23 Oct 23

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

6.0°C > 10.0°C: A thin high overcast with areas of low cloud from local mist to start. Light easterly breeze developing. Moderate visibility early, becoming very good.

Sunrise: 07:50 BST

+ = my first sighting of this species at this site this year.
++ = new species for me at this site.
* = a species photographed today

Disappointing. A less busy Autumn morning with a few more Wood Pigeons over The Flash than over the Balancing Lake.

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 06:00 – 09:30

(218th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- both *Fieldfare and Redwings noted in West end trees and bushes.
- fewer Pied Wagtails recorded on roost dispersal today. This is almost certainly because of the increased noise from the M54 traffic on a weekday prevented me from hearing them.

Counts of birds noted flying over:
- 2 Greylag Geese: inbound together
- 2 Stock Doves: together
- 85 Wood Pigeons: 29 of these in five small migrant groups all flying South
- 7 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Herring Gull
- 40 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Cormorant
- 39 Jackdaws
- 23 Rooks
- 5 Starlings
- 15 Fieldfare: in five groups
- 15 Redwings
- 8 Pied Wagtails

Counts from the lake area:
- 1 Canada Goose
- 2 + *2 Mute Swan
- 1 (1♂) Mallard
- 6 (5♂) Tufted Duck
- 5 Moorhens
- 135 Coots
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 45 Black-headed Gulls
- *8 Herring Gulls
- 5 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- *1 Cormorant: arrived and departed

On or around the street lamp poles at dawn: the (semi) nocturnal community was almost all dew-spattered and not easy to identify.

Moths:
- 2 November Moth agg. (Epirrita dilutata agg.)

Other things:
- *1 small ichneumon
- *1 Tachinid fly
- 1 wood gnat Sylvicola sp.
- ++*1 female cranefly Tipula pagana
- 1 springtail Pogonognathellus longicornis
- *1 White-legged Snake Millipede (Tachypodoiulus niger)
- *2 Nursery Web Spiders (Pisaura mirabilis)
- 1 stretch spider Tetragnatha sp.
- 1 male harvestmen Leiobunum blackwalli
- 3 harvestmen Paroligolophus agrestis

Noted later:
- ++*springtail Orchesella villosa
- *male cranefly Tipula pagana
- harvestman Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus
- *Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)

One of the Mute Swan cygnets takes off for a trial flight.

An adult Herring Gull with extensive head-streaking that many acquire in winter.

The Cormorant that dropped in seen leaving.

Fieldfare is not an easy species to approach. Bigger than its Redwing winter consort it shows a grey shawl and both streaks and spots on its breast.

The length of the antennae indicate this is a small ichneumon. Which species I have no idea.

 Not a group of flies I have encountered on the street lamp poles pre-dawn. It is one of the Tachinid flies.

Seems these are abundant at the moment. My first female cranefly Tipula pagana here.

The full-winged males of the species are difficult to separate from several other species of cranefly. Given the number of females around it would make sense for this to be a male of that species.

Another tine creature I found on the boxing ring. Its hairy nature identifies it my first-ever springtail Orchesella villosa.

A White-legged Snake Millipede (Tachypodoiulus niger).

One of the two Nursery Web Spiders (Pisaura mirabilis) here.

The other less easy to identify with its covering of dew.

Where has this sprung from? Suddenly a single Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) has appeared around the outside of the football field where I would have expected the council's mowing or the many dog-walkers to have long-since flattened it

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:35 – 10:55

(204th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- five Gadwall (four drakes) is probably my highest total here.
- a full drake Pochard was a new arrival.
- one of today's Goosanders was a full-plumaged drake. The brownheads were scattered all around the water as well as resting on the island. Hard to census.
- a Starling sitting on one of the roofs in Wordsworth Way was unusual
- as I arrived at least four Fieldfare and eight Redwings flew from the island, heading West.
- a bit of a 'finch' day with Chaffinch, Bullfinch, Greenfinch and Goldfinch all being seen.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 64 Wood Pigeons in five migrant parties all heading South. I never count the local movements here.
- 1 Sparrowhawk
- 1 Jackdaw
- 1 Skylark
- 1 Pied Wagtail
- 1 Siskin

Noted on / around the water:
- 7 Canada Geese
- 3 Greylag Geese
- 2 + 4 Mute Swans
- *5 (4♂) Gadwall
- *39 (24♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white feral duck
- *1 (1♂) Common Teal
- 1 (1♂) Pochard
- *27 (15♂) Tufted Duck
- *26 (1♂) Goosander: see notes
- *9 Moorhens
- 36 Coots
- 3 + 2 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- 4 Black-headed Gulls
- *1 Cormorant: very briefly
- 3 Grey Herons
- 1 Kingfisher

Noted on / beside the street lamp poles etc. around the water etc.:

Moths:
- *2 November Moth agg. (Epirrita dilutata agg.)

Other things:
- *1 spider, probably Metellina segmentata

Noted elsewhere around The Flash:

Bees / wasps etc.:
- Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris): still very many around

Fungus:
- *possible Silverleaf Fungus (Chondrostereum purpureum)
- *Shaggy Ink-cap / Lawyer's Wig (Coprinus comatus) in new location

From the left a drake Gadwall, a duck Gadwall, two more drake Gadwalls and a drake Common Teal.

The Mallard formation pair arriving...

 ... and look keen to splash down.

And the Mallard fight-club.

Note how the water is just running off their plumage.

I probably should have pressed the 'video' button on the camera. Where is it when you need it?

No quarter being given.

Some noises as well.

Let it all hang out. A drake Mallard arriving.

Two drake Tufted Ducks looking to be likely lads. Is their different eye colour significant? I think so. The nearer bird is an adult and the other a first-winter.

The brownhead wing-flapping is clearly a duck. The white extends across the breadth of the wing in drakes.

Now this is a real full-plumaged drake with a bottle-green head and extensive white on the body. My first in this plumage of the second-winter period.

Yesterday it was an immature Moorhen. Here is a full adult to compare.

A close-up of the bill, red-shield and the eye.

I am not certain this Cormorant actually touched down. Here it is leaving.

I cannot recall the last time I saw a Starling on the roof of the houses here.

Right at the top of the tallest street lamp pole in squirrel alley were these two November Moths (Epirrita dilutata agg.).

Probably the same species as one of yesterday's unidentified spiders at the lake. The way it is holding its front legs is very reminiscent of stretch spiders Tetragnatha sps. but the abdomen is the wrong shape. I think is probably the orb-web spider Metellina segmentata.

Armed with my new app I thought I would have another go at identifying the extensive fungus on the dead and topped tree near the bottom of squirrel alley. Not a 100% identity. When I looked up its prime suggestion of Silverleaf Fungus (Chondrostereum purpureum) on the NatureSpot web site that noted this species as frequenting cut tree-trunks.

I have noted these Shaggy Ink-cap / Lawyer's Wig fungus (Coprinus comatus) it at least three locations around the water in the last few weeks. This one, new today, was the first where I normally find them.

(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

2010
Priorslee Lake
Water Rail
9 Meadow Pipits
143 Fieldfare
8 Redwings
(Ed Wilson)

2009
Priorslee Lake
1 Yellow-legged Gull
2 Common Gull
6 Wigeon
(John Isherwood)

2006
Priorslee Lake
Female Blackcap
(John Isherwood)