Priorslee Lake and The Flash:
14.0°C > 15.0°C: Low cloud with periods of drizzle. Just one brighter spell. Calm / light SW breeze. Very good visibility but only moderate at best in drizzle.
Sunrise: 04:58 BST
NB: * means there is a photo today.
Priorslee Lake: 04:24 – 06:05 // 07:00 – 09:15
(132nd visit of the year)
After an invasion of wild-swimmers about 10 days ago Severn-Trent erected several signs saying "No Swimming and No Rubber Dingies" to supplement the existing signs noting that unauthorised entry in to the water is not permitted. Somewhat predictably these new signs have been torn down and thrown in to the lake.
Bird notes:
- A Gadwall, probably an eclipse drake, flew in at 08:00 and joined the Mallard. I could not re-find it later.
- A Common Buzzard heard calling from the Ricoh copse. Perhaps they are nesting here again this year.
- Four Common Sandpipers. Probably my highest-ever post-breeding count – return passage is usually singles or duos at most.
- Only four Black-headed Gulls made it to the lake. As I left to walk to The Flash there were 14, including one juvenile) on the football field. These flushed when the first dog-walker arrived and decamped to the academy playing field.
- Hard to know how many Swifts there were. A single; then a duo; then four together but between times none. Different birds?
- Not a single Jackdaw or Rook seen or heard.
Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 1 Stock Dove
- 19 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Collared Dove again
- no Jackdaws or Rooks
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 4+ Swifts
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
Blackcaps do not like wet weather!
- 13 (9) Chiffchaffs
- 6 (3) Blackcaps
- no Garden Warblers
- 7 (3) Common Whitethroats
- 7 (6) Reed Warblers
Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 1 (?♂) Gadwall: arrived
- 18 (?♂) Mallard again
- 1 Grey Herons
- 1 Little Grebe: heard only
- 8 Great Crested Grebes
- 6 + 2 (2 broods) Moorhens
- 33 + 12 (7 broods) Coots
- 4 Common Sandpipers
- 4 Black-headed Gulls: all adults (see notes)
On / around the street lights etc. pre-sunrise:
- 1 Garden Grass-veneer moth (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
- 1 Lacewing (Micromus variegatus)
- *1 Dicranopalpus sp. harvestman
- 1 Oligolophus sp. harvestman
- 2 orb-web spider sp.
On the wall of the academy beside the security lights:
- 1 Garden Grass-veneer moth (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
- 1 Little Emerald (Jodis lactearia)
- 1 Common Footman (Eilema lurideola)
- 1 Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperia carnea)
Insects / other things etc. noted later.
An impressive tally in the dull and drizzly conditions:
Butterflies:
- Green-veined White (Pieris napi)
- Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)
Moths:
- Common Grey (Scoparia ambigualis)
- Unidentified grass moths – all went and hid!
- Shaded Broad-bar (Scotopteryx chenopodiata)
Bees / wasps:
- *Garden Bumblebee (Bombus hortorum)
- *Red-tailed Cuckoo Bee (Bombus rupestris)
- *Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
- Common Wasp (Vespula (Paravespula) vulgaris)
Damsel-/Dragon-flies:
None
Hoverflies:
- *Pied Hoverfly (Scaeva pyrastri)
Bats:
None
Other things:
- Potato Capsid (Closterotomus norwegicus)
- Common Froghopper (Philaenus spumarius)
- Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis): pupae only
- 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata)
- *Rough-Haired Lagria Beetle (Lagria hirta)
- Common Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva)
- *Oak galls of the Red Pea Gall Wasp (Cynips divisa)
- *Pleated Inkcap (Parasola plicatilis) formerly Japanese Umbrella Toadstool (Coprinus plicatilis)
Additional flowering plant species recorded for the year at this site:
- Scentless Mayweed (Matricaria perforata)
Two of the four Common Sandpipers in the dull early light.
An equally soggy-looking and moulting Dunnock.
A very soggy-looking bumblebee.
When they are sitting like this then Pied Hoverflies (Scaeva pyrastri) are easy.
With wings closed more difficult.
This is one of the Dicranopalpus sp. of harvestmen. Until recently they were all Dicranopalpus ramosus but these harvestmen with forked pedipalps can be identified – using a microscope – as one of two species, D. ramosus or D. caudatus. No way for me to tell so Dicranopalpus sp. it is.
Almost transparent.
(Ed Wilson)
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The Flash: 06:10 – 06:55
(118th visit of the year)
Drizzle at about its worst here keeping Moorhens and Coots in hiding.
Other bird notes:
- Both Mute Swan parents were loosely with the cygnets and were also consorting with a group of Canada Geese. Strangely the cob seemed quite happy with this arrangement.
- The Canada goslings missing again.
- The group of seven Mallard that I suspected were a full-grown family group went for an extended fly-about adding credence to the theory.
- The male Reed Bunting was still in full voice at the top end.
Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 1 Stock Dove
Hirundines etc. logged:
None
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 2 (2) Chiffchaffs still
- 1 (1) Blackcap
Counts from the water:
- 3 + 7 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 70 Greylag Geese
- 1 Greylag x Canada Goose
- 112 Canada Geese
- 12 (?♂) Mallard (see notes)
- 14 (12?♂) Tufted Duck
- 2 + 2 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes again
- 2 Moorhens
- 6 + 8 (? broods) Coots
Otherwise of note, on lamp pole:
- *1 Little Grey moth (Eudonia lacustrata)
9185P This seems to be a Little Grey moth (Eudonia lacustrata). Always a difficult group to identify.
(Ed Wilson)
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Between the lake and The Flash:
Of note
- *1 Phoenix moth (Eulithis prunata) on the roof of the Priorslee Avenue tunnel.
(Ed Wilson)