Warbler again

Count from the lake area:
- 5 (3♂) Gadwall
- 12 (8♂) Mallard
- 6 (4♂) Tufted Duck
- 7 Moorhens
- [Coots not counted]
- c.250 Black-headed Gulls
- 10 Herring Gulls
- 1 Yellow-legged Gull: immature
- 62 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

At / around the street lamps pre-dawn:

Moths:
none
with:
- 1 lacewing sp. This seemed rather too pale for the usual Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperia carnea).
- many small 'winter gnats'
- *1 Common European Earwig (Forficula dentata) again

Spiders and Harvestman:
- 4 Nursery Web Spiders (Pisaura mirabilis)
- 3 Paroligolophus agrestis harvestmen again

Noted later:
- The following flowers were noted still in bloom:
- *Buttercup sp., probably Meadow Buttercup (Ranunculus acris)
- *Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium)
- *Common Ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris)
- *Daisy (Bellis perennis)
- *Dandelion sp. (probably Taraxacum officinale)
- *Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)
- *Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
- *2 snails, possible Strawberry Snails (Trochulus striolatus)
- 2 Grey Squirrels

A female Common European Earwig (Forficula dentata). A male would have a more pronounced curve to the pincers. Rather strangely one of the antennae is pointing forward and the other backwards.

Snails are another group that I am not too good at. I think this may be a Strawberry Snail (Trochulus striolatus). Whatever it is then it saw me coming, camera at the ready, and was rapidly diving in to its shell. There was another close-by that did the same, even more quickly.

Not much to show you on a soggy, foggy morning but here are some flowers that probably ought not to be around in mid-November. I should have dived in to the undergrowth to get at the basal leaves of this flower so as to positively identify which species of buttercup it is. Most likely to be Meadow Buttercup (Ranunculus acris).

A rather battered umbellifer not too easy to identify. The occasional larger petals on the outside of the umbels identifies it as Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium).

This is Common Ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris).

A flower that I would expect to find any day of the year, unless the ground is covered in snow, is Daisy (Bellis perennis).

Struggling to open is this Dandelion sp. (probably Taraxacum officinale). Dandelions like sun! The taxonomy of this group is complex, with some authorities even suggesting that each plant might be a different hybrid of thousands of generations of cross-pollination between original species.

Looking very soggy is this Red(?!) Clover (Trifolium pratense). It always continues flowering long after White Clover (Trifolium repens) has finished.

Not an umbellifer although it looks somewhat like one is Yarrow (Achillea millefolium). It is in a different plant family which, surprisingly, includes Ox-eye Daisies and not at all related to 'real' daisies in the Bellis family.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:25 – 10:10

(233rd visit of the year)

A more or less normal, if damp, visit here

Bird notes:
- I logged 38 Greylag Geese as I walked around. When I was at the bottom of squirrel alley I counted at least 35 departing. When I had sight of the water again there were (still) six present!
- It was the turn of a / the drake Teal to put in an appearance alongside the island.
- A significant increase in Tufted Duck numbers.
- All three Great Crested Grebes located.
- A Song Thrush was sub-singing from deep inside a hedge along the E side. My first record around The Flash since 31 July.

Birds noted flying over here:
None

On /around the water:
- 9 Canada Geese only
- >38 Greylag Geese: many departed – see notes.
- 3 + 2 (1 brood) Mute Swan
- 35 (23♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) Teal
- 56 (24♂) Tufted Duck
- 3 (0♂) Goosander
- 8 Moorhens
- [Coots not counted]
- 3 Great Crested Grebes
- 23 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Grey Heron

On different lamp poles:
- 1 Mottled Umber moth (Erranis defoliaria)
- 1 Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus harvestman

Around the Ivy:
- >3 Common Wasps (Paravespula vulgaris) despite the wet conditions.

Rain on the camera lens has made this a bit fuzzy. It is a Mottled Umber moth (Erranis defoliaria) and a very different-looking specimen from the one I photographed at the lake two days ago. The background colour of this species ranges between off-white, orange and brown. The cross bands may be intense, as here; be much weaker; only exist as outlines; or sometimes be absent. Between the cross bands there is usually an obvious black spot though that too can be absent. Females do not have wings and climb trees (or lamp poles) to await males attracted to their pheromones.

(Ed Wilson)

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On this day can be found via the yearly links in the right-hand column.


Sightings from previous years without links are below

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)