26 Oct 25

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

6.0°C > 8.0°C: Another morning of light showers early, fading away to sunny intervals before more general cloud arrived. Chilly moderate westerly wind. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 06:55
All times now GMT

* = a species photographed today
$ = my first sighting of the species for this year
$$ = my first ever recorded sighting of the species in the area

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:40 – 08:45

(261st visit of the year)

Bird notes
Another Wood Pigeon passage with one party of >500 birds. All the others of a more modest size.

Other bird notes:
- I was inside a wooded area when most of the Greylag Geese flew westbound so the numbers recorded are much lower than usual.
- a Little Grebe found again: probably been hiding all along.
- reckoned by daylight time the gulls were late in. They were also in lower numbers both early and later.
- there remains little sign of any passage of gulls, especially Lesser Black-backed Gulls. In earlier years sometimes large numbers passed over or to the West heading south-west. I surmised that these were on roost dispersal from, say, Aqualate Mere in Staffordshire. I am not seeing any this second-winter period.
- a big and prolonged passage of Jackdaws: less so of Rooks.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 9 Canada Geese: westbound together
- 11 Greylag Geese: a duo westbound at the early time of 06:25; two small groups later
- 1 Feral Pigeon
- 1 Stock Dove
- c.1200 Wood Pigeons: c.1175 of these estimated in ten migrant groups
- 1 Herring Gull
- 23 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 379 Jackdaws
- 110 Rooks
- 1 Skylark
- 3 Pied Wagtails: singles
- 3 Siskins: together

Counts from the lake area:
- 3 Canada Geese: visited briefly
- 2 Mute Swans
- 17 (10♂) Mallard
- 12 (5♂) Tufted Duck
- 8 Moorhens
- 46 Coots
- 1 Little Grebe
- 5 Great Crested Grebes
- c.300 Black-headed Gulls
- 12 Herring Gulls
- c.225 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: c.200 before 06:45: c.25 after 07:45
- 5 Cormorants: a trio and a single arrived
- 1 Grey Heron

Warblers recorded

None

Noted on the West end street lamp poles pre-dawn:
The cold and rain did not worry the moths much.

Moths:
- 6 November Moth types Epirrita sp.

Flies:
- 1 fly Dryomyza anilis
- 1 $$ Protoclythia rufa
- 1 other species of fly

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- 2 male harvestmen Leiobunum rotundum

Noted later elsewhere:
on the Teece Drive fence

Flies:
- 1 cranefly Tipula pagana

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- 1 harvestman Paroligolophus agrestis

Fungus:
- possible Weeping Widow Lacrymaria lacrymabunda

Between the showers there was some colour in the sky.

Just as the sun rises.

With the sun up and dark shower clouds to the West the Autumn colours were shown to good effect.

Perhaps why Americans call this season "Fall".

A Little Grebe with a Coot. As soon as the grebe saw me it scurried for cover.

On a street lamp pole pre-dawn was what is probably a male Protoclythia rufa, a fly in a group of flies known as flat-footed flies. I am sure I have seen this species before but it is not in my master log of sightings. Perhaps I did not identify it then. It is a good example of what is known as holoptic eyes, found in the males of many fly species. The eyes meet and cover a large part of the head and give it almost 360 degree vision. Which begs the question why females do not need to see like that. Mr. Google says "females have a separate primary function for their eyes and do not need to search as extensively" without elaborating on what that separate function might be.

On the Teece Drive fence is a cranefly Tipula pagana. "Why has it not got long antennae?" I hear you ask. It has: look closely and it is holding them back over its thorax, perhaps easiest to see by the shadow on the wood.

This may or may not be a spider. I suspect it is only an exoskeleton, discarded when a spider grew too large. Exoskeletons are flexible but hard and can only expand so far.

These are possible Weeping Widow fungus Lacrymaria lacrymabunda and were growing on a football pitch in the fenced off area. I was unable to get closer than about twenty feet.

