23 Jun 19

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

Priorslee Lake:  04:10 – 07:35
The Flash:  07:40 – 08:30

12.0°C > 13.0°C:  Mainly cloudy with mainly high-level cloud. Calm start with light E breeze later. Good visibility.

Sunrise: 04:45 BST (mornings drawing in!)

Highlight this morning was a trio of Curlews flying W over The Flash – my first at this site. Once we are passed the longest day (all downhill to Christmas now!) it is likely these are post-breeding flights. This early I expect these are non- or failed- breeding birds. Species #72 for my 2019 bird list at The Flash.

Priorslee Lake:  04:10 – 07:35

(157th visit of the year)

Bird notes from today
- Only one juvenile with the long-time pair of Great Crested Grebes. The adult has emerged from the NW reeds with an as yet undetermined number of juveniles on its back. The non-breeding pair still present but getting more agro today.
- c.10 Swifts heard screaming high over at 04:45 – too high to see them all this early. Thereafter small numbers from time to time.
- No large groups of Rooks now: several groups of four to six birds, likely family parties.
- One Starling seemed to have roosted somewhere around the lake – noted flying off. At least 10 other still collecting food from the ‘football’ field.
- A single and then two Linnets flew over low: I am sure they are breeding very locally but cannot find out where.

Bird totals:

Birds noted flying over or flying near the lake:
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull
- 3 Stock Doves
- 14 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Collared Dove
- 41 Jackdaws
- 29 Rooks

Hirundines etc. noted:
- c.10 Swifts
- 2 Barn Swallows
- 6 House Martins

Warblers noted (singing birds):
- 10 (7) Chiffchaffs
- 17 (12) Blackcaps
- 3 (2) Garden Warblers
- 3 (1) (Common) Whitethroats
- 1 (1) Sedge Warbler still
- 6 (6) Reed Warblers

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 6 (1 brood) Mute Swans as usual
- 14 (12♂) + 2 (1 brood) Mallard
- 3 (2♂) Tufted Ducks
- 1 Grey Heron (early only)
- 6 + >1 (2 broods) Great Crested Grebes (see notes)
- 3 + 2 (2 broods) Moorhens
- 25 + 22 (7? broods) Coots

On the lamp poles pre-dawn:
- a carpet moth that has so far eluded identification

Seen later:
- 2 noctule-type bats flying around pre-dawn again
- >5 presumed Timothy Tortrix moths (Zelotherses paleana) early
- 1 Blood-vein moth (Timandra comae) disturbed from vegetation
- at least two crane-flies, possibly Nephrotoma quadrifaria
also
- first Meadowsweet or Mead Wort (Filipendula ulmaria) flowers of the year
- first Convolvulus sp. probably Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) flowers of the year here
- first Common (or Black; or Lesser) Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) flowers of the year
and
- Grey Squirrel heard

Another sunrise for early birds only – this at 04:20 before the street lights went out. The colour soon faded as the cloud moved east.

A pair of Tufted Duck. The drake is losing his breeding-condition white flanks but still looks a bit of spiv. She seems to find it quite funny!

An adult Great Crested Grebe sheltering an as yet unknown number of juveniles on its back.

Here we see two immature Wood Pigeons feeding on grass seeds. At this age they lack the white neck patch though still show white at the bend in the wing. The longer tail also separates from juvenile Stock Dove.

You would do well to ID this scruffy critter from this view. Luckily it was calling. It is a Chiffchaff perhaps in severe moult. The orange lower mandible and hint of a supercilium are about all we have to go on otherwise. The bill looks unnaturally long because of the moult and with the head-shape it could easily be mistaken for a (rather small) Reed Warbler.

This is a Blood-vein moth (Timandra comae). There is a very similar species (Small Blood-vein (Scopula imitaria)) though on that species the thinner cross line does not join the ‘blood vein’.

A poor photo of a moth on the overhead part of an LED lamp. It looks like a carpet moth, but which? It seems to most closely resemble Barred Carpet (Martania taeniata). However that is a nationally scarce moth more or less confined to Cumbria and SE Scotland. If it is still there tomorrow I will try for a better photo.

This crane-fly is also a bit of a puzzle. The pattern on the thorax suggests one in the genus Nephrotoma. However the only species in this group with a small dark stigma in the wing has a much more boldly-marked body.

Here is another specimen. The nearest I can get is Nephrotoma quadrifaria though I would expect more extensive black marks in the wing.

