4 May 20

Priorslee Lake and The Flash
The Flash again for my extended exercise walk today.

8.0°C > 9.0°C:  Areas of medium cloud threatened to clear but tended to be replaced by hazy low cloud. Light NW wind. Good visibility.

Sunrise: 05:30 BST

Priorslee Lake:  early

(71st visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- The Greylag Goose that arrived was living dangerously. It was very vocal and swam towards the Mute Swans’ nest. Eventually the cob swan woke up and chased it away.
- The female Pheasant on the academy playing field has a damaged leg and can only hop.
- The Common Sandpiper was seen just once when I accidentally flushed it. Strangely this normally vocal species was not heard.
- Gulls on the water:
        - the first to arrive, briefly, was an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull. It used a different buoy from that frequented last week.
        - next was a second summer Lesser Black-backed Gull. Also briefly. It used another different buoy.
        - later a third-summer Herring Gull arrived to bathe and drink.
        - after a few minutes two (near) adult Herring Gulls and a first summer Lesser Black-backed dropped in to join the other Herring Gull.
        - soon after an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull flew low over and all four of the gulls on the water left chasing after it.
- An unusual sight for the date was a group of seven Wood Pigeons flying high NE. The height at which I would have thought suggested migration. But in May?.
- Three Garden Warblers in song. All in different locations from any heard previously. Are they having trouble finding mates?
- No Lesser Whitethroat or Sedge Warbler heard.

Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 3 Greylag Geese (1 outbound; pair inbound)
- 2 Canada Geese (pair outbound)
- 1 male Sparrowhawk carrying prey
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: adults
- 17 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Collared Dove
- 4 Jackdaws
- 3 Rooks

Birds noted on the academy playing field:
- 2 Canada Geese
- 1 pair Pheasants
- 28 Starlings

Count of hirundines etc logged:
- 3 Swifts
- 1 Sand Martin
- 2 Barn Swallows
- 1 House Martin
The singles of Sand Martin and House Martin flew straight through, separately.
The Barn Swallows came from the E (the farms?) rather than from the village area.

Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 14 (12) Chiffchaffs
- 27 (23) Blackcaps
- 3 (3) Garden Warblers
- 3 (3) Common Whitethroats
- 5 (5) Reed Warblers

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 Mute Swans
- 1 Greylag Goose for a while
- 11 (10♂) Mallard
- 2 (?♂) Tufted Ducks: flew off as I arrived
- 2 Grey Herons
- Little Grebe heard
- 3 Great Crested Grebes only
- 3 Moorhens
- 21 Coots
- 1 Common Sandpiper
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: 1 adult; 1 second summer; 1 first summer.
- 3 Herring Gulls: 2 (near) adults; 1 third summer
(see notes about these gulls)

On / around the street lights:
Nothing

New flower species recorded for the year at this site:
- White Dead-Nettle (Lamium album)
- Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)
- Unidentified Vetch (Vicia sp.)

Insects / other things etc noted:
- Red-and-Black Froghopper (Cercopis vulnerata)
- female Tapered Drone-fly (Eristalis pertinax)
- the small hoverfly from Cheilosia albitarsus agg.
- female Earwig (Forficula auricularia)
- White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis)
- glass snail sps.

A Lesser Black-backed Gull with really worn wing-coverts, especially the median coverts. In my view it is second summer, with not yet moulted first winter coverts. Note the pale bill tip and dark across both mandibles. I hope it did not make those green marks on the buoy – must be really ill to have done that! Apologies for the quality – very poor light at the time and the bird some way away.

Light a bit better now but the distance greater! A third-summer Herring Gull – note the new brighter inner primaries.

And here are all three Herring Gulls with the third-summer on the left. The angle of the light shows the primaries as much browner. The bird in front looks superficially like an adult but shows black on the upper mandible (at least) and is likely a fourth-summer bird. Even the bird on the right seems to have black on the upper mandible, albeit a smaller amount.

Completing the quartet of gulls present together, briefly, was this first-summer Lesser Black-backed Gull. Note the inner primaries are almost the same tone as the outer primaries and the secondaries.

