9 Jan 25

The Flash and Priorslee Balancing Lake

0.0°C > 2.0°C: Scattered clouds. Keen westerly breeze springing up. Very good visibility.

[Sunrise: 08:19 GMT]

Another later stagger around the Balancing Lake without much reward.

* = a species photographed today

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 10:35 – 13:00

(8th visit of the year)

c.50% ice breaking as the breeze got to work.

Bird notes
Very very quiet overhead.

Other bird notes:
- the gull count was made soon after I arrived and just after >400 gulls had flown in from the North. Throughout the time I was in the area birds were leaving, mainly to the North and also arriving from the North. As yesterday these may or may not have been new arrivals.
- I had walked slowly around the lake without seeing the Great (White) Egret. Suddenly is walked out of the reeds in the north-west area and just as quickly walked back in, never to be seen again. How can a large white bird be so elusive?

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 1 Stock Dove
- 2 Wood Pigeons
- 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Jackdaw

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 Mute Swans
- 5 (2♂) Gadwall
- no Mallard
- 7 (4♂) Pochard
- 53 (35♂) Tufted Duck
- 4 Moorhens
- 258 Coots
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
see notes regarding gull counts
- c.180 Black-headed Gulls
- *2 Great Black-backed Gulls
- *c.115 Herring Gulls
- *3 Yellow-legged Gulls
- *c.350 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Cormorant: arrived
- 1 Great (White) Egret
- 1 Kingfisher

Noted elsewhere:
- fungus, possibly Stereum subtomentosum

New Bird Species
Additions to the bird species on my site list for here in 2025:
46 Great Spotted Woodpecker
47 Great Black-backed Gull
48 Stock Dove
49 Pied Wagtail

Much ice here. Later as the wind increased the waves started breaking the ice up.

Lots of gulls! Just part of the main party of the large gulls. Apart from one (and a half) Coots these are all Herring and Lesser Blacked Gulls with the vast majority being adults.

A first-winter Herring Gull comes in for a drink. Now with extensive pale at the base of the bill.

This first winter gull is a Yellow-legged Gull. A Herring Gull at this age would show much paler inner primaries and a similarly aged Lesser Black-backed Gull would show an almost unmarked area above the tail band.

Dead-centre is an adult winter Yellow-legged Gull. Note the mantle is darker than the Black-headed Gulls lit at the same angle. The head is not very visible but seems to be unstreaked, as it should be in this species even in winter.

Dead-centre here is a black-backed gull with pale pink legs confirming it is an adult Great Black-backed Gull. There is another to the right of the view. Note most of the other black-backed gulls have yellow legs and are therefore Lesser Black-backs. Greats are significantly larger but this is sometimes hard to see among a throng.

I am struggling to identify this third-winter gull from the Herring-type group. The dark base to most of the secondaries, the extent of the tail band with the unmarked rump area suggest to me it could be a Caspian Gull rather than a Yellow-legged Gull. The head and especially the bill would probably have clinched it. I will have to let this one go.

Another gull puzzle. It is a second winter black-back but is it a Lesser or a Great? I think a Lesser Black-backed Gull because the head looks to marked (Greats have an almost always show a completely white head).

An adult winter Lesser Black-backed flies off with something that the pursing gulls think is food. A third(?) winter Herring Gull is calling loudly (a few remnant dark tail-feathers) and three Lessers (two adults and a first winter with a neat tail band) are all in pursuit.

Now all the pursuing gang are calling!

Most of the Siskins feeding on Alder cones at the West stayed in the shade. This male popped out.

Another male in typical feeding pose – upside down.

Munch, munch....

The frosted edges on this fungus probably confuses identification. Obsidentify suggested  Stereum subtomentosum. There are several similar species that a search on the internet suggests are equally likely.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:30 – 10:25

(8th visit of the year)

>90% of the water frozen.

Almost all the birds were crammed in to a small area of open water around the island.

