Priorslee Lake
Priorslee Lake |
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Archive News - February 2008 |
Friday 29th (12:30 - 12:50pm) - In amongst the 700+ Lesser Black-backed Gull and 12 Herring Gulls there was a superb adult Yellow-legged Gull (Martin Adlam) Saturday, 23rd (1:35pm - 1:50pm) - 2nd winter Iceland Gull at Priorslee when I arrived at about 1:35pm flew out over boat club at 1:50pm (Pete Nickless) Wednesday, 20th (12:20pm - 1:10pm) Despite good numbers of "Easy to see" large Gulls, there wasn't a single "Unusual Gull" on the ice that I could locate. Having said that there were two curious looking 4cy Lesser Black-backs that were sporting 2 red leg-rings on their left legs, with one individual also wearing a metal ring on its right leg. The red rings were approx. 50mm (2") long, which made them fairly easy to spot in amongst the 1000+ Lesser's at least on the ice. The unfortunate thing was I couldn't see any numbers/letters on them.
- Also in attendance were 25 Herring Gulls and 200+ Black-headed Gulls. - Ducks on the water were Pochard, Tufted, Mallard and 4 Gadwall (3 drake) - The 10 Great Crested Grebes were trying to keep their distance from each other, with two showing very aggressive behaviour towards each other. - Also about were plenty of Coot and a lone Cormorant As a follow up to the Red-Ringed Lesser's I have been investigating their origin and with Geoff Holmes help it looks like we may have found where they came from. This is an email from Philippe
J. Dubois
in France: The Website was http://www.cr-birding.be/ and very useful it was to. Thank you to Geoff and Philippe. (Martin Adlam)
Saturday, 16th (12:30pm - 2:30pm) - A 1st/3rd winter Glaucous Gull was at the Lake when I arrived @ 12:30 and stayed, soliciting food! Until approx 14:30 moving toward Granville / belvide? - 1st winter Glaucous Gull arrived briefly around 13:30 for a short stay. (Paul King) Thursday, 14th Evening - (4:00pm - 5:00pm) - Spurred by Geoff Holmes' useful post about yesterday's sightings at the pre-roost gathering I made by first evening trip of the year and was rewarded when a 'near adult' Iceland Gull dropped in at 16:05. I say 'near adult' as while the plumage looked like an adult if rather scruffy the bill had some dark as well as the red spot on the bill - I assume a 3rd winter? Got a few records shots that I'll off-load later, but gloomy today and digiscoping at 15th of a second, so they unlikely to be of publishable quality! - Had gone by 16:30 though when exactly it went I am unsure - attention diverted to try and string Caspian Gull amongst the myriad of confusing plumaged 'Herring-type' Gulls. Certainly Yellow-legged Gull, but ... - No sign of the Glaucous before 17:00 when I left - 7 Gadwall there now (Ed Wilson) Afternoon - (2:00pm - 4:00pm) Had an appointment in Telford today so decided to have a search for the 1st w. Caspian Gull that has been roosting at Belvide... On arrival at Priorslee just before 2pm around c.600 LBB Gull, a few Herring Gull & Common Gull & quite a few BH Gull... no white-wingers or Caspian tho!!... Onto Granville... As I arrived, signed in & set up c.6000 gulls were circling the tip (quite a spectacle!!)... But sadly around 80% were landing behind the large earth mound to the right - completely out of view!!! After an hour & half no Glaucous, no Iceland & no Caspian!! I did have 2 ad. Yellow-legged Gull tho! (got a pic of one - as usual, on the blog!)... Went back to Priorslee, still good numbers, but apart from 2 Great Black-backed Gull (incl. an ad.), there was nothing of note... So, at 4pm I left for my appointment.... Too soon it would appear, as at 4:30pm Rich Vernon & Andy had a 2w. Iceland Gull drop in!! - Typical!! Could easily have been at Granville, but birding there today was just too restricted!... The birds were staying out of the cold!!... Anyway, I'm sure either Andy or Rich will tell more about the Iceland!... (Jason) Wednesday, 13th (4:20pm - 5:15pm) - The 1st Winter Glaucous Gull was in the pre-roost at Priorslee Lake this afternoon from 16.20 until 17.15 when it departed in the direction of Belvide Reservoir. (Geoff Holmes) Tuesday, 5th (12:15pm - 12:30pm) - 102 Lesser Black-backed Gulls Also at the Lake: - 2 pairs of Great Crested Grebe (Martin Adlam) Monday, 4th (12:30pm) - 2 Great Black-backed Gulls (Martin Adlam) |
