18 May 20

Priorslee Lake: 04:49 – 06:00 // 07:00 – 09:13
The Flash: 06:05 – 06:55

10.0°C > 15.0°C: Broken rather threatening medium cloud gave way to more broken higher cloud. Moderate SW wind. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 05:07 BST

Priorslee Lake:

(85th visit of the year)

A new species for my 2020 lake list:
#87 Ringed Plover
It was worth getting up early this morning. Present on the SW grass until 05:05 only! My second record over the last six years, the previous being on 9th April 2018.

Other bird notes:
- A pair of Tufted Duck did their usual ‘appearing’ and ‘disappearing’ act. At least I saw them depart (towards The Flash).
- The brood of three Coots was in almost the same place as the brood of six seen last Thursday but today’s looked smaller as if they were from a very new brood.
- Arrived early enough to see a group of 44 Jackdaws outbound.
- I logged 17 flights by Great Spotted Woodpeckers! I suspect a pair on feeding-forays. Sounds of juveniles from the Ricoh copse.
- What I assume was a Garden Warbler including a brief snatch of Lesser Whitethroat-type song. Hard to be certain as the Lesser Whitethroat singing last month was exactly where the Garden Warbler was singing today. Or two birds?
- Saturday’s Reed Warbler in the small patch of reeds near the sluice was singing again. Now another along the N side (making six). So eleven in all.
- I was wrong in suggesting it was too early for juvenile Goldfinches. I saw at least two this morning

Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 1 Greylag Goose (outbound) again
- 4 Canada Geese (pair outbound; pair inbound)
- 2 Cormorants
- 6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: ages not determined; at least one immature
- 1 Herring Gull: immature
- 2 Stock Doves
- 3 Wood Pigeons only
- 56 Jackdaws
- 2 Rooks

Birds noted on the ‘football’ field [Wood Pigeons and Magpies excluded]:
- 5 Starlings only
I believe that most of the juvenile Starlings fledged yesterday (they did in Newport) and birds have gone elsewhere

Birds noted on the academy playing field [Wood Pigeons and Magpies excluded here too]:
None

Count of hirundines etc logged:
- >20 Swifts: first two seen at 04:55
- 1 Sand Martin
- 3 Barn Swallows
- House Martin(s) heard only

Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 11 (8) Chiffchaffs
- 23 (20) Blackcaps
- 4 (3) Garden Warblers
- 2 (1) Common Whitethroats
- 1 (1) Sedge Warbler still
- 11 (11) Reed Warblers

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 6 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 2 Canada Geese: not allowed to stay long
- 1 (1♂) Gadwall
- 4 (3♂) Mallard
- 2 (1♂) Tufted Ducks: arrived and departed
- 1 Grey Heron, briefly
- 8 Great Crested Grebes
- 2 Moorhens only
- 20 + 3 (1 brood) Coots
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: (near) adult, briefly
- 1 Herring Gull: 2nd year, briefly

On / around the street lights:
- The harvestman Opilio canestrinii

Insects / other things etc noted later:

Butterflies / moths:
- Meadow Long-horn moth (Cauchas rufimitrella)
- Common Nettle-tap moth (Anthophila fabriciana)

Bees:
- Field Cuckoo Bee (Bombus campestris)

Hoverflies:
- Epistrophe elegans
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- The Footballer (Helophilus pendulus)
- Leucozona lucorum
- Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)

Damselflies:
None

Other notable flies:
- Cranefly Tipula oleracea.
- Scorpion Fly (Panorpa communis)

Other things:
- Red-headed Cardinal Beetle (Pyrochroa serraticornis)
- Red-and-Black Froghopper (Cercopis vulnerata)
- Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis) all of the variety succinea
- glass snails sp.

Additional plant species recorded for the year at this site:
- Spindle flowers (Euonymus europaeus)
- Cleavers (Galium aparine)
- Dog Rose (Rosa canina agg.)

Today’s Mute Swan family shot – yes there are six cygnets!

Another (very) short video of Great Crested Grebes quickly losing interest.

More record shots than anything else. There was not much light at 05:00 hence a rather strange colour-cast. This is a (Common) Ringed Plover. Significantly larger than the more regular Little Ringed Plover. This species is small: LRP is tiny. Note the lack of yellow eye ring. This species has orange-yellow legs (rather than the washed out pink of LRP). The clean-cut markings suggest this is a male.

