28 May 20

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

10.0°C > 16.0°C: Just some thin high cloud making it hazy, otherwise clear. Light SE breeze. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 04:54 BST

Priorslee Lake: 04:23 – 05:50 // 06:50 – 09:18

(95th visit of the year)

The contractors made no further progress in dealing with the Giant Hogweed. The plants ‘dealt with’ are mashed up on the ground, admittedly well off the path, but where the sap – the dangerous part – is more exposed.

Bird notes:
- The Gadwall likely decamped to The Flash.
- A pair of Tufted Duck arrived.
- The pair of Coot that had lost all their young were noted mating.
- Lesser Whitethroat singing at new location. One bird seen briefly then two birds seen flying off – both this species?

Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 6 Greylag Geese: quartet with Canadas; pair outbound later
- 2 Canada Geese: outbound
- 1 (0♂) Tufted Duck
- 1 Sparrowhawk
- 1 Cormorant
- 1 Grey Heron: very high over
- 5 Lesser Black-backed Gull: all (near) adults
- 9 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Collared Dove
- 10 Jackdaws
- 8 Rooks
- 3 Starlings

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

Birds noted on the academy playing field [Wood Pigeons and Magpies excluded here too]:
- 1 Mistle Thrush

Count of hirundines etc logged:
- 7 Swifts
- 1 Barn Swallow heard only
- 2 House Martins

Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 12 (10) Chiffchaffs
- 11 (11) Blackcaps
- 4 (4) Garden Warblers
- 2 (1) Lesser Whitethroats
- 6 (3) Common Whitethroats
- 10 (8) Reed Warblers
- yet another new location for song.

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 9 (7♂) Mallard again
- 2 (1♂) Tufted Duck: arrived
- 7 Great Crested Grebes again
- 4 Moorhens
- 18 + 6 (3 broods) Coots
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: (near) adult

On / around the street lights early:
Nothing
***where have all the moths gone?

Insects / other things etc noted later:

Damselflies
- Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella)
- Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)
- Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans)

Butterflies / Moths
***still no butterflies
- Common Nettle-tap (Anthophila fabriciana)
- Plum Tortrix moth (Hedya pruniana)
- An unidentified moth
Bees:
- Honey Bee (Apis mellifera): my first here this year
- Field Cuckoo Bumblebee (Bombus campestris)
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)

Hoverflies
- Cheilosia sp.
- Tapered Drone-fly (Eristalis pertinax)
- The Footballer (Helophilus pendulus)
- Parhelophilus sp.

Other things:
- Common Green Capsid bug (Lygocoris pabulinus)
- The plant bug Miris striatus (sometimes called Fine Streaked Bugkin)
- Red-and-Black Froghoppers (Cercopis vulnerata)
- 10 Spot Ladybird (Adalia decempunctata)
- Harlequin Ladybirds (Harmonia axyridis): only the form succinea noted
- unidentified leaf beetle
- Oedemera nobilis (Thick-legged Flower Beetle or Swollen-thighed Beetle)
- Soldier beetle Cantharis nigricans
- Common Stretch-spiders (Tetragnatha extensa)
- 1 pipistrelle-type bat: my first here this year
- 1 Grey Squirrel

Additional flowering plant species recorded for the year at this site:
- Honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.): may be a garden escape.
- Elder (Sambucus nigra)
- Common or Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) – such as the flowers are

The silly o’clock sunrise.

A sunny portrait of an adult Moorhen.

Why not go for two Moorhens?

I stayed well away from the nest, wound up the zoom and in it came. A Common Whitethroat complete with breakfast for its young.

But like No.11 buses: you wait for one breakfast and two come along together. The male at the back – orange eye.

He’s bringing a really juicy caterpillar!

Another Reed Warbler posed for me. This at the S end of the dam. It is the first year a bird has been in this area for any length of time.

A Plum Tortrix moth (Hedya pruniana). There are several similar species that I still haven’t seen!

