27 May 20

Priorslee Lake only

10.0°C > 15.0°C: Mostly clear; a few patches of medium-high cloud. Very light NNW breeze. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 04:55 BST

Priorslee Lake: 04:21 – 08:58

(94th visit of the year)

An extended amble around without any significant reward.

Some of the Giant Hogweed has indeed been cut (and left for collection). Much more remains to be done.

Bird notes:
- Both the duck and the drake Gadwall seen throughout.
- A seventh Great Crested Grebes seen. Perhaps an eighth on a nest?
- Three Common Buzzards spiralling higher and higher. One of these may have been a local bird from the Ricoh copse. Still unsure whether they are nesting there this year.
- Only one family party of Coots seen. It has been reported that a power boat has been driven at speed around the water creating sufficient wake so as to threaten Coot (and Great Crested Grebe) nests.
- Three of the Lesser Black-backed Gulls either roosted or, more likely, stopped off very early. Seen leaving at 04:30. Two of them, probably immatures, in heavy wing-moult.
- Calls of juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers from their nest hole. The parents were getting very upset with and chasing away the Magpies, who also have young.

Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 4 Canada Geese: one group inbound
- 3 Cormorants: duo and single
- 1 Grey Heron
- 3 Common Buzzards
- 9 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: ages not determined
- 9 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Collared Dove
- 21 Jackdaws
- 3 Rooks

Birds noted on the ‘football’ field [Wood Pigeons and Magpies excluded]:
- 3 Starlings again

Birds noted on the academy playing field [Wood Pigeons and Magpies excluded here too]:
- 2 Jackdaws
The sad-looking Feral Pigeon was still perched on the academy roof.

Count of hirundines etc logged:
- c.15 Swifts
- 2 Barn Swallows
- 2 House Martins

Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 13 (8) Chiffchaffs
- 12 (11) Blackcaps
- 3 (3) Garden Warblers
- 4 (3) Common Whitethroats
- 9 (8) Reed Warblers

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 2 (1♂) Gadwall
- 9 (7♂) Mallard
- 2 (1♂) Tufted Duck
- 7 Great Crested Grebes
- 3 Moorhens again
- 20 + 3 (1 brood) Coots
- 5 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: two in heavy wing moult; ages not determined
- 1 Herring Gull: (near) adult, briefly

On / around the street lights:
- 1 Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperia carnea)
- 1 Common Stretch-spiders (Tetragnatha extensa)

Insects / other things etc noted later:

Damselflies
None

Moths
- Plain Gold (Micropterix calthella)
- Common Nettle-tap (Anthophila fabriciana)
- Straw Dot (Rivula sericealis): moth species #17 for me here his year

Bees, wasps etc.
- Presumed Andrena mining bee
- Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum)
- A Rhogogaster sawfly

Hoverflies
- Stripe-faced Dronefly (Eristalis nemorum)
- Tapered Drone-fly (Eristalis pertinax)
- Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)
- unidentified Parhelophilus sp.
- Bumblebee Hoverfly (Volucella bombylans)

Other things:
- Common European Earwig (Forficula auricularia)
- Red-and-Black Froghopper (Cercopis vulnerata)
- Alder Fly (Sialis lutaria)
- Dock Bug (Coreus marginatus)
- Harlequin Ladybirds (Harmonia axyridis): forms spectabilis and succinea noted
- Soldier beetle Cantharis nigricans
- Snipe fly (Rhagio scolopaceus?)
- Cucumber Green Orb Spider species (Araniella cucurbitina sensu stricto)
- Common Stretch-spider (Tetragnatha extensa)
- 2 Grey Squirrels

Additional plant species recorded for the year at this site:
None

Today’s silly o’clock sunrise.

An attempt to be different ...

Look: a Common Whitethroat not carrying food! This one was continually doing its jaunty display flights from the tops of various small trees and bushes. Whether that means he has not got a mate or whether his first brood has fledged and he re-establishing his territory is hard to say.

An even better view of two tiny Plain Gold moths (Micropterix calthella) on a single buttercup petal.

Not at a helpful angle but it is straw-coloured and has a dot in the wing. Fits the Straw Dot moth (Rivula sericealis).

This is surely an Andrena mining bee. But if so where are its antenna? It seems too hairy to be a hoverfly. A puzzle.

Although rather orange-toned for an Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) its general scruffy appearance rules out the only other three-banded bumblebee – the Buff-tailed Bumblebee.

A different, even scruffier-looking, individual. Perhaps the Covid lock-down means they can’t get to the barbers for a trim.

This sawfly looks very different from the one I photographed yesterday even allowing for the fact the wings are open and the black back is more clearly visible. Cannot get closer to an identity than a Rhogogaster species.

A Stripe-faced Dronefly (Eristalis nemorum).

A Parhelophilus sp. hoverfly. Separation of the species is not possible from photos.

Not a bumblebee – it has short antennae. It is the hoverfly Volucella bombylans, usually known as the Bumblebee Hoverfly for obvious reasons. However it occurs in several variations, not all of which are quite so bumblebee-like. This is the form bombylans with a black body and orange-red tail. Note the wing cloud that is never present in bumblebees.

I am not sure what these two Alder Flies (Sialis lutaria) are up to. Best not to ask perhaps.

This is a Dock Bug (Coreus marginatus). A very distinctive shape.

I had never seen this species of Soldier beetle until a few days ago. Now I find it daily. It is Cantharis nigricans. There are, of course, several similar species but here the left hind leg shows the diagnostic feature; The black on the orange hind leg extends above the 'knee'.

Compare and contrast time. This is the spectabilis form of the Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis).

As is this rather different-looking example. Each of the three Harlequin forms exhibits considerable variation. This form can look very similar to the Pine Ladybird (Exochomus quadripustulatus): which is not confined to pines. There is also a form of the 2 Spot Ladybird (Adalia bipunctata) with a black elytra and four(!) red spots. Both it and the Pine Ladybird are smaller and have all-black faces.

This is one of several ‘Cucumber Green Orb Spiders’ and until the separation of the species involved is finalised needs to be formally recorded as Araniella cucurbitina sensu stricto.

(Ed Wilson)

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

2019
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2018
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2017
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2016
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2015
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2014
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2009
Priorslee Lake
3 Little Egrets
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
Little Ringed Plover
(John Isherwood)