Priorslee Lake and The Flash
11.0°C > 13.0°C: Scattered low cloud below medium overcast. Spells of mainly light rain. Light SSW breeze. Very good visibility, moderate in heavier rain.
Sunrise: 04:52 BST
NB: * means there is a photo today.
Priorslee Lake: 04:18 – 05:25 // 06:30 – 07:57
(128th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- A pair of Tufted Duck came from the E, did a quick circle over the lake and let to the W.
Otherwise very quiet.
Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 2 (1♂) Tufted Ducks
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: age not determined
- 3 Stock Doves
- 30 Wood Pigeons
- 4 Jackdaws only
- 2 Rooks again
Hirundines etc. logged:
- no Swifts
- 2 House Martins
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 14 (11) Chiffchaffs
- 13 (12) Blackcaps
- 2 (2) Garden Warbler
- 3 (3) Common Whitethroat
- 8 (7) Reed Warblers
Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 19 (?♂) Mallard
- 2 Grey Herons: one flew off 04:25
- 9 Great Crested Grebes
- 3 Moorhens
- [Coots not counted]
- 3 Black-headed Gull: all adults
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: adult, briefly
On / around the street lights etc. pre-sunrise:
Nothing
On the wall of the academy beside the security light
- 2 grass moths, likely all Garden Grass-veneers (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
- *1 Marbled Beauty (Bryophila domestica)
Insects / other things etc. noted later in wet conditions:
None
Additional flowering plant species recorded for the year at this site:
None, but a correction from yesterday: Hop Trefoil (Trifolium campestre) was not new for the year having been recorded by me here as far back as 19th May.
(Ed Wilson)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Flash: 05:30 – 06:25
(113th visit of the year)
Mainly dry while here.
Bird notes:
- The 2018 juvenile Mute Swan reappeared but stayed well away from the others. As last year the cob seems totally disinterested in his brood and is usually well away from them.
- Four medium-sized Mallard ducklings with one of the ducks.
- The Grey Heron perhaps the bird seen flying off from the lake earlier.
- Some of the Coots (and Moorhens) not wanting to get wet and staying hidden.
Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 4 Feral Pigeons
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 1 Swift
- 1 House Martin
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 3 (3) Chiffchaffs
- 2 (2) Blackcaps
Counts from the water:
- 3 + 7 (1 brood) Mute Swans again
- 87 Greylag Geese
- 4 Greylag x Canada Geese
- 120 + 2 (1 brood) Canada Geese
- 15 (9+♂) + 4 (1 brood) Mallard
- 10 (9♂) Tufted Duck
- 1 Grey Heron: flew off
- 2 + 2 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes again
- 1 Moorhen only
- 13 + 11 (5 broods) Coots
Otherwise of note:
each on a different lamp pole:
- 1 Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella)
- *1 Blue-bordered Carpet (Plemyria rubiginata): same pole as yesterday
- 1 Leiobunum rotundum harvestman
- 1 Stretch-spider (Tetragnatha sp.): different pole from yesterday
also
- 1 Migrant Hoverfly (Eupeodes corollae) today on yet another lamp pole.
(Ed Wilson)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Between the lake and The Flash:
Of interest
- Two Little Grey moths (Eudonia lacustrata) on the same lamp pole.
(Ed Wilson)
Note:
Here on our Readers Corner are some excellent photos from Cardingmill Valley taken by Phil Nock.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On this day..........