Priorslee Lake and The Flash:
13.0°C > 16.0°C: Mainly cloudy at medium-high level. Light SW breeze. Very good visibility.
Sunrise: 05:16 BST again
NB: * = a photos today.
Priorslee Lake: 04:15 – 06:00 // 07:05 – 09:22
(145th visit of the year)
Even the Blackbird has stopped singing now.
Bird notes:
- A single Canada Goose was present when I arrived. Two more outbound birds stopped off for less than a minute. After 07:15 two were present and then throughout. Whether one of these was the bird seen earlier is unknown. The Mute Swan only objected when the geese got 'too close' and did not try and make them leave.
- A third Grey Heron left early again – 04:35.
- The only Swifts seen were two with the party of House Martins over the estate / football field at c.05:45. One of the residents told me that there were more House Martins than usual on his part of the estate. In addition to the birds under his eaves, as usual, birds were for the first time under the eaves of adjacent properties.
- The party of c.45 Racing Pigeons flying E was most unusual – perhaps my first going that way. Normally they are headed more or less NW.
- Big number of Wood Pigeons again. 162 counted before 06:00 almost all going E. After 07:15 I counted 305 mostly going W.
- I have logged the Linnet as an over-flight but it sounded so close that I wonder whether it had come from the bushes alongside Teece Drive when it flew.
Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 8 Greylag Geese (one group)
- 27 Canada Geese (groups of 16 and five; three duos)
- 4 Black-headed Gulls
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls again
- 1 Herring Gull
- 14 Feral Pigeons (two singles and two groups)
- c.45 Racing Pigeons (one group)
- 2 Stock Doves (duo)
- 467 Wood Pigeons (see notes)
- no Jackdaws again
- no Rooks either
- 1 Linnet
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 2 Swifts
- 2 Barn Swallows
- c.25 House Martins
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 10 (1) Chiffchaffs
- *8 (0) Blackcaps
- 5 (0) Common Whitethroats
- 7 (3) Reed Warblers
Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 4 or 5 Canada Geese (see notes)
- 12 (?♂) Mallard only
- 1 Cormorant: arrived
- 3 Grey Herons: one departed
- 9 Great Crested Grebes
- 4 + 3 (3 broods) Moorhens
- 53 adult and juvenile Coots
- 12 Black-headed Gulls: no juveniles
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: near adult
On / around the street lights etc. pre-sunrise:
- 1 Common Grey moth (Scoparia ambigualis)
- 1 Engrailed moth (Ectropis crepuscularia): only my second record here: moth species #67 here in 2020
- 1 Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperia carnea)
- 3 orb-web spiders
Beside one of the security lights on the wall of the academy:
- several unidentifiable grass moths
- 2 Small Fan-footed Wave moths (Idaea biselata)
Insects / other things etc. noted later:
New species for the year:
- An Ectemnius digger wasp
- An unidentified small black weevil sp.
The full list of things noted:
Butterflies:
- *Small White (Pieris rapae)
- Green-veined White (Pieris napi)
- Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus)
Moths:
- *Pale Straw Pearl (Udea lutealis)
Bees / wasps:
- Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
- Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
- Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris)
- *An Ectemnius digger wasp
Damsel-/Dragon-flies:
None
Hoverflies:
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- *Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)
- Long Hoverfly (Sphaerophoria scripta)
- Pellucid Fly (Volucella pellucens)
Mammals:
- 1 Grey Squirrel: this (and one at The Flash and two between the lake and The Flash) were eating unripe Hawthorn fruit – will be none left for the Redwings!
- 1 Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus)
- 4 Pipistrelle-type bats
Other things:
- Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis): adult succinea; also both full and empty pupae
- Common Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva)
- *Unidentified small black weevil sp.
Additional flowering plant species recorded for the year at this site:
None
Looks a bit of a bruiser here.
There is very little song at the lake at the moment. Song Thrushes, as here, are the exception with eight or nine songsters logged daily. I almost never see or hear any females or juveniles. When not singing they tend to be rather shy. Even so...
A juvenile Dunnock – just a hint of the gape line remaining.
Another bird looking rather belligerent.
A Goldfinch attacking last years Bulrushes (Typha latifolia) that have gone to seed. As there are juvenile Goldfinches around I guess they are looking to extract the seeds rather than use it as soft nesting material.
A Small White butterfly (Pieris rapae). Separate from Green-veined White by the lack of veins and the yellow wash on the underwing. Separate from Large White by the inner border of the black wing-tip mark being almost straight – on Large White it curves as the black extends further down the trailing edge of the wing.
A Pale Straw Pearl moth (Udea lutealis). The flat light from the overcast skies allowed the detail of the markings to stand out better. A moth that can be flushed from grasses during the day.
An excellent view of a female Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare). The female has these triangular yellow marks. The male has a longer, narrower body and squared-off yellow marks.
This is a digger-wasp of the genus Ectemnius. There are ten species in the UK, more or less inseparable from photos. The dig holes in wood and fill them with prey – flies or hoverflies – on which the larvae feed. There are superficially similar ichneumon wasps, these all have longer antennae.
I can tell you this is a small black weevil on a Ragwort flower but not much else. There are many mainly black / dark blue weevils. If the two pale marks at the front of the elytra are significant then I cannot match them in any of the web photo galleries.
(Ed Wilson)
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The Flash: 06:05 – 07:00
(131st visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- The pen Mute Swan and five cygnets were asleep when I arrived. The other two cygnets were happily feeding themselves elsewhere. When the pen awoke all the cygnets came together.
- A goose flew over E very high without calling. Could not determine the species.
- A very late brood of five small Mallard ducklings.
- Have almost all the duck Tufted Duck left and been replaced by fewer drakes or are my eye deceiving me?
- The Swifts were seen far to the N over St. Georges. They unusually nest in the roofs of the old houses there, though I have seen them rather infrequently in that area this year.
- The same warbler heard again and once more seen in flight only. Today it was also doing a reasonable Blackbird imitation. I managed to update the relevant software and then off-load yesterday's clip from my voice recorder. Watch this space. Another set of recordings made today.
Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 1 unidentified goose sp.
- 7 Feral Pigeons (single and group)
- 4 Wood Pigeons again
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 4 Swifts
- 1 House Martin
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 2 (0) Chiffchaffs
- 2 (1) Blackcaps
- 1 (1) mystery warbler
Counts from the water:
- 2 + 7 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 8 Greylag Geese
- 27 Canada Geese
- *15 (?♂) + 5 (1 brood) Mallard
- 10 (9?♂) Tufted Duck
- 2 + 2 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes again
- 3 + 3 (3 broods) Moorhens
- 19 adult and juvenile Coots only
- 23 Black-headed Gulls: no juveniles
On various lamp poles:
- *1 Small Fan-footed Wave (Idaea biselata)
- *1 Small Dusty Wave (Idaea seriata)
- *1 Single-dotted Wave (Idaea dimidiata)
- 1 spider sp. inside a cocoon
Also
- 1 Grey Squirrel
A very late brood of five Mallard ducklings.
Seems it is tiring looking after two teenage Coots.
Probably my best photo (to date!) of a Small Fan-footed Wave moth (Idaea biselata)
(Ed Wilson)
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Between the lake and The Flash:
Nothing of note
(Ed Wilson)