20 Sep 22

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

9.0°C > 12.0°C: A few early breaks but mostly cloudy at medium / high level. Light and variable winds. Very good visibility despite local fog patches.

Sunrise: 06:52 BST

* = a photo from today

Priorslee Lake: 05:30 – 09:05

(202nd visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Presumably the same drake Eurasian Wigeon was present. For many weeks now after their first-light feeding activity the Mallard have mostly gone to sleep on the grass in front of the sailing club shelter. They cast a gaze at me as I approach but mostly stay put while I walk past them. This morning the trio of Gadwall were with them and these gently took to the water. Amazingly so was the wigeon, which I failed to notice until it flushed. It circling high over and I expected it to leave. It did not, pitching back in again.
- Great Crested Grebes are all over the place now. In future I will report the total only. It is confirmed that five pairs have raised juveniles to fledging state.
- Two groups of large gulls, almost all Lesser Black-backed Gulls, arrived low from the East. Perhaps there are newly ploughed fields there where they have been able to feed.
- A Song Thrush was in quiet song along the North side. A strange date to hear this.
- Two Mistle Thrushes flew out of bushes alongside the M54 and away East continuing the run of unseasonable sightings.
- A Reed Bunting was heard calling at the West end. My first record here for about five weeks which was itself my first for four weeks. Where have they all gone?

Birds noted flying over here:
- 1 Stock Dove
- 74 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Collared Dove
- 3 Black-headed Gulls
- 13 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 30 unidentified large gulls
- 4 Jackdaws
- 15 Rooks

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 1 House Martin

Warblers noted:
- 1 Cetti's Warbler: in song along South side
- 5 Chiffchaffs: three in song
- 2 Blackcaps: including male seen

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 3 (1♂) Gadwall
- 1 (1♂) Eurasian Wigeon still
- 14 (8♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) Tufted Duck: flew off
- 10 Moorhens still
- 156 Coots
- no Little Grebe
- *21 adults and juvenile Great Crested Grebes: see notes
- c.110 Black-headed Gulls: 57 of these were on the football field c.07:00
- *6 Herring Gulls
- *105 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: the vast majority adults
- 2 Grey Heron

Noted on / around very wet street lamp poles pre-dawn (a heavy dew):
- usual array of *flies (mainly) and midges (a few)
- 1 springtail Pogonognathellus longicornis-type
- 1 Leiobunum rotundum harvestman

Noted later with very wet vegetation and no sun:
- Alder Leaf Beetle (Agelastica alni)
- Grey Squirrel

This was as clear the sky was today and as colourful as the sunrise became. The fourth Mute Swan cygnet is coming to join its siblings.

I was just too late with this shot. The juvenile Great Crested Grebe in the middle and just taken a fish from a parent and here we see the fish going 'down the hatch'.

And I was in the wrong position for this shot as an adult feeds a different juvenile largely obscured by vegetation. Grrr!

A trio of adult winter gulls with a Herring Gull on the left of two Lesser Black-backed Gulls. This shows the slightly larger size of Herring Gull though there is some variability and females of both species average smaller.

One of many adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls I noted. This one still moulting and regrowing its primary wing feathers. Note the shading on the head. The extent of the black-streaking acquired during winter is very variable. I have never read any explanation for this variability.

It was almost all 'flies' on the street lamp poles pre-dawn. This was my best effort with one of the medium-sized red-eyed orange-bodied flies. It has plain wings – a mark on the lamp pole is what you can see through the left wing.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash:: 09:10 – 10:10

(198th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- A very quiet morning.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 1 Jackdaw
- 1 Pied Wagtail

Warblers noted:
- 1 Chiffchaff: in song

Noted on / around the water
- 11 Canada Geese: eight of these arrived as four separate pairs
- 3 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 41 (23♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white duck (Aylesbury Duck)
- 15 (4?♂) Tufted Duck
- 17 Moorhens
- 34 Coots
- 1 + 3 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes remain
- 11 Black-headed Gulls: no first winters
- 2 Cormorants: arrived separately
- 2 Grey Herons

Noted on / around the street lamp poles:
- *1 Alder Leaf Beetle (Agelastica alni)

Noted later:
- Horse-chestnut Leaf-miner moth (Cameraria ohridella)
- Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
- Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris)

Another Alder Leaf Beetle (Agelastica alni) that has lost its way and is resting on a street lamp pole. The pimples on its back are water droplets despite being apparently symmetrically arranged

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

- 2 Tipula paludosa craneflies
- 6 owl midges Psychodidae sp.
- 20 other midges of various sizes
- 7 White-legged Snake Millipedes (Tachypodoiulus niger)

(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

2011
Priorslee Lake
Common Sandpiper
(Ed Wilson)

2010
Priorslee Lake
Scaup
(Richard Vernon)

The Flash
Scaup
(Stuart Edmunds)

2008
Priorslee Lake
Tawny Owl
(Ed Wilson)

2005
Priorslee Lake
Kingfisher
(Ed Wilson)