8 Oct 22

Priorslee Lake

9.0°C > 12.0°C: Clear. Moderate W wind fading away somewhat. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 07:22 BST

**photos from today will appear tomorrow.

Other things to do today so a slightly abbreviated visited to the lake only.

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:50 – 09:05

(218th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- A Pheasant was heard calling from the SW area at 07:05.
- There were very many Canada Geese present when I arrived, all at the far end in two tight groups. All but one flew off without revealing exactly how many there were. One remained behind and stayed throughout.
- The clear sky made it difficult to find small birds flying over. I heard Sky Larks on four separate occasions. There may well have been many more birds involved.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 2 Canada Geese: a duo outbound again
- 9 Wood Pigeons only
- 32 unidentified large gulls: pre-dawn
- 3 Cormorants: together
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 30 Jackdaws
- 155 Rooks
- 4 Skylarks
- 2 Pied Wagtails

Warblers noted:
- 1 Cetti's Warbler: singing at the W end today
- 1 Chiffchaff: no song

Counts from the lake area:
- c.65 Canada Geese: see notes
- *2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 6 (3♂) Gadwall still
- 2 (♂?) Eurasian Wigeon still
- 5 (3♂) Mallard
- 15 (3?♂) Tufted Duck: one flew off West 07:05
- 8 Moorhens
- 206 Coots
- 13 Great Crested Grebes
- c.250 Black-headed Gulls: 66 were on the football field c.07:20
- 2 Herring Gulls
- 31 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 51 unidentified large gulls: pre-dawn
- 1 Grey Heron: arrived

Noted on / around the street lamp poles pre-dawn:
- 1 ichneumon
- 1 midge sp.
- 1 cranefly
- 1 species of ground beetle
- 1 other species of spider

Noted later:
- Grey Squirrel

(Ed Wilson)

These two photos illustrate some of the difficulty in identifying immature large gulls and also how important photos can be. Here, looking at the very dark wings, is what at first view is a first winter Lesser Black-backed Gull. But is the head too white? And what about the barring on the upper tail? Is it too intense? This would be very difficult to judge in flight.

A second or so later against a different background the somewhat paler inner primaries, which were not at all apparent in the previous view, confirms this to be a first winter Yellow-legged Gull.

A trio of Cormorants pass over, the outer two with pale bellies indicating these are immatures.

A ground beetle, perhaps the same individual that I photographed on Friday?

A Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis). One species I can identify.

The other spider I found on a street lamp pole and a species I cannot identify.

Plane of the day #1. This colourful aircraft is a Boeing 747-400 series Jumbo. It was delivered new as a passenger aircraft to Japan Airlines in late 1991. It was converted in to a freighter in 2012 and after four years with the now defunct Evergreen International Airlines it was converted in to a 'Supertanker' to drop huge quantities of retardant on forest fires in the US. A jumbo is not the most agile of aircraft and it was found to be unsuitable and converted back to cargo and is now operated by National Airlines from Orlando, Florida in a 'special livery' to celebrate its 30 year old status. The basis of the livery is merely that in which it operated when it was the supertanker.

Here, courtesy of FlightRadar24 is its routing from Dover US Air Force Base in Delaware to the US base at Ramstein in Germany. The flight code CMB reflects the radio call-sign 'Camber' used by civilian aircraft chartered by the US Department of Defense Transportation Command.

Plane of the day #2. Such good weather to see the overflights. Here is a Boeing 787 900 series Dreamliner of Air Tahiti Nui. This flight operates as two legs. The first from Faa'a International Airport (also known as Tahiti International Airport) near Papeete in French Polynesia on the eight hour haul to Los Angeles International Airport. After a refuel and a crew change it makes the 10 hour flight to Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport.

 FlightRadar24 shows it has just about 45 minutes to go as it passes over Telford.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

- 1 owl midge Psychodidae sp.
- 20 other midges / mosquitoes of various sizes

(Ed Wilson)

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Welshpool

My early departure was to go to a Vintage Aircraft Fly-in at the Mid-Wales Airport at Welshpool.

While there up to eight Red Kites provided entertainment between the aircraft movements. Here is one.

And another. The adjective 'elegant' was invented to describe these birds.

 An unmistakable silhouette. I'll spare you more aircraft photos.

(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

2 Wigeon

2 Kingfisher

5 Redwing (Celestica Site)

(John Isherwood)

2006

Priorslee Lake

51 Golden Plover

2 Siskins

8 Reed Buntings

(Ed Wilson)

2005

Priorslee Lake

45 Golden Plover

42 Lapwings

2 Wigeon

7 Pochard

6 Song Thrush

6 Redwings

3 Chiffchaffs

Kingfisher

(Ed Wilson)