2 Sep 15

Priorslee Lake: 05:39 – 08:34
Location

Telford sunrise: 06:21

9.5°C > 10.0°C. Early breaks with showery rain encroaching from NW at times. Moderate NW wind. Good visibility but moderate in rain

(104th visit of the year)

The spells of rain prevented me doing the comprehensive count and kept numbers down somewhat: nevertheless several highlights
- duck Shoveler
- 7 Buzzards together to the NE over the copse at Ward’s Rough
- significant passage of hirundines with several Sand Martins and c.75 Swallows which included a party of at least 47 leaving a nearby roost (Bayliss Pools?) at 06:50

Other notes
- the Canada Geese that pitched in for a while also included a single Greylag Goose
- just 2 Little Grebes found this morning: was trying to find them at the time it was raining hardest so others could have been sheltering
- the three pairs of Great Crested Grebes with 4, 2 and 2 juveniles confirmed again but several times there seemed to be at least one more adult and one more juvenile but in the conditions could not confirm either way
- Coots not counted
- 2 Kingfishers seen together
- 4 Ravens again flying SW: all singles
- single Reed Warbler and Common Whitethroat seen: could have been late-staying local birds or migrants. My latest-ever date for Reed Warbler at this site
and
- no dragonfly or butterfly species recorded
- moth species on the lamps: 1 Agriphila tristella (Common Grass-veneer) only
- no moths flushed
- several spiders again

Counts of birds flying over the lake (in addition to those on / around lake)
- 44 Canada Geese (7 groups)
- 9 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 11 Feral Pigeons (2 groups)
- 1 Stock Dove
- 238 Jackdaws
- 58 Rooks
- 4 Ravens
- 5 Pied Wagtails

Count of hirundines etc
- 3 Sand Martins
- c.75 Barn Swallows
- 8 House Martins
- 2 unidentified hirundines

The counts from the lake area
- 2 Mute Swans
- 1 Greylag Goose
- 19 Canada Geese
- 21 (17♂) Mallard
- 1 (0♂) Shoveler- 2 (1♂) Tufted Ducks
- 1 Grey Heron
- 2 Little Grebes
- 6 + 8 (3 broods) Great Crested Grebes (but see notes)
- 6 + 13 Moorhens
- ? Coots
- c.100 Black-headed Gulls
- 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

A complete rainbow and the shower encroached. I’ve never really understood the physics to explain why the sky looks darker outside the rainbow than underneath it. Even at 24mm equivalent I could not get the complete rainbow in the frame. Excuse the black dots caused by rain drops – the wind was blowing the rain directly in to the camera.

The unmistakeable profile of a Shoveler: almost certainly a duck but just might be an immature – separation difficult on this view.

This Sparrowhawk scattered the Wood Pigeons (and a lone Stock Dove) that were perched in this dead tree. It stayed just long-enough for this grab-shot. On size it has to be a female and we can just about make out some brown streaking on the throat which tells us it is an immature. The white tips to some of the feathers confirm this. I also think it less likely that an adult would perch in the open like this.

A midge sp. I think as it seems to have, unlike bugs, small / no antennae.

Rather washed-out by the flash: it seems to have longer legs than any of the green spiders I can find on the web e.g. Araniella cucerbinata

(Ed Wilson)

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On this day in 2006 and 2011
2011
Priorslee Lake
Location
Common Sandpiper
c.65 House Martins
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
Location
Kingfisher
Swifts
(Ed Wilson)