2 Jun 20

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

10.0°C > 18.0°C: A few wisps of high cloud. Calm. Very good visibility; less hazy.

Sunrise: 04:50 BST

Priorslee Lake: 04:21 – 05:45// 07:05 – 09:22

(99th visit of the year)

I was right to take photos of the huge heads of Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum). They have now been taken down.

Bird notes:
- Just a lone Swift seen. The one at 04:30 turned out to be a noctule-type bat!
- Family party of Chiffchaffs seen with two very recently-fledged you barely able to stay on their perch.
- A Reed Warbler singing from the Ricoh Blackthorn hedge.

Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 1 Greylag Goose: inbound again
- 9 Greylag Geese: party of seven outbound; two singles inbound
- 1 Grey Heron flew E calling
- 1 Feral Pigeon again
- 5 Wood Pigeons
- 22 Jackdaws again
- 13 Rooks
- 3 Starlings again

Birds noted on the ‘football’ field [Wood Pigeons and Magpies excluded]:
None

Birds noted on the academy playing field [Wood Pigeons and Magpies excluded here too]:
- 2 Jackdaws
The ‘Homing Pigeon’ remained on the roof of the academy throughout

Count of hirundines etc logged:
- 1 Swift
- 4 House Martins

Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 15 (9) Chiffchaffs
- 17 (15) Blackcaps
- 2 (1) Garden Warblers
- 7 (2) Common Whitethroats
- 8 (7) Reed Warblers

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 2 (1♂) Gadwall: departed (to The Flash?)
- 10 (9♂) Mallard
- 2 (1♂) Tufted Duck: pair arrived and departed
- 11 Great Crested Grebes
- 5 Moorhens again
- 21 + 9 (5 broods) Coots
- 8 Lesser Black-backed Gull: all very worn and scruffy; ages hard to determine. None stayed long

On / around the street lights pre-sunrise again:
Nothing

Insects / other things etc noted later:
I did my second circuit in the opposite direction from ‘normal’. It is more shaded and always produces fewer (but sometimes different) insects.

Butterflies:
- Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris)
- Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)

Moths:
- Timothy Tortrix (Zelotherses paleana)

Bees / wasps:
- Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
- Field Cuckoo Bee (Bombus campestris)
- Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)
- Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum)
- Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum)
- sawfly sp.

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

Hoverflies
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- Tapered Drone-fly (Eristalis pertinax)
- Eupeodes luniger
- The Footballer (Helophilus pendulus)
- Leucozona lucorum
- Tropidia scita

Other things:
-  A robber fly sp. with prey
- A soldier fly, specifically a Broad Centurian (Chloromyia formosa)
- A few Harlequin Ladybirds (Harmonia axyridis): forms spectabilis and succinea both noted
- Oedemera nobilis (Thick-legged Flower Beetle or Swollen-thighed Beetle)
- 1 noctule-type bat
- 3 Grey Squirrels

Additional plant species recorded in flower for the year at this site:
- Red Dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum)

More high cloud today so a more interesting sunrise.

A different viewpoint. Almost at right angles to my mid-winter sunrise photos.

If the forecast is correct this is the last fine morning for a while and my last chance for this serene grouping of the Mute Swan family.

Putting this pair of Great Crested Grebes in front of the sunrise reflections makes a change from the Coots I usually use.

Still early and rather poor light but no mistaking that these immature Lesser Black-backed Gulls have very faded and worn plumage. They will soon moult in to winter plumage. Ages? Judging from the bill colour a second year bird in front of a first year. Not easy though.

This Chiffchaff was being very hyper. There were two barely-fledged juveniles inside a bush beside the path I was on. A quick photo and retreat to let them get on with it.

Another ‘yummy’ shot of a Common Whitethroat bearing a gift for its child. I was close but not as close as this might seem. Once again as soon as I took one shot (from a path) I backed away....

Only to come across this one observing the scene.

Blue Tits were invading the reeds to feed their young. This Reed Warbler was not amused. Note the ring, this on the right leg, is at least partially readable. I’ll see whether I can find out anything more about where and when.

This is probably one of the juvenile Blue Tits I photographed on Sunday. Today it was foraging for itself.

Whereas this one from a different brood still wants to be fed...

... doesn’t it.

I have had Long-tailed Tit withdrawal symptoms. Since the young fledged the gangs have been roaming round at speed and often high in bushes. I managed this grab shot of one with a green caterpillar. I never see any caterpillars. Why are birds so good at finding them? Because they’d starve otherwise I guess.

