Priorslee Lake, The Flash and Woodhouse Lane
12.0°C > 13.0°C: Started with broken clouds at multiple levels after late night drizzle. Increasing high cloud with rain starting c.09:00. Calm start with light SW breeze later. Very good visibility.
Sunrise: 04:56 BST
NB: * means there is a photo today.
Priorslee Lake: 04:15 – 06:00 // 07:00 – 07:25 // 08:25 – 09:30
(131st visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- Two Mute Swans circled to the N before thinking again about landing.
- First Greylag Geese seen post wing-moult
- A trio of Tufted Ducks dropped in at 04:50, staying less than a minute.
- Another returning Common Sandpiper. Again unable to get close-enough to age it.
- A single Starling seen flying over on exactly the same line for the second day. Could it have been roosting in the reeds here?
- A fly-over Siskin was an exceptionally early post-breeding record. Heard later over Woodhouse Lane going the other way.
- A fly-over Common Crossbill was an equally unlikely record. I checked the date of the bird I had over The Flash last year – it was July 30th: so perhaps not such a strange date. For me bird species #91 at the lake in 2020
Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 2 Mute Swans
- 2 Greylag Geese: pair outbound
- 21 Cormorants (party of 19; then duo)
- 1 Sparrowhawk
- 16 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: not all ages determined
- 39 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Collared Dove again
- 23 Jackdaws
- 4 Rooks only
- 1 Starling again
- 1 Siskin (see notes)
- 1 Common Crossbill (see notes)
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 12 Swifts
- 3 House Martins
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
Significant decline in song the last few days
- 13 (6) Chiffchaffs
- 10 (7) Blackcaps
- 1 (1) Garden Warbler again
- 4 (3) Common Whitethroats
- 10 (7) Reed Warblers again
Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 18 (?♂) Mallard again
- 3 (?♂) Tufted Duck: very briefly
- 2 or 3 Grey Herons: one (of two) flew off 04:25; one flew in / returned 05:20
- 10 Great Crested Grebes
- 4 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 35 + 13 (8 broods) Coots
- 1 Common Sandpiper
- 2 Black-headed Gulls: both adults
On / around the street lights etc. pre-sunrise:
- 1 Common Grey moth (Scoparia ambigualis)
On the wall of the academy beside the security light
- Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperia carnea)
Insects / other things etc. noted later as the rain started:
The insect etc. list in full:
Butterflies:
- Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)
Moths:
- Garden Grass-veneer moth (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
- *Cinnabar (Tyria jacobaeae)
Bees / wasps:
- Field Cuckoo Bumblebee (Bombus campestris)
- Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius)
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
- Common Wasp (Vespula (Paravespula) vulgaris)
Damsel-/Dragon-flies:
- Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)
Hoverflies:
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- *Pied Hoverfly (Scaeva pyrastri)
Bats:
None
Other things:
- Common Green Capsid (Lygocoris pabulinus)
- Potato Capsid (Closterotomus norwegicus)
- Common Froghopper (Philaenus spumarius)
- Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis): pupae only
- 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata)
- Mystacides longicornis (caddis fly)
- Common Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva)
Additional flowering plant species recorded for the year at this site:
None
Red sky in the morning often portends rain. It was not wrong.
One for cloud enthusiasts
A juvenile Robin complaining about something.
A very distinctive hoverfly with no yellow. It is a Pied Hoverfly (Scaeva pyrastri).
(Ed Wilson)
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The Flash: 06:05 – 06:55
(116th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- The goslings not seen. All the geese had been flushed off of Teece Drive by dogs and they may have taken refuge from the Mute Swan by jumping on to the island.
- Only nine Mallard seen, again seven of these together as a possible full-grown family group.
- So where have all the Tufted Duck come from? Many hard to sex now, especially as some were continually diving.
- Whenever I see House Martins here they appear, fly around, and leave again. Very hit and miss and they do not seem to be breeding very close-by.
- The male Reed Bunting was in full voice at the top end again – the last few days he has been along the E side.
Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 1 Feral Pigeon
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 1 Swift
- 2 House Martins
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 2 (2) Chiffchaffs again
- 3 (3) Blackcaps
Counts from the water:
- 3 + 7 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 64 Greylag Geese
- no Greylag x Canada Geese
- 82 Canada Geese
- 9 (?♂) Mallard only (see notes)
- 30 (25?♂) Tufted Duck
- 2 + 2 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- 4 Moorhens
- 12 + 15 (6 broods) Coots
Otherwise of note, all on different lamp poles:
- 1 Garden Grass-veneer moth (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
- 1 Common European Earwig (Forficula auricularia)
- 1 Cucumber Green Orb Spider (Araniella cucurbitina)
- *The exoskeleton of a Stretch-spider (Tetragnatha sp.)
- 1 Leiobunum rotundum harvestman on a different lamp pole
(Ed Wilson)
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Between the lake and The Flash:
Of note:
- 1 Small Fan-footed Wave moth (Idaea biselata) on a lamp pole
- *1 Single-dotted Wave (Idaea dimidiata) on another lamp pole
- 1 Stretch-spider (Tetragnatha sp.) on a third lamp pole
- The same unidentified spider sp. as yesterday on the wall of the Priorslee Avenue tunnel.
(Ed Wilson)
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Woodhouse Lane area: 07:25 – 08:25
(10th visit of the year)
Notes from here:
- Unusual to record all three species – Swifts, Barn Swallows and House Martins – over the fields
- Neither sight nor sound of any Yellow Wagtails. A juvenile Pied Wagtail in the concrete road was the only wagtail I recorded here.
- The Siskin over here was perhaps the bird that flew the opposite way over the lake earlier.
Notable species counts (singing birds in brackets):
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 2 Swifts
- 1 Jay
- 4 (4) Skylarks
- 2 Barn Swallows
- 4 House Martins
- 3 (2) Chiffchaffs
- 5 (1) Blackcap
- *4 (2) Common Whitethroats
- 1 (1) Song Thrush
- no Yellow Wagtails
- 1 Pied Wagtail: juvenile
- 4 (1) Chaffinches
- 2 (0) Greenfinches
- 4 (0) Goldfinches
- 5 Linnets
- *5 (1) Yellowhammers
- 1 Siskin: overhead
- 1 (1) Reed Buntings
Insects etc. noted:
Strangely no butterflies. Could they have detected the on-coming rain and stayed hidden?.
Moths:
- *Yellow Shell (Camptogramma bilineata)
Bees / wasps:
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
Damsel-/Dragon-flies:
None
Hoverflies
- *Chrysotoxum bicinctum
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- Pied Hoverfly (Scaeva pyrastri)
- Syrphus sp.
Other things
- *Tiger Cranefly (Nephrotoma flavescens)
- *Nephrotoma flavipalpis cranefly
Additional plant species recorded for the year at this site:
- *Arum Lily (Arum maculatum): not new but berries now visible
- *Scented Mayweed (Matricaria chamomilla)
A Common Whitethroat with goodies for the nestlings.
A Yellow Shell moth (Camptogramma bilineata). I saw my first-ever specimen of this species about ten years ago more or less in the same spot.
This is a male Nephrotoma flavipalpis cranefly. Note the dark stigma in the wings and compare with...
...a female Tiger Cranefly (Nephrotoma flavescens) with unmarked wings (apart from the veins).
The Arum Lilies (Arum maculatum) that I logged as fruiting spikes in May now have their berries. I note that my Illustrated Flora does not acknowledge the 'lily' epithet and names this plant either Lords and Ladies or Cuckoo Pint.
(Ed Wilson)
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On this day..........