15.0°C > 14.0°C: Initially cloudy with very light drizzle in the air. Rain, often very heavy, after 05:50. Light / moderate ENE wind. Moderate visibility, becoming poor.
Sunrise: 05:54 BST
* = a photos today.
Well: last evening the forecast was heavy rain for early this morning. As the forecast has not been entirely accurate recently (understatement) I set the alarm anyway and found it dry. Checking both the latest forecast and the rainfall radar seemed I might get some light rain. Another forecast foul-up – it hammered down, luckily after I had managed to reach the sailing club shelter. When it eased I headed back home noting that brown water was cascading out of the drains discharging in to the lake near the Teece Drive gate. Back home it was still dry!
Priorslee Lake: 04:23 – 06:49
(166th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- Possibly more geese: from my shelter I had a restricted view.
- The Common Sandpiper was briefly on one of the wooden piers. Not sure whether it departed as I did not revisit its likely resting sites.
Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 101 Greylag Geese (all outbound in 10 groups)
- 41 Canada Geese (all outbound in seven groups)
- 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 2 Cormorants
- 1 Wood Pigeon(!)
Hirundines etc. logged:
None
Count of warblers logged:
- just a single Blackcap heard calling before the deluge hit
Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 1 Canada Goose: arrived
- 15 (?♂) Mallard
- 1 Grey Heron: arrived
- Little Grebe heard once more
- >15 + >4 (>2 broods) Great Crested Grebes (incomplete)
- 5 adult and juvenile Moorhens (incomplete)
- Coots not counted
- 1 Common Sandpiper
- 15 Black-headed Gulls: one juvenile
- 6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: three (near) adults; three immatures
Gulls on the football and academy playing fields at c.06:10:
- 21 Black-headed Gulls again, all moved to the academy field: no juveniles noted.
On / around the street lights etc. pre-sunrise:
Moths:
- *1 Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella)
- *1 Lesser Common Rustic / Common Rustic (Mesapamea secalis agg.)
Count of warblers logged:
- just a single Blackcap heard calling before the deluge hit
Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 1 Canada Goose: arrived
- 15 (?♂) Mallard
- 1 Grey Heron: arrived
- Little Grebe heard once more
- >15 + >4 (>2 broods) Great Crested Grebes (incomplete)
- 5 adult and juvenile Moorhens (incomplete)
- Coots not counted
- 1 Common Sandpiper
- 15 Black-headed Gulls: one juvenile
- 6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: three (near) adults; three immatures
Gulls on the football and academy playing fields at c.06:10:
- 21 Black-headed Gulls again, all moved to the academy field: no juveniles noted.
On / around the street lights etc. pre-sunrise:
Moths:
- *1 Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella)
- *1 Lesser Common Rustic / Common Rustic (Mesapamea secalis agg.)
Other things:
- 3 Orb-web spiders, presumed Larinioides sclopetarius again
- 1 unidentified small spider
A correction to yesterday: I logged
- 1 Cucumber Green Orb Spider (Araniella cucurbitina)
- 3 Orb-web spiders, presumed Larinioides sclopetarius again
- 1 unidentified small spider
A correction to yesterday: I logged
- 1 Cucumber Green Orb Spider (Araniella cucurbitina)
Brain fade I am afraid and I should have logged it as:
- 1 Common Candy-striped Spider (Enoplognatha ovata)
And another correction from 14th August when I showed a photo that I described as an Andrena sp. mining bee. Prompted by bee-keeper Simon Emms I now agree it is a Honey Bee (Apis mellifera). I have repeated the photo today with some commentary on why it is this species.
Mammals
- 7 Pipistrelle-type bats
- 2 other medium-sized bats
Nothing else noted
This turns out to be yet another Common Grass-veneer moth (Agriphila tristella). It seemed to have darker smudges alongside a rather ill-defined longitudinal streak and I had hopes of something different. Sadly all these grass-moths are almost as variable within any species as they are similar between species. What is a young lad to do?
Before the deluge I found this very worn moth – the bald head especially noticeable (I can sympathise). It is either a Lesser Common Rustic or Common Rustic. Even in good condition the imago can only be separated by genitalia examination. The caterpillars are distinct. How does that work? I have to record this as Mesapamea secalis agg. It becomes my 88th species of moth recorded here this year.
The misidentified bee from the 14th August. Thanks to Simon for correcting me. This bee is a dark form of a worker Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) and not an Andrena mining bee sp. This form has no orange bands (tergites) on the abdomen. What it does have are hair bands around the bases of tergites 3-5, as do all Honey Bee workers. On those mining bee species that can show hair bands then those bands are usually less obvious and usually show at the base of tergite 2 as well. The shape of the hind leg is also wrong for a mining bee.
(Ed Wilson)
- 1 Common Candy-striped Spider (Enoplognatha ovata)
And another correction from 14th August when I showed a photo that I described as an Andrena sp. mining bee. Prompted by bee-keeper Simon Emms I now agree it is a Honey Bee (Apis mellifera). I have repeated the photo today with some commentary on why it is this species.
Mammals
- 7 Pipistrelle-type bats
- 2 other medium-sized bats
Nothing else noted
(Ed Wilson)