A pair of Common Blue Damselflies (Enallagma cyathigerum). The male at the top! The thorax marks are the same, otherwise the sexes look very different. On the male the ‘club-shaped’ mark can be seen on the top body segment. I find this the easiest and most reliable way to separate from inverted U-shaped mark of Azure Damselfly.

I may have to review the identification of some of yesterday’s bees. From the side there are several white bands on the abdomen so this scruffy bee is most certainly a Field Cuckoo Bumblebee (Bombus campestris)

Looks tapered to me! A Tapered Drone-fly (Eristalis pertinax).

This seems to have very prominent antennae and a very yellow face. It is Eupeodes corollae.

This tiny hoverfly is one of the Platycheirus group. They were a challenge to tell apart before experts started finding new cryptic species. This may be P. angustatus. Then again ....

A better look at what is probably a Common Green Capsid bug (Lygocoris pabulinus).

A side-elevation reveals surprisingly long legs and, apparently, a long proboscis.

The plant bug Miris striatus (sometimes called Fine Streaked Bugkin).

About to get run over by a 10 Spot Ladybird (Adalia decempunctata). This species is rather misnamed as it can have any number of spots from zero to sixteen. The elytra can be pale red or black. The red form is often, as here, washed yellow. The pattern of the ‘face’ is consistent and very different from any other species.

One for later if I have time to search through the many small green beetles to find a match.

A glass snail sp. with resident. I have no real way to ID these.

Perhaps a garden escape. A Honeysuckle flower (Lonicera sp.)

This is Elder flower (Sambucus nigra). Difficult to show the dark leaves as well as the very white flower.

Now fully open – a Goat's-beard or Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon (Tragopogon pratensis)

The flowers, such as they are, of Common or Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica).

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 05:55 – 06:45

(81st visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- The Canada Geese goslings missing again.
- The Gadwall seem to have taken refuge from the Coots at the lake and come here.
- At least five reasonably well-grown Mallard ducklings on the island – hard to tell how many as the cob Mute Swan was pursuing one of the Canada Geese and scattering everything in its wake.
- New brood of four Coots. At least two nests with adults still brooding an unknown additional number of juveniles. The puzzle over the nest near the sluice where I could hear juveniles calling bit could not see them on Tuesday is resolved: the juveniles were Moorhens in a hidden close-by nest.
- Big number of Swifts again.

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 3 Jackdaws

Hirundines etc logged:
- >30 Swifts again
- 3 House Martins

Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 3 (3) Chiffchaffs
- 3 (3) Blackcaps

Counts from the water:
- 3 + 8 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 1 Greylag Goose
- 32 Canada Geese
- 2 (1♂) Gadwall
- 21 (17♂) + 5 (1 brood) Mallard
- 4 (2♂) Tufted Duck
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 4 + 2 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 16 + 8 (4 broods) Coots
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: (near) adult again, briefly

Also noted:
- A Common Carpet moth (Epirrhoe alternata) on one of the street lamp poles.
- 2 Grey Squirrels

The pair of Gadwall have decamped here. Not quite so pristine any more.

What is going on here?

Only marginally clearer. Two Wrens having a real scrap and rolling along the floor of one of the wooded areas – no light: hence my inability to stop the action. In reality it was all a blur anyway and only when they flew away to tidy their feathers was I sure what they were.

Slight puzzle with this moth. I am sure it is a Common Carpet (Epirrhoe alternata) but the outer edge of the central band is rather more ‘wobbly’ than usual. Cannot find a better fit.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

Noteworthy
- Grey Heron flushed off the lower pool.
- Great Spotted Woodpecker again.
- 1 Blackcap singing at the lower pool.
- 7 Starlings in tight group circling, suggesting Sparrow just out of my line of sight.
- Bullfinches above the upper pool.
and
- 1 Grey Squirrel.

(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

2007
Priorslee Lake
2 Ruddy Ducks
(Martin Adlam)

2006
Priorslee Lake
Cuckoo
(Martin Adlam)