What damselflies look like as they are hatching. I am sure experts can ID them from this. I can’t.

With so much white on the body this has to be a Field Cuckoo Bee (Bombus campestris).

As yesterday: ginger thorax, black body and white tail = Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum).

With a yellow-washed collar and mid-band and while tail this seems to be an Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum).

Quite a find this hoverfly and until expert help I was looking at the completely wrong group. It is a Tropidia scita. One feature that I now see is the arched and swollen hind femur. A reed bed specialist. My only previous record was on 18 June 2018. I needed help then too.

Not a hoverfly as I originally thought but a soldier fly, specifically a Broad Centurian (Chloromyia formosa). It has a very ‘brassy’ appearance and rather obvious yellow halteres. The eyes are covered short hairs. This is a male: the female (whose eyes do not meet) has a violet-green abdomen.

When I saw this shape I could not work out what it was. Not easy even with the photo enlarged. Seems to be a robber fly and captured prey. I think one pair of legs and the tail are the robber flies’ “tripod” as two pairs of legs grapple with its luckless meal.

The hairs on this Red Dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum) are not irritant like Stinging Nettles. My first spike beginning to open.

A close-up of the most open flower at the base of the spike.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 05:50 – 07:00

(85th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Seems as if most of last year’s mixed species goose family are back. Single adult Greylag and Canada Geese and three cross-bred birds on the island together.
- The Canada Geese goslings AWOL again.
- The pair of Gadwall refugees again from the lake where they were earlier but not later.
- One duck Mallard tucked up where I could not see properly. May well have had ducklings with her.
- While I was walking away down squirrel alley a pair of Tufted Duck flew over inbound. Whether this was an additional pair or one of the very restless pairs I had already logged is hard to know.
- One Great Crested Grebe with at least two juveniles tucked up inside fluffed-up back feathers. The other adult busy fishing.
- Some Coot juveniles still in nests and remained uncounted. A new brood of two juveniles noted.
- A Great Spotted Woodpecker calling in squirrel alley. One from the Ricoh area?
- Several Nuthatches around the nest site area with young being fed.
- A Reed Bunting was singing more or less continually from the east side while I was on the west side. Then shut up.

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 2 Cormorants: singles
- 2 Jackdaws
- 1 Jay

Hirundines etc logged:
- 15 Swifts
- 1 House Martin

Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 6 (5) Chiffchaffs
- 4 (3) Blackcaps
- 1 (1) Reed Warbler

Counts from the water:
- 3 + 7 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 1 Greylag Goose
- 3 Greylag x Canada Goose
- 22 Canada Geese
- 2 (1♂) Gadwall
- 22 (15♂) + ? (? brood) Mallard
- 4 (2♂) Tufted Duck: but see notes
- 2 + 2? (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- 6 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 16 + 12 (7 broods) Coots: some brood counts incomplete?

Otherwise of note
- caddis fly species on one of the lamps: exact species not determined.

I know I have also done this pair of Gadwall before but the lighting was just so perfect. I gave it another go. The drake at the back is certainly quickly losing his finery.

Had to zoom this in a lot. Just visible are two juveniles on the back of this adult Great Crested Grebe. I guess the reason the adults have been difficult to find these past few days is that both parents have been at the well-hidden nest whilst the eggs hatched.

Gotcha! At last a decent photo of the singing Reed Warbler here.

Then of course it became easy-peasy!

Song Thrushes are having a renewed burst of singing. Likely between broods. This one is singing lustily.

“Was that me that made all that noise?”

The hole in the Ash tree is not their nest hole. A junior Nuthatch on the left gets fed.

Perhaps it didn’t like the look of that morsel?

After some deliberation I have concluded that this rather plain-looking insect is a caddis fly and not a longhorn micro-moth as I originally thought. What appear to be very short front legs are likely the palps that caddis flies use as sensory organs – adults do not feed. As for the species I am stumped. Most show some (confusing) marks on the wings, otherwise the wing venation is usually obvious. Neither is present here here.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

Noteworthy
- Moorhens heard at both pools
(the vegetation is so overgrown that it is hard to see in to the pools now)
- Great Spotted Woodpecker again
- 1 Blackcap singing at the lower pool
also
- Mottled Pug (Eupithecia exiguata), this time on the roof of the Priorslee Avenue underpass

(Ed Wilson)

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

2019
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2018
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2015
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2014
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2006
Priorslee Lake
Cuckoo