25 Oct 19

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

Priorslee Lake:  06:40 –09:35
The Flash:  09:40 – 10:25

8.0°C > 9.0°C:  Early high cloud, scattered below. Cloud lowered and thickened and rain after 09:30. Almost calm. Very good visibility; reducing to good with the onset of rain.

Sunrise: 07:53 BST

Ideal viewing conditions for visible migration but not a lot going on – perhaps they could sense the rain on its way.

The ‘football’ field has now become the football field – lines have been marked on the ‘grass’. As yet there are no holes for the goal-posts. The field is rapidly turning in to mud as pupils at the academy use it as a short-cut to the gates, some of them riding bicycles or mini-scooters.

Priorslee Lake:  06:40 –09:35

(253rd visit of the year)

Bird notes from today:
- The cygnets were rounded up for another short attempt at flight. Some are to be seen standing at the bottom of the concrete ramp flapping away trying their wings.
- The Black-headed Gulls were late arriving this morning – all after 07:45. I logged c.200 arriving from the W before birds started leaving, both to E and W. Subsequently >50 arrived from the W and are assumed to be returning birds. The two logged as over-flying were very high up and in with a group of passing Lesser Black-backed Gulls which had nothing to do with the lake.
- All the migrant Wood Pigeons flew over in a small c.15 minute window after 08:45.
- The 17 Reed Buntings left the roost in three groups just before 08:00. After 09:00 I flushed three more from the S side and there were still two birds calling at the W end.

Bird totals:

Birds noted flying over or flying near the lake:
- 3 (?♂) Tufted Ducks
- 3 (?♂) Goosanders
- 2 Black-headed Gulls
- 43 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: mainly adults
- 55 unidentified large gulls
- 204 Wood Pigeons: 187 of these in 10 migrant groups all heading ‘S’
- 1 Collared Dove
- 267 Jackdaws
- 4 Rooks
- 41 Starlings (1 group)
- 11 Fieldfare (1 group)
- 17 Redwings (3 singles / groups)
- 5 Pied Wagtails

Birds logged leaving roosts around the lake:
- >105 Starlings
- 3 Redwings
- 17 Reed Bunting

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 4 (2♂) Gadwall
- 8 (5♂) Mallard
- 25 (?♂) Tufted Ducks
- 3 Grey Herons
- 1 Little Grebe again
- 15 Great Crested Grebes
- 7 Moorhens
- 121 Coots
- >200 Black-headed Gulls
- 54 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 6 Herring Gulls: no adults noted

Very busy on the lamp poles pre-dawn:
- 7 November Moth-types (Epirrita sp.)
- 1 male Tipula confusa cranefly
- 1 female Tipula pagana cranefly
- 1 unidentified small fly sp.
- 1 Common Green Shieldbug (Palomena prasina)
- 1 Common European Earwig (Forficula auricularia)
- 2 probable Nursery Web Spiders (Pisaura mirabilis)
- 4 other unidentified spiders of three different species
- 2 Paroligolophus agrestis harvestmen
- 1 Leiobunum rotundum harvestman

Later sightings elsewhere
- 3 male Tipula pagana craneflies

With the incoming deluge where was the “red sky in the morning”? The best I could manage.

A trio of Goosanders over against the grey skies. How do we know? A long, slender body with the white patches at the end of the inner secondaries and the dark (brown) head. Red-breasted Merganser is similar though the white patches tend to be more diffuse. But that species is almost confined to salt water and any seen in Shropshire would get the local twitchers here in a hurry.

A dreadful trio of photos of a Grey Heron that I flushed very early which seemed to be having its breakfast. Something large in its bill ....

 ... that it dropped. I think it is a Perch (Perca fluviatilis) – the striped body and red fins and tail point that way.

Whatever it was it made a big splash!

It always happens: I took a photo of this well-marked November-type Moth and only when I looked at it on the PC did I notice (amongst all the detritus) an orb-web spider in the top right and on the extreme left a female Tipula pagana cranefly.

This cranefly with the marbled-patterning on the wings is almost certainly Tipula confusa. The very similar species T. rufina is a Spring-flying insect. Separation is only possible if you can see the side of the thorax – rufina has a dark stripe along the side. We cannot see that here obviously. The date is the likely clincher.

No idea what either of these are. Both frequently seen, small and usually at a distance. A small spider on the left; and a small fly with very large red eyes on the right. I never see these after day-break when I MIGHT be able to get a better photo.

This is either a Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis) or a very similar species. Markings not quite right but then many spiders can be variable ....

... as we can see here with what I assume is another of the same species.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash:  09:40 – 10:25

(239th visit of the year)

Notes from here:
- Family party of adult Greylag Goose and adult Canada Goose with their five cross-breed off-spring
- Thanks to someone appearing with food all the Mallard were motivated to fly in to the feast and could, relatively easily, be counted in one go.
- More Tufted Ducks than yesterday – but then there were fewer at the lake this morning.

Bird noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 1 Jackdaw again

Counts from the water:
- 3 Mute Swans
- 19 Greylag Geese
- 21 Canada Geese
- 5 Greylag x Canada Geese (family)
- 47 (24♂) Mallard
- 24 (?♂) Tufted Duck only
- 3 (0♂) Goosanders
- 1 Great Crested Grebe again
- 2 Moorhens
- 12 Coots again
- 32 Black-headed Gulls

Other things:
- on the usual lamp pole
- 1 Dicranopalpus ramosus harvestman
- 1 female Tipula pagana cranefly
- 1 Common Stretch-spider (Tetragnatha extensa) with unidentified prey
- on lamps in squirrel alley
- 1 November Moth-type (Epirrita sp.)
- 1 Paroligolophus agrestis harvestman
- elsewhere on lamp poles
 - 1 Red-green Carpet moth (Chloroclysta siterata): moth species #25 here in 2019: new here
 - 1 probable Nothochrysa capitata lacewing
and
- 1 Grey Squirrel

The family group: an adult Greylag Goose and an adult Canada Goose with their five cross-breed off-spring. It seems unusual that these would stay together. Most other geese are now in large, presumably mixed-family, groups.

Grey day and rain meant these were the best I could do with otherwise cooperative Long-tailed Tits.

Another bird in the foraging group.

Well this moth was 15 feet up a well-shaded lamp pole and it was raining. A Red-green Carpet moth (Chloroclysta siterata). An unusual moth in two respects. Firstly it over winters as an adult by hibernating – it will emerge again in March-time. Secondly when at rest it often curls up the tip of its abdomen – just about noticeable here.

This appears to be the lacewing Nothochrysa capitata. It is one of the few orange species in the Green Lacewing family and sometimes (confusingly) called Black Lacewing. It is rarely seen and this is a rather late date on which to find one.

This Common Stretch-spider (Tetragnatha extensa) has prey.

Close-up from a different angle does not really help to identify the prey. We can see the row of eyes on the spider though.

(Ed Wilson)

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

2018
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2017
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2016
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2012
Priorslee Lake
2 Gadwall
1 Wigeon
1 Common Gull
(John Isherwood)

The Flash
1 Goosander
7 Pochard
(John Isherwood)

2010
Priorslee Lake
12 Golden Plover
1577 Wood Pigeons
28 Sky Larks
12 Fieldfare
8 Redwings
4 Siskins
1 Linnet
2 Redpoll
1 Brambling
(Ed Wilson)