20 Mar 25

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

3.0°C > 12.0°C: Clear apart from some wisps of high cloud again. Almost calm. Good visibility.

Sunrise: 06:12 GMT

* = a species photographed today

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:25 – 06:35 // 07:30 – 09:35

(66th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- a pair of Gadwall to add to yesterday's drake.
- no Tufted Duck but the duck Pochard lingers on.
- today I could only find seven Great Crested Grebes.
- a Grey Heron seen once as it flew across the water. Where was it hiding?
- now 12 singing Chiffchaffs.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 6 Canada Geese: two pairs outbound after a pair inbound
- 28 Wood Pigeons
- 5 Black-headed Gulls
- 23 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 23 Jackdaws
- 6 Rooks

Counts from the lake area:
- 10 Canada Geese
- 4 Mute Swans: plus one long dead
- *3 (2♂) Gadwall
- 10 (7♂) Mallard
- 1 (0♂?) Pochard
- no Tufted Duck
- *12 Moorhens
- *55 Coots
- 7 Great Crested Grebes
- 8 Black-headed Gulls
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Cormorant: arrived and departed
- 1 Grey Heron: briefly

On the West end street lamp poles:
Pre-dawn

Moths:
*1 Shoulder Stripe Earophila badiata

Lacewings:
*1 Common Green Lacewing Chrysoperia carnea

Noted later:

Hoverflies:
*2 Common Dronefly Eristalis tenax

Beetles:
*1 7 Spot Ladybird Coccinella 7-punctata

Amphibian
*1 Common Toad Bufo bufo: deceased

The ever-waning Blood Moon. I guess that is correct but it seems very low down in the south-west sky.

Apart from a few wisps the only cloud this morning was that seen against the sunrise.

Sunrise itself.

A drake Gadwall. In many ways a delicate-looking species.

A stand-off. The Coot had chased the Moorhen off the water and on to the dam-face. Most of the time these species co-exist reasonably happily. If the Moorhens get too close they do often get chased away.

Annoying: the Goldcrest stood still long-enough for the camera to focus but was always looking the other way. The 'crest' is just about visible.

The daily Long-tailed Tit photo: at the lake for a change.

One of the many Chiffchaffs.

At the moment there seems to be just one singing Chaffinch around the lake – this one.

The milder conditions tempted a few insects out. On the street lamp poles pre-dawn was this Shoulder Stripe moth Earophila badiata. It is only my third moth species this year. Last year I recorded one a month earlier when it was my eighth moth species.

The moth was still present later. This is the result of a daylight photo. Is it any better? You judge!

One of two Common Droneflies Eristalis tenax I noted.

And the other one. Both are females as the eyes do not meet,

Also on the street lamp poles pre-dawn was this Common Green Lacewing Chrysoperia carnea. Yes: a green lacewing. This species changes to brown better hide away over-winter. Is that a tiny globular springtail I see beside it?

A 7 Spot Ladybird Coccinella 7-punctata.

Ignoring the waiting restriction in Teece Drive was this dead Common Toad Bufo bufo. It did not seem flat-enough to be a road casualty and appeared otherwise uninjured.

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Flash: 06:40 – 07:25

(65th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- one Great Crested Grebe only.
- two Great Spotted Woodpeckers heard drumming from trees in squirrel alley: a pair?
- four singing Chiffchaffs and another calling. Two of the songster were at the top end for the first time this year.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull
- 1 Jackdaw

Noted on / around the water:
- 33 Canada Geese: of these 14 departed
- 4 Greylag Geese: of these two departed
- 2 Mute Swans
- 22 (16♂) Mallard
- 20 (14♂) Tufted Duck
- 12 Moorhens
- 28 Coots
- 1 Great Crested Grebe
- no Black-headed Gulls
- 2 Herring Gulls: adult and immature very briefly

Of note:
Nothing else

Photos
No photos from here this morning. I am struggling with a camera that decides to 'freeze' at random intervals and then at equally random intervals 'unfreeze'. No amount of 'fiddling' with the controls seems to assist in the unfreeze.

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Between the Balancing Lake and The Flash

Of interest :
- 1 (1♂) Mallard: on the upper pool.
- 4 Moorhen: one pair on each pool.
- 1 Chiffchaff singing by the lower pool.

(Ed Wilson)


Note:

On 2 Mar 25 Ed visited the Wirral here.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2013
Priorslee Lake
4 Great Crested Grebes
7 Wigeon
2 Gadwall
27 Tufted Ducks
6 Redwings
138 Jackdaws
1 Chiffchaff
1 Redpoll
7+ Siskins
2 Reed Buntings
(Ed Wilson)

The Flash
2 Great Crested Grebe
7 Mute Swans
1 Pochard
56 Tufted Duck
(Ed Wilson)

Long Lane, Wellington
133 Lapwing
17 Golden Plover
1 Redshank
3 Dunlin
2 Oystercatcher
3 Teal
c.600 Black-headed Gulls
5 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
1 Herring Gull.
(Martin Grant)

2011
Priorslee Lake
17 Tufted Duck
11 Golden Plover
17 Meadow Pipits
5 Chiffchaffs (4 in song)
Raven
(Ed Wilson)

Nedge Hill
40 Golden Plover
11 Lapwing
1 Red-legged Partridge
2 Green Woodpeckers
8 Meadow Pipits
1 Redpoll
(Ed Wilson)

The Flash
32 Tufted Duck
1 Curlew
2 Brambling
1 Reed Bunting
(Ed Wilson)

2010
Priorslee Lake
1 Little Grebe
5 Great Crested Grebe
6 Gadwall
39 Tufted Duck
146 Jackdaws on roost dispersal
c.35 Greenfinches
c.15 Goldfinches
c.10 Linnets
(Ed Wilson)

The Flash
3 Great Crested Grebe
36 Tufted Duck
(Ed Wilson)

2009
Priorslee Lake
1 Yellow-legged Gull
435 Lesser Black-backed Gull
(Peter Wilson)

2007
Priorslee lake
3 Great Crested Grebe
12 Cormorant
24 Tufted Duck
1 Ruddy Duck
1 Merlin
1 Buzzard
2 Kestrel
1 Great Black-backed Gull
188 Wood Pigeon
1 Green Woodpecker
26 Wren
5 Chiffchaff
1 Willow Tit
55 Magpie
14 Greenfinch
5 Reed Bunting
(Ed Wilson, Martin Adlam)

The Flash
9 Great Crested Grebe
2 Pochard
26 Tufted Duck
1 Chiffchaff singing
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
c.250 Black-headed Gulls
146 Lesser-black Backs
15 Herring Gull
2 Yellow-leg Gulls
2 Common Gulls
36 Tufted Duck
6 Great Crested Grebe
1 Cormorant
2 Water Rail
3 Siskins
2 Redpoll
3 Linnet
3 Reed Bunting
(Martin R Adlam)