Priorslee Lake and The Flash
14.0°C: More or less overcast throughout. Very to start with some light rain. Higher overcast for a while with more low cloud arriving. Calm start; light NW breeze later. Very good visibility.
Sunrise: 05:04 BST
NB: * means there is a photo today.
Surprise today was multiple sightings of Common Sandpipers in quite unprecedented numbers for return passage. I had more or less completed my walk around The Flash when seven(!!) birds flew past me. These may have been flushed off the concrete exit sluice and previously overlooked or may have been arriving. After several attempts to find somewhere suitable to land they found space on the island amongst all the geese. Later back at the lake I saw five birds flying around on several occasions. I suspect these were some of the same birds. I had not noted them earlier.
Priorslee Lake: 04:13 – 06:00 // 07:05 – 09:11
(137th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- Generally very quiet now with little song.
- A noisy duck Tufted Duck was with the Mallard at 04:30 but not seen later. A drake was seen to fly off c.07:30
- A large party of Cormorants well to the W at 05:00. They do not fly in neat lines or keep position and counting distant groups is hard. The camera struggled at that distance in the poor light. I think 26 birds.
Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 8 Greylag Geese (six outbound together; two circled over)
- 26 Cormorants (single group)
- 1 Grey Heron
- 2 Black-headed Gulls
- 5 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 6 Feral Pigeons (1 group)
- 1 Stock Dove
- 65 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Jackdaw only
- 6 Rooks
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 3 Swifts
- 6 House Martins
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 9 (1) Chiffchaffs
- 8 (2) Blackcaps
- 4 (0) Common Whitethroats
- 11 (5) Reed Warblers
Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 19 (?♂) Mallard
- 2 (1♂) Tufted Duck (see notes)
- 1 Grey Heron
- 10 Great Crested Grebes
- 5 + 5 (3 broods) Moorhens
- 49 adult and juvenile Coots
- 5 Common Sandpipers (as highlighted)
- 12 Black-headed Gulls
On / around the street lights etc. pre-sunrise:
- 1 Barred Marble (Celypha striana)
- 1 Dusky Pearl moth (Udea prunalis).
- 3 Common Grey moths (Scoparia ambigualis)
- 1 Small Fan-footed Wave moth (Idaea biselata)
- 1 Riband Wave moth (Idaea aversata)
- 1 Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata)
- 1 orb-web spider probably Larinioides sclopetarius
- 1 spiders sp. carrying off an unidentified Tortrix moth sp.
Yesterday's unidentified micro moth is confirmed as
- 1 Orange Crest (Helcystogramma rufescens): a new species for me.
On the wall of the academy beside the security lights:
- 2 Little Emerald moths (Jodis lactearia)
- 1 Yellow-tail moth (Euproctis similis)
Insects / other things etc. noted later:
Another overcast morning. I even struggled to find a Buff-tailed Bumblebee but did find two eventually.
The full list of things noted:
Butterflies:
None
Moths:
- Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella)
Bees / wasps:
- Field Cuckoo Bumblebee (Bombus campestris)
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
Damsel-/Dragon-flies:
None
Hoverflies:
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus) - as ever
- Migrant Hoverfly (Eupeodes corollae)
Mammals:
- 1 Noctule-type bat sp.
- 1 Field Vole aka Short-tailed Vole (Microtus agrestis)
Other things:
- Red Bug (Deraeocoris ruber)
- Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis): pupa only
- Rough-Haired Lagria Beetle (Lagria hirta)
- Common Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva)
Additional flowering plant species recorded for the year at this site:
- Wild Angelica (Angelica sylvestris)
The camera was struggling with the low light to focus here. I cannot tell whether the victim is a cranefly or a long-legged spider. I can only see five legs which does not really help. In the previous shot the body looks too fat for a cranefly.
This is rather battered Barred Marble (Celypha striana).
A Dusky Pearl moth (Udea prunalis). Only my second record here – last in August 2018.
Probably my best-ever photos of a Common Grey moth (Scoparia ambigualis). Normally I see them resting high up lamp-poles – this one was unusually at waist-height and in daylight. The pale grey area just over half way down the inner edge of the wings is a clue to separating this species from several very similar moths.
One of the easiest moths to identify and there are no confusion species – a Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata).
A Red Bug (Deraeocoris ruber). This species is very variable and this one differs markedly from any I have noted previously this year.
This is rather fuzzy because it is a Rough-Haired Lagria Beetle (Lagria hirta).
My best-ever view of this orb-web spider that I only ever see at the lamps pre-dawn. It is a Larinioides sp. and most likely L. sclopetarius.
Fat chance of identifying what looks to be a Tortrix moth being carried away by an unidentified spider.
A different umbellifer I found today. This is Wild Angelica (Angelica sylvestris). The open cluster of tight flower-heads and the big brown sheaths enclosing the developing umbels are good clues.
The blotching here is probably the work of the attractive Horse-chestnut Leaf-miner micro-moth (Cameraria ohridella). There is also a fungus that causes similar blotching so identification cannot be 100% confirmed. The leaf is of course of a Horse-chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum).
(Ed Wilson)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Flash: 06:05 – 07:00
(123rd visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- I only noted the pen Mute Swan adult and she was not taking much notice of the cygnets consorting with the geese. I was told that earlier the cob was giving chase to the 2018 immature. I did not see them.
- Several Canada Geese seen flying off: many now capable of flying.
- Many juvenile Coots are more or less inseparable from adults and I am no longer separating them in the log. There is still one nest with a sitting adult. Another bird was seen adding material to another nest. There may yet be more juveniles.
Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 4 Jackdaws
Hirundines etc. logged:
None
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 1 (0) Chiffchaff
- no Blackcaps
Counts from the water:
- 1 + 7 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 56 Greylag Geese
- no Greylag x Canada Geese
- 82 Canada Geese
- 11 (?♂) Mallard
- 15 (13♂) Tufted Duck
- 2 + 2 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- no Moorhens!
- 28 adult and juvenile Coots: juveniles no longer separated
- 7 Common Sandpipers (as highlighted)
- 2 Black-headed Gulls: adults, arrived
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: adult, briefly
Moth on the lamp poles:
- 1 Common Grey (Scoparia ambigualis)
(Ed Wilson)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Between the lake and The Flash:
Of note
- Two first-brood juvenile Moorhens on the grass by the upper pool. Not sure which pool they are from and they flew over s fence into one of the gardens..
Two juvenile Moorhens on the grass near the upper pool.
(Ed Wilson)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
2014
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here
2012
Priorslee Lake
Common Tern
Possible Otter
(Ed Wilson)
2011
Priorslee Lake
A female Ruddy Duck
(Ed Wilson)
2006
Priorslee Lake
A drake Ruddy Duck
(Ed Wilson)
2005
Priorslee Lake
Common/Arctic Tern
(Martin Adlam)