Priorslee Lake and The Flash:
10.0°C > 15.0°C: Clear start. Clouded again after 08:30. Light increasing moderate WNW breeze. Very good visibility.
Sunrise: 05:00 BST
NB: * means there is a photo today.
Priorslee Lake: 04:14 – 05:50 // 06:50 – 09:18
(134th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- Speaking with one of the fishermen seems I missed both Hobby and Kingfisher while I was away at The Flash. Grrr!
Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 1 Greylag Goose again
- 17 Cormorants (one group)
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 57 Wood Pigeons
- 37 Jackdaws
- 8 Rooks
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 12 Swifts
- 3 House Martins
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
Chiffchaffs seemed to declare it a no-singing day
- 10 (3) *Chiffchaffs
- 7 (4) Blackcaps
- 7 (3) Common Whitethroats
- 7 (4) Reed Warblers
Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 19 (16♂) Mallard
- 2 Grey Herons again
- 1 Little Grebe: still heard only
- 8 Great Crested Grebes still
- 6 + 3 (2 broods) Moorhens
- 34 + 17 (9 broods) Coots
- 1 Common Sandpiper: heard very early only
- 17 Black-headed Gulls: mostly (all?) adults
On / around the street lights etc. pre-sunrise:
- 1 Common Striped Woodlouse (Philoscia muscorum)
- 2 'hairy-eyed' hoverflies (not identifiable from photos)
- 2 stretch spiders (Tetragnatha sp.)
On the wall of the academy beside the security lights:
Nothing noted
Insects / other things etc. noted later:
New for 2020 today are
- Essex Skipper butterfly (Thymelicus lineola)
- Pale Straw Pearl moth (Udea lutealis)
The full list of things noted:
Butterflies:
- *Essex Skipper (Thymelicus lineola)
- Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris)
- Large White (Pieris brassicae)
- *Green-veined White (Pieris napi)
- *Comma (Polygonia c-album)
Moths:
- Garden Grass-veneer moth (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
- Pale Straw Pearl (Udea lutealis)
- *Shaded Broad-bar (Scotopteryx chenopodiata)
Bees / wasps:
- Mining Bee – perhaps Andrena flavipes
- Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
- Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
- Common Wasp (Vespula (Paravespula) vulgaris)
- *unidentified tiny ichneumon
Damsel-/Dragon-flies:
Only two seen and both...
- Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)
where were they all?
Hoverflies:
- *Cheilosia illustrata
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- *Tapered Drone-fly (Eristalis pertinax)
- Common Drone-fly (Eristalis tenax)
- Migrant Hoverfly (Eupeodes corollae)
- *The Footballer (Helophilus pendulus)
- Long Hoverfly (Sphaerophoria scripta)
- Syrphus sp.
- Bumblebee Hoverfly (Volucella bombylans)
- *Pellucid Fly (Volucella pellucens)
Bats:
None
Other things:
- *Potato Capsid (Closterotomus norwegicus)
- Red Bug (Deraeocoris ruber)
- *Red-legged Shieldbug (Pentatoma rufipes)
- Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis): single adult succinea; also larva and pupae
- 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata)
- Tiger Cranefly (Nephrotoma flavescens)
- Black Snipe fly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- *Semaphore fly (Poecilobothrus nobilitatus)
- Common Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva)
- Common Frog (Rana temporaria)
Additional flowering plant species recorded for the year at this site:
None
It has spotted something.
This is a male Essex Skipper (Thymelicus lineola). Two features to separate from Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris): the tips of the antennae are both black and rather stubby; and the scent gland in the forewing is rather short and parallel to the wing-edge. Good luck with these features without a camera.
Here a male Green-veined White (Pieris napi). Easy to confuse with Small White when viewed from above - the 'green-veins' are most visible on the underside of the wings. Like the Large White the black of the wing-tip extends some way down the trailing edge but on this species it is more blotchy. Size is often difficult to judge and small specimens of Large White do occur. A female would show four, not two, marks on the upper wings.
A Comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album) showing the ragged outline of the wings and the white 'comma' on the underside of the hind wing.
A Shaded Broad-bar (Scotopteryx chenopodiata). In some specimens of this rather variable species the broad bar is tinged mauve or purple.
Unusually hairy for a hoverfly is this Cheilosia illustrata. As here, typically sits with wings tightly pressed together.
This is a male Tapered Drone-fly (Eristalis pertinax). Only the male of this species is 'tapered' but both sexes can be separated from the Common Drone-fly (Eristalis tenax) by the mainly yellow front two pairs of legs.
A feeding male hoverfly known as The Footballer (Helophilus pendulus). A green capsid bug looks on.
A splendid hoverfly – the Pellucid Fly (Volucella pellucens).
Stunning.
This is one of the Andrena mining bees – perhaps A. flavipes. One of 67 species in the UK and also known as Yellow-legged Mining Bee. Only the top of the hind leg is yellow and that is hard to see in this photo.
A tiny ichneumon wasp about to jump off a leaf. Despite the distinct markings on the hind legs I can find nothing like it on the web sites I use.
A feeding frenzy on the Knapweed. I can see at least 12 insects. The largest at the top is the only one I can identify – a Potato Capsid bug (Closterotomus norwegicus). Several of the others look like capsid bugs of the genus Deraeocoris.
And here is another Potato Capsid waiting for the flower to open.
Here is a Red-legged Shieldbug (Pentatoma rufipes).
A male Semaphore fly (Poecilobothrus nobilitatus). The female lacks the white 'signalling' tip to the wings.
I am going to suggest that this is just such a female. If not I have no idea what it is. Amazing eyes.
(Ed Wilson)
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The Flash: 05:55 – 06:45
(120th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- All the Mute Swan cygnets initially asleep together with the pen. The pen and several cygnets woke up and paddled off leaving some cygnets behind and others to take up with passing Canada Geese. Another Mute Swan asleep on the island: could not determine whether the cob or the 2018 immature.
- With fishermen scattered all around the water many of the geese were probably inside the island. The two Canada Goose goslings were located again - plumage-wise they are hard to spot. One of them still showing deformed wings, though it was vigorously exercising them.
- I am sure the missing adult Great Crested Grebe was somewhere around on a fishing expedition.
Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 3 Swifts
- 2 House Martins
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 1 (0) Chiffchaff
- 2 (2) Blackcaps
Counts from the water:
- 2 + 7 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 58 Greylag Geese
- 1 Greylag x Canada Goose
- 85 + *2 (1 brood) Canada Geese
- 15 (?♂) Mallard
- 19 (15?♂) Tufted Duck
- 1 + 2 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- 1 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 14 + 11 (? broods) Coots
Otherwise of note, on different lamp poles:
- 1 Mottled Beauty moth (Alcis repandata)
- 1 Single-dotted Wave moth (Idaea dimidiata)
- 1 Pied Hoverfly (Scaeva pyrastri): my first at The Flash.
A Nuthatch is back at its nest site.
A Blue Tit looks on in surprise as the Nuthatch does some housework.
"I wonder what is going on in there?"
Two juvenile Blue Tits explore on of the holes in the same Ash tree.
Two juvenile Great Tits investigate yet another hole.
A strange place to find my first-ever Pied Hoverfly (Scaeva pyrastri) at The Flash – on a lamp pole in squirrel alley.
(Ed Wilson)
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Between the lake and The Flash:
Of Note
- 1 first-brood juvenile Moorhen on the grass by the upper pool.
(Ed Wilson)
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On this day..........