Priorslee Lake and The Flash
13.0°C > 16.0°C: Very low cloud and mist gradually improved with a few sunny spells. Light ENE wind. Poor visibility, becoming moderate / good.
Sunrise: 04:45 BST.
Priorslee Lake: 04:14 – 05:35 // 06:35 – 09:28
(109th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- The pair of Gadwall not noted early. However they were very mobile today, even sitting on top of the dam for a while. Possibly overlooked at that time.
- Number of Swifts hard to ascertain. First at 04:40. Thereafter no more than four at any one time. More individuals?
Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 1 Canada Goose: inbound
- 3 Wood Pigeons
- 16 Jackdaws
- 1 Grey Wagtail
- 1 Greenfinch
Birds noted on either the ‘football’ field or the academy playing field [discounting the Wood Pigeons and Magpies ]
None
Count of hirundines etc. logged:
- 4+ Swifts
- 1 Barn Swallow again
- 5 House Martins
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 15 (12) Chiffchaffs
- 20 (14) Blackcaps
- 6 (2) Garden Warblers
- 6 (5) Common Whitethroats
- 8 (6) Reed Warblers
Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 2 (1♂) Gadwall
- 12 (10♂) Mallard
- 7 Great Crested Grebes
- 6 Moorhens
- 24 + 9 (5 broods) Coots
On / around the street lights pre-sunrise:
Conventional wisdom let me down again: zilch!
Insects / other things etc. noted later:
NB: a prefix * means there is a photo today.
Butterflies:
None
Moths:
- *Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
- *Common Marble (Celypha lacunana)
- Timothy Tortrix (Zelotherses paleana)
- *Latticed Heath (Chiasmia clathrata)
- Silver-ground Carpet (Xanthorhoe montanata)
Bees / wasps:
- *Andrena Mining Bee sp.
- Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
- *Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum)
- Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius)
- *Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum)
- *Common Wasp (Vespula (Paravespula) vulgaris)
- *Sawfly (Rhogogaster viridis)
Damselflies:
- *Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)
- Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans)
Hoverflies
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- *Eupeodes luniger
- *Leucozona lucorum
Other things:
- *Mirid bug Deraeocoris ruber? and nymph
- *an unidentified Mirid bug
- *Neuroctena anilis (a red fly)
- *Gymnocheta viridis (a green fly)
- *Awkward Clusterflies (Pollenia rudis)
- *Semaphore fly (Poecilobothrus nobilitatus)
- *Black Snipe fly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- Scorpion Fly (Panorpa communis)
- *Soldier Fly (Beris geniculata)
- mosquito sp. - I can attest to this!
- 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata)
- *very many Harlequin Ladybirds (Harmonia axyridis): forms conspicua, spectabilis and succinea noted: also many larvae and one pupa.
- Swollen-thighed Beetles (Oedemera nobilis)
- Common Stretch-spider (Tetragnatha extensa)
- *Cucumber Green Orb Spider (Araniella sp. likely A. cucurbitina)
- *Small spider, likely Walckenaeria acuminata
- Dusky Slug (Arion subfuscus)
- *Common Toads (Bufo bufo)
And
- 3 Noctule-type bats
Additional plant species recorded in flower for the year at this site:
None, but I need to withdraw the Red Dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum) I logged on the 2nd June. While the plants I noted at the time have been mown down, all those in the same area are the superficially similar Hedge Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica).
The progress towards eclipse plumage on, particularly the drake at the back, Gadwall. The orange at the side of the duck's bill is also somewhat more subdued.
Here too.
If this male Pied Wagtail was going to stand and look around it was going to get its photo taken.
Here is a juvenile. Just a slight yellow gape. Also a faint pale grey / yellow wash on the face.
A more typical view of a grass moth – head down tucked away amongst grass stems. A rather better view of a Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella) than those I photographed on lamp poles pre-dawn.
This is a Common Marble moth (Celypha lacunana). Not an impressive photo. The moth was head-down towards me which is a bad angle to identify this group of moths. I rotated it in Photo Editor which has lost some of the clarity whilst enabling a positive ID. A common moth I see every year and I am sure I will do better.
A Latticed Heath moth (Chiasmia clathrata). It may look like a butterfly – indeed when I first saw one a few years ago I was convinced I had a rare (for Shropshire) Grizzled Skipper butterfly. It has to be a moth - all butterflies by definition have club-ended antennae.
A young female Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) yet to acquire the colour – this may take several days.
A quite small and attractive hoverfly Eupeodes luniger.
Another attractive hoverfly is Leucozona lucorum.
