5 Nov 21

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

4.0°C > 9.0°C: Recently clouded after a frosty night. Often very low cloud and occasional light drizzle. Some brighter interludes, especially later. Light S wind. Very good visibility but moderate in drizzle.

Sunrise: 07:13 GMT

* = a photo today

A slightly less manic morning, probably weather related. It was The Flash that came up trumps (small 't') with a Little Egret; the drake Teal emerging again; a trio of Wigeon: with Wood Pigeons, Starlings, Fieldfare and Redwing over in some number.

Priorslee Lake: 05:45 – 09:20

(251st visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Of the 12 migrant Wood Pigeon groups one was going S; seven W; three N; and one NE. Figure that out! Most of the 92 lower-level birds (on ones and twos) were going W
- Both Great Crested Grebes apparently departed since yesterday morning.
- The usual small movement of large gulls overhead, mainly going S, with many stopping off briefly. A larger proportion were Herring Gulls today.
- The Cetti's Warbler sang twice early and I only heard in sing once later.
- A large number of Pied Wagtails leaving a roost again.
- 15 Siskins stopped off briefly in W end trees.
- A group of twelve quite large finch-types flew over. I was alongside Castle Farm Way at the time and the traffic noise drowned any flight calls to aid identification.

Overhead:
- 2 Canada Geese: inbound, together
- 2 Greylag Geese: inbound, together
- 1 Stock Dove
- 364 Wood Pigeons: 272 of these in 12 migrant group
- 18 Black-headed Gulls
- 2 Herring Gulls
- 48 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 1 Cormorant
- 195 Jackdaws
- 14 Rooks
- 5 Starlings: together
- 182 Fieldfare: three groups
- 166 Redwings: nine groups
- c.30 Pied Wagtails
- 1 Greenfinch
- 3 Lesser Redpolls
- 2 Siskins
- 12 unidentified finches: together

Birds noted leaving roosts around the lake:
- c.400 Starlings

Warblers noted:
- 1 Cetti's Warbler remains

Count from the lake area:
- 9 (6♂) Mallard
- *5 (3♂) Gadwall
- 24 (13♂) Tufted Duck: one of these flew off c.06:00
- 3 Moorhens
- 57 Coots
- no Great Crested Grebes
- c.175 Black-headed Gulls
- 14 Herring Gulls
- 1 Yellow-legged Gull
- 46 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 71 unidentified large gulls

At / around the street lamps pre-dawn:

Moths:
- 2 November Moth agg. (Epirrita sp.)
with:
- *1 unidentified red-eyed fly.
- *1 unidentified cranefly
- 1 Larinioides cornutus Orb-web spider
- 1 Neriene montana spider
- *1 Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis)
- 1 Tetragnatha sp. Stretch spider
- 2 Paroligolophus agrestis harvestmen
- 1 Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus harvestman again

Yesterday's 'buglings' are likely to have been springtails. From the web: "Springtails (Collembola) are ancient, six legged and usually very small animals that live in and around soil, as well as up trees, on ponds, and most other places you can think of". There are over 8000 known species of these tiny creatures. It is thought there may be as many as 100,000 individuals per square metre. They have been around at least 400 million years!

Noted later:

Nothing

The low cloud had not yet reached the eastern horizon allowing the sunrise to produce this red glow.

Now this is what I was trying to achieve with my Gadwall photos on Wednesday. A splendid drake

And his less colourful but attractive mate.

Superficially this fly looks more dangerous than it is. That is not a proboscis but the right front leg appearing to be one. Another of the many red-eyed flies I see pre-dawn, Why do so many flies have red eyes? I asked Mr. Google and one answer was "The screening pigments in the pigment cells commonly determine the eye colour. The red screening pigments of fly eyes ... allow stray light to photochemically restore photo-converted visual pigments". So there! Can anyone convert this information from The National Centre for Biotechnical Information (in the US) in to something I can understand?

I would have trouble identifying this small cranefly even if it wasn't bespattered with dew, obscuring any helpful markings in the wing.

This Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis) has all eight legs, unlike the one I photographed here a few days ago. The two front pairs of legs are typically held as shown – close together

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash:

(228th visit of the year)

Bird notes not included in highlight:
- Drake Pochard gone.
- The Wood Pigeons were mainly NE-bound; all other groups were W- / NW-bound.
- My third Little Egret sighting here this year. I am aware of at least one other sighting.
- An additional Fieldfare flew out of the top end trees.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 67 Wood Pigeons: 52 of these in three migrant parties
- 1 Sparrowhawk
- 16 Jackdaws
- 2 Skylarks: together
- 124 Starlings: six groups
- c.100 Fieldfare: one group
- 40 Redwing: two groups
- 1 Greenfinch

On /around the water:
- 25 Canada Geese yet again
- *4 Greylag Geese
- 3 + 2 (1 brood) Mute Swan
- *3 (3♂?) Wigeon
- 33 (21♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) Teal
- 18 (6♂) Tufted Duck
- 4 (0♂) Goosander again
- 9 Moorhens
- 24 Coots
- 3 Great Crested Grebes still
- 26 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Herring Gull: third winter
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: first winter
- 2 Grey Herons
- *1 Little Egret: arrived and departed

On different lamp poles:
- *1 Tetragnatha sp. Stretch spider
- 1 male Leiobunum rotundum/blackwalli harvestman

On the Ivy:

Still plenty around the Ivy but limited number of species in dull conditions:
- Many Common Wasps (Paravespula vulgaris)
- More flies of at least three species.

