1 Jun 20

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

10.0°C > 17.0°C: Cloudless again. Calm start; light NE breeze later. Very good visibility; less hazy.

Sunrise: 04:51 BST

Priorslee Lake: 04:23 – 05:40// 06:45 – 09:13

(98th visit of the year)

After a the fine weekend a complete mess of litter left in some places with discarded barbecues, beer bottles and cans. The bins were overflowing so at least some people tried. But if you brought it with you can take it away: please. Worse yet the sailing club shelter had one of the side-panels ripped off. What fun eh?

Bird notes:
- The Great Spotted Woodpeckers have probably fledged. The usual traffic in to and out of the Ricoh copse was absent this morning and calls heard from different locations.
- The wing pattern of the Feral Pigeon fly-over looked somewhat like that of the miserable-looking bird seen on the academy roof most mornings. Was flying strongly.
- Family party of at least four Jays.
- Juvenile Great Tits seen.
- Newly fledged Common Whitethroat seen.
- One barely-able to fly as yet Reed Bunting noted.

Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 1 Greylag Goose: inbound
- 2 (1♂) Tufted Duck: pair flew E
- 1 Grey Heron: to E
- 5 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: ages not determined.
- 1 Herring Gull: near adult
- 1 Feral Pigeon
- 8 Wood Pigeons
- 22 Jackdaws
- 24 Rooks
- 3 Starlings

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

Birds noted on the academy playing field [Wood Pigeons and Magpies excluded here too]:
None
The ‘Homing Pigeon’ was still on the roof of the academy first thing (see notes above)

Count of hirundines etc logged:
- 6 Swifts
- 2 House Martins

Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 15 (11) Chiffchaffs
- 11 (10) Blackcaps
- 2 (2) Garden Warblers
- 6 (3) Common Whitethroats
- 7 (6) Reed Warblers

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 8 (8♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) Tufted Duck: arrived
- 10 Great Crested Grebes again
- 5 Moorhens
- 19 + 8 (4 broods) Coots
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: (near) adult briefly

On / around the street lights pre-sunrise:
Nothing

Insects / other things etc noted later:

Butterflies:
- Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris)
- Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)
- Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)

Moths:
- Timothy Tortrix (Zelotherses paleana)

Bees / wasps:
- Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
- Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)
- Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum)

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

Hoverflies
- Cheilosia sp.
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- Tapered Drone-fly (Eristalis pertinax)
- Eupeodes luniger
- Parhelophilus sp.

Other things:
- Red-and-Black Froghopper (Cercopis vulnerata)
- >50 Mystacides longicornis (caddis flies)
- Scorpion Fly (Panorpa communis)
- 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata)
- many Harlequin Ladybirds (Harmonia axyridis): forms spectabilis and succinea noted
- many Oedemera nobilis (Thick-legged Flower Beetle or Swollen-thighed Beetle)
- Common Stretch-spider (Tetragnatha extensa)
- The fungus Piptoporus betulinus. Sometimes called Birch Polypore or Birch Bracket

Additional plant species recorded in flower for the year at this site:
- Broad-leaved Willowherb (Epilobium montanum)
- Common Spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii)
- Snowberry (Symphoricarpos sp. probably S. albus)
- Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor)

The flotilla of Mute Swans. Two cygnets with mum at the front and three with dad at the back. They are often seen as ‘two and three’. I always wonder whether any one cygnet tends to go with the same parent. And if so whether boys always go with dad or mum.

Won’t win prizes: the gape of a juvenile Jay as it begs to be fed.

A young Chiffchaff looks for its next meal.

A surprised-looking Common Whitethroat. There was a feeding party and at the time I thought this was a juvenile. However I cannot see any yellow gape line and the eye colour would probably be dark on a juvenile. So a female I think.

Another posing Reed Warbler. I note this one is ringed. Is that the right leg? If so the previous bird I photographed that was ringed had the ring on its left leg. I wonder where they were ringed?