This is the fluffy white flowering head of Meadowsweet or Mead Wort (Filipendula ulmaria).

Looking deep in to the flower of a Convolvulus sp. probably Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis).

About to open fully is this flower-head of Common (or Black; or Lesser) Knapweed (Centaurea nigra).

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Flash:  07:40 – 08:30

(150th visit of the year)

Other notes from here:
- Not sure why there were fewer geese (and Mallard come to that). Too many fishermen at weekends?
- House Martins over but not really behaving like local residents
also
- an unidentified chrysalis, likely from a butterfly
- an unidentified harvestman sp.
- 1 Grey Squirrel
- first Biting Stonecrop (Sedum acre) flowers of year
- first Honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.) flowers of the year
- first Broad-leaved Willowherb (Epilobium montanum) flowers of the year

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 3 Curlews as highlighted
- 2 Wood Pigeons
- 7 Jackdaws

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 2 House Martins

Warblers noted (singing birds):
- 3 (3) Chiffchaffs
- 5 (4) Blackcaps
- [no Garden Warbler]

Counts from the water:
- 3 + 4 Mute Swans
- 5 Greylag Geese
- 47 Canada Geese
- 16 (10♂) Mallard
- 6 (4♂) Tufted Ducks
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 3 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 25 + 12 (5 broods) Coots

A record shot of the trio of Curlews flying away. The only confusion species would be the smaller Whimbrel. That has a bill where the curve is more or less confined to the outer half and thus appears to be kinked down rather than having the even curve we see here. Call can be useful but is not 100% reliable as both species can give similar calls – though they usually don’t. These birds were silent anyway.

A juvenile Moorhen gets fed.

Anyone know how to identify chrysalis? Not me. One feels the distinctive markings ought to give the game away. Searching the web suggests it is a butterfly and not a moth and the closest seems to be Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae).

Well now: a Harvestman sp. Only just past the longest day and nature is thinking of the harvest already. With the legs obviously much thicker closer to the body this could be Paroligolophus agrestis. The web suggests that is only seen from late summer onwards. So?

A blaze of colour every year at the edge of the brickwork alongside Derwent Drive is this Biting Stonecrop (Sedum acre)

In squirrel alley I found a single flower of Honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.).

Against a Hazel leaf in an attempt to show the colour these flowers are from Broad-leaved Willowherb (Epilobium montanum).

And looking in to the flowers. 

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On this day..........

2016
Priorslee Flash
Today's News Here

2012
Priorslee Lake
Plover sp.
(Ed Wilson)

2008
Priorslee Lake

Marsh Warbler
Unlikely as it seems I am pretty convinced about this on the basis of the song alone
I was walking along the W end path at c.06:15 when a strange song caught my attention: there had been young Reed Warblers flitting about the area away from the reeds and it sound 'Acro-like'. But it was far too fast and I then assumed it was a Sedge Warbler (especially after my bird in the town centre last week). But the sound was all wrong with what seemed more like Garden Warbler tones, though with the characteristic Acro dynamics.
The bird was singing from a small patch of bushes growing in the fence at the W end of the yacht compound and I had the choice of a close view directly in to the bright sun; or going the 'other side' and trying to see between the yachts at some distance. I decided to stay where I was and in response to gentle phishing I got a good-enough glimpse to confirm it was a  Reed / Marsh and not Sedge Warbler and certainly an Acro.
The song continued to puzzle and included all manner of oddities, sounding at times like juvenile Great Tit begging, all while singing at full volume.
I decided that the best thing would be to try and record the bird so I dashed back to the car for my digital tape recorder. When I returned the bird was not singing and phishing produced only a Wren and a pair of Bullfinches!
Revisited the area twice more for some 15 minutes on each occasion without success: was not too surprised as it was a small and rather unlikely spot for the bird to stay in.
Worth rechecking - but I went all around the lake twice without hearing anything untoward.
Only my second-ever UK Marsh Warbler - the last was as long ago as when they bred in Worcestershire! But familiar with the birds abroad as recently as May in Poland where I heard maybe 20.
I really cannot see what else it might have been: I am not that confident to say it WAS a Marsh Warbler song, only that I have no idea what else it could have been and it fits the general pattern of song.(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Village
A pair of Siskins
(Martin Adlam)

2006
Priorslee Lake
Common Tern
(Ed Wilson)