Wandered off naturally.

This is a Red-headed Cardinal Beetle (Pyrochroa serraticornis). You can just about make out its serrated antennae (useful scientific name). I tried for a clearer shot but it dropped off the leaf.

I know I showed this species yesterday but ... Here two Meadow Long-horn moths (Cauchas rufimitrella) dispute over a flower of Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata)

One is victorious!

This rather plain-looking cranefly is a male Tipula oleracea.

Makes a change to find a fly that isn’t all black. This is likely Pegomya bicolor (other species of Pegomya are available!). The larvae of these flies make leaf-mines in species of Dock.

Today both female and ....

... male Scorpion Flies (Panorpa communis) allowed themselves to be photographed. The male showing its ‘scorpion-tail’ genitalia.

This looks like a Field Cuckoo Bee (Bombus campestris). The combination of orange collar at the front of the thorax and orange midriff band behind the thorax plus white bands on the dark-ended abdomen seem to be unique.

This has the typical build of a male Tapered Drone-fly (Eristalis pertinax), but it was rather small. Note that the leg visible is all yellow and this points to it being a male Epistrophe elegans, also a species where the male’s body is more tapered than female’s. This species has very variable amounts of yellow markings on the body.

Small hoverflies that rest with wings covering the body markings are always a challenge to identify. We can just see enough through the wings here to confirm it is a female Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare). Males, confusingly, have different shaped yellow markings.

This shows how small they are – the flowers are the heads of Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris).

A new hoverfly for me but ... another species that has recently been found to comprise several cryptic species and has to be recorded with the snappy name Xanthogramma pedissequum sensu lato. [sensu lato is used taxonomically to indicate that the identity now includes additional incompletely described species].

Is it harvest time already? This is a harvestman, I think Opilio canestrinii.

Isn’t the www wonderful! I had no idea: seems these are Spindle flowers (Euonymus europaeus).

The very small and not often observed white flower of Cleavers (Galium aparine). This plant mostly spreads vegetatively by sticking itself to passing mammals – humans and the like.

The flowers of Dog Rose (Rosa canina agg.). I must have overlooked these for a few days. But then roses are one of my least favourite flowers – each flower-head is perfect for such a short time and then so scruffy.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash:

(72nd visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Many more Canada Geese today.
- All the Coots were still brooding juveniles so numbers unreliable. It sounds as if there is a new breed near the north-most bridge but I could not locate the birds either yesterday or today. It is close to what appeared to be an abandoned nest and I am wondering whether a replacement nest is out of sight on the bridge structure itself.
- Juvenile Wren and Dunnock noted.

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
None

Hirundines etc logged:
- 4 Swifts again
- 1 House Martin

Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 8 (6) Chiffchaffs
- 5 (5) Blackcaps
- 1 (1) Reed Warbler yet again

Counts from the water:
- 3 + 9 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 25 + 3 (1 brood) Canada Geese
- 17 (15♂) + 0 (0 broods) Mallard
- 12 (7♂) Tufted Duck
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 4 Moorhens
- 16 + >2 (3? broods) Coots

Otherwise of note:
- Wild Strawberry flowers (Fragaria vesca)
- 1 Tetragnatha sp. stretch spider on a lamp pole

I was trying to get a photo of this Wren singing with its mouth wide open. It did not seem to want to sing more than half-heartedly and eventually I saw why. It would have dropped its breakfast!

Looking at the bird here it appears to have some yellow at the gape and is therefore a juvenile and most unlikely to sing very loudly anyway.

An “angry bird” pose. Just visible are the white tips to the new median coverts.

This looks like Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca). A garden escape would likely not show such evenly-toothed leaves.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

Noteworthy
- 1 adult Moorhen seen on grass by the lower pool
- 1 adult Moorhen seen on grass by the upper pool
- >1 Great Spotted Woodpecker flying around
- 1 Blackcap singing at the lower pool
- 1 + 1 Starling flying together – fledged juvenile
also
- 1 male Plumed Midge (Chironomus plumosus) on a lamp pole

Not often I find anything on the lamp poles here despite the vegetation and the water. A male Plumed Midge (Chironomus plumosus).

(Ed Wilson)

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

2019
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2015
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2013
Priorslee Lake
Spotted Flycatcher
Wheatear
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
Whimbrel
2 drake Ruddy Ducks
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
2 Ruddy Ducks
(Ed Wilson)