6 Sep 19

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

Priorslee Lake:  05:15 – 06:55 // 07:50 – 09:30
The Flash:  07:00 – 07:45

12.0°C > 13.0°C:  Overcast, initially all medium / high-level, later more low-level cloud as well. Moderate SW breeze. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 06:28 BST

Priorslee Lake:  05:15 – 06:55 // 07:50 – 09:30

(216th visit of the year)

A quieter day with fewer geese, many fewer gulls and fewer Chiffchaffs. Good variety of insect life on the lamps pre-dawn.

Bird notes from today:
- The geese chose different outbound flight lines with birds low over (and behind?) trees to both S and N of the lake.
- Yet another change in the Great Crested Grebes. Back to four full-grown and independent juveniles. One of the broods in the NW area remained uncounted, sheltering on the parent’s back. And one of the adults from the long-term non-breeding pair seemed to be missing.
- No juvenile Coots identified. One very small juvenile something seen scurrying in to cover was not a Coot but remained unidentified.
- 51 House Martins over at 06:45 in a tight group. These soon disappeared. Where do they come from and go to? And why? Later a loose group of 11 birds headed SW.
- This morning’s ‘football’ field count gave me 208 Black-headed Gulls, 16 Wood Pigeons, six Magpies, the usual two Carrion Crows, one Grey Wagtail and 61 Pied Wagtails. There were just three Black-headed Gulls on the school playing field. A passing local Buzzard disrupted things and all the gulls and pigeons flew off with only some returning. The wagtails stayed put. Later two Grey Wagtails were on the dam.
- A Tawny Owl was calling close to the Teece Drive gate early. First I have heard for several weeks.
- Where are all the Blackbirds? Throughout the breeding season c.20 males, many of them singing, were easy to find. Latterly females and juveniles were also much in evidence. Today just four birds heard with none seen – typical of the last few days.

Bird totals:

Birds noted flying over or flying near the lake:
- 142 Greylag Geese (58 outbound in six groups; 84 inbound in six groups)
- 60 Canada Geese (28 outbound in two groups; 32 inbound in two groups)
- 1 Common Kestrel
- 13 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: 5 of these first- winter birds
- 32 large gulls (still too dark to ID)
- 2 Stock Doves
- 30 Wood Pigeons
- 18 Jackdaws
- 91 Rooks
- 17 Starlings

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 2 Barn Swallows
- 62? House Martins

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

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 6 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 14 (7♂) Mallard
- 3 (0♂) Tufted Ducks remain
- 1 Cormorant
- 1 Grey Heron again
- 1 immature Little Grebe
- 7 + 4 + >6 (3 broods) Great Crested Grebes (see notes)
- 3 Moorhens (not aged)
- 80 Coots
- >210 Black-headed Gulls
- 16 Lesser Black-backed Gulls : 14 of these first-winter birds and one a second-winter bird.
- 3 Herring Gulls : all of these first-winter birds

On the lamp poles pre-dawn:
- 1 micro moth, perhaps Schreckensteinia festaliella
- 1 Garden Carpet moth (Xanthorhoe fluctuata)
- 1 Setaceous Hebrew Character moth (Xestia c-nigrum)
- 1 wood gnat, possibly Sylvicola punctatus
- 1 fungus gnat of the genus Macrocera
- 1 Garden Spider (Arameus diadematus)

The following logged later:
The only insects on cloudy morning
- 2 Chequered Hoverflies (Melanostoma scalare)

Nothing else noted

Preening time as the cygnets start losing their baby feathers and get their wings. Note that there are only five (and a departing drake Mallard) in the shot. The sixth cygnet was again showing its independence and was elsewhere.

Two contrasting first-winter Black-headed Gulls, the rear bird much more advanced in its moult with less brown in the wings and the mantle.

From underneath a first-winter Black-headed Gull shows little white in the underside of the primaries and a neat-looking black tail-band.

This small micro-moth might be Schreckensteinia festaliella, named by some as Bramble False-feather. As I needed to get close to photograph it the flash has rather over-exposed any markings. It obviously did not like the flash and before I had a chance to reduce the intensity of the flash it had flown. Whatever .. (as they say) .. a new moth for me.

This is a Garden Carpet moth (Xanthorhoe fluctuata). A common moth, often flushed from vegetation by day and frequently, as here, coming to light. Probably a second-brood specimen – there can be three broods in the south. I logged my first this year on 07 June.

