Priorslee Lake and The Flash
12.0°C > 15.0°C: Mostly cloudy. Several pulses of light rain / drizzle. A few brighter moments. Light S breeze. Very good visibility except in drizzle.
Sunrise: 04:51 BST
Priorslee Lake: 04:21 – 06:00 // 07:05 – 09:25
(126th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- Seven apparently all adult Black-headed Gulls arrived c.04:45 and flew around briefly. Most left with two staying for longer. Thereafter single adults and a lone first-summer bird dropped in for minutes only. Same adults returning?
- Another new brood of two juvenile Coots. Not all known broods seen today. More post-breeding adults than recently in the middle of the water.
- Jackdaws and Rooks again missing from their usual roost-dispersal flights.
Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 9 Cormorants (one group)
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: adult
- 2 Stock Doves
- 61 Wood Pigeons
- 10 Jackdaws only again
- 1 Rook only
- 1 Greenfinch
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 11 Swifts
- 2 Barn Swallows
- 6 House Martins
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 10 (9) Chiffchaffs again
- 13 (11) Blackcaps
- 1 (1) Garden Warbler
- 4 (1) Common Whitethroat
- 6 (6) Reed Warblers
Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 15 (14?♂) Mallard
- 2 Grey Herons: one flew off 04:25
- 8 Great Crested Grebes again
- 5 Moorhens
- 37 + 17 (9 broods) Coots
- 8+ Black-headed Gull: seven adults; one first-summer
NB: * means there is a photo today.
On / around the street lights etc. pre-sunrise:
- *1 Common Grey (Scoparia ambigualis)
- *1 Black-brindled Bell (Epinotia signatana)
- 2 Leiobunum rotundum harvestmen
- 1 unidentified Orb-web spider
On the wall of the academy beside the security light
- 4 grass moths, likely all Garden Grass-veneers (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
Insects / other things etc. noted later:
A few of the usual popped out briefly between the rain
The insect etc. list in full:
Butterflies:
- Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus)
Moths:
- Common Marble (Celypha lacunana)
Bees / wasps:
None
Damsel-/Dragon-flies:
- Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)
- Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans)
Hoverflies:
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- Migrant Hoverfly (Eupeodes corollae)
Bats
None
Other things:
- Mirid bug Closterotomus norwegicus aka Potato Capsid
- Common Froghopper (Philaenus spumarius)
- Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis): single larvae only
- Common Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva)
- Black Snipe fly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- *Possible Tachinid fly Eumea linearicornis
- *A Dolichopus species, perhaps D. ungulatus
- *Possible Metellina orb-web spider
Additional flowering plant species recorded for the year at this site:
None
Update: see also photos.
- The black bug/fly with red on the thorax has, thanks to detective work by Martin Adlam, been identified as an Alder Sawfly (Eriocampa ovata).
- This led me to the identification of a mystery fly that I saw, but did not report, on 24th June as a Bramble Sawfly (Arge cyanocrocea).
A grey bird (Grey Heron) on a grey day.
Still passing.
Oh for a sunny day. This adult Black-headed Gull still has the dark hood but the annual moult has started in the wings. It has just the six (seven?) outer primaries and then a 'step' to the secondaries where the inner primaries have been dropped and are regrowing (it hopes).
Another view of the same bird.
Only when checking the photo did I realise there were two moths on this lamp pole. Thanks to some expert help I can report these as, at the top, Common Grey (Scoparia ambigualis). With it a Black-brindled Bell (Epinotia signatana). As previously noted most macro moths (as these are) do not have generally accepted vernacular names and 'real' moth men look down on the informal names given on the web. I use the names on the excellent Norfolk Moths web site Here
A different view of a male Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)
And here he turns to look at me in open-mouthed astonishment. Probably just hungry.
If a fly is not mostly black then I am prepared to have a go at an ID. This might be the Tachinid fly Eumea linearicornis, though I am not sure the body is hairy-enough for this group.
Necessarily rather over-enlarged to show a waterproof Common Froghopper (Philaenus spumarius). It is not blowing bubbles: they are raindrops.
This is what yesterday's photo of a Common Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva) should have looked like with a better camera.
Lurking under a leaf – no doubt, unlike me, sheltering from the drizzle – is this orb-web spider. Looks like one of the Metellina group, but which I am unqualified to speculate.
Thanks to detective work by Martin Adlam this black fly with a red thorax that was unidentified on the blog on 29 June has been ID-ed as an Alder Sawfly (Eriocampa ovata)
Taken on 24 June but only just identified. With an orange body, reddish legs and black head it is a Bramble Sawfly (Arge cyanocrocea). It also has a black band across the wings though that is not visible at this angle. The scientific species name is derived from 'cyaneus' = blue; and 'croceus' = saffron or yellow. Explain! If you do any research on the web beware: there is an Australian species called Bramble Sawfly which is similar in looks (though with an orange head). It is totally unrelated. Australian Brambles are also different, though they are in the same Genus (Rubus) as ours.
(Ed Wilson)
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The Flash: 06:05 – 07:00
(112th visit of the year)
Notes:
- The 2018 immature Mute Swan still not seen.
- If, as I suspect, none of the geese can fly, there must have been many on the island recently when numbers on the water were much lower.
- A Grey Heron on the island. Amazingly this is my first record of this species here since 08th February. A few weeks ago one of the residents mentioned he sometimes notices Grey Herons in the afternoon.
- Usual problems with Great Crested Grebes - how many? Initially two adults were each with one juvenile. I then saw two adult leave the top end and these seemed to be different birds - I could still hear the juveniles begging calls from near the island. Soon after I noted a(nother?) adult lurking at the top end and at this time I could clearly see the resident pair and the juveniles. Now was my earlier sighting one of the resident chasing this? Or were they two different birds?
Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
None
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 2 Swifts
- 4 House Martins again
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 3 (3) Chiffchaffs
- 2 (2) Blackcaps again
Counts from the water:
- 2+ 7 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 91 Greylag Geese
- 103 + 2 (1 brood) Canada Geese
- 10 (?♂) Mallard only
- 8 (8♂) Tufted Duck
- 1 Grey Heron
- 3 (5?) + 2 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes (see notes)
- 4 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 13 + 17 (? broods) Coots
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: adult: arrived
Otherwise of note:
- 1 Barred Red moth (Hylaea fasciaria) on a lamp pole.
- 1 Riband Wave moth (Idaea aversata) on a lamp pole in squirrel alley.
- 1 Leiobunum rotundum harvestman on a different lamp pole for a change.
A Riband Wave moth (Idaea aversata) on a lamp pole in squirrel alley. The form remutata with only cross lines and no dark band across the wings. This is a particularly brown-looking specimen. Often they are grey.
This is a Barred Red moth (Hylaea fasciaria). Seems an apposite name. A new moth for me. It is a conifer specialist – there are a few around The Flash. Luckily this is the red form and easy to identify. There are brown, grey and occasionally green forms to confuse.
(Ed Wilson)
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Between the lake and The Flash:
Nothing of note
(Ed Wilson)
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On this day..........
2019