I think my favourite bumblebee are these scruffy-looking Early Bumblebees (Bombus pratorum).
A close second are Tree Bumblebees (Bombus hypnorum)
I thought initially from the 'stripes' this was a Honey Bee – there were many around. However it lacks the orange segments at the top of the abdomen and is therefore one of the 'difficult' Andrena Mining Bees. Note the amount of pollen on the hind legs.
A lucky / unlucky shot. I was looking through the viewfinder trying to decide whether a fly was interesting-enough to photograph when – whoosh. A Common Wasp (Vespula (Paravespula) vulgaris) attacked it. Note it has the fly in its powerful jaws. I did not see it sting the fly.
This is the sawfly Rhogogaster viridis.
I thinks this is the Mirid bug Deraeocoris ruber. One I struggled to get close too....
...but this is most certainly a Deraeocoris ruber nymph.
Another Mirid bug I have been unable to ID.
Taken early when the weather was still very gloomy and I could only get a distant shot before it flew away. A rather alarming-looking orange fly with red eyes. Call it Neuroctena anilis!
This is a Black Snipe fly (Chrysopilus cristatus).
Not a 'greenbottle' because of the erect hairs on the body. It is one of the Tachnid flies, likely Gymnocheta viridis.
The great / horrible thing about flies is that there are so many of them and when you look closely some are very different from the typical black 'blow fly'. These two are, I think, Awkward Clusterflies (Pollenia rudis).
The stunning green thorax suggests that this is the soldier fly Beris geniculata. Note the hairy eyes.
This is a Semaphore Fly (Poecilobothrus nobilitatus). They often gather in groups and jump around waving their white-tipped wings as a courtship dance.
This Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis) with a black elytra and four red spots is the form spectabilis.
No racial prejudice amongst the Harlequins. A spectabilis mounts one of form succinea.
And here a succinea mounts a spectabilis. Seems to be a conspicua (with just one red dot on each elytra) looking on.
Keeping it within the family, so as to speak, are two succinea.
This one has lost some of its spots. Of the form succinea.
Here a Harlequin pupa on the left and larva on the right. I counted well over 50 larvae without trying. Glad I am not an aphid about to be eaten.
Another early photo. This is one of the Cucumber Green Orb Spiders. Because the two species that occur in the UK are almost impossible to tell apart then the correct appellation is Araniella cucurbitina sensu lato. They are usually seen upside down under a web they make low across the surface of a leaf. I assume the 'fuzz' is where the young are. These species do not normally hide away, relying on their colour as camouflage.
As it rushes off a glimpse of the paler upper surface with small black dots.
This tiny all-black spider with red legs is most likely Walckenaeria acuminata – no vernacular name.
One of many Common Toads (Bufo bufo) this morning. One of the fishermen told me that when he came out of his bivvy first thing the ground seemed to be moving, there were so many.
(Ed Wilson)
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The Flash: 05:40 – 06:30
(95th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- One of the Canada Geese flapped its wings: there is no way that it could have flown – no primary feathers on either wing.
- One very new brood of just two Mallard ducklings (as well as an older brood of four).
- There does seem to be just one juvenile Great Crested Grebe remaining.
- The remains of a Wood Pigeon – likely a Sparrowhawk meal.
- Reed Warbler not heard. I decided not to try and goad him in to singing yet again. I hope the intermittent song of the last few days means he has a partner and not that he is giving up.
- Two Nuthatches calling and running around near their nest hole. A second brood in the offing? Or the youngsters looking to return home? Another(?) calling elsewhere.
- Reed Bunting not heard.
Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
None
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 3 Swifts
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 5 (5) Chiffchaffs
- 5 (3) Blackcaps
- no Reed Warbler
Counts from the water:
- 3 + 7 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 12 Greylag Geese
- 1 Greylag x Canada Goose again
- 139 + 2 (1 brood) Canada Geese
- 29 (22♂) + 6 (2 broods) Mallard
- 9 (6♂) Tufted Duck
- 2 + 1 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- 2 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 16 + 12 (5 broods) Coots
Other things of note:
- >6 Mystacides longicornis (caddis flies) dancing above vegetation at water side.
The two very new Mallard ducklings were already exploring away from their mother.
(Ed Wilson)
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Between the lake and The Flash:
Noteworthy
- New juvenile Moorhen seen at the upper pool – a second brood.
(Ed Wilson)
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On this day..........
2019Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here
2017
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here
2016
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here
2013
Priorslee Flash
1 Greylag x Canada Goose
(Ed Wilson)