A rather sad-looking Feral Pigeon on the roof of the academy. I could not get enough height to confirm whether this was a Racing Pigeon with rings. It does not look like it.

We seem to have been invaded by House Sparrows! Perhaps the population around the estate has grown too large. Perhaps people have been busy trimming garden vegetation during the lock-down and the birds have had to look for new nest sites.

My first Red-and-Black Froghopper (Cercopis vulnerata) of the year.

Still warming up and allowing close approach was this female Tapered Drone-fly (Eristalis pertinax)

A small hoverfly in a buttercup flower. I was expecting it to be a Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare) but what little of the body that can be seen does not to have a yellow and black pattern. Also the body is short. This indicates that it is probably a female Cheilosia albitarsus. ‘Probably’ because a new species C. ranunculi has recently been discovered and none of my literature covers the separation of these cryptic species. So C. albitarsus agg. is probably the best. New for me.

An Earwig (Forficula auricularia) also known as Common European Earwig. A female. The pincers of males are much more curved, not that I have ever seen one around the lake.

Snails are very difficult to identify with most species being very variable. There are over 100 species in the UK to choose from. I have not managed to get anywhere with an ID for any of those I found this morning. On one hand the shell seems to match a glass snail sp. but all those seem to be dark-bodied which this clearly isn’t.

Another view. Apologies for the dirty fingernails: boys will be boys!

A presumed different snail species, also looks like a glass snail.

Another view. Fingernails out of sight!

The recent rain has brought snails out. I assume the transparent area around the lip is why they are glass snails. A third specimen.

A vetch in the middle of the photo. With only a single flower visible it is perhaps not yet possible to positively identify it. There are too few leaflets for the most common family member – Tufted Vetch (Vicia cracca). The leaflets are too broad for any species of Tare. One to come back to. To left and right, not yet in flower, are Cleavers (Galium aparine); and behind are Common or Stinging Nettles (Urtica dioica).

A much better photo of Guelder Rose (Viburnum opulus) than I managed Saturday. Five flower heads here.

A close-up of one of the flower heads showing the large sterile flowers on the circumference and the insignificant small fertile florets at the centre.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash:

(60th visit of the year)

New species for my 2020 Flash list:
#64     Swift
A single bird briefly over with House Martins.

Other bird notes:
- My first Mallard duckling of the year.
- Where have all the Tufted Duck gone? A drake was seen to climb on to the island. A pair was seen in the water. These then disappeared.
- No Great Crested Grebe found.
- The second summer Lesser Black-backed Gull arrived some while after the bird had left the lake. Likely a different individual.
- No Garden Warbler heard: a Blackcap was singing in almost the same spot.
- Reed Bunting song heard very briefly, once only.

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 7 Wood Pigeon
- 1 Jackdaw

Hirundines etc logged:
- 1 Swift
- 3 House Martins

Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 5 (4) Chiffchaffs
- 7 (7) Blackcaps

Counts from the water:
- 3 Mute Swans as usual
- 16 Canada Geese
- 23 (18♂) + 1 (1 brood) Mallard
- 3 (2♂) Tufted Duck
- [no Great Crested Grebes]
- 3 Moorhen
- 15 + ? (1 brood) Coots
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: second summer

Proud mum Mallard with her just visible single duckling. I was told one was seen with six ducklings on Friday (1st). That could have been another brood, though all broods are heavily predated here.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

- 1 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens on the lower pool

(Ed Wilson)

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If you are on your daily exercise and keeping a safe distance from others, we would love to see any photos or sightings you have, from Priorslee Lake and The Flash, by emailing them to us at priorsleelake@hotmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you.😊

(Martin Adlam and Ed Wilson)

Note:
Here are a few Garden Sightings from Ed Wilson Here on our Readers Corner from the past few days

And

A few of Martin Adlam's Sightings from the Isle of Portland Here.

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

2016
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2015
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2014
Local Area
Today's Sightings Here

2007
Priorslee Lake
1 Gadwall
(John Isherwood)

2006
Priorslee Lake
4 Ruddy Ducks
1 Common Sandpiper
(Ed Wilson)