9 Dec 21

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

4.0°C > 6.0°C: Patchy clouds at both medium and high level with some clear spells and a colourful sunrise. Moderate W wind. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 08:09 GMT

* = a photo today

Priorslee Lake: 06:40 – 09:30

(284th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- No Gadwall found.
- Significant number of Tufted Duck departed since yesterday. They were not at The Flash (or if they were some of those birds had departed)
- The fly-over Goosander was seen too late for me to determine its sex.
- Many fewer Black-headed Gulls arrived after 07:35: c.200?
- As in recent days a significant passage of large gulls SW. One such group of 28 birds consisted of 13 Herring Gulls, the rest being Lesser Black-backed Gulls. This was an unusual composition as normally Lesser Black-backed Gulls predominate.
- At dawn I was in the area where I have heard the Cetti's Warblers most recently but heard nothing.
- A party of >40 finches near the Teece Drive gate seemed to comprised c.25 Siskins and c.15 Goldfinches with at least 2 Chaffinches.

Overhead:
- 1 (?♂) Goosander
- 48 Wood Pigeons: 32 of these in a single group flying low N
- 1 Sparrowhawk
- 24 Herring Gulls
- 146 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 116 Jackdaws
- 12 Rooks
- 17 Redwings: one group
- 1 Pied Wagtail only heard

Birds noted leaving roosts around the lake:
- 12 Redwings

Warblers noted:

None

Counts from the lake area:
- no Gadwall
- 4 (3♂) Mallard again
- 31 (13♂) Tufted Duck
- 5 Moorhens
- 53 Coots
- 1 Little Grebe
- c.200 Black-headed Gulls
- 7 Herring Gulls again
- 53 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 2 Cormorants: arrived together but not seen thereafter

At / around the street lamps pre-dawn:

Moths:
- *4 Winter Moths (Operophtera brumata)
- *1 possible Northern Winter Moth (Operophtera fagata)

Also
- *2 midge sp.
- several 'winter gnats'

Spiders or Harvestman:
- 1 Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis)
- 1 Tetragnatha sp. stretch spider

Noted later:

Nothing

An excellent sunrise this morning. A sequence of photos follows showing its development.

More extensive now.

A small part to show some cloud effects.

Almost across half the sky.

Another detail.

What I thought was a female Siskin, but...

When it bent down to preen a black cap shows so it must be a male, probably a first-winter bird. Looking back at the first photo then the yellow tone in the wing bar is too strong for a female.

Having a good preen.

A Redwing showing the facial stripes and the red flanks. It does not really have red wings, the red colour on the flanks bleeds in to the very inner part of the underwing (the 'armpits').

Mistle Thrush is a large but rather small-headed thrush with round black spots that almost merge in places. A Song Thrush would show a warmer brown breast with heart- or arrow-shaped spots.

Unusual pose for a Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata) with wings closed over the back.

Well here are four moths. Here they all look very like Winter Moths. At the time one looked larger and paler suggesting Northern Winter Moth (O. fagata). Having looked at these photos I cannot decide which it might be. The one at bottom right does look paler and also shows a white underwing. However it could be because it was on a green leaf background rather than a street lamp pole. So I am unsure. Certainly three Winter Moths. These are all males - females of the two species are easier to separate as the vestigial wings of the Northern Winter Moth are significantly larger.

Gnats tend to have the head well-separated from the thorax so I think this must be a species of midge and probably a female as it has simple antennae. I cannot go further in its identification. There were two of these on lamp poles this morning.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:35 – 10:35

(259th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- No Pochard located.
- Coal Tit heard singing again

Birds noted flying over here:
- 2 Wood Pigeons
- *1 Sparrowhawk
- 1 Lesser Redpoll

On /around the water:
- 9 Canada Geese
- 3 + 2 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 38 (27♂) Mallard
- no Teal
- no Pochard
- 56 (24♂) Tufted Duck
- *17 (11♂) Goosander
- 11 Moorhens
- 26 Coots
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 38 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: adult, briefly
- 2 Grey Herons again

On / around street lamps:
- 2 Winter Moths (Operophtera brumata)

Around the Ivy:
- A few Muscid flies

Elsewhere
- The same large group of possible Clouded Funnel fungus (Clitocybe nebularis)

Drake (top) and duck Goosander together.

At extreme range. The Magpie is attacking a Sparrowhawk. Full marks if you identified the Sparrowhawk from this photo!

A Robin looking pensive.

(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

2012

Priorslee Lake

2 Wigeon

3 Gadwall

9 Pochard

41 Tufted Ducks

3 Goosanders

166 Coots

Peregrine Falcon

118 Black-headed Gulls

>500 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

c.40 Herring Gulls

1 Great Black-backed Gull

43 Redwings

2 Fieldfares

c.469 Jackdaws

53 Rooks

(Ed Wilson)

2009

Priorslee Lake

Black-necked Grebe

4 Great Crested Grebes

33 Swans

31 Pochard

70 Tufted Ducks

1 Water Rail

308 Coots

c.1300 Black-headed Gulls

1 Common Gull

c.300 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

1 adult Yellow-legged Gull

102 Herring Gulls

1 Great Black-backed Gull

225 Jackdaws

3 Siskins

2 Redpolls

(Ed Wilson)

Trench

2 Great Crested Grebes

3 Cormorants

8 Pochard

60 Tufted Ducks

drake Mallard x Pintail

1 adult Yellow-legged Gull 

6 Herring Gulls

(Ed Wilson)

2006

Priorslee Lake

1 Little Grebe

12 Pochard

56 Tufted Ducks

1 drake Ruddy Duck

2 Goosanders

3 Lapwings

1 Snipe

>1700 Black-headed Gulls

865 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

22 Robins

22 Blackbirds

6 Redwings

243 Jackdaws

133 Rooks

22 Chaffinches

1 Brambling

12 Greenfinches

4 Reed Buntings

(Ed Wilson)

2005

Priorslee Lake

Water Rail

6 Pochard

27 Tufted Duck

247 Coot

402 Jackdaws

483 Rooks

37 Siskins

1 Redpoll

21 Fieldfares.

2 Reed Buntings

(Ed Wilson)