This moth is a Setaceous Hebrew Character (Xestia c-nigrum). There is a similar moth, the Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica), which generally flies at a different period of the year. Our moth is a very common moth: that said I have not recorded it here since at least 2013. [NB: ‘Setaceous’ means ‘like bristles’. Nowhere can I find an explanation for its inclusion in the vernacular name for this species. Perhaps the caterpillar is hairy? Certainly that of the Hebrew Character is not.]

Apart from all the insects on the lamp poles the only species I saw later was Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare). Here a female (the eyes do not meet) sits on a convolvulus petal and we can see that the yellow marks are triangular – square in a male.

A rather pretty looking insect with well-marked wings and black-spotted legs. I think it may be a wood gnat species and possibly Sylvicola punctatus.

Another rather different-looking insect. Do not be fooled by the shadow created by the flash – it does not have two sets of wings – well actually if it like most flies it does, but the hind wings (halteres) are so small they can rarely be seen. I think this a fungus gnat of the genus Macrocera, with M. vittata being a good candidate.

Cannot make out what is going on here but a Garden Spider (Arameus diadematus) seems to have something in its jaws.

After my failure with the snail the other morning I thought this one at rest would be no problem. Even with this enlarged image I am not prepared to say whether this is a White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis) or a Brown-lipped Snail (Cepaea nemoralis). I was pleased to read in Naturespot that “this lip can break off so it is not always clear cut”. We will leave it Cepaea sp.!

(Ed Wilson)

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

The Flash:  07:00 – 07:45

(206th visit of the year)

Notes from here:
- Only one of the two juvenile Great Crested Grebes seen.
- There was probably a Sparrowhawk around somewhere. All the Wood Pigeons shot off and the tits, especially Long-tailed Tits, gave persistent alarm calls. I could see nothing.
- Probably the same juvenile Common Buzzard was calling overhead and also from the wood at the top end of the water.
and, all on lamp poles
- 1 Common Marbled Carpet moth (Dysstroma truncata)
- 1 fly with very hairy legs
- 1 Ant Damsel Bug (Himacerus mirmicoides)
- 1 Common European Earwig (Forficula auricularia)
- 5 Dicranopalpus ramosus harvestmen
- 2 Leiobunum rotundum harvestmen
with
- several fungus, either False Chanterelle (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca) or Saffron Milkcap (Lactarius deliciosus)

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull
- 3 Stock Doves
- 10 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Jackdaw

Hirundines etc. noted.
None

Warblers noted (singing birds):
- 3 (0) Chiffchaffs

Counts from the water:
- 3 Mute Swans as usual
- 1 Canada Goose only
- 28 (14♂) Mallard
- 22 (9♂) Tufted Ducks
- 1 Grey Heron
- 2 + 1 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebe
- 4 Moorhens
- 15 Coots
- 1 adult Black-headed Gull
- 1 Kingfisher

Lurking up a lamp pole was this Common Marbled Carpet moth (Dysstroma truncata). A very common and very variable species making it almost as difficult to identify as those moths which could be one of several species.

Well this is a fly not quite in the class of Ernie Wise’s “short fat hairy legs” (ask your mother), but you get the point. No idea what the fly is called.

I think this is the Ant Damsel Bug (Himacerus mirmicoides). Never seen one of these before.

Two for the price of one again. A Common European Earwig (Forficula auricularia) – here a male with the curved pincers. Alongside is a harvestman Dicranopalpus ramosus.

A close-up of the working parts of a different Dicranopalpus ramosus. It always looks as if you could plug the legs in and out!

A very distinctive fungus here. But ... I cannot decide. It has some of the features of the False Chanterelle (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca). However the red-staining at the base of the ‘stem’ suggests it might be a Saffron Milkcap (Lactarius deliciosus), though that is noted as occurring under conifers. Although there are a few conifers in the area it is by no means a coniferous woodland. (And by the way the ‘deliciosus’ name may not be a proper description even if it is described as ‘edible’)

There were c.10 in the area. Here are a few. There seems to be a few old pine needles in this view ....

(Ed Wilson)

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

Between the lake and The Flash

- 1 Chiffchaff calling from around the upper pool.

(Ed Wilson)

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

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

2016
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2015
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2014
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2011
Priorslee Lake
Common Sandpiper
(John Isherwood)

Nedge Hill
2 Yellow Wagtails
(John Isherwood)

2006
Priorslee Lake
Spotted Flycatcher
(Ed Wilson)