Sunday, 19th

From Priorslee this morning: rather fewer thrushes, but still busy
- >100 Tufted Duck, though over 90 flew off W
- 2 Water Rails heard again
- no Wood Pigeon passage
- 107 Redwings logged
- 176 Fieldfare
- big corvid passage - 393 Jackdaws and 253 Rooks
- 19 Siskins in small parties of 6 or fewer

other migrants
- 4 Sky Larks
- 3 Meadow Pipits
- 2 Redpolls

(Ed Wilson)

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Saturday, 18th

This morning there was a HUGE passage of winter thrushes - until today the largest number I had logged was 11 Redwings. Today there were at least 992 (small groups counted; large groups 'estimated') Redwings and 203 Fieldfares all passing W and mainly between 07:30 and 08:45. Easily my largest ever day-count here! What do they know I don't?

Surprisingly other migrants were in very small number - 48 Wood Pigeons, 2 Sky Larks, 2 Meadow Pipits and single Siskins and Redpolls

Other news from here

- odd additional Great Crested Grebes come and go at the lake and The Flash
- one of the cygnets at the lake seems to coming and going at the moment: present Wednesday and Friday; not Thursday or today. An adult and 2 cygnets flew in to the lake today causing mayhem
- c.45 Greylags W-bound most days
- the Canada Geese W-bound are often stopping at c.08:30 and up to 200 may be present: my largest counts here. In contrast numbers at The Flash are<100 many days - Wednesday there were none at 10:00!
- the Mallard x Pintail frequently at The Flash
- up to 6 Pochard and c.150 Tufted Duck commute from night-time feeding at the lake to daytime loafing at The Flash
- Water Rail heard daily from NW reeds: but seeing it ... At least 2 birds

Sky Lark, Meadow Pipit, Siskin and Redpoll over most days - single birds mainly

(Ed Wilson)

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Friday, 17th

- There was a small but obvious passage of Wood Pigeons - I logged 182 heading S / SW in groups, the largest of c.70 birds. Also passing were small numbers of Sky Larks with 10 logged over the lake and the fields

(Ed Wilson)

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Thursday, 16th

- Tufted Duck 150+
- Pochard 5 males + 1 female
- Great Crested Grebe 2 (winter plumage)
- Greylag Geese c. 20 flew off as I arrived
- Kingfisher (flushed from road with fish)

(Mike Cooper)

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Friday, 10th

Here is this morning's (Friday - late again!) news and some comments back to earlier in the week

- party of 4 'additional' Great Crested Grebes (2 adults and 2 immatures) stayed 2 days and have gone
- 2 Wigeon on Tuesday were the only dabbling ducks of note
- single duck / immature Pochard present on and off: 'on' today
- at least 130 Tufted Ducks on the lake at 06:15 this morning: 84 logged flying out before 06:45 with a party of 56 at 06:35! 36 left at 08:50 (with 105 on The Flash at 09:30; and 36 on Trench Pool at 10:30)
- Water Rail not heard for some 4 days now and not seen for 2 weeks
- 4 Buzzards this morning: 2 most days
- rather few Black-headed Gulls so far and little early arrival from the W
- higher numbers of large gulls (c.600 some days) on the lake but with little or no passage overhead in the mornings: and no birds seem to be coming from the tip at the moment
- several Great Black-backed Gulls early in the season, mainly immatures; but few Herring Gulls
- Kingfisher regular at the lake and The Flash - 2 seen fighting this morning
- Chiffchaff seen only this morning: for the past few days calls have been very intermittent. I suspect not (yet) gone, but quiet
- Goldcrests daily now
- large early corvid passage now regular again: 308 Jackdaws and 196 Rooks today
- after several days of >100 finches on the wires to the E these seem to have faded away. The lake roost of Greenfinches faded last week
- autumn passage evident by small numbers of Meadow Pipits, Sky Larks, Redwings, Redpoll and Siskin overhead most days
- single Siskin on alders on the N shore

(Ed Wilson)

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Monday, 6th

Here is today's report, linking back to the end of last week

- all 4 cygnets back at the lake with the bird that hit the Ricoh building recovered
- another cygnet missing at The Flash; spent several days last week asleep and away from the others. None of the locals seems to know where it went and hope it was taken in to care
- at back end of last week all the unusual ducks had gone but today 1 duck Teal on The Flash; and a pair of Wigeon at the lake
- 3 Pochard on the lake were, a single day visit by a drake apart, the first of the winter
- exactly 100 Tufted Duck on the lake at 06:00 but 87 of these flew off by 06:30! Only 102 later on The Flash probably included most of these and c.30 fewer than at the end of last week
- Water Rail heard calling in NW reeds at the lake: there were 2 calling Saturday
- 39 Lapwings in a newly ploughed field to E of the lake. First seen on Saturday after the ploughing this is, regretably, a large flock here these days!
- the same field held c.200 gulls last week but not this morning
- both Green and Great Spotted Woodpeckers at the lake
- Kingfisher at the lake and The Flash
- a few Meadow Pipits and Sky Larks over the fields to the E of the lake, but unexceptional numbers
- 3 Redwings over the lake this morning: and a noticeable increase in Blackbird and Song Thrush numbers
- after weeks of very small corvid passage since the end of last week they have been back in force: today 400 (exactly) Jackdaws and 121 Rooks
- c.150 finches on the wires / in the stubbles to the NE of the lake. Several visits have shown these to be almost all Greenfinches! 1 Linnet and 3 Yellowhammers was all I could manage
- single Redpolls and Siskins today (and most days)

but
- this morning was my first day without a Chiffchaff record! That said I failed to connect with any tit parties
- squirrels seem to have taken residence in the hawthorns and are eating all the berries before the thrushes get here

(Ed Wilson)

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Thursday, 2nd

- This morning Lake no sign of Wigeon or Shoveler
- Great Black-backed Gull 2 imm (2Y).

(Mike Cooper)

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Wednesday 1st - (06:15 - 09:00)

- the adult Swans and the 2 cygnets that spent some 48 hours away at The Flash returned to join the other 2 cygnets. That means the bird that hit the Celestica factory has now been returned
- 52 Greylag Geese overhead, inbound (to?) from the fields at 07:15 was my largest count from the lake and unusually early
- 2 Wigeon (pair, with drake still in eclipse / an immature)
- 1 duck Shoveler
- 1 female (on size) Peregrine repeatedly diving at and scattering the Black-headed Gulls on the water (and ignoring the scattering pigeons)
- >200 Lesser Black-backed Gulls arrived on the water - a sign of winter!
- a late Swallow a sign of summer! (one over my Newport house today as well, where I also heard House Martins)
- big tit party with 3 Goldcrests and 3 Chiffchaffs

(Ed Wilson)

Also

- (morning & evening) - 2 Wigeon, Shoveler
- (morning)15 Great Black-backed Gulls -12 adults & 3 imm away from Lesser Black-backs many lifted out of water showing pink legs

(Mike Cooper)