19 Jul 19

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

Priorslee Lake:  04:10 – 05:35 // 06:30 – 08:05
The Flash:  05:40 – 06:25

11.0°C > 13.0°C:  Clear start with mist over lake. Soon clouded with intermittent rain from 06:00. Persistent after 07:30. Calm / very light SE wind. Good visibility.

Sunrise: 05:08 BST

Priorslee Lake:  04:10 – 05:35 // 06:30 – 08:05

(179th visit of the year)

Bird notes from today
- A Tufted Duck (sex unknown) present at 04:25 and then seen flying around. Not noted later.
- The adult Common Buzzard was on a lamp in Teece Drive before flying in to Ricoh copse where a juvenile was heard calling.
- I presume some of the Coots were sheltering in the reeds?
- A different Tawny Owl gave several screech calls.
- My usual visit to the football field at c.05:30 revealed just 16 Wood Pigeons. Between 55 and 70 has been the ‘normal’ number for some weeks.
- Swifts heard screaming over – too high to see – at 05:05. At least 20 soon arrived lower down. None seen later.
- Clearer weather today still revealed very few corvids early – just 2 Jackdaws and 18 Rooks. 14 Rooks went over at the late time of 07:15.
- ‘Only’ 26 Pied Wagtails on the ‘football’ field at 06:50.
- A pair of Linnets hanging around in the SW area. No sign of juveniles.

Bird totals:

Birds noted flying over or flying near the lake:
- 18 Greylag Geese (3 groups outbound)
- 7 Canada Geese (1 group outbound)
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 52 Wood Pigeons
- 2 Jackdaws
- 36 Rooks

Hirundines etc. noted:
- >20 Swifts
- 2 Barn Swallows
- 7 House Martins

Warblers noted (singing birds):
- 8 (2) Chiffchaffs
- 3 (0) Blackcaps
- 1 (0) Garden Warbler
- 1 (0) Common Whitethroat
- 7 (2) Reed Warblers

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 6 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 2 Greylag Geese (for a while)
- 15 (?♂) Mallard
- 1 (?♂) Tufted Duck
- 1 Grey Heron again
- 6 + 3 (2 broods) Great Crested Grebes as usual
- 4 Moorhens (all un-aged)
- 29 adult and juvenile Coots only
- 21 Black-headed Gulls

On the lamp poles pre-dawn, the following:
- 1 Little Grey moth (Eudonia lacustrata)
- 1 unidentified ‘grey’ moth
- 1 White Plume moth (Pterophorus pentadactyla)
- 1 Garden Spider (Arameus diadematus)
- 1 unidentified beetle
- 1 woodlouse sp.
- 1 snail, probably a White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis)
- 1 slug sp.

Seen later:
- 1 noctule-type bat
- 1 Harlequin Ladybird larva (Harmonia axyridis)
- 1 Mystacides longicornis (caddis fly)
- 1 Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperia carnea)

If you were up really early it was clear – the moon was out on my drive from Newport. This at 04:55.

The clear weather did not last and just 15 minutes later red sky was portending rain and stronger winds.

Yesterday a Buzzard was on a house roof in Teece Drive. This morning it was surveying the scene from a lamp post.

I would not want to mess with that beak – or the claws come to that.

A juvenile Black-headed Gull with an adult beginning to lose its ‘black-head’ as it moults in to adult winter plumage.

Same juvenile, different adult. Still much brown on the juvenile. Most brown, except on the wing coverts, will soon be moulted.

Quite dark when this juvenile Robin popped up, hence not quite sharp. The background is the Holy Trinity Academy buildings. No children (or Robins) were harmed in the taking of this picture.

An adult Goldfinch twittering away. Note the pale and pointed bill of this species. Juveniles lack the red face until late October-time. This species seems to be increasing in most places – here too. I am used to seeing flocks of birds descending on post-flowering thistles to eat the seeds. This year birds have been singing all around the W and S sides for weeks and they start very early in the morning.

I have been trying to find the calling Linnets for several weeks. I located a pair in the area behind the sailing club shelter. No indication of any nesting activity. The back of the males becomes rufous in breeding plumage.

The birds were rather flighty and this was the best front view I could get. The red on the breast shows here – it is another breeding condition feature. The obvious white shafts in the black wing feathers are present on both sexes all year. They show as a white wing flash in flight.

Another of those confusing ‘grey’ moths that seem so abundant this year. I have found an excellent set of photos on the web Here, showing all the species in comparison. There are two problems: none of my moths looks exactly like any of them and yet somewhat like several of them; and there is no text explaining salient difference. Another I am going to have to pass on.

This one seems more clear-cut that it is a Little Grey (Eudonia lacustrata).

It was not all moths on the lamps this morning. A snail, likely a White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis) and a slug battle it out.

This is the caddis fly Mystacides longicornis (no vernacular name). Here, photographed at rest on the green wall of the sailing club HQ, it has been given a rather browner body than in real life. The pattern on the wall has also tended to obscure the long antennae. Note the red eye. This caddis fly is usually seen in groups ‘dancing’ above waterside vegetation (or dead in spiders’ webs).

A green insect on the green wall of the sailing club HQ. Photoshop helps restore the balance. A Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperia carnea)

(Ed Wilson )

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The Flash:  05:40 – 06:25

(172nd visit of the year)

New for my Flash 2019 year list was a Little Grebe – bird species #76. It was amongst the (smaller number of) Tufted Ducks. This bird looked similar to the one I was unable to age at the lake earlier this week. A rather strange date for the first of the year to turn up.

Other notes from here:
- When I arrived all three (quasi) adult Mute Swans were asleep together on the island. Later they dispersed. Meanwhile the cygnets were being left to their own devices along the E side, and they were well away from any geese this morning.
- Coots hiding from the rain here as well as at the lake?
and
- 1 Grey Squirrel

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 6 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Starling

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 5 Swifts

Warblers seen or heard.
None

Counts from the water:
- 3 + 3 Mute Swans again
- 54 Greylag Geese again
- 131 Canada Geese
- 32 (>12♂?) Mallard
- 20 (18♂?) Tufted Ducks
- 1 Grey Heron: flew off
- 1 Little Grebe
- 2 + 2 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes as usual
- 1 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 10 + 4 (2 broods) Coots
- 5 Black-headed Gulls

(Ed Wilson )

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Between the lake and The Flash:

- Moorhen(s) heard from the upper pool.
and on lamp poles:
- 1 Little Grey moth (Eudonia lacustrata) again

(Ed Wilson )

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

2014
Priorslee Lake
Today's Report Here

2011
Priorslee Lake
4 Common Sandpiper
Female Ruddy Duck
(John Isherwood)

2006
Priorslee Lake
A male Cockatiel
1 drake Ruddy Duck
(Ed Wilson)