7 Jun 20

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

9.0°C > 10.0°C: Mostly broken high cloud initially. Some bright spells before lower cloud and light rain from 08:30. Moderate NW wind. Very good visibility ahead of moderate visibility in rain.

Sunrise: 04:47 BST again

Priorslee Lake: 04:25 – 05:50 // 06:45 – 08:40

(104th visit of the year)

An addition to my 2020 lake list:
#89 Hobby
A bird powered through E at 05:00 and returned a few moments later, scattering the Swifts as it did so. Not seen again.

Bird notes:
- Apart from the highlighted Hobby and the number of juvenile warblers nothing to note.

Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 4 Canada Geese: quartet inbound
- 1 Cormorant
- 1 Hobby (as highlighted)
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: first year? - scruffy
- 6 Wood Pigeons
- 27 Jackdaws
- 6 Rooks
- 1 Starling

Birds noted on the ‘football’ field [Wood Pigeons and Magpies not included]:
- 1 Feral Pigeon
Not the long-term ‘Homing Pigeon’ from the roof of the academy which was not seen.

Birds noted on the academy playing field [Wood Pigeons and Magpies not included here either]:
- 4 Jackdaws – family?

Count of hirundines etc logged:
- >15 Swifts
- 4 Barn Swallows
- >25 House Martins

Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
Many juveniles around – Chiffchaff, Blackcap and Garden Warblers noted
- 18 (12) Chiffchaffs
- 16 (12) Blackcaps
- 5 (2) Garden Warblers
- 3 (3) Common Whitethroats
- 8 (7) Reed Warblers

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 14 (12♂) + 4 (1 brood) Mallard
- 1 Grey Heron
- 4 Great Crested Grebes
- 4 Moorhens
- 25 + 9 (5 broods) Coots

On / around the street lights pre-sunrise:
- 1 Common Carpet moth (Epirrhoe alternata)
- 1 Chironomus plumosus (plumed midge): female

Insects / other things etc noted later:
A few things before the sun disappeared

Moths:
- Timothy Tortrix (Zelotherses paleana)

Bees:
- Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius): all females / workers
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)

Hoverflies:
- Common Drone-fly (Eristalis tenax)
- The Footballer (Helophilus pendulus)

Other things:
- Yellow Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria)
- Black Snipe fly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis): all of form succinea: also a larva of this species
- Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis)
and
- Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus)

Additional plant species recorded in flower for the year at this site:
None

Hardly sunrise. Promised more than it eventually delivered

Just four Mallard ducklings today – there were nine on Thursday. Not entirely sure these are the same brood: a bit small still?

You do better at 05:00! A Hobby shoots over. The long narrow wings and the much shorter tail than, say , Kestrel identifies this fast-flying species. Never hovers.

Compare and contrast time. A juvenile Wood Pigeon with the white neck mark but with white edges to the flight feathers with a noticeably smaller Feral Pigeon. Not a Stock dove for a whole number of reasons, most obviously the white across the top of the bill and the full length black line across the folded wing.

Here it is again with a ‘full fat’ adult Wood Pigeon. This is not the bird that has been on the academy roof with a sudden growth of fresh head plumage – that bird had white wing tips and was clearly a Racing-type. Just cannot see in to the grass to see whether this is ringed.

A still-fluffy juvenile Blackcap – the remains of the yellow gape are just visible.

It then hopped almost too close! It seemed very happy pottering about foraging quietly on its own.

And again. In juvenile plumage both sexes have brown caps.

Apart from the Hobby my highlight of the day was juvenile Garden Warblers. Here is one still with some downy plumage.

Its all a big world once you leave the nest.

Here are two birds. I rather lost track of what was going on as I peered through the viewfinder. I think the back bird is an adult on the basis of its dark bill. The flight feathers on the foreground bird are not fully grown so it is a juvenile – a different juvenile. Garden Warblers have almost no distinguishing plumage features, just a few pleasant song.

I’ll wager that it will be a long while before I get a better Garden Warbler photo than this. Won’t stop me trying though.

Does it make your neck ache too? A Blue Tit of course.

This Common Carpet moth (Epirrhoe alternata) was on a street lamp pole before sunrise. It had the decency to stay until it was fully light to allow a much better photo. As its name implies a common-enough moth, although I have not logged it here for at least six years.

This is likely a female Chironomus plumosus, a plumed midge species. The females do not have the plumed antennae

A Yellow Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria) doing what it should be doing – clearing up a bird dropping.

With its long legs and a ‘cloud’ in the wing this is a Black Snipe fly (Chrysopilus cristatus).

Complete with my (not very) fat finger is this larvae of a Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis). No idea what the small insect that is in the photo. Did not see it at the time.

That is now two seen this year – female Swollen-thighed Beetles (Oedemera nobilis) without the swollen thighs of the males. This species is unique in habitually resting with the wing cases slightly open and helps separate females from other green beetles.

This is a very typical head of a Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) with clusters of umbels and the outer petals conspicuously larger.

I wondered at the time why this one looked rather mauve in comparison. I see now the inner flowers in each umbel are not yet open.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash:  05:55 – 06:40

(90th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- No broods of Mallard ducklings noted. Most of the Mallards were hauled out on the island – a bit far to see any sleeping groups of ducklings.
- One family of four juvenile Coots was not seen again today – last seen Friday. These looked big-enough to have been out of danger from predators.
- A Great Spotted Woodpecker calling from the top end. Seems a bit far for the breeding birds in the Ricoh copse to have wandered.
- What I presume was a family party of five Greenfinches flew in to trees.

Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 6 Feral Pigeons (2 groups, unusually high)
- 3 Jackdaws
- 1 Rook
- 6 Starlings (two trios)

Hirundines etc logged:
- 5 Swifts
- 3 House Martins

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

Counts from the water:
- 3 + 7 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 2 Greylag Geese: one of these arrived
- 57 + 3 (1 brood) Canada Geese
- 29 (22♂) Mallard
- 11 (7♂) Tufted Duck
- 2 + 2? (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes still
- 3 Moorhens
- 18 + 12 (6 broods) Coots

Otherwise of note
- 1 stretch spider on a lamp pole
- 1 Leiobunum rotundum harvestman on the same lamp pole

I know you can only see one but there are at least two juvenile Great Crested Grebes tucked up on the adult’s back. Two were briefly on the water yesterday: whether any more were still on the back I could not see – too far away at the time.

This juvenile Robin looks barely fledged but seemed happy-enough foraging by itself in the gloom of squirrel alley.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

Noteworthy
- Chaffinches singing at both the lower pool and above the upper pool
also
- Common Marbled Carpet (Dysstroma truncata) on roof of Priorslee Avenue underpass

This is a Common Marbled Carpet (Dysstroma truncata) on the surround to one of the overhead lamps in the Priorslee Avenue underpass. Rather more typically marked than the one last week at the lake. Some are even more rufous than this.

(Ed Wilson)

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

2019
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2018
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2016
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2015
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2009
Priorslee Lake
15 House Martins
15 Swifts
2 Chiffchaffs
Willow Warbler
(Ed Wilson)

The Flash
1 Tufted Duck 
(Ed Wilson)