Priorslee Lake and The Flash:
16.0°C > 17.0°C: Very mild; also very cloudy and dull. Moderate SW breeze. Excellent visibility.
Sunrise: 04:53 BST
NB: * means there is a photo today.
Priorslee Lake: 04:20 – 05:50 // 06:45 – 09:06
(129th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- No fewer than nine Song Thrushes were singing.
- A family party of Greenfinches was good to see and hear.
Otherwise very quiet again.
Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 1 Feral Pigeon
- 13 Wood Pigeons
- 24 Jackdaws
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 6 Swifts
- 1 House Martin
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 15 (13) Chiffchaffs
- 17 (11) Blackcaps
- 2 (2) Garden Warbler again
- 3 (3) Common Whitethroat again
- 8 (7) Reed Warblers again
Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 19 (?♂) Mallard again
- 2 Grey Herons
- 8 Great Crested Grebes
- 5 + 3 (2 broods) Moorhens
- 25 + 16 (9 broods) Coots
- 2 Black-headed Gull: adult and first-year arrived
On / around the street lights etc. pre-sunrise:
- 1 Common Grey (Scoparia ambigualis)
- 1 orb-web spider
On the wall of the academy beside the security light
- *1 Small Ranunculus (Hecatera dysodea) again. A correction from yesterday's misidentification.
Insects / other things etc. noted later in dull conditions:
Some notes on the sightings:
- The Clouded Border moth – a very attractive moth – was resting on the fence alongside Teece Drive. As I noticed it and stopped it decided I was too close and flew off!
- Once again the only adult ladybirds were 7 spots; all the Harlequins were either larvae or pupae
The insect etc. list in full:
Butterflies:
- *Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris)
- Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus)
Moths:
- Timothy Tortrix (Zelotherses paleana)
- Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
- Shaded Broad-bar (Scotopteryx chenopodiata)
- Clouded Border (Lomaspilis marginata)
Bees / wasps:
- Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius)
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
- Common Wasp (Vespula (Paravespula) vulgaris)
- *Unidentified ichneumon sp.
Damsel-/Dragon-flies:
- Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)
Hoverflies:
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- Migrant Hoverfly (Eupeodes corollae)
- Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)
- *Long Hoverfly (Sphaerophoria scripta)
Bats:
None again
Other things:
- *Potato Capsid bug (Closterotomus norwegicus)
- Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis): larvae and pupae
- 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata)
- *An owl-midge sp. (aka moth-fly or drain-fly)
- Common Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva)
- *Beetle Lagria hirta
- *Small pale orange fly, perhaps Tricholauxania praeusta
- Black Snipe fly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- *Scorpion Fly (Panorpa sp.)
- Common Frog (Rana temporaria)
Additional flowering plant species recorded for the year at this site:
None
This photo of a moth is a repeat from yesterday when I made a pig's-ear of its identification. I thought it was a Marbled Beauty but inexplicably wrote Marbled Green. Thanks to some expert help I now know it is my first Small Ranunculus (Hecatera dysodea). This moth declined rapidly in the very early 1900's and was thought to be extinct in the UK until 1997. Since then it has spread thinly but widely across the UK.
Another gloomy shot of an ichneumon wasp. Cannot match it with anything on the web.
Another male Long Hoverfly (Sphaerophoria scripta).
At last – a female Long Hoverfly (Sphaerophoria scripta)! Note the thinner yellow bands on a wider and shorter body.
A better(?) photo of a Potato Capsid bug (Closterotomus norwegicus).
This tiny insect is one of the 99 UK species of what are variously called owl-midges, moth-flies or drain-flies. None is readily identifiable.
Rather gloomy when I took the photo of this beetle – it is Lagria hirta.
A small pale orange fly. Might be Tricholauxania praeusta, though of course there are 'similar species'.
A rather different view of a Scorpion Fly (Panorpa sp.). I used to think that separation of the two UK species was possible from the wing-pattern but I now read that this is unreliable.
(Ed Wilson)
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The Flash: 05:55 – 06:40
(114th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- The 2018 juvenile Mute Swan hiding again.
- Only one adult Great Crested Grebe seen: all the others asleep and I suspect it was lurking somewhere quietly getting on with fishing for itself.
- Reed Bunting intermittently singing again.
Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
None
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 2 House Martins
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 2 (2) Chiffchaffs
- no Blackcaps
Counts from the water:
- 2 + 7 (1 brood) Mute Swans again
- 84 Greylag Geese
- 3 Greylag x Canada Geese
- 103 + 2 (1 brood) Canada Geese
- 16 (?♂) Mallard
- 9 (8♂) Tufted Duck
- 1 + 2 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- 4 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 12 + 10 (4 broods) Coots
Otherwise of note:
- 1 Blue-bordered Carpet (Plemyria rubiginata): still on the same pole as the previous two days
- 2 Leiobunum rotundum harvestmen on a lamp pole
(Ed Wilson)
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Between the lake and The Flash:
Nothing of note
(Ed Wilson)
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On this day..........
2016
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here
2015
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here
2012
Priorslee Lake
Kingfisher
(Ed Wilson)
2011
Priorslee Lake
A female Ruddy Duck. First site record since January 2009 - formerly semi resident in the district, with several breeding records from both the Lake and Flash.
(John Isherwood / Ed Wilson)
2010
Priorslee Lake
Common Sandpiper
(Ed Wilson)
2006
Priorslee Lake
Common Tern
Kingfisher
2 drake Ruddy Duck
(Ed Wilson)