18 Jan 23

Priorslee Lake only

3.0°C: Scattered cloud. Moderate WNW wind. Very good visibility.

[Sunrise: 08:12 GMT]

* = a photo from today.

I avoided the lying snow and decided not to slither around The Flash.

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 14:40 – 16:10

(15th visit of the year)

No ice noted

New Bird Species
Another addition to my 2023 bird species list from here:
- One Common Gull appeared briefly but departed when something spooked all the gulls.
This takes my 2023 bird species total for here to 60.

Other bird notes:
- So where have nearly all the Tufted Ducks gone?

Birds noted flying over here:
None. Perhaps I left before the Jackdaws returned to their roost.

Counts from the lake area:
- 56 Canada Geese
- 2 Greylag Geese
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swan
- 5 (2♂) Gadwall
- 9 (6♂) Mallard
- 4 (4♂) Pochard
- 6 (2♂) Tufted Duck
- 10 Moorhens
- 139 Coots
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 2 Cormorants

Gulls Noted
These are the number of gulls seen in the pre-roost gathering.
- >400 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Great Black-backed Gull
- 1 Common Gull
- 13 Herring Gulls
- 2 Yellow-legged Gulls
- 71 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

This afternoon's sunset with a few shower clouds evident.

A Moorhen in flight. A number of birds have been feeding on the dam top recently and often fly-off on the approach of dog walkers.

A good view of the feet and claws here.

It was getting dark... Among the Black-headed Gulls is one that has already acquired is breeding dark hood.

A Herring Gull in front of an adult winter Black-headed Gull. The Herring Gull seems likely to be a third winter bird moulting in to adult plumage: only the extensive dark on both mandibles shows any sign of immaturity.

Four gulls each with a different tone on their backs. The easy one is the dark one at the bottom is a Lesser Black-backed Gull. The three at the top are, I believe, left to right: a Herring Gull; a Lesser Black-backed Gull of the paler graellsii race; and a Yellow-legged Gull.

A sequence of photos of a second winter Lesser Black-backed Gull flying up to briefly settle on the buoy. Note at this age the almost clean white upper tail above the solid black tail band.

The back and inner wings are already in to adult-looking plumage. All the rest of the wings are dark. Note that there are two feathers in the upper tail that show some faint dark markings.

Just about to settle. It moved on before I could obtain a resting shot.

Well this adult Cormorant was a very long way away but the enlarged photo just about shows the extent of the white head plumes and white thigh patch.

Plane of the day: this is a Van's RV-7 which has recently been acquired by a Knutsford resident and flies out of Liverpool's John Lennon International Airport. Van's Aircraft, Inc. is an American kit aircraft manufacturer, founded by Richard "Van" VanGrunsven in 1973 in Oregon. There have been 12 designs and over 11,000 have been built.

(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

2014
Priorslee Lake
1 female Velvet Scoter
3 Scaup
2 Yellow Legged Gulls
4 Great Black-backed Gulls
(Ed Wilson, John Isherwood)

2012
Priorslee Lake
1 Yellow-legged Gull
3 Great Black-backed Gulls
(Ed Wilson)

2010
Priorslee Lake
Glaucous Gull
Yellow-legged Gull
Probable "intermedius" Lesser Black-backed Gull.
At least 1 Ring-billed Gull look-alike
(Andy Latham / Ian Grant)

2008
Priorslee Lake
2 Wigeon
5 Gadwall
25 Pochard
100 Tufted Duck 
3 Water Rails
1000 Black-headed Gulls
1 Great Black-backed Gull
c.400 Wood Pigeons
Blackcap
1000 Starlings
30 Siskin
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
14 Pochard
55 Tufted Duck
1 Great Black-backed Gull
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
1 Little Grebe
11 Great Crested Grebes
6 Pochard
26 Tufted Duck
208 Coot
c.900 Black-headed Gulls
c.450 Lesser Black-backed Gull
2 Great Black-backed Gull
13 Herring Gull
2 Yellow-legged Gull
1 Kingfisher
53 Siskins
3 Reed Buntings
(Ed Wilson. Martin Adlam)