Priorslee Lake and The Flash
13.0°C > 14.0°C: Broken cloud to start. Stayed obstinately cloud with even lower cloud later. Light E wind. Moderate / good visibility.
Sunrise: 04:45 BST again.
Priorslee Lake: 04:10 – 05:50 // 06:40 – 09:04
(110th visit of the year)
A frustrating 'one that got away'. With dull overcast conditions and everywhere wet after the thunderstorms last evening I was planning to finish early. At 07:45 I was on the W end footpath and made a final check back across the lake only to see the unmistakable sight of a tern sp. flying around over the E end of the lake. By the time I repositioned to have a chance at specific identification it had gone. It was not a Black Tern and so 90+% likely to have been a Common Tern. But you never know - and I will never know.
Bird notes:
- The pair of Tufted Duck noted as overflights might just have lifted off the water.
- Unusually large number of Cormorants over. From their flight path I suspect these might come from the breeding colony at Aqualate Mere, just outside Newport on the Stafford road. Most were immatures with varying amounts of white on the belly.
- A very poor breeding year for Coots. Fewer nests than usual and none of the young has yet reached independence. A dead, well-grown, juvenile was seen in the water without outward sign of damage.
- A hopeful Wood Pigeon was seen carrying a stick – half a nest. Seems late, but with pigeons....
- The first Swift at 04:35. Until the large bats disappear c.04:45 it can be quite confusing, but they all seem to manage to avoid each other.
- A Reed Warbler was singing in the hedge between the lake and the M54 at the very W end near where the footpath exits the area and well away from any reeds. First I have heard here this (or any other) year.
Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 4 Greylag Geese: inbound
- 2 (1♂) Tufted Duck
- 19 Cormorants: parties of 4, 11, 2 and 1 SW; then 1 NE.
- 1 Black-headed Gull: adult
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: (near) adults
- 1 Feral Pigeon
- 2 Stock Doves
- 9 Wood Pigeons
- 20 Jackdaws
- 10 Rooks
- 1 Grey Wagtail again
Count of hirundines etc. logged:
- 8+ Swifts
- 3 House Martins
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 14 (12) Chiffchaffs
- 16 (12) Blackcaps
- 2 (2) Garden Warblers
- 6 (5) Common Whitethroats
- 10 (7) Reed Warblers
Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 2 (1♂) Gadwall still
- 12 (11♂) Mallard
- 7 Great Crested Grebes again
- 5 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 22 + 7 (5 broods) Coots
- 1 unidentified tern sp., briefly
- 1 Black-headed Gull: first year, briefly
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: adult briefly
On / around the street lights pre-sunrise:
- 1 Leiobunum rotundum harvestman
Insects / other things etc. noted later:
NB: a prefix * means there is a photo today.
Butterflies:
None
Moths:
- Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
- Timothy Tortrix (Zelotherses paleana)
- *Latticed Heath (Chiasmia clathrata)
Bees / wasps:
- Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum)
- Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum)
- *Ichneumon extensorius (male)
Damselflies:
None
Hoverflies
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
Other things:
- Mystacides longicornis (caddis fly)
- Black Snipe fly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- *A red-brown fly Pelidnoptera fuscipennis
- Garden Spider (Arameus diadematus)
- *Common Toads (Bufo bufo)
And
- 2 Pipistrelle-type bats
- 7 Noctule-type bats
Additional plant species recorded in flower for the year at this site:
- *Meadowsweet / Mead Wort (Filipendula ulmaria) [logged five days ago in Woodhouse Lane)
A promising start: did not develop.
A juvenile Blackcap eyes me suspiciously through a gap in the leaves.
A Reed Warbler snatches an insect from a stem. Note the strange look to the feathers on the crown.
Here he sets off. Most strange head pattern – still very wet from last night's thunderstorm? Gone too is the rounded tail. I know it is a 'he' because it moved along the dam and started singing.
Either there are many more juvenile Robins about his year or I keep stumbling over the same few birds. The black mark on the side of the neck is likely a tick. Should not cause it a problem.
An improvement on yesterday's photo. Here we can see the upper surface markings of the attractive Latticed Heath moth (Chiasmia clathrata).
Waving its long antennae around I found this ichneumon wasp. Seems to be a male Ichneumon extensorius.
A red-brown fly with red eyes, very dark wings and thick thighs. A good match for photos of Pelidnoptera fuscipennis on the web. One site gives a vernacular name of Brown-winged Millipede-killer!
This is Meadowsweet or Mead Wort (Filipendula ulmaria). Very tight groups of small white flowers.
More Common Toads (Bufo bufo) crossing the paths again. I was unable to get the other side of any to get a picture with the light behind me. However this view clearly shows the typical, rather warty appearance of toads.
"My life hangs by a thread". A Garden Spider (Arameus diadematus) abseils down pre dawn.
(Ed Wilson)
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The Flash: 05:55 – 06:35
(96th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- Yesterday's very new brood of two Mallard ducklings down to a single. At least six well-grown ducklings on the island.
- Reed Warbler not heard again.
- A significant number of juvenile Coots 'missing'. Perhaps just sheltering after getting wet in yesterday's thunderstorms?.
Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 2 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Collared Dove
- 3 Jackdaws
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 6 Swifts
- 3 House Martins
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 4 (4) Chiffchaffs
- 3 (3) Blackcaps
Counts from the water:
- 3 + 7 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 15 Greylag Geese
- 1 Greylag x Canada Goose still
- 129 + 2 (1 brood) Canada Geese
- 20 (16♂) + 7 (2 broods) Mallard
- 7 (5♂) Tufted Duck
- 2 + 1 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes again
- 5 Moorhens
- 14 + 6 (4 broods) Coots
Other things of note:
- 1 Inlaid Grass-veneer moth (Crambus pascuella) on a lamp pole
- 3 Leiobunum rotundum harvestmen on their usual lamp pole
And:
- A report that the long-term Terrapin sp. (Yellow-bellied Slider?) has reappeared for yet another year
At extreme range in poor light. There seems to be at least six Mallard ducklings and two duck Mallards lurking on the island.
(Ed Wilson)
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Between the lake and The Flash:
Nothing of note
(Ed Wilson)
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On this day..........
2018Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here
2017
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here
2016
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here
2013
Priorslee Lake
Richardson's-type Canada Goose
(Ed Wilson)
2012
Priorslee Lake
Sedge Warbler possibly breeding
Skylark nesting in Celestica grounds
(John Isherwood)