8 Dec 23

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

5.0°C > 7.0°C: Started with very low patchy cloud and very light drizzle. Lifted to good sunny spell before clouding again. Very light south-easterly breeze. Moderate visibility at best early: good later.

Sunrise: 08:08 GMT

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

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 06:15 – 09:20

(255th visit of the year)

Highlights this morning
- a Woodcock flying over West end at 07:25, looking as if it would roost in the Ricoh area.
- a Water Rail calling from the north-east area at 08:45. My first record of this second winter period.

Other bird notes:
- Continuing decline in Tufted Duck numbers after the thaw. Very few of those departed have ended up at The Flash.
- A large arrival of Black-headed Gulls with a minimum of 650 arriving after 07:25.
- Also a significant arrival of large gulls with about 250 noted. As far as I could tell in the low light there were only c.20 Herring Gulls among them. They had all bar two birds departed by 08:00.
- Eleven of the 13 Jackdaws noted were flying so low across the West end it is just possible they had been roosting in trees around the Teece Drive gate.
- Only 24 Starlings were seen leaving the reeds along the North side. Almost immediately afterwards c.250 flew low over in a tight group obviously from a nearby roost: but where?

Counts of birds noted flying over:
- 8 Greylag Geese: outbound together
- 8 Wood Pigeons
- 31 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 13 Jackdaws: but see notes
- c.250 Starlings together

Birds seen leaving roosts around the lake:
- 24 Starlings together
- 4 Reed Buntings
Also at least one Fieldfare and five Redwings heard only very early were probably also leaving a roost

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 2 Mute Swans
- 6 (6♂) Mallard
- 3 (3♂) Pochard
- 63 (34♂) Tufted Duck
- 11 Moorhens
- 122 Coots
- >650 Black-headed Gulls: see notes
- 21 Herring Gulls
- >220 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 2 Cormorants: arrived separately
- 1 Grey Heron

The (semi) nocturnal community on or around the street lamp poles at dawn:

Moths:
- *5 male Winter Moths (Operophtera brumata)

Otherwise:

Flies:
- 1 winter cranefly.

Woodlice etc.:
- *2 Common Pygmy Woodlice (Trichoniscus pusillus agg.)

Spiders and allies:
- 1 spider Clubiona sp.
- *1 money spider (Linyphiidae)
- 2 harvestmen Paroligolophus agrestis

Later on the Teece Drive fence:

Nothing noted

There were five male Winter Moths (Operophtera brumata) this morning. Three resting with wings open, as here, and...

 ...two others were resting will wings closed, all dusted in dew. All males as females are flightless.

One of two Common Pygmy Woodlice (Trichoniscus pusillus agg.) on the same street lamp pole. 'agg.' because it is now known there are two or more species involved that cannot be separated without microscopic examination.

The other one.

Obsidentify suggested this is a species of money spider (Linyphiidae). It seemed too big but there are so many species in this family it is difficult to be certain.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:25 – 10:35

(240th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- I could only find the pair of Gadwall today: yesterday's additional drake was nowhere to be found.
- A pair of Pochard were new arrivals.
- At least 12 Carrion Crows were making a lot of noise over the wooded area top left. I could not see what was upsetting them.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

Noted on / around the water:
- 2 Canada Geese
- *59 Greylag Geese: many departed in four groups.
- 2 + 4 Mute Swans
- 2 (1♂) Gadwall
- *51 (36♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white feral duck
- 2 (1♂) Pochard
- 14 (6♂) Tufted Duck
- *19 Moorhens
- *40 Coots
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 8 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Herring Gull: third winter bird
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gull: (near?) adults
- 2 Cormorants: one of these arrived
- *2 Grey Herons

The only things of note elsewhere was:
- 1 Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus)

 Eight of the Greylag Geese thinking about going.

And here some of them go.

A feeding frenzy. All or part of 16 drake Mallard, eight duck Mallard, one Moorhen and seven Coots.

This Great Crested Grebe looks happy to have caught its breakfast. All it has to do is manoeuvre it so it can swallow it head-first....

....like this.

Down it goes.

This Grey Heron was in no doubt it owned the bridge...

... and did not want to move (I have deliberately blurred the person's image)

 I suppose I had better fly off.

Plane of the day: this a Grob G115E Tutor T.1 operated by Babcock Aerospace Ltd. who are headquartered at Bournemouth on behalf of the RAF. Note the roundel under each wing as well as the civil registration.

This data from FlightRadar24 explains more. The call-sign 'UAY' indicates it is operated by the Birmingham University Air Squadron (UAS) based at RAF Cosford. "Wittering FTU" (Flight Training Unit) refers to the unit that maintains a fleet of 91 of these Grobs, allocating them to various UAS's around the UK. Strangely after completing this sortie this aircraft flew back to Wittering even though it had only arrived at Cosford in mid-September. [The other aircraft on the FR24 screen are Airbus H135 Juno HT.1's operated by 1 Flying Training School at RAF Shawbury]

(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

2012
Priorslee Lake
2 Wigeon
3 Gadwall
9 Pochard
41 Tufted Ducks
3 Goosanders
166 Coots
Peregrine Falcon
118 Black-headed Gulls
>500 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
c.40 Herring Gulls
1 Great Black-backed Gull
43 Redwings
2 Fieldfares
c.469 Jackdaws
53 Rooks
(Ed Wilson)

2009
Priorslee Lake
Black-necked Grebe
4 Great Crested Grebes
33 Swans
31 Pochard
70 Tufted Ducks
1 Water Rail
308 Coots
c.1300 Black-headed Gulls
1 Common Gull
c.300 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
1 adult Yellow-legged Gull
102 Herring Gulls
1 Great Black-backed Gull
225 Jackdaws
3 Siskins
2 Redpolls
(Ed Wilson)

Trench
2 Great Crested Grebes
3 Cormorants
8 Pochard
60 Tufted Ducks
drake Mallard x Pintail
1 adult Yellow-legged Gull
6 Herring Gulls
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
1 Little Grebe
12 Pochard
56 Tufted Ducks
1 drake Ruddy Duck
2 Goosanders
3 Lapwings
1 Snipe
>1700 Black-headed Gulls
865 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
22 Robins
22 Blackbirds
6 Redwings
243 Jackdaws
133 Rooks
22 Chaffinches
1 Brambling
12 Greenfinches
4 Reed Buntings
(Ed Wilson)

2005
Priorslee Lake
Water Rail
6 Pochard
27 Tufted Duck
247 Coot
402 Jackdaws
483 Rooks
37 Siskins
1 Redpoll
21 Fieldfares.
2 Reed Buntings
(Ed Wilson)