3 Jun 15

Priorslee Lake: 4:24am - 8:01am
Map

Telford sunrise: 4:49am

9.5°C > 12.5°C. Few overnight showers in area clearing; clear for a while; some clouds later. Moderate W. Very good visibility.

(73rd visit of the year)

Notes
- the Swans have lost their 3rd and final cygnet since yesterday.
- the same single juvenile Coot as was seen yesterday.
- 4 Swifts arrived at 4:35am and birds were present throughout with a maximum of c.25 at any one time. Possibly more as birds came and went?
- another early group of 12 House Martins high overhead at 4:45am with >20 by 5:00am. These too stayed around throughout, though numbers varied.
- Common Whitethroat seen carrying food to one of areas where a bird was singing until c.4 days ago. A different bird in song.
- 2 different Mistle Thrushes heard singing simultaneously and a juvenile seen.
- 1 Song Thrush seen smashing snail shells. Many bird books illustrate this but in my experience you see it very infrequently and even scattered shells around preferred anvils are pretty uncommon.

Also
- another Silver Ground Carpet moth
- a Common Wave moth, new for the year
- several Red-eyed Damselflies, including both males and females
- another Blue-tailed Damselfly

Counts of birds flying over the lake (in addition to those on / around lake)
- 28 Canada Geese (6 parties)
- 1 Cormorant
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull again
- 1 Feral Pigeon
- 140 Jackdaws
- 91 Rooks

Count of hirundines etc
- >25 Swifts (see notes)
- 9 Swallows
- >25 House Martins again (see notes)

Count of singing warblers
- 6 Chiffchaffs
- 15 Blackcaps
- 1 Common Whitethroat
- 6 Reed Warblers

The counts from the lake area
- 2 Mute Swans
- 7 (4♂) Mallard
- 7 + 2 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- 3 Moorhens again
- 33 + 1 (1 brood) Coots

Wings-open is the normal resting pose of Silver-ground Carpet moth. Often when it flies away after being disturbed it will end up underneath leaves and hence not easy to see.

This moth is a Common Wave. What we have here id probably a male – males tend to have more feathered antennae for picking up the pheromones of the female. There is a very similar species called Common White Wave which has silver marks across the upper-wing – this species has feint brownish marks though we cannot really see that here.

Yet another rather evil-looking fly!

These are Hawthorn leaves back-lit by the early sun. The veins in the leaves are incredible: also incredible is the amount of leaf that has already been eaten!

No mistaking this as a male Red-eyed Damselfly!

And here is his mate – I think. When freshly-emerged from the exuvia all dragonflies have very little colour, the adult ‘plumage’ being acquired within some hours or a few days at most. This period is known as the teneral phase. The fact that the eyes are red suggests this is beyond teneral stage even though the body looks rather more yellow and less greenish than a full adult – probably due to the early light.

Several damselflies have ‘blue tails’ but only the Blue-tailed Damselfly has so few marks on the body segments as this specimen. It is an interesting specimen nonetheless being of the form violacea which indicates it is an immature specimen. Females are more complex (there is probably a better way of putting that!) in that they have several colour morphs as well as passing through the teneral phase.

(Ed Wilson)

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On this day in 2006, 2009 and 2014

2014
Priorslee Lake - Map
Report Here

2009

Priorslee Lake - Map
Oystercatcher
(Ed Wilson)

2006

Priorslee Lake - Map
Possible Marsh Harrier
11 Reed Warblers
(Ed Wilson)