Priorslee Lake and The Flash
12.0°C > 17.0°C: A few clouds, building later after mainly clear start. Light WNW breeze; calm early. Very good visibility.
Sunrise: 05:33 BST
* = a photo today.
Priorslee Lake: 04:16 – 06:30 // 07:25 – 09:24
(154th visit of the year)
I finally managed to add Yellowhammer to my lake list when I heard a bird singing from the Woodhouse Lane area c.05:30. This species is one of the last to stop singing – mid-August typically. With most other birds (especially the noisy Song Thrushes) now quiet it was possible to hear this during lulls in the traffic. Bird species #96 here in 2020.
Other bird notes:
- A singing Willow Warbler was somewhat of a surprise. Birds on return passage do not often sing.
Birds noted flying over / near here:
- 86 Greylag Geese (36 in seven groups outbound; 50 in six groups inbound)
- 88 Canada Geese (59 in eight groups outbound; 29 in five groups inbound)
- 1 Cormorant
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 2 Black-headed Gulls
- 17 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Herring Gull
- 2 Stock Doves
- 326 Wood Pigeons
- 8 Jackdaws
- 12 Rooks
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 1 Swallow
- c.6 House Martins
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 15 (1) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Willow Warbler
- 5 (0) Blackcaps
- 1 (0) Common Whitethroat
- 4 (0) Reed Warblers
Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 5 Mute Swans
- 10 Greylag Geese (groups of four and six stopped off while inbound)
- 20 (?♂) Mallard
- 2 Cormorants: arrived separately
- 2 Grey Herons: one departed
- 1 Little Grebe heard once more
- 11 + 2 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes: second brood not seen
- 4 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 41 Coots
- >36 Black-headed Gulls: no juveniles
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: one adults and one very scruffy immature: both separately and both briefly
Gulls on the football and academy playing fields:
None
On / around the street lights etc. pre-sunrise:
Moths:
None. Another poor night with a nearly full moon.
Other things:
- 4 orb-web spiders
- 2 Common Candy-striped Spiders (Enoplognatha ovata)
- 2 Dicranopalpus ramosus-type harvestmen
- 2 Leiobunum rotundum-type harvestmen
Notes:
- Yesterday's carpet-type moth with, unusually, wings held closed was likely a Blue-bordered Carpet (Plemyria rubiginata).
Also note
- I now intend to use the terms 'Dicranopalpus ramosus-type' and 'Leiobunum rotundum-type' for two types of harvestmen. Both these named species have very similar allospecies that need a closer examination than I can typically give to separate them.
Insects / other things etc. noted later:
New species for the year. A very poor return on a sunny morning.
None
The full list of things noted:
Butterflies:
- Green-veined White (Pieris napi)
- Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)
- Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina)
- Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus)
Moths:
- Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
- Mother of Pearl (Pleuroptya ruralis)
Bees / wasps:
- Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
- Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris)
Damsel-/Dragon-flies:
- Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum)
Hoverflies:
- Cheilosia illustrata
- Pellucid Fly (Volucella pellucens)
Mammals
- 6 Pipistrelle-type bats
- 2 Grey Squirrels again
Nothing else noted
Additional flowering plant species recorded for the year at this site:
None
And off they go, undercarriage being raised.
From its begging call I knew this was a juvenile Common Buzzard before I double-checked. Note the breast is streaked and not barred as it is in an adult.
Lesser Black-backed Gulls are large birds – there is a Magpie standing next to it just visible under the gull's belly.
A full adult with no hint of black on the bill. A rather angry look too.
A Common Whitethroat peers out of the foliage.
Note the rather short and stout-looking bill. I think it is foreshortening from the angle. The bill looks normal in the previous photo and it is the same bird.
Two juvenile Reed Warblers search for an adult to feed them.
The action is rather hidden – indeed the adult is completely hidden. No mistaking who is being fed. The photo confirms that this is a Reed Warbler – the very similarly plumaged Marsh Warbler has a pink (not orange) gape (and the males have a very different song).
The most red-looking Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) to date.
Flash photos pre-dawn are never as sharp as I would like. These two photos show two of the many forms of the Common Candy-striped Spider (Enoplognatha ovata). This one with the candy strip (the remidita form)
And this one without (the lineata form).
(Ed Wilson)
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The Flash: 06:35 – 07:20
(140th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- The additional adult Great Crested Grebe still present.
- Yesterday's new juvenile Coots still being brooded and their number not determined.
- A Willow Warbler briefly in song here as well at the lake. The glimpse I got was of a bird seemingly very yellow-toned suggesting a juvenile. Perhaps it was not the same individual that I heard singing – juveniles do not usually sing. Two birds?
Birds noted flying over / near The Flash:
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: both adults
- 1 Herring Gull: immature
- 5 Wood Pigeons
Hirundines etc. logged:
- 2 Swifts
- 6 House Martins
Count of warblers logged (singing birds in brackets):
- 5 (1) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Willow Warbler (see notes)
- no Blackcaps
Counts from the water:
- 3 + 7 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- no Greylag Geese
- 12 Canada Geese
- 28 (?♂) Mallard
- 20 (7?♂) Tufted Duck
- 1 Grey Heron
- 3 + 2 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes again
- 2 + 6 (4 broods) Moorhens
- 29 adult and juvenile Coots
- 5 Black-headed Gulls
On different lamp poles:
Moths
- 1 Single-dotted Wave (Idaea dimidiata)
- 1 Common Footman (Eilema lurideola)
and
- 1 Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris)
- 3 Dicranopalpus ramosus-type (harvestmen)
- 1 Leiobunum rotundum-type (harvestmen)
Otherwise
- 2 Grey Squirrels
Most definitely NOT at waist level is this Common Footman moth (Eilema lurideola). Why 'footman'? Apparently the narrow forewings of this group of moths, held over their backs at rest, bear a resemblance to to the long, stiff coats worn by Victorian footmen. So there (credit to the Moths Field Guide). Well you have to name it something other than "grey thing with narrow buff stripe".
(Ed Wilson)
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Between the lake and The Flash:
Of note
- A tight group of 12 Starlings circling was, as so often, their defence mechanism for the prowling Sparrowhawk.
and
- 1 Riband Wave moth (Idaea aversata) on a lamp post.
(Ed Wilson)
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On this day..........