19 Jan 23

Priorslee Lake

4.0°C > 1.0°C: A mixture of sunny intervals and passing sleet showers. Moderate WNW wind. Very good visibility.

[Sunrise: 08:11 GMT]

* = a photo from today.

Another day making sure I did not become a slip casualty. I was also driven to leave early by the onset of a heavy sleet shower.

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 14:15 – 15:10

(16th visit of the year)

A small amount of ice along the sheltered North shore.

Other bird notes:
- The geese all gone.
- The cob Mute Swan was chasing one of the cygnets, eventually forcing it out of the water and on to the grass.
- Tufted Ducks back again.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 6 Canada Geese

Counts from the lake area:
- no geese
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swan
- 5 (2♂) Gadwall again
- 8 (5♂) Mallard
- 4 (4♂) Pochard again
- 62 (>30♂) Tufted Duck
- 9 Moorhens
- 129 Coots
- 3 Great Crested Grebes
- 2 Cormorants again

Gulls Noted
No gull counts as something spooked them while very few were present. No unusual species noted

Not much to show you from a brief visit ahead of sleet showers. This is a very different-looking Great Crested Grebe from the adult I photographed on Monday. This one has no head plumes and a hint of a dark mark on its cheek indicating it is a first year bird.

Two Herring Gulls here. On the left a full adult; on the right a first winter showing extensive pale inner primaries.

A first winter Herring Gull showing the underside. In addition to the extensive pale inner primaries note the barred under-tail and the pale base to the dark bill.

This shows you always have to interpret what you read in field guides. The left-most gull with spread wings is an adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls and clearly shows translucent inner primaries. Field Guides note that this is a feature of a Herring Gull. What is going on here is that the feathers are unusually well-spread exposing the inner webs of the feathers which are then being illuminated by strong cross-lighting.

Another adult Lesser Black-backed Gull showing the same effect.

(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 - 1st winter male, 2 1st winter females

(David Barnes / Tony Beckett / Ed Wilson)

2013

Priorslee Lake

1 Greater Scaup

1 Goldeneye

5 Great Black-backed Gulls

(Ed Wilson)

2010

Priorslee Lake

Adult Caspian Gull

1 Yellow-legged Gull

(Andy Latham)

2007

Priorslee Lake

8 Cormorants

3 Pochard

31 Tufted Ducks

9 Goosanders

c.50 Golden Plover

>1100 Black-headed Gulls

133 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

10 Herring Gulls

250 Wood Pigeons

21 Robins

17 Blackbirds

8 Fieldfares

4 Redwings

43 Magpies

279 Jackdaws

136 Rooks

5 Greenfinches

2 Reed Buntings

(Ed Wilson)

2006

Priorslee Lake

1100 Black-headed Gulls

1 Great Black-backed Gull

2 Gadwall

8 Pochard

14 Tufted Duck

198 Coot

376 Jackdaws

265 Rooks

200 Wood Pigeons

28 Robins

21 Blackbirds

22 Siskins

1 Redpoll

3 Reed Buntings

(Ed Wilson)