Bird notes:
- a few more Mallard than usual? Probably included refugees from other frozen pools with the all-white drake feral bird making a re-appearance with them.
- it is unclear whether the higher Coot count represents additional birds or whether it was because all the now residents were being forced out of their hiding places.
- the Little Grebe was happily diving in amongst the throng.
- it seems strange that the number of Herring Gulls should so far out-number the single Lesser Black-back.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:

None

Noted on / around the water:
- 16 Canada Geese
- 4 Mute Swans
- *51 (29♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white feral Mallard
- *68 (38♂) Tufted Duck
- 11 Moorhens
- *76 Coots
- 1 Little Grebe
- 38 Black-headed Gulls
- 16 Herring Gulls: one adult; all others immatures
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: (near?) adult

Noted elsewhere:

Nothing 

New Bird Species
Two additions to the bird species on my site list for here in 2025:
36 *Bullfinch
37 *Stock Dove

The iced-over top end with a layer of frost on the ice.

Part of the melee of Coots in the small amount of open water. A scatter of Mallard in the foreground and, if you look closely, five drake and seven duck Tufted Duck.

I thought I had taken a photo of a pair of canoodling Wood Pigeons but... looking closely the foreheads looked too 'steep'. There is no sign of the white neck-patch though I am not sure it would be visible at this angle. The clincher is the eyes. Wood Pigeons have a white sclera and strangely-shaped black iris. These show all dark eyes which confirms that they are Stock Doves - my first of the year here.

A not very good photo of a female Bullfinch – also my first here this year.

Signs that Spring is not far away? The male catkins of Hazel.

(Ed Wilson)

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2014
Priorslee Lake
2 female Scaup
10 Pochard
79 Tufted Duck
1 Great Crested Grebe
39 Herring Gulls
85 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
4 Great Black-backed Gulls
296 Black-headed Gulls
(Gary Crowder)

2013
Priorslee Flash
A drake Scaup
(Observer Unknown)

2012
Priorslee Lake
14 Pochard
12 Tufted Duck
5 Yellow-legged Gulls
36 Great Black-backed Gulls
A dark-mantled Scandinavian Herring Gulls
Common Gull
c.550 Black-headed Gulls
39 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
88 Herring Gulls
32 Redwings
(Ed Wilson, Tom Lowe, John Isherwood)

Priorslee Flash
3 Great Crested Grebes
7 Pochard
78 Tufted Duck
233 Black-headed Gulls,
1 Lesser Black-backed Gull
1 Herring Gull
1 Great Black-backed Gull
1 Reed Bunting
(Ed Wilson)

Holmer Lake
71 Goosander,
(John Isherwood)

2010
Priorslee Lake
Bittern
15 Wigeon
1 Common Gull
2 Great Black-backed Gulls
46 Magpies
39 Swans
4 Gadwall
28 Pochard
89 Tufted Ducks
3 Goosander
3 Water Rail
1 Snipe
303 Coots
>1000 Black-headed Gulls
c.50 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
2 Yellow legged Gull
c.15 Herring Gulls
3 Redwings
2 Willow Tits
126 Jackdaws
10+ Siskins
(Ed Wilson, Jim Almond, John Isherwood)

2009
Priorslee Lake
2 Great Black-backed Gull
1 Common Gull
2 Raven
(John Isherwood)

2007
Priorslee Lake
16 Pochard
47 Tufted Ducks
>670 Black-headed Gulls
>515 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
43 Herring Gulls
1 Caspian Gull
3 Yellow-legged Gulls
7 Great Black-backed Gulls
22 Robins
3 Fieldfares
50 Redwings
351 Jackdaws
264 Rooks
(Ed Wilson, Paul King)

2006
Priorslee Lake
2 Gadwall
8 Pochard
63 Tufted Duck
1200 Black-headed Gulls
21 Robins
19 Blackbirds
28 Greenfinches
28 Siskins
1 Reed Bunting
(Ed Wilson)