13 Feb 23

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

6.0°C > 7.0°C: Overcast to start. Breaks began to appear after 08:00 though it remained mostly cloudy. Light SSE wind increased somewhat. Good visibility.

Sunrise: 07:31 GMT

* = a photo from today.

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 06:20 – 09:25

(38th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Apart from two visiting sub-adult Mute Swans it was another quiet morning.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 1 Greylag Goose: flew South
- 15 Wood Pigeons
- 6 Herring Gulls
- 23 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Cormorant
- 2 Jackdaws only
- 34 Rooks

Counts from the lake area:
- 10 Canada Geese: of these two departed together
- 1 Greylag Goose
- *4 + 4 Mute Swans: two additional sub-adults arrived
- 4 (2♂) Gadwall
- 11 (8♂) Mallard
- 3 (2♂) Pochard again
- 19 (12♂) Tufted Duck
- 11 Moorhens
- 88 Coots
- 1 Little Grebe
- 8 Great Crested Grebes
- c.175 Black-headed Gulls
- 2 Herring Gulls
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull
- 2 Cormorants: arrived separately
- 1 Grey Heron: arrived

On / around the street lamp poles pre-dawn:

Nothing noted as the wind was blowing on to all the poles.

Later:

Nothing of note

Too many Mute Swans! Three of 'our' cygnets at the back; 'our' adults on the right giving chase; the others visible in this shot are the two sun-adult visitors.

All eight swans here with all four of 'our' cygnets in the middle.

Go on – scram. Both the residents give chase.

Perhaps because it was on its own: this Redwing allowed unusually close-approach even if it was at the top of a small tree.

It even allowed me to walk underneath it to get a different view. Note the breast markings on this species are streaks rather than the spots of Mistle and Song Thrushes and the centre of the belly in more or less unmarked.

Here it is calling. Unusually in addition to the normal thin 'seep' contact calls this bird was also giving 'chip chip' calls reminiscent of a Song Thrush alarm call.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:30 – 10:30

(35th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- A first-year Lesser Black-backed Gull was the most exciting visitor this morning.
- Where were many of the Moorhens hiding?

Birds noted flying over here:
- 1 Jackdaw

Noted on / around the water
- *43 Canada Geese
- 1 Greylag Goose
- 2 + 1 Mute Swans
- 38 (23♂) Mallard
- 2 (1♂) Common Teal still
- 1 all-white duck (Peking(?) Duck)
- *39 (20♂) Tufted Duck
- *5 (1♂) Goosander
- 9 Moorhens only
- 48 Coots
- 1 Great Crested Grebe only
- 66 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Herring Gull: immature
- *2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: adult and first year
- 1 Cormorant
- *3 Grey Herons

Noted on / around the street lamp poles:
- *1 Spring Usher moth (Agriopis leucophaearia)

Elsewhere:

Nothing of note

A Canada Goose making a perfect touch-down.

A duck Tufted Duck powers by with tail-feathers spread.

The upper wing white stripe is visible here on the left wing and the equivalent markings are visible through the right wing.

It is a little-known local bye-law that I have to take photos of Goosanders if they come within range. This is an immature drake.

The same bird. And no: I did not 'mirror-image' the first photo. Note how little of the head plumes remain. On adult drakes there are no plumes while adult ducks have a very shaggy hair-do.

A first-year Lesser Black-backed Gull from above. Note the almost unrelieved dark across the whole wing and back and the sold dark in the tail.

Here from underneath. It has found something that the adult winter Black-headed Gull is crying out to steal.

And here it is on the water being dive-bombed by a Black-headed Gull. Both are calling.

At rather extreme range for the camera. It is most unusual to see two Grey Herons in close proximity like this away from their breeding sites.

A Spring Usher moth (Agriopis leucophaearia). Moth species #2 here this year. My only previous record of this species here was on 16 March in 2017. I have no idea what the detritus alongside it is – probably something caught in a spider's web back in the Autumn.

(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 Velvet Scoter

3 Greater Scaup

(Observer Unknown)

2013

Candles landfill / Horsehay Pool

1 Iceland Gull

3 Caspian Gull

8 Yellow-legged Gull

Herring x Lesser Black-backed gull hybrid

(Tom Lowe)

2012

Priorslee Lake

1000+ large gulls

2 Iceland Gulls

3 Yellow-legged Gulls

(Tom Lowe)

2010

Priorslee Lake

1 Little Grebe 

4 Great Crested Grebes

4 Gadwall

39 Pochard

84 Tufted Duck

1 Water Rail

173 Coots

1 Siskin

(Ed Wilson)

2009

Priorslee Lake

Iceland Gull

(Observer Unknown)

2008

Priorslee Lake

Glaucous Gull

(Geoff Holmes)

2006

Priorslee Lake

10 Pink-footed Geese

c.70 Golden Plover

80 Fieldfares

10 Great Crested Grebes

10 Pink-footed Geese

10 Pochard

38 Tufted Ducks

151 Coots

1 Water Rail

1065 Wood Pigeons

273 Jackdaws

186 Rooks

400 Starling

27 Robins

23 Blackbirds

10 Song Thrushes

11 Greenfinches

48 Siskins

1 Redpoll

10 Reed Buntings

(Ed Wilson)