Priorslee Lake and The Flash:
14.0°C > 16.0°C: Mainly clear start apart from a few light remnant showers. More cloud later. Moderate SW wind. Very good visibility.
Sunrise: 06:05 BST
* = a photo today.
Priorslee Lake: 04:43 – 06:45 // 07:50 – 09:35
(170th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- Low number of geese outbound and almost none inbound. I suspect that the clear night had allowed them to feed in the fields overnight and they mostly returned early while I was at The Flash (q.v.).
- An update on the three recent Great Crested Grebe broods: all three pairs now seem to have just one juvenile each.
- A male Peregrine flew S to the E of the lake. The House Martins took evading action and probably didn't need to. The Wood Pigeons probably did need to take evading action and didn't.
- No more than 28 Black-headed Gulls were at the lake at any one time. I again noted >200 just to the N, these undoubtedly being the birds I noted on the academy playing field later.
- A lone Swift arrived at 05:45 and presumably this same bird was present for at least 30 minutes.
- Good to see some Jackdaws and Rooks passing. Was this the better weather enabling me to see them? Or have they changed their feeding location?
Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 40 Greylag Geese (all outbound in six groups)
- 49 Canada Geese (45 outbound in three groups; four inbound as two duos)
- *1 Common Buzzard
- *1 Peregrine Falcon
- 9 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 23 large gulls – too early to specifically identify
- 1 Stock Dove
- 51 Wood Pigeons
- 68 Jackdaws (two groups)
- 14 Rooks (two groups)
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 1 Swift
- 7 House Martins
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 10 (0) Chiffchaffs
- 3 (0) Blackcaps
- 2 (0) Reed Warblers
Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 15 (?♂) Mallard
- 1 Cormorant: arrived
- 2 Grey Herons: one arrived and one departed (same?)
- Little Grebe heard
- *16 + 7 (5 broods) Great Crested Grebes (see notes)
- 5 adult and juvenile Moorhens
- *74 adult and juvenile Coots again
- >200 Black-headed Gulls: ? juveniles (see notes)
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: adults, briefly
Gulls on the academy playing field c.06:30:
- >210 Black-headed Gulls
On / around the street lights etc. pre-sunrise:
Moths:
- *1 Pale-streak Grass-veneer (Agriphila selasella)
- 1 Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella)
- *1 probable Small Phoenix (Ecliptopera silaceata): very worn
- *1 Square-spot Rustic (Xestia xanthographa)
Other things:
- 2 Common Wasps (Paravespula vulgaris)
- *1 Tipula confusa cranefly
- 2 unidentified small beetles
- 2 Orb-web spiders, presumed Larinioides sclopetarius
- 1 Garden Spider (Arameus diadematus)
- 1 unidentified spider
- 1 unidentified harvestman
Insects / other things etc. noted later:
Mainly cloudy by then so low numbers
The full list of things noted:
- Small White (Pieris rapae)
- *Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
- Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris)
- Tapered Drone-fly (Eristalis pertinax)
- Common Drone-fly (Eristalis tenax)
- *Dead-head Hoverfly (Myathropa florea)
- Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans)
- Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis)
- *Hairy Shieldbug (Dolycoris baccarum)
- *Dock Bug (Coreus marginatus)
- strange short-bodied fly
- *Tipula vittata cranefly
- 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata)
- 4 Grey Squirrels
- 3 Pipistrelle-type bats
Additional flowering plant species recorded for the year at this site:
None
At last. A sunrise worth looking at.
Another look from a different vantage point.
A few remnant showery bits being illuminated by the sunrise. I did get wet, but not very.
A Great Crested Grebe with a juvenile head off in to the sunset – well sunrise actually.
As far as I could see all the latest broods of Great Crested Grebes have just one juvenile remaining.
Does it make your eyes go funny? It does mine. A Coot at sunrise.
This Common Buzzard is probably one of the adults from the pair that nested in the Ricoh copse. Slight wear on some of the tail-feathers, otherwise a smart-looking bird.
Certainly won't win prizes but even getting a chance to get the camera on a passing Peregrine is unusual. Typical falcon wings and stocky body. I think a male – a female would look bulkier still.