A closer, slightly, pair of fruiting bodies, perhaps of the same species. I obviously could not do any "gardening" to obtain a better view of the stem and possibly the gill structure.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel pre-dawn:

Moths:
- 1 Mottled Umber Erranis defoliaria: day ten

Flies:
- 36 midges of various species

Arthropods:
- no White-legged Snake Millipedes Tachypodoiulus niger

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- 1 spider only
- 1 harvestman Opilio canestrinii

This is the harvestman Opilio canestrinii. I frequently see this species here and nowhere else in the area.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 08:50 – 10:15

(256th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- the twelve Mute Swans included a first winter bird which was clearly a new arrival.
- a pair of (Common) Teal was tucked up against the island.
- the brownhead Goosander were very difficult to census. They were spread all over the water, often at the very edges poking about for fish in the reeds. They were also jumping on and off the island. There were certainly more than recently.
- the Little Grebe was present.
- one large and three small parties of migrant Wood Pigeons

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 156 Wood Pigeons: four migrant parties
- 1 Sparrowhawk
- 1 Pied Wagtail

Noted on / around the water:
- c.26 Canada Geese: a party of c.20 flew in and landed behind the island
- 29 Greylag Geese at least: more heard inside the island
- 2 mainly white feral geese
- 12 Mute Swans: see notes
- 21 (15♂) Mallard
- 2 (1♂) Common Teal
- 7 (3♂) Tufted Duck
- 38 (2♂) Goosander: see notes
- 9 Moorhens
- 95 Coots
- 1 Little Grebe
- 5 Great Crested Grebes
- 63 Black-headed Gulls
- 14 Herring Gulls: various ages
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: various ages
- 5 Cormorants
- 1 Grey Heron

Noted around the area:

Moths:
- 1 $ Juniper Carpet Thera juniperata: moth species #76 for me at The Flash in 2025
- 2 November Moth types Epirrita sp.
both in squirrel alley

Bees, wasps etc.:
- 3 wasps: all Common Wasp Paravespula vulgaris

Flies:
- 1 Yellow Dung Fly Scathophaga stercoraria

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- none

Flowers:
- White Dead-Nettle Lamium album – still in flower (and probably will be all Winter)

"Show off!" A Canada Goose performing aerobatics.

Now look what you have done. They will all want to join in. When skeins of geese arrive they all have to select a piece of water to splash down and that involves some of them needing to lose height very quickly as well as manoeuvre out of the way of all the others. No AI to help them.

A first-winter Mute Swan cygnet was present today.

 I am not sure displaying to a minor is permitted! Tail in the air indeed.

The wing feathering is pale though far from being white.

Ignore the three gulls (two immature Herring Gulls and an adult-winter Black-headed Gull as you ask) and look between the fallen branches and tree trunk. There is a pair of (Common) Teal lurking.

Just to prove it with the camera on maximum electronic zoom, which was never going to give a crisp image in the lighting conditions, here they are, drake on the right.

Looking fresh from the hairdressers is this brownhead Goosander.

A first-winter Moorhen. Note the pale feathering on the belly and the not fully-developed red shield.

A first-winter Black-headed Gull.

Another being Mr. Belligerent.

Compare the leg, feet and bill colour on this adult-winter.

"Psst. Have you heard...?" Two adult-winters gossiping?

A gull puzzle that resolved itself. The area behind the neck looks pale-enough to be a first-winter Herring Gull while the back-end looks darker. Note the tertials have white along the edge which is a good Herring Gull feature.

Luckily it took off and the pale inner primaries leave me in doubt it is a first-winter Herring Gull.

The amount of contrast depends on the angle of light. Less contrast here.

The underwing. On a Lesser Black-backed Gull there would be much stronger contrast between the rows of feathers.

I think it has been watching too many Gannets.

Plop.

"Man overboard!"

"I have seen the sign!". This moth is a Juniper Carpet Thera juniperata. My only previous record of this species in Shropshire was one here on 31 October last year.

I have not seen this species for many weeks. This is a female Yellow Dung Fly Scathophaga stercoraria, hence it is not "yellow".

White Dead-Nettle Lamium album in flower. This clump seems to keep flowering all Winter. The council mowed this area and it was also disturbed by the new owners of the adjacent house. It survives.

(Ed Wilson)

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2011
Priorslee Lake
17 Tufted Ducks
c.400 Lesser Black-backed Gull
(Mike Cooper)

2005
Priorslee Lake
16 Pochard
41 Tufted Duck
212 Coot
778 Fieldfare
199 Redwings
800 Wood Pigeons
Chiffchaff
Possible Firecrest
3 Siskin
18 Redpoll
275 Starlings
(Ed Wilson)