The trio of Wigeon were not at all helpful, staying in the middle of the water as far away from either side as was possible. The bird in the centre with the white stripe above the flanks is a drake in eclipse plumage. This more subtle plumage is acquired while the birds are moulting their flight-feathers. As they have flown here that moult must be complete. They will now start their body moult to get a grey back and flanks and the yellow crown to their rufous head. I suspect the other two birds are also eclipse drakes – the flanks of ducks at all times would appear a paler tone. Note the blue-grey bill with black tip that this species shows in both sexes.

This Little Egret was a surprise. I looked up from photographing the Wigeon and there it was perched on the island. It hadn't been there a few minutes earlier.

It quickly dropped down showing its diagnostic yellow feet.

Here it is for size and shape comparison with to Greylag Geese. It did not stay. The Grey Herons were none too pleased with its presence.

A Tetragnatha sp. Stretch spider.

And in close up. Two rows of four eyes – "all the better to see you with". Hairy legs – "all the better to feel you with". And large hairy palps indicating a male – "all the better to eat you with". Quite harmless to man.

Thanks to eagle-eyed Martin Adlam for noticing that this photo I took yesterday is not a Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris) but a German Wasp (Vespula germanica). The easiest separation is the shape of the yellow band at the front of each side of the thorax. On a Common Wasp the band is parallel-sided whereas on the German Wasp they tend towards being triangular. The other reliable feature is that the German Wasp does not have an anchor-shaped mark on the face when viewed head-on – but who views wasps head-on? Other markings on the thorax and abdomen are variable in both species and are unreliable to separate the species. The question now arises – have I been seeing only German Wasps or are both present? More work for the camera on the next sunny morning.

(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

2013

Priorslee Lake

3 Yellow Legged Gull

2 adult Great Black-backed Gulls

4 Gadwall

4 Wigeon

(John Isherwood)

2012

Priorslee Lake

c.80 Greylag Geese over 

2 Gadwall 

6 Pochard 

40 Tufted Ducks 

7 Moorhens 

c.130 Coots

2500 Wood Pigeons

580+ Jackdaws

45+ Rooks

Raven

1 Siskin

3 Redpolls

(Ed Wilson)

The Flash

106 Greylag Geese 

1 possible Bean Goose 

38 Canada Geese 

2 Pochard 

32 Tufted Duck 

17 Goosanders 

7 Moorhens 

7 Coots

(Ed Wilson)

2010

Priorslee Lake

10 Pochard

53 Tufted Duck 

2 Yellow-legged Gulls

513 Jackdaws

53 Rooks

732 Wood Pigeons

5 Meadow Pipits

503 Fieldfare

2 Song Thrushes

34 Redwings

1 Brambling

12 Chaffinches

2 Siskins

51 Linnets

(Ed Wilson)

Trench Lock Pool

Yellow-legged Gull

(Martin Grant)

2008

Priorslee Lake

1 Little Grebe 

15 Shoveler

1 Gadwall

10 Pochards 

117 Tufted Duck

2 Water Rails

100+

Many Redwings

4 Fieldfare

20+ Siskins

(Ed Wilson)

2006

Priorslee Lake

4 Great Crested Grebes

16 Pochard

55 Tufted Ducks

1 drake Ruddy Duck

c.600 Black-headed Gulls

189 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

803 Wood Pigeons

17 Pied Wagtails

19 Wrens

12 Dunnocks

30 Robins

21 Blackbirds

128 Fieldfares

4 Song Thrushes

24 Redwings

1 Mistle Thrush

13 Magpies

347 Jackdaws

160 Rooks

12 Carrion Crows

223 Starlings

2 Siskins

8 Reed Buntings

(Ed Wilson)

2005

Priorslee Lake

Water Rail 

Kingfisher

2 Little Grebe

11 Pochard

35 Tufted Duck

3 Ruddy Duck

27 Redwing

10 Fieldfare

5 Reed Bunting

Redpoll

Siskin

101 Rooks

12 Carrion Crow

227 Jackdaws

3 Jay

12 Magpies 

1 Raven

1200 Wood Pigeon

(Martin Adlam)