5 Jan 23

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

8.0°C > 9.0°C: Areas of low cloud under thin high overcast. Occasional spells of drizzle early. Light southerly breeze. Very good visibility except in drizzle.

Sunrise: 08:21 GMT again

* = a photo from today.

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 06:45 – 09:35

(4th visit of the year)

New Bird Species
Two more species added to my 2023 list from here:
- Two drake Pochard were arrivals since yesterday.
- A Mistle Thrush was singing at the West end intermittently throughout.

This takes my 2023 species count to 50.

Other bird notes:

- A Woodcock was noted flying along the North side at 07:40. Perhaps a different individual to that seen at the West end recently?
- This is the second recent morning when I have noted sizeable groups of Wood Pigeons flying North using obverse paths to the usual large southbound movement in late October / early November. Surely they cannot be migrating back already even if it is mild at the moment? I have always wondered where they go as many thousand move South but no return movement is usually evident.
- Unusual that Herring Gulls significantly outnumbered Lesser Black-backed Gulls both on the water and flying over.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 6 Canada Geese: outbound together
- 5 Feral Pigeons: together
- 3 Stock Doves: together
- c.125 Wood Pigeons: c.110 of these in two groups flying North
- 30 Herring Gulls
- 14 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 2 unidentified large gulls pre-dawn
- 6 Jackdaws
- 7 Rooks
- 1 Pied Wagtail
- 1 Siskin

Birds noted leaving roosts around the lake:
- 1 Redwing
I was not in the right area to see any Reed Buntings leave their roosts.

Counts from the lake area:
- 6 Canada Geese: five present pre-dawn; one more arrived
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 2 (1♂) Gadwall again
- 6 (4♂) Mallard
- 2 (2♂) Pochard
- 23 (12♂) Tufted Duck
- 11 Moorhens
- 168 Coots
- 2 Great Crested Grebes still
- c.250 Black-headed Gulls again
- *22 Herring Gulls
- *1 Yellow-legged Gull
- 6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 8 unidentified large gulls pre-dawn

Noted on / around the street lamp poles pre-dawn:

Light rain probably moved most things on.
- *4 unidentified winter midges
- *1 small red-eyed fly with dark wing tips
- *2 species of springtail
- *1 stretch spider Tetragnatha sp.
- *1 Paroligolophus agrestis harvestman

Later:

Nothing of note

A typical third winter Herring Gull with just a dark smudge on the tail and some shading on the secondary coverts. The inner primaries, at least, look fresh. This bird has more dark on the bill that many of this age.

Compare with this second winter Herring Gull with more dark on the upper wing and in the tail.

Another second winter bird with a typical bill with extensive pale base and small pale tip ahead of a smudgy dark mark.

A puzzling feature of this apparent adult Herring Gull is the width of the white trailing edge to the secondaries. This and the lack of paler grey in the primaries ahead of the black tips would suggest a Yellow-legged Gull. The very extensive head streaking and the white 'mirror' in the next-to-outermost primary suggest otherwise. Probably just a Herring Gull.

My vote would be for second winter Yellow-legged Gull. The extent of the pale on the inner primaries rules out Lesser Black-backed Gull and is too little for Herring Gull. Also the strength of the underwing markings is too great for a Herring Gull. I would have expected the head to look paler though. Not one that I noticed at the time. Such details are hard to pick up without a photo.

Two for the price of one. An unidentified winter gnat and a Pogonognathellus longicornis-type springtail.

One of the globular springtails here. It best matches the species Sminthurinus aureus though many species are variable. I would need to able to see whether the 4th and 5th antenna segments are fused to be certain! Since it is less than 1mm in length...

A species of fly that was very common throughout the Autumn: if only I knew what it was. Small with big (relatively speaking) red eyes and dark tips to its wings.

My first stretch spider Tetragnatha sp. of this year.

A Paroligolophus agrestis harvestman recognisable by the pale stripe down the abdomen and legs that are thicker in the basal part. This is only my second-ever record of a harvestman in the new year period.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:40 – 10:25

(4th visit of the year)

New Bird Species
Two more species added to my 2023 list from here:
- *An apparently lone Long-tailed Tit was along the West side.
- A single Starling flew over

This takes my 2023 species count from here to 36.

Other bird notes:
- All the Goosanders were close to or hauled out on the island and difficult to see. While none was an obvious adult drake two of them had more white showing than I would have expected to see on ducks and were perhaps immature drakes.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 1 Starling

Noted on / around the water
- 11 Canada Geese
- 6 Greylag Geese
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 39 (27♂) Mallard
- 1 all-white duck (Peking(?) Duck)
- 39 (22♂) Tufted Duck
- 5 (0?♂) Goosander: see notes
- 14 Moorhens
- 37 Coots
- 1 Great Crested Grebe still
- 37 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Herring Gull: departed
- 2 Cormorants
- 3 Grey Herons

On / around the street lamp poles or elsewhere:
Nothing noted

Two drake Mallard having a scrap with not a duck Mallard anywhere in sight.

Lots of splashing.

That's right. You chase him away.

Go, go, go...

I do hope this Grey Heron is OK. It has been standing motionless on the log for several mornings. At least today it was not asleep.

This Long-tailed Tit seemed, most unusually, to be on its own.

(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

151 Coot

220 Black-headed Gull

18 Lesser Black-backed Gull

28 Tufted Duck

2 Great Crested Grebe

6 Mute Swan

8 Herring Gull

10 Pochard

(Tony Beckett)

Horsehay Pool

11 Goosander

(Tony Beckett)

2013

Priorslee Lake

Female Goldeneye

2 Gadwall

10 Pochard

27 Tufted Duck

14 Great Black-backed Gulls

75 Herring Gulls

2 Caspian Gulls

5 Yellow-legged Gulls

125 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

(Martin Grant/Kriss Webb)

Donnington Wood

1 Waxwing

(Dave Tromans)

2012

Priorslee Lake

1 Yellow-legged Gull

13 Great Black-backed Gulls

(Ed Wilson)

2010

Priorslee Lake

Bittern 

3 Yellow-legged Gull

1 Caspian gull was present

1 Ring Billed Gull.

2500 Black-headed Gulls

42 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

(Ed Wilson/Jack Wildman/Richard Vernon)

2008

Priorslee Lake

2 Wigeon

5 Gadwall

>20 Pochard

>70 Tufted Duck

A drake Goosander

1 Water Rail

6 Great Black-backed Gulls

>150 Herring Gulls

Glaucous Gull 

Yellow-legged

Common Gull

6 Siskin

(Ed Wilson)

2007

Priorslee Lake

10 Pochard

26 Tufted Duck

1 Common Gull

c.2100 Black-headed Gull

c.1600 Lesser Black-backed Gull

126 Herring Gull

1 Great Black-backed Gull

(Ed Wilson)

2006

Priorslee Lake

2 Water Rail

1 Goldeneye

1400 Black-headed Gulls

400 Lesser Black-backed Gull

1 Yellow-legged Gull

74 Herring Gulls

1 Great Black-backed Gull.

8 Great Crested Grebes

18 Pochard 

40 Tufted Duck

236 Coot

40 Siskins

14 Robins

13 Greenfinches

(Ed Wilson)