9 Aug 19

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

Priorslee Lake:  10:30 – 11:10
The Flash:  09:30 – 10:25

19.0°C:  Clearing after heavy rain. Moderate SE wind. Very good visibility

Sunrise: 05:41 BST

Priorslee Lake:  10:30 – 11:10

(195th visit of the year)

The VERY heavy early rain led to this mid-morning brief look, mainly from the dam-top / E-end lay-by

Bird notes from today
- Some of the adult Great Crested Grebes ‘missing’: I am wondering about birds sitting on second-brood eggs?
- Sand Martins are not common on Autumn passage.

Bird totals:

Birds noted flying over or flying near the lake:
- 9 Canada Geese (inbound)
Nothing else of interest

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 2 Sand Martins
- 6 House Martins

Warblers logged:
None

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 6 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 1 Greylag Goose
- 8 (6♂) Mallard
- 1 Little Grebe again
- 3 + 4 (3 broods) Great Crested Grebes again
- no Moorhens
- 67 adult and juvenile Coots: also both small juveniles from the newest brood
- 1 Common Tern
- 10 Black-headed Gulls: no juveniles

The following other things logged in short walk:
The persistent cloud kept most insects in cover
- Butterflies
- Green-veined White (Pieris napi)
- Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)
- Peacock (Aglais io)
- Damselflies etc:
- Common Blue Damselfly
- Hoverflies (in alphabetic order of scientific name):
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- Tapered Drone-fly (Eristalis pertinax)
- Syrphus sp.
And other things:
- Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
- Tachina fera flies
- probable Nemorilla floralis flies

Posing nicely for its photo. An adult Black-headed Gull transitioning to winter plumage, losing most of the black on the head. The feet and bill are much duller red/orange and the black tip is more extensive.

This is one of the drone fly hoverflies. Only when I saw this specimen from this angle did I notice the small brown ‘cloud’ in the wing. I needed to check with the literature ... From this angle we cannot see the body shape to specifically identify it.

This is a different specimen in the same genus. The markings on the back of this group are rather variable those here tending to favour Eristalis abusivus. On this species the arista (the very thin projection from its antennae) is hairless. Well it does look like that from the photo but I am not sure I have the resolution to be certain to claim this – it would be a first for me. So Eristalis sp. it will have to remain.

Not only hoverflies like Hogweed. This rather striking fly was tucking in to the nectar. It has no vernacular name so call it Tachina fera.

This is another striking fly and probably in the same genus, Tachinid, as the previous fly. I cannot match the rather irregular pattern of black and grey shown by this specimen, the closest seems to be Nemorilla floralis.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash:  09:30 – 10:25

(188th visit of the year)

More of a normal visit, though a different time

Notes from here:
- So where were all the Mallard? Just two drakes found! Perhaps I should have taken some bread.
and
- 2 Terrapin sp. (Yellow-bellied Slider)
- 1 Green-veined White butterfly (Pieris napi)
- 1 Meadow Brown butterfly (Maniola jurtina)
- >1 Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- >1 Tapered Drone-fly (Eristalis pertinax)
- 1 The Footballer hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus)
- 1 Myathropa florea (aka Dead-head Hoverfly)
- >1 Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
- >1 Wasp (Vespa sp.)

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 1 Common Buzzard

Hirundines etc. noted.
None

Warblers noted (singing birds):
- 4 (0) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (0) Blackcap

Counts from the water:
- 3 Mute Swans
- 18 Greylag Geese
- 23 Canada Geese
- 2 (2♂) Mallard
- 21 (11?♂) Tufted Ducks
- 1 Grey Heron
- 2 + 2 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes still
- 1 Moorhen
- 16 adult and well-grown juvenile Coots
- 8 Black-headed Gulls: no juveniles

One of the adult Great Crested Grebes and its off-spring. Each adult seems to be feeding one juvenile – always the same? The juveniles are well-grown now.

Here is that juvenile. The challenge is to find the eye. The face-pattern conceals it.

The fact that juvenile is well-grown doesn’t stop it incessantly begging to be fed. Personally I’d clip it around the ear .... but the (somewhat soggy) parent has more patience and has caught something.

... which is gone in a trice.

This was rather unexpected. One of the Yellow-bellied Slider terrapins seems to have an off-spring. All the information on the web suggests that while this species can survive in out waters it is too cold for them to breed. Has someone thrown another, smaller specimen in? Or are the web-sites wrong?

With a single white spot in the black fore wing spot this has to be a Meadow Brown butterfly (Maniola jurtina). Easy here ....

... less so when it moves its wings together (the camera is sorry about the fuzzy exposure)

I suspected this was the familiar hoverfly The Footballer (Helophilus pendulus) even though the detail of the black markings were subtly different from the one I photographed at the lake. There are of course ‘similar species’, also somewhat variable in marking. I think the clinching features are the extent of the yellow on the legs and the small yellow areas between the black marks. These confirm my original thoughts.

This is apparently my first record of this hoverfly here – it is a Myathropa florea (aka Dead-head Hoverfly). That said I visit here less often after the streets are aired and the insects are up and about.

Well it has a wasp-waist and is black and yellow so it has to be a wasp sp. But, like one I photographed at the lake the black bands are much more prominent than usual. This looks like a black insect with yellow bands. Most ‘ordinary’ wasps look like yellow insects with black bands. Although the markings are noted as ‘variable’ for Common Wasp I cannot find any photos that match the extent of black shown here.

(Ed Wilson)

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

2018
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2015
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2014
Priorslee Lake
Report from today Here

2012
Priorslee Lake
Green Sandpiper
(Ed Wilson)

2011
Priorslee Lake
2 Lapwings
(Ed Wilson)

2009
Priorslee Lake
4 Little Egrets
(Ed Wilson)

2008
Priorslee Lake
Peregrine Falcon
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
Redshank
(Ed Wilson)