7 May 21

Priorslee Lake, Woodhouse Lane and The Flash

4.0°C – 9.0°C: Clear start with cloud beginning to bubble up after 09:00. Light WSW wind. Very good visibility

Sunrise: 05:27

* = a photo today

Firstly an apology. Due to a computer failure on Tuesday the last two reports were initially produced on a laptop with minimal software and no internet access. Once the PC was fixed and I had transferred the data back I had very limited time to double-check everything and there were a few omissions and probably a few typos.

Priorslee Lake: 04:40 – 06:00 // 06:50 – 09:55 

(85th visit of the year)

Very strange: the morning started with the usual cacophony of bird song and then at 05:25 it suddenly went quite for a few minutes.

Bird notes:
- Four Lesser Black-backed Gulls dropped in to bathe at 04:50. Another five appeared at 05:00 and circled low before they all left. Another visited briefly at 05:40 and another at 07:40. All were adults. Just one fly-over.
- No Sedge Warblers were heard at all.
- No Reed Warblers along the S side or otherwise not in reeds.
- A 'new' Garden Warbler along the N side, low down in scrub behind the reeds. Seemed to be moving quickly though and away W. At least one of the two songsters at the W end seems to have a partner; as does the bird along the S side.

Overhead
- 4 Canada Geese: two singles and a pair outbound
- 1 Greylag Goose: single outbound
- 1 Wood Pigeon only
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: adult
- 4 Cormorants: 2 singles and duo
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 70 Jackdaws
- 4 Rooks

Hirundines etc., noted:
With clear skies the very few birds all passed through quickly.
- 3 Swifts
- 4 Sand Martins
- 4 Barn Swallows

Warblers noted
- 12 (10) Chiffchaffs
- no Sedge Warblers
- 9 (9) Reed Warblers
- 20 (13) Blackcaps
- 6 (4) Garden Warblers
- 5 (4) Common Whitethroats again

Count from the lake area
- 1 Canada Goose: the resident
- 2 Mute Swans
- 6 (5♂) Mallard again
- 1 (1♂) Tufted Duck, briefly
- 4 Moorhens
- 20 Coots: no juveniles seen
- no Little Grebes
- 3 Great Crested Grebes
- 11 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: all adult came and went
- 1 Grey Heron yet again

On / around the street lamps pre-dawn

Still nothing

Noted later:
- Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum)
- two species of as yet unidentified Andrena mining bees
- Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris)
- Leucozona lucorum hoverfly
- Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)
- A probable female Pipiza noctiluca hoverfly

And an update from yesterday thanks to the Shropshire spider recorder: the small spider is one of the few Linyphiids (money spiders) with a patterned abdomen. It is a Neriene sp. probably N. peltata.

With a clear sky there was no sunrise but I caught this moonrise instead.

The drake Tufted Duck circles to land. He was present less than five minutes.

The Grey Heron was very late arriving this morning - it normally beats me. Not today, and when it did arrive it ...

... perched on top of a tree. Many people are surprised to see Grey Herons in trees but that is where they nest so they are used to it.

A Long-tailed Tit arrives with food for its brood (or sitting partner?)

A close-up of the tasty morsel. Don't you wish you were a Long-tailed Tit?

I have mentioned branches in the way ....? This nevertheless gives a good overall view of a Garden Warbler. The rather stout bill, the greyish collar and otherwise without any obvious features.

They like to skulk but they do come out occasionally.

I am sure it is not really looking pensive and is in fact searching for a meal.

Not the best light but you can see it is a Common Whitethroat.

An Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) in the flower of Ramsons (Allium ursinum)

The long antenna identify this as a bee rather than a fly. It was quite small but I think an Andrena mining bee. One that requires more work.

A different species of Andrena mining bee that on first sