11 Oct 22

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

4.0°C > 10.0°C: Clear. Almost calm. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 07:28 BST

* = a photo from today.

Priorslee Lake: 06:15 – 09:20

(221st visit of the year)

Paul from the Classic Catering burger van in Castle Farm Way lay-by reported an owl flying around c.07:00. From his description I could not identify the species. Historically a Tawny Owl has been noted in and around a small copse in the field to the East of the lake so perhaps it was that wandering.

Bird notes:
- The male Pheasant exploded again from the south-west bushy area.
- Yet again I counted exactly 74 Canada Geese on the water. By that time I suspect some other birds had already flown out. Only some of these 74 departed later in several small groups. At least 30 remained.
- I managed to count the big skein of Greylag Geese as they flew low West at c.08:00. 69 was the answer.
- Of the 52 Wood Pigeons a tight group of 12 flew high West as if they might indicate the start of the Autumn movement.
- At least 13 Reed Buntings left the West end roost in three separate groups.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 69 Greylag Geese: inbound together
- 52 Wood Pigeons: see notes
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gull
- 31 unidentified large gulls: pre-dawn
- 1 Common Buzzard again
- 81 Jackdaws
- 145 Rooks
- >6 Skylarks
- 2 Pied Wagtails again
- 2 Siskin

Warblers noted:
- 1 Cetti's Warbler: singing along the North side
- 1 Chiffchaff: no song

Counts from the lake area:
- >74 Canada Geese again: see notes
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 4 (2♂) Gadwall again
- 18 (12♂) Mallard
- 9 (4♂) Tufted Duck
- 12 Moorhens
- 194 Coots
- 2 Little Grebes
- 16 Great Crested Grebes
- c.115 Black-headed Gulls: as yesterday 34 of these were noted on the football field c.07:40
- 3 Herring Gulls
- 12 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 29 unidentified large gulls: pre-dawn

Noted on / around the street lamp poles pre-dawn:
- *1 November Moth agg. (Epirrita dilutata agg.)
- 1 midge sp.
- *1 Common European Earwig (Forficula dentata)
- *1 snail sp.
- 1 Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis)
- 1 Clubiona sp. spider

Noted later:
- *Common Inkcap fungus (Coprinopsis atramentaria)
- Grey Squirrel

Some 30 hours since the Hunter's Moon was full the craters begin to appear around the five o'clock area on the face.

Just a touch of mist over the lake first thing. Enough to prevent me making an accurate count of the many Canada Geese present.

Just a few days later than 2020 and 2021 first-dates is this November Moth agg. (Epirrita dilutata agg.). I can do no better than quote the westmidlandsmoths.co.uk web site: "November, Pale November and Autumnal Moths cannot be identified with certainty from external characters and so require genitalia examination. If this is not done then the three are lumped together as this aggregate". Genitalia examination was not done!

I have no idea why this Common European Earwig (Forficula dentata) was having an Ostrich moment.

The best photo I could get through the fence around the academy of Common Inkcap fungus (Coprinopsis atramentaria).

This ought to be called a leopard snail but there appears to be no such thing. I cannot find any illustrations of a speckled or spotted snails.

Plane of the day: this is a British Airways Airbus A350 900 series descending in to London's Heathrow airport toward the end of a nine and three-quarter hour haul from Los Angeles International Airport.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:25 – 10:30

(213rd visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Where do the Greylag Geese I see heading this way go? I only noted six on the edge of the island. Could all the others have climbed inside the island? None of the fishermen present had arrived early enough to have seen them fly in or over.
- Two immature Great Crested Grebes were together near the Derwent Drive parking area. Are these the 'missing' two immatures that were born here? Have they been lurking under overhanging trees all the while? Or have they flown back in?
- My first Redwing of the Autumn here flew over.
- As usual there were probably more Skylarks than I noted as I was unable to locate the calls I heard and they are usually in small groups.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 5 Jackdaws
- 1 Redwing
- 12 Starlings: together
- >2 Skylarks

Noted on / around the water
- 17 Canada Geese
- 6 Greylag Geese: more unseen inside island?
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 34 (21♂) Mallard only
- 1 (1♂) all-white duck (Peking(?) Duck)
- 18 (4♂) Tufted Duck
- 18 Moorhens
- *28 Coots
- *4 Great Crested Grebes: see notes
- 11 Black-headed Gulls
- 6 Cormorants
- *3 Grey Herons again

On / around the street lamp poles:
Nothing noted

Noted later:
- *Red Admiral butterfly (Vanessa atalanta)
- Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris)
- *Broad-banded Epistrophe (Epistrophe grossulariae)
- *shelf fungus, perhaps Ganoderma applanatum, also known as Artist's Fungus

This is one juvenile Coot from a very late brood with four extant juveniles. It has almost no white shield as yet and still white on the throat and breast. I have never known such and late brood and it is not the only such brood. There is another with three obvious juveniles.

One of two juvenile Great Crested Grebes that emerged from under the vegetation here.

This is the other which did not turn sideways on before it decided to play submarines and disappeared.

One of the three Grey Herons flies by...

...and makes a rather inelegant landing.

This one watches the action.

There were at least five Red Admiral butterflies (Vanessa atalanta) on the Ivy bank near the academy. Here is one with rather battered wings.

This one is slightly less battered wings. For reasons I cannot explain the camera has decided this is a real Red Admiral and not given it the rather orange tone that it gave to the previous photo.

Sunning itself is this Broad-banded Epistrophe (Epistrophe grossulariae). This is my first record of this species away from the lake.

I found this fungus on a cut trunk of a large tree, felled several years ago. My National Geographic Seek app. indicated it was a species of 'shelf fungus' and of the family Agaricomycetes. I could not find any reference to this group in the UK but a trawl of Google led me to the bracket fungus Ganoderma applanatum, also known as Artist's Fungus. This species is known to acquire galls which seem to be visible here. These calls are caused by the Yellow flat-footed fly (Agathomyia wankowiczii).

(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
14 Redwing
(Ed Wilson)

2010
Priorslee Lake
Common Gull, though it could have been Mew/Ring-billed Gull!
Yellow Legged Gull
(Mike Cooper/Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
2 Ruddy Ducks 
42 Redwing
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
4 Wigeon
1 Shoveler 
8 Pochard
64 Tufted Ducks
30 Robins
(Ed Wilson)