21 Jun 18

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

Priorslee Lake: 07:40 – 09:45
The Flash: 07:10 – 07:35 // 09:50 – 10:05

10°C > 13°C: Broken clouds. Moderate / fresh WNW wind combined with lower temperature and low humidity made it very ‘fresh’! And it is mid-summer’s day too. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 04:45 BST: the mornings draw in!

Priorslee Lake: 07:40 – 09:45

(80th visit of the year)

Bird notes from today:
- back to 6 Great Crested Grebes today. Apart from the pair investigating / sitting in the S-side reeds another pair seen displaying (albeit rather halfheartedly)
- an usual sighting was a flattened Magpie in Castle Farm Road. These birds are usually too wary to get hit by traffic – a juvenile that didn’t learn quickly enough?
- a female House Sparrow on the W edge of the football field was just in my recording area

Today’s bird totals

Birds noted flying over or flying near the lake:
- 1 Wood Pigeon only yet again
- 2 Jackdaws
that’s all

Hirundines seen today
- 3 Swifts
- 6 House Martins

Warblers noted: figure in brackets is singing birds
- 6 (5) Chiffchaffs
- 8 (7) Blackcaps
- still no Garden Warblers
- 2 (1) (Common) Whitethroats
- 6 (6) Reed Warblers

The counts from the lake area
- 4 + 7 (2) Mute Swans as usual
- 16 (14♂) Mallard
- 6 Great Crested Grebes
- 3 Moorhens
- 31 + 14 (? broods) Coots

Interesting insects, at least partly identified
- butterflies seen
- 1 Speckled Wood
- 3 Ringlets
- 3 Large Skipper
- moths flushed from the vegetation
- 1 Common Marble (Celypha lacunana)
- damselflies / dragonflies
- >10 Common Blue Damselflies
- >10 Azure Damselflies
- >10 Blue-tailed Damselflies
- hoverflies
- 1 Volucella pellucens (Pellucid Fly)
- 1 Helophilus pendulus (The Footballer)
- 1 Volucella bombylans
- flies etc. identified
- a Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)
- >10 Black Snipe flies (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- >5 Poecilobothrus nobilitatus (‘Semaphore Fly’)
- >50 Mystacides longicornis (a caddis fly)
- a Common Crane-fly (Tipula oleracea)
- a Greenbottle fly Lucilia sp
- beetles and bugs
- 1 Leptura (formerly Strangalia) maculata (a long-horn beetle)
- 1 Tortoise Bug, most likely Eurygaster testudinaria
- no spiders or snails noted

New species of flowering plants
- Meadowsweet / Mead Wort (Filipendula ulmaria)
- Common (or Black; or Lesser) Knapweed (Centaurea nigra)
- Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare)

One of the pairs of hitherto rather sedentary Great Crested Grebes decided to do a bit of displaying ....

... but it didn’t last long.

Posing is a Large Skipper showing the underwing. It is hard to separate Large and Small on this view – the marks on the trailing edge of the upperwing just about ‘print through’. I saw it with wings open so know which species it was.

After yesterday’s almost unmarked upper wing view of a Ringlet here is a glimpse of the more usual underwing – this was the ‘safety shot’ with the grass stem in the way before it flew off never to close its wings again. I checked my books: it is the males that show very little ‘ring marks’ on the upper surface of the wings.

The hoverfly Volucella pellucens or Pellucid Fly.

A very distinctive hoverfly Helophilus pendulus, or ‘The Footballer’.

The dark mark in the wing and the very short antenna mean this is a hoverfly and not a bumble bee. It is Volucella bombylans of the form plumata with a white tail.

A typically scruffy-looking Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum).

A male Azure Damselfly. It does look as if it ought to be called a blue-tailed damselfly with its two blue segments towards the tail but it is rather more robust than a real ....
Blue-tailed Damselfly that has only one blue segment towards the tail and the diagnostic two-tone pterostigma.

A Common Crane-fly (Tipula oleracea).

Most of these small caddis flies were dancing around as usual – I found this one perched: a Mystacides longicornis. Well-named if ‘cornis’ means antenna.

An unidentified fly sp. About 5 on a scale of 10 for nasty-lookingness.

Definitely higher on the nastiness scale this fly seems to be eating a smaller fly.

This is a Greenbottle fly Lucilia sp. As usual there are several different species that I cannot tell apart – does this have “just two pairs of acrostichal bristles behind the suture line” and is hence Lucilia caesar?

This is a Tortoise Bug, most likely Eurygaster testudinaria – there are several similar species. Closely related to Shield Bugs.

A plan view of the long-horn beetle Leptura (formerly Strangalia) maculata.

And the side-elevation. Common on umbellifers. About three times the size of the small yellow and black beetles I photographed yesterday that seem likely to have been Calocoris stysi.

 My first Common (or Black; or Lesser) Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) of the year here.

I noted this as ‘new’ for the year yesterday but it was waving about too much to get a photo. Greater Willow-herb (Epilobium hirsutum).

Well not sure what I photographed the other day – Marsh or Brook Thistle? I thought this was the same and included the leaves and the connection from the stem to the flower and from these I see this specimen, at least, is a Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare)! So what did I photo before?

Soon to open the delicate white clusters of Meadowsweet or Mead Wort (Filipendula ulmaria).

The camera I used today seemed to be much happier to get a crisp shot of one of the Common Spotted Orchids (Orchis (Dactylorhiza) fuchsii). So much so ...
That the photo would super-enlarge to show both lip shape and pattern to confirm the ID.

It is all very well chopping down the Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) but it just grows again.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 07:10 – 07:35 // 09:50 – 10:05

(63rd visit of the year)

Notes from today
- just the cob Mute Swan seen again
- the very new group of Mallard ducklings seen in the open – yet another brood with 7 ducklings: at least the 4th such brood noted this year. No sign of any other broods
- at least 18 (13 drakes) Tufted Ducks. Birds were flying around and chasing on and off the island and there could have been as many as 21 (16 drakes) birds
- the Willow Warbler gave a single song and then shut up again
- a party of Long-tailed Tits with at least 3 of the juveniles sitting more of less motionless on branches taking the warmth of the sun

Birds noted flying over or flying near The Flash
None

Hirundines etc. seen today
- 1 Swift
- 2 House Martins

Warblers noted: (singing birds in brackets)
- 1 (1) Willow Warbler, briefly
- 1 (1) Blackcaps

The counts from the water
[nn > nn indicates counts taken c.07:20 > c.10:00, where materially different]
- 1 Mute Swan: the cob
- 6 >38 Greylag Geese
- 1 >1 Greylag x Canada Goose
- 95 > 113 Canada Geese
- 16 (13♂) + 7 (1 brood) Mallard
- 18 (13♂) Tufted Ducks (see notes)
- 1 Grey Heron
- 1 Great Crested Grebe
- 3 Moorhens
- 14 + 12 (4 broods) Coots

The new brood of Mallard ducklings first seen yesterday were in the open today: seven is the correct number of ducklings.

A number of juvenile Long-tailed Tits seemed to be sunning themselves in the trees alongside squirrel alley. Looks rather sleepy here.

And in close-up: I hope it is supposed to look like this and that there is nothing wrong with it.

One of its siblings looks as if it could do with a brush-up.

This one looks more alert.

 Of interest between the lake and The Flash
- Moorhens heard calling from both pools – too overgrown to see much on the water

(Ed Wilson)

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On this day..........
2013
Priorslee Lake
Possible Black-necked Grebe seen by locals yesterday evening.
(Ed Wilson)