Tuesday, 28th August

The following birds were on the lake at c.5.00pm

- Swans and their four young.
- Mallard 20
- Tufted Duck 4
- Ruddy Duck Pair
- Coot 70
- Moorhen
- Great Crested Grebe  2 pairs, 2 and 3 young respectively
- LBB Gulls c.80 arrived en masse at 4.55 then started to depart to the East in ones and twos but in a steady stream.
- 6 BhGulls.

(Malcolm Thompson)

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Wednesday, 15th (Morning Log)

Most of the good birds were in the first few hours
- Little Egret again and around for c.45 minutes from 04:50 and certainly landed at the lake today
- (the same?) Common Sandpiper again, eventually settled on one of the fishing platforms
- yet another new brood of Coots, but earlier broods do not seem to be doing well
- an immature Common Gull over: a relatively usual species here
- 2 Herring Gulls over - shows that things are on the move, not that there were many other gulls
- a fine Hobby powered through at 10:35
- no Reed Warblers for the second day so perhaps they have gone? Still Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs

(Ed Wilson)

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Tuesday, 14th
- Common Sandpiper
- Wheatear on dam

also

Moths:
- a Canary-shouldered Thorn moth on the light

(Ed Wilson)

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Monday 13th
- 2 fledged juvenile Great Crested Grebes new in
- 19 Greylag Geese with c.200 Canada Geese outbound at dawn

(Ed Wilson)

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Sunday, 12th
- Little Egret fly-over (2nd time in 3 days)
- 2 Sparrowhawks over NW area - unfamiliar calls from this area suggest begging juvenile and possible breeding
- over 500 Wood Pigeons
- Green and Great Spotted Woodpecker: at least 1 Great Spot is roosting in SW bushes along with c.75 Greenfinches
- late Swift in distance

also:

Moths:
- Coxcomb Prominent Moth on lamps

(Ed Wilson)

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Saturday, 11th (Morning)

Hard to know what to make as the highlight of today. Could be - the unseen wader flying around and then off at 04:30 when it was too dark to see. Sadly it was an unfamiliar call and I will have to pass. I strongly suspect that it was a Wood Sandpiper but I have too little experience of this species to be able to claim it - would have been a site and year tick!

Never mind - the young female Peregrine that surprised John Isherwood and I as it shot low over us at the dam in hot pursuit of a very strange-plumaged Feral Pigeon. The pigeon was a very dark blue and did not show a white rump - dirty grey. Whatever it was it managed to out-fly the Peregrine which broke of its chase (and was presumably the cause of the mayhem that put 500+ Wood Pigeons up from Wards Rough a few minutes later)

- the 7 Teal that appeared from the N, circled the lake and then flew off E. This was a new species for my Priorslee year-list.

(Ed Wilson)

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Friday, 10th (Morning)

This morning John Isherwood and I bagged a Little Egret tangling with a Lesser Black-backed Gull over the lake at 07:50. This was my 100th species at the lake-

Other highlights
- 179 Canada Geese and 2 Greylag Geese flying over
- 4 very recent broods of Coots with 10 juveniles between them
- 1 Green and 3 Great Spotted Woodpeckers
- almost 500 Wood Pigeons over with over 350 flying E
- at least 80 Greenfinches in roost

(Ed Wilson/John Isherwood)

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Thursday, 9th (Morning)

This morning saw my 99th species at the lake- a Redshank flying around calling at 08:30

Other highlights
- over 1000 Lesser Black-backed Gulls left the fields to the W; some bathed at the lake and all left to the NE
- latest Great Crested Grebe brood has 3 juveniles doing well
- Reed Warbler still around and in song
- 10 Chiffchaffs calling; 1 Willow Warbler ditto

(Ed Wilson)

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Wednesday, 1st (5.00pm)

Today - 100+ Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the water along with several Black Headed Gulls

(Malcolm Thompson)

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Wednesday, 8th (8:30pm)

- Great Crested Grebe Adult feeding juvenile in the NE Bay.
- 12 Lesser Black-backed Gullsbathing
- Kingfisher feeding on small fry along the northbank.

(Martin Adlam)