2.0°C > 3.0°C: Low/medium overcast. Light / moderate southerly wind. Moderate / good visibility.
Sunrise: 08:11 GMT
* = a species photographed today
Priorslee Balancing Lake: 06:35 – 09:30
(16th visit of the year)
Small amount of thin ice remaining.
Bird notes:
- no drake Pochard seen: instead both the birds noted were ducks.
- no gulls were present until the first of c.400 Black-headed Gulls started arriving at 07:30. It was almost ten minutes before the first of c.325 large gulls started arriving. All the gulls arrived in steady streams rather than the large groups of yesterday. Most had gone by 08:45 and there was no later arrival before I departed.
- a second Grey Heron present for at least some of the time. They seemed, unusually, to be getting on together.
Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 3 Canada Geese: single outbound; pair flew North
- 5 Wood Pigeons
- 4 Black-headed Gulls
- 5 Herring Gulls
- 54 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 52 Jackdaws
- 8 Rooks
Counts from the lake area:
- 74 Canada Geese: most (all?) departed
- 2 Mute Swans
- 3 (1♂) Gadwall
- 10 (7♂) Mallard
- 2 (0♂) Pochard
- 18 (11♂) Tufted Duck
- 8 Moorhens
- 258 Coots
- 1 Great Crested Grebe
- c.400 Black-headed Gulls
- c.35 Herring Gulls
- 1 adult Yellow-legged Gull
- >300 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Cormorant: arrived
- 2 Grey Herons
- 1 Great (White) Egret
Noted on the street lamp poles pre dawn.
Flies:
- *1 winter cranefly, likely Trichocera annulata
- *1 winter cranefly, likely Trichocera annulata
Beetles:
- 1 Orange Ladybird Halyzia sedecimguttata still
- 1 Orange Ladybird Halyzia sedecimguttata still
Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- *1 unidentified spider
Telford Sailing Club
- *1 unidentified spider
Telford Sailing Club
Noted around Telford Sailing Club HQ pre dawn.
Barkflies:
- 3 barkfly Valenzuela flavidus-type
- 3 barkfly Valenzuela flavidus-type
Springtails:
- 1 globular springtail Dicyrtomina-type
- 1 globular springtail Dicyrtomina-type
Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- *7 spiders of at least three species
New Bird Species
No additions to the bird species on my site for here in 2025
- *7 spiders of at least three species
New Bird Species
No additions to the bird species on my site for here in 2025
This spider on a wall of the Telford Sailing Club HQ seems to be one of the Neriene species. The size of the palps indicate this is a male.
(Ed Wilson)
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The Flash: 09:35 – 10:45
(14th visit of the year)
Still c.20% ice cover
Bird notes:
- a surprising number of large gulls present. Probably more than the totals shown as some birds were flying around and possibly leaving and arriving.
Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: (near) adults
Noted on / around the water:
- 34 Canada Geese: of these 24 arrived
- 1 Greylag Goose arrived
- 4 Mute Swans
- 34 (23♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white feral Aylesbury Duck
- *89 (58♂) Tufted Duck
- 14 Moorhens
- 48 Coots
- 156 Black-headed Gulls
- *16 Herring Gulls: various ages
- *17 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: various ages
Noted elsewhere:
Still c.20% ice cover
Bird notes:
- a surprising number of large gulls present. Probably more than the totals shown as some birds were flying around and possibly leaving and arriving.
Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: (near) adults
Noted on / around the water:
- 34 Canada Geese: of these 24 arrived
- 1 Greylag Goose arrived
- 4 Mute Swans
- 34 (23♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white feral Aylesbury Duck
- *89 (58♂) Tufted Duck
- 14 Moorhens
- 48 Coots
- 156 Black-headed Gulls
- *16 Herring Gulls: various ages
- *17 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: various ages
Noted elsewhere:
Nothing
New Bird Species
No additions to the bird species on my site for here in 2025
This is rather sad. There has been a drake Tufted Duck here with a growth on its neck since early last year (though it was missing during the Summer). The growth is now very large and the bird was sitting quietly under overhanging vegetation. I surmise it is not well. The positive is that whatever has caused the growth does not seem to have affected any of the other Tufted Ducks, or indeed and other birds.
A first-winter Herring Gull. The typical adult-colour is beginning to appear at the front of the back and also shows at the base of the patterned feathers on the folded wing.
New Bird Species
No additions to the bird species on my site for here in 2025
Just three of the many Lesser Black-backed Gulls here. These are all adults.
A Long-tailed Tit trying hide behind twigs.
Well that's not very nice.
(Ed Wilson)
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Priorslee Lake
1 female Velvet Scoter
3 Scaup
2 Yellow Legged Gulls
4 Great Black-backed Gulls
(Ed Wilson, John Isherwood)
2012
Priorslee Lake
1 Yellow-legged Gull
3 Great Black-backed Gulls
(Ed Wilson)
2010
Priorslee Lake
Glaucous Gull
Yellow-legged Gull
Probable "intermedius" Lesser Black-backed Gull.
At least 1 Ring-billed Gull look-alike
(Andy Latham / Ian Grant)
2008
Priorslee Lake
2 Wigeon
5 Gadwall
25 Pochard
100 Tufted Duck
3 Water Rails
1000 Black-headed Gulls
1 Great Black-backed Gull
c.400 Wood Pigeons
Blackcap
1000 Starlings
30 Siskin
(Ed Wilson)
2007
Priorslee Lake
14 Pochard
55 Tufted Duck
1 Great Black-backed Gull
(Ed Wilson)
2006
Priorslee Lake
1 Little Grebe
11 Great Crested Grebes
6 Pochard
26 Tufted Duck
208 Coot
c.900 Black-headed Gulls
c.450 Lesser Black-backed Gull
2 Great Black-backed Gull
13 Herring Gull
2 Yellow-legged Gull
1 Kingfisher
53 Siskins
3 Reed Buntings
(Ed Wilson. Martin Adlam)