9 Feb 22

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

9.0°C: Early light rain soon gave way to clearer skies for a while. More cloud later. Light WSW breeze. Excellent visibility.

Sunrise: 07:39 GMT

* = a photo today

Priorslee Lake: 06:30 – 09:30

(36th visit of the year)

Again quiet though with two notable sightings:
- A Snipe burst out of the W end at 08:45. My attention to it was drawn by two noisy Magpies. Whether they flushed the Snipe or whether they were reacting to the Snipe exploding from near to where they were is unclear. Bird species #64 for me here this year.
- A large group of at least 400 Starlings flew S over the dam at 08:15. A few minutes later at least 50 more flew SW over the lake. Large groups are most unusual at this time of year. Anyway why would they be flying S? The Met Office are promising cold weather spreading down from Scotland: have they read the forecast?

Other bird notes:
- I wonder whether the two Canada Geese that seem to have taken up residence on top of the dam are the pair that nested here last year, subsequently losing their goslings to the aggressive Mute Swan?
- No Tufted Duck at all. Normally I would expect at least 50 at this time of year.
- No sign of yesterday's displaying Great Crested Grebes.
- 28 Black-headed Gulls arrived at 07:12, numbers building to 56 soon after. Most of these soon left. There were c.120 present at 07:40, presumably both returnees and new arrivals.
- A single Lapwing was overhead briefly at 08:00.
- The Cetti's Warbler sang from the NE area at 07:10. I did not hear it again.
- My first singing Blackbird this year at this site was heard at 06:40 [there was one singing as I left Newport at 06:15, my first songster this year]
- A quick check all around the lake pre-dawn found 13 Song Thrushes singing away.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 3 Feral Pigeons: together
- 11 Wood Pigeons only
- 4 Collared Doves: two singles and a duo
- 1 Lapwing
- 6 Black-headed Gulls
- 9 Herring Gulls
- 54 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 2 Common Buzzards
- 188 Jackdaws
- >450 Starlings; as highlighted
- 9 Redwings

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 Canada Geese: throughout
- 2 + 3 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 3 (2♂) Mallard
- no Tufted Duck
- 1 Moorhen only again
- 33 Coots
- no Great Crested Grebe
- c.120 Black-headed Gulls
- 9 Herring Gulls
- 7 Lesser Black-backed Gull
- 2 Cormorants: arrived separately
- no Grey Heron

On and around the street lamps.
- *1 small fly
- 2 plumed midges
- 1 'winter cranefly'
- *5 springtails of at least three species

Noted later
- *1 probable Sciomyzidae Marsh fly

 It was raining at sunrise. After the weather began to clear some colour appeared.

Would you believe another male Siskin. The point to note here is that the black crown feathers are still fringed with white. This will wear off quickly leaving a smart black crown to impress the females.

Another 'branch in the way' shot. This is a male Reed Bunting and it had just stopped singing. I knew if I moved to try and get the stick out of the way it would fly. It did. As with the Siskin the feathering on its black head still has some white fringes to wear away before it looks breeding-smart.

Possibly the only 'new' species seen on the lamp poles this morning was this unidentified fly.

"Me and my shadow". I found this rather evil-looking fly soaking up the sun on a Laurel leaf. I think it is one of the Sciomyzidae (Marsh flies): as usual there are many to choose from. Most have more patterned wings than shown by this specimen. I cannot decide whether the rather short abdomen is banded or whether the marks are on the wings.

This is one of the Tomoceridae group of spinetails. It looks very different from any I have seen before. However I read that when hatched they are covered in scales that are easily lost and therefore can look quite different. The two most frequently encountered species (T. minor and T. vulgaris) are only separable by microscopic examination.

Here are two globular springtails. The one to left is tiny. The other bottom right is minute.

After many attempts a passable photo of one of these small critters showing some detail in the patterning (why would something so small need to be distinctively patterned?). This closely matches photos on the web of Dicyrtomina saundersi.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:35 – 10:30

(34th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- No Great Crested Grebe here either.
Otherwise much as for the last few weeks albeit gull numbers reducing.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 1 Herring Gull
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 11 Redwings: together

On /around the water:
- 27 Canada Geese
- 3 + 2 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 31 (21♂) Mallard
- 1 all-white duck (Aylesbury Duck)
- 1 (1♂) Teal: heard only
- 5 (5♂) Pochard still
- 74 (41♂) Tufted Duck
- *12 Moorhens
- 23 Coots
- no Great Crested Grebes
- 36 Black-headed Gulls
- 3 Herring Gulls
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 2 Grey Herons again

On /around street lamp poles:

Nothing

Elsewhere:
- *a crust fungus, perhaps Rosy Crust (Peniophora incarnata).

A Moorhen taking advantage of spilt food. A handsome bird in breeding plumage.

And a short video. Note how it continually pumps its tail as it moves.

I am fairy sure this is one of the crust fungus. My best guess from searching the web is Rosy Crust (Peniophora incarnata)

(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

A juvenile Iceland Gull

2nd winter Iceland Gull

A juvenile Glaucous Gull

1st winter Greater Black-backed Gull

An adult Common Gull

(Ian Grant / Roger Clay / Martin Grant / Jim Almond / Paul King)

Ringed Birds 

Today Roger Clay found 75 ringed birds. Only 12 of these had he seen on previous days before. There were:

- 3 from Iceland

- 3 from Netherlands

- 3 Still to be checked and the remaining ringed birds were all from the UK

(Roger Clay)

2006

Priorslee Lake

9 Great Crested Grebes

2 Gadwall

11 Pochard

40 Tufted Ducks

144 Coots

2 Water Rails

88 Lapwing

c.500 Black-headed Gulls

63 Lesser Black-backed Gull

27 Herring Gulls.

Kestrel

Sparrowhawk

c.45 Fieldfares and Redwing

450 Jackdaws

259 Rooks

250 Starling

19 Robins

16 Blackbirds

10 Song Thrushes

12 Greenfinches

33 Siskin

8 Reed Buntings

(Ed Wilson)