8.0°C > 18.0°C: Broken cloud. Light north-easterly breeze. Moderate visibility and hazy.
[Sunrise: 06:36 GMT]
* = a species photographed today
A gentle day starting late at The Flash while recovering (partly) from man-flu.
Priorslee Balancing Lake: 10:35 – 11:20
(57th visit of the year)
Viewing only from the dam-top area
Bird notes:
- two drake Shoveler were new arrivals.
- I managed a better view of the duck Pochard. I still cannot decide whether it is the same bird that has been present for about a month. In our are it is customary for drakes to significantly outnumber ducks and I have known a duck to stay around when there are no suitors around.
- despite not walking around the singing Cetti's Warbler was very audible.
Counts from the lake area:
- 7 Canada Geese
- 3 Mute Swan: plus one dead
- 2 (2♂) Shoveler
- no Gadwall
- 4 (2♂) Mallard
- 1 (0♂) Pochard
- 3 (2♂) Tufted Duck
- 9 Moorhens
- 59 Coots
- 8 Great Crested Grebes
- 7 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Herring Gull: first year
- 4 Cormorants
Of note:
Nothing else
The duck Pochard was having a good wash.
Perhaps "a shower" would be a better expression.
More water.
A shake to dry off.
This species shows a pale wing bar across along the whole wing, not white as on Tufted Duck.
This, or another first year Black-headed Gull, has found something that may or may not be edible. Some first year birds acquire an almost full dark hood: others stay like this. Over the next few weeks it is likely to return to its inland breeding colony
The Flash: 09:25 – 10:25
(Ed Wilson)
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The Flash: 09:25 – 10:25
(55th visit of the year)
Bird notes
A drake Gadwall was a new bird species here for me this year. Species #55.
Other bird notes:
- not sure what to make of the four Mute Swans. Two are certainly last year's cygnets. I could not get close-enough to the others, both adults, to read any rings. They stayed well apart from each other, one with last year's cygnets. So where did the other adult present on Saturday go?
- The number of Mallard, especially the drakes, seems likely to be too high. Birds were flying around all the while and difficult to keep track of.
- now a pair of Great Crested Grebes.
- I think just one mobile singing Chiffchaff.
Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 3 Jackdaws
Noted on / around the water:
- 22 Canada Geese
- 4 Mute Swans
- 1 (1♂) Gadwall
- 33 (25♂) Mallard
- no feral Mallard [’Aylesbury Duck’]
- 23 (14♂) Tufted Duck
- 13 Moorhens
- 26 Coots
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 5 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Herring Gull: first year
- 1 Cormorant
Of note:
- a bumblebee was flying around, probably a queen looking for a nest site. My attempts at a positive identification failed when it disappeared down a drain! I think a Buff-tailed Bumblebee Bombus terrestris.
Typically at long range by the island: a drake Gadwall. My first of this species here this year.
Another view
"Who are you pointing that camera at?"
(Ed Wilson)
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2014
Priorslee Lake
3 Great Crested Grebe
11 Tufted Duck
3 Cormorant
7 Great Black-backed Gulls
465 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
48 Herring Gulls
37 Black-headed Gulls
1 Chiffchaff
(John Isherwood, Martin Grant)
2013
Priorslee Lake
35 Tufted Duck
27 Wigeon
(Tony Beckett)
The Flash
36 Tufted Duck
6 Mute Swan
9 Pochard
(Tony Beckett)
2011
Priorslee Lake
7 Pochard
18 Tufted Ducks
1 Chiffchaff
(Ed Wilson)
2010
Priorslee Lake
1 Little Grebe
1 Water Rail
(Ed Wilson)
2007
Priorslee Lake
10 Cormorants
3 Grey Heron
24 Tufted Duck
1 Ruddy Duck
497 Wood Pigeon
32 Wren
30 Robin
21 Blackbird
7 Redwing
31 Magpie
198 Jackdaw
5 Greenfinch
5 Reed Bunting
(Ed Wilson)
2006
Priorslee Lake
1 Little Grebe
6 Great Crested Grebes
4 Cormorants
2 Pochard
35 Tufted Ducks
2 Ruddy Ducks
109 Coots
1 Water Rail heard
2 Lapwings
295 Wood Pigeons
245 Jackdaws
12 Greenfinches
6 Reed Buntings.
(Ed Wilson)