28 Mar 24

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

3.0°C > 8.0°C: A delayed start after more heavy overnight rain. Clear start; low cloud for a while; then sunny intervals before clouding again. Moderate southerly wind. Very good visibility.
[Sunrise: 05:53 GMT]

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 06:40 – 09:00

(66th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- a pair of Gadwall dropped in briefly.
- 2 Siskins were noted flying out of trees: a late record here

Counts of birds noted flying over:
- 4 Canada Geese: quartet outbound
- 32 Wood Pigeons
- 5 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

Hirundines etc. noted:

None

Warblers noted (the figure in brackets relates to birds heard singing):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- 2 (2) Willow Warblers
- *16 (15) Chiffchaffs
- *5 (5) Blackcaps

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 Canada Geese: pair throughout
- 2 Mute Swans
- *2 (1) Gadwall: arrived and soon departed
- *4 (3♂) Mallard
- *37 (28♂) Tufted Duck
- 3 Moorhens
- 40 Coots
- *4 Great Crested Grebes
- *3 Cormorants: arrived separately; one also departed

Noted later:

New flowers for the year:
- *Dog's Mercury Mercurialis perennis
- *Lenten-rose Helleborus orientalis agg.

The result of all the rain. Note the Wesley Brook, coming out of the left hand sluice, is the running clear. All the other sluices are running brown.

The drake Gadwall from the pair that dropped in briefly. From the under-side...

...and the upper-side.

Just a drake Mallard. The point is that the 'pond' is a pool on top of the dam: something I have never noted before.

I am used to close views of Tufted Duck at The Flash. They do not usually come close at the lake – as this drake has done...

...and so has this duck.

"So where are the girls?" A bachelor party of drake Tufted Ducks.

A rare view, this year, of a sunny Great Crested Grebe.

The grebe may have looked serene but these two are anything but.

More or less coming to a resolution.

Unusually one of the Cormorants decided to leave. He it goes. What is not evident from this angle is...

...the pale belly indicating it is an immature bird.

A Chiffchaff trying to hide behind the flowers of Blackthorn. Note the right legs is wearing a BTO ring.

The best I can do in being able to decipher the ring. I am not sure it is traceable from this.

Here he (it was singing) out in the open.

Blackcaps are more secretive than Chiffchaffs. Here is one hiding while singing.

Not helping when he turns his head away.

A male Pied Wagtail. At this time of year the Continental race of this species, White Wagtail, is a possibility. This can be ruled out here as the White Wagtail has clean white flanks and a greyer back.

This insignificant flowering plant is Dog's Mercury Mercurialis perennis

A new plant for me that I found growing along the bank of the Wesley Brook. It is Lenten-rose Helleborus orientalis agg. The 'agg.' indicates that this is probably an escaped cultivar that comes from a complex group of segregates, varieties and hybrids.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:05– 10:25

(68th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- back to a big surplus of drake Mallard: 23 drakes; 3 ducks.
- no Willow Warblers today. This species typically passes in the first few days of April so the birds seen so far are early outliers.
- a Bullfinch heard and seen singing – a quiet unobtrusive song.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- *1 Herring Gull: fourth year?
- 1 Common Buzzard

Warblers noted (the figure in brackets relates to birds heard singing):
- 8 (7) Chiffchaffs
- 3 (3) Blackcaps

Noted on / around the water:
- 20 Canada Geese: of these a pair flew off and two pairs arrived
- *5 Greylag Geese: of these a pair flew off
- 2 + *4 Mute Swans
- 26 (23♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white feral duck
- 29 (17♂) Tufted Duck
- 2 Moorhens
- 30 Coots
- 1 Great Crested Grebe
- *1 Herring Gull: a first year, briefly.

Noted elsewhere
- *1 Chocolate Mining Bee Andrena scotia on the Ivy bank.

A Greylag Goose being particularly noisy.

And the pair involved.

The four immature Mute Swans remaining from last year going for a fly-around, perhaps trying to convince their father that they are about to leave. They never have.

This first year Herring Gull dropped in for a few minutes.

This Herring Gull flew over. The small amount of black markings on the two outer primary coverts suggest this is not a full adult. Possibly a fourth year.

I found this Chocolate Mining Bee Andrena scotia on the Ivy bank.

(Ed Wilson)

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Sightings from previous years

2014
Priorslee Lake
2 Little Grebes
4 Great Crested Grebes
9+ Cormorants
1 Grey Heron
2 Swans
2 Shoveler
30 Tufted Duck
10 Chiffchaffs
5 Siskins
(Ed Wilson)

The Flash
2 Great Crested Grebes
1 Cackling Goose
51 Tufted Ducks
3 Chiffchaffs
1 Meadow Pipit
2 Fieldfare
(Ed Wilson)

Nedge Hill
7 Meadow Pipits
c.150 Fieldfare
c.30 Starlings
1 Chiffchaff
(Ed Wilson)

2013
Priorslee Lake
7 Wigeon
22 Tufted Duck
1 Glaucous Gull
1 Yellow-legged Gull
1 hybrid Ring-billed x Lesser Black-backed Gull
1 Mediterranean Gull
c.400 Black-headed Gulls
63 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
4 Herring Gulls.
(Tom Lowe, Martin Grant)

Nedge Hill
2 Lapwing
(Martin Grant)

Little Wenlock, Candles Landfill Site
1 Glaucous Gull
Iceland Gull
1 Yellow-legged Gull.
(Tom Lowe)

2012
Priorslee Lake
10 Chiffchaffs singing
4 Blackcaps singing
1 Skylark
1 Willow Tit
1 Raven flew over
3 Great Crested Grebes
11 Tufted Duck
(Ed Wilson)

Priorslee Flash
2 Great Spotted Woodpeckers
38 Tufted Duck
5 Chiffchaffs singing
(Ed Wilson)

2008
Priorslee Lake
4 Great Crested Grebes
6 Gadwall
c.15 Tufted Duck
1 Fieldfare
11 Linnets
5 Chiffchaffs
c.40 Sand Martins
(Ed Wilson)

The Flash
4 Great Crested Grebes
30 Tufted Ducks
Siskins
2 Chiffchaffs
(Ed Wilson)

Nedge Hill
10 Meadow Pipits
Linnets
Skylarks
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
7 Great Crested Grebes
2 Cormorants
14 Tufted Ducks
3 Ruddy Ducks
1 Kittiwake
242 Wood Pigeons
4 Stock Doves
2 Buzzards
1 Kestrel
3 Meadow Pipits
3 Grey Wagtails
9 Pied Wagtails
26 Wrens
3 Fieldfare
94 Redwings
2 Swallow
13 Sand Martins
1 Blackcap
1 Willow Warbler
7 Chiffchaffs
18 Magpies
4 Jays
127 Jackdaws
13 Greenfinches
7 Siskins
7 Reed Buntings
(Ed Wilson, Martin Adlam)