A Pale-streak Grass-veneer moth (Agriphila selasella). Features to note are that the streak splits in to four rather faint fingers (A. tristella splits in to three distinct fingers); the costa (wing tip) has a line of small dark dots; and the lower edge of the streak is darker than the rest of the wing. Also, I am not sure whether this is a reliable feature or not but A. tristella (and other grass moths) usually show a surprised-looking blue eye. Not this one.
In contrast this is by far my best specimen of Square-spot Rustic (Xestia xanthographa) this year.
This caught my eye as being rather different from the usual Common Carder Bees (Bombus pascuorum) I have been seeing. The antennae look particularly long and the abdomen has white hairs along the underside. Looking closely there is the smallest of gingery tail. My book tells me that this species of bee is one of the most variable and all these features are within normal variability. There is no confusion species – unless I have found something new to science. Common Carder Bee it is.
A rather smart hoverfly – a Dead-head Hoverfly (Myathropa florea).
I think I must have caught this Hairy Shieldbug (Dolycoris baccarum) at a strange angle as the 'head and neck' do not look quite right. However the banded black-and-white antennae and connexivum (the border of the abdomen) identify it as this species.
Not a shieldbug as such but closely related – a Dock Bug (Coreus marginatus).
This small cranefly with marbled black and pale wings is Tipula confusa.
The sort of cranefly that explains why they are also known as daddy long-legs – well the 'long-legs' part anyway. The angle shows the legs well-enough but not the rest of the markings. Luckily the dark stripe along the side of the abdomen is sufficient to identify it as Tipula vittata.
I get very frustrated with all the web sites that show harvestmen. This species seems to me distinctive in having the first and third pairs of legs much shorter than the others. None of the sites shows the whole creature, all concentrating on the body shape and markings. This is hard to see when they are feet away up lamp poles. So 'unidentified harvestman' it stays.
(Ed Wilson)
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The Flash: 06:50 – 07:45
(155th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- Apart from 14 of the Canada Geese the other geese all arrived within the space of about five minutes. They mostly swiftly moved inside the island and even the Greylag Geese were largely quiet.
- Nearly all the Coot were out on the water giving a large count (once I had separated them from the Tufted Duck!)
Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 5 Black-headed Gulls
- 11 Feral Pigeons: group of 10 and a singleton
- 9 Wood Pigeons
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 4 House Martins
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 5 (0) Chiffchaffs
- 2 (0) Blackcaps
Counts from the water:
- 3 + 7 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- *176 Greylag Geese: all arrived
- 30 Canada Geese: 16 of these arrived
- 23 (?♂) Mallard
- 28 (8?♂) Tufted Duck
- 3 Great Crested Grebes still
- 7 adult and juvenile Moorhens
- 51 adult and juvenile Coots
- 3 Black-headed Gulls
On various lamp poles:
Moths:
None
Otherwise
- *1 Marsh Slug (Deroceras laeve)
- 1 Leiobunum rotundum harvestman
Also
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
- Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris)
- 1 Grey Squirrel
Some of the very many arriving Greylag Geese do so in a neat formation.
While another group follows on.
They are good at formation flying. Note one appears to have a dark neck – just an effect of its neck being in shadow.
Not quite so neat as they find their spot to land.
This slug looked sufficiently different that I felt compelled to try and identify it. I think a Marsh Slug (Deroceras laeve). Another group that I am not an expert in!
(Ed Wilson)
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Between the lake and The Flash:
Of note
A Blackcap calling at the lower pool
Otherwise: moth on a lamp pole:
- 1 Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella)
Also
- 1 Grey Squirrel
(Ed Wilson)
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On this day..........
2019
Priorslee Lake
Today's Report Here
2018
Priorslee Lake
Today's Report Here
2016
Local Area
Today's Sightings Here
2014
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here
2012
Priorslee Lake
Peregrine Falcon
Yellow Wagtail
(Ed Wilson)
2006
Priorslee Lake
3 Sandwich Terns
Common Tern
Kingfisher
Tree Pipit
(Ed Wilson)
2005
Priorslee Lake
Common Tern
Raven
Kingfisher
(Ed Wilson)