A Dunnock having a good root-about for whatever is making it itch..

“The hoops I have to go through to raise a family”. A male Reed Bunting ponders his fate.

The first Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) of the year that has posed for me. The striped body with brown fading to off-white is typical. Cannot really see the pollen-basket on the hind leg too well here.

Ginger thorax, black body and white tail = Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum). From this view it could of course be a hoverfly as we cannot see the antennae ...

... but here we can.

No racial prejudice among Harlequin Ladybirds (Harmonia axyridis). The four-spotted form spectabilis is mounting the most common, many-spotted form succinea.

At last!. A female Oedemera nobilis (Thick-legged Flower Beetle or Swollen-thighed Beetle), showing that she does not have the swollen thighs.

Meanwhile just down the road there are at least six having a bachelor party on the umbellifer. Not sure what the seventh is, perhaps another partially obscured by florets

This plant is growing along the edge of the dam where the soil is very poor. The colour is good for Broad-leaved Willowherb (Epilobium montanum), though the plant itself is rather small.

You can just about make out the spots on the leaves of this Common Spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii). The flower spike needs a while to make a good photo.

These are the inconspicuous flower of Snowberry (Symphoricarpos sp. probably S. albus).

I always get this flower confused with Yellow Archangel (Lamium galeobdolon). That species has now finished flowering and this is I suspect Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus minor).

These fungus on a dead birch tree are most likely Piptoporus betulinus. Sometimes called Birch Polypore or Birch Bracket.

More ‘up there’ showing the many pores on the underside – i.e. ‘polypore’.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 05:45 – 06:45

(84th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- The number of Canada Geese goslings presumed. They were still being brooded and only one head seen.
- The pair of Shoveler still present.
- Many of the Tufted Duck have disappeared again. Puzzling.
- A Coal Tit singing. A while since I last heard one sing here. This species can be double-brooded so perhaps between broods?
- A single Starling was flushed off trees around the lake – unusual to see anything other than fly-overs these days. Starlings in trees are not that common either. They no longer seen to nest in this part of the estate.

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: adult
- 5 Jackdaws

Hirundines etc logged:
- c.20 Swifts
- 4 House Martins

Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 3 (3) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Blackcap only
- 1 (1) Reed Warbler still

Counts from the water:
- 3 + 7 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 2 Greylag Geese: 1 of these arrived
- 1 Greylag x Canada Goose
- 29 + 3 (1 brood) Canada Geese: three of these departed
- 24 (19♂) + 5 (1 brood) Mallard
- 2 (1♂) Shoveler again
- 7 (4♂) Tufted Duck
- [no Great Crested Grebes]
- 4 + 2 (2 broods) Moorhens
- 14 + 11 (5 broods) Coots: two nests still being brooded
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: adult, briefly

Also of note
- 1 Grey Squirrel again

A flotilla of cygnets here, all with mum. Lots of tree pollen etc. on the surface.

Bill and legs like a Greylag Goose. The white chin-strap like a Canada Goose, though somewhat faded. One of the hybrid Greylag x Canada Geese that have been in the area for some years. There was a new brood of five last year.

A Wood Pigeon bends down to drink. Pigeons and doves are the only birds that can suck. All other birds have to dip their bills as horizontally as possible and then tilt their head back to drink.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

Noteworthy
- Moorhens heard at both pools
- Great Spotted Woodpecker again
- 1 Blackcap singing at both pools concurrently; and another calling at the lower pool
also
- Common (or Perforate) St. John's-wort (Hypericum perforatum)

By the lower pool I noted this Common (or Perforate) St. John's-wort (Hypericum perforatum). Often a garden escape but also a genuine wild flower.

(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

2015
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2014
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2007
Priorslee Lake
Common Tern
(Martin Adlam)

2006
Priorslee Lake
2 Ruddy Ducks
Peregrine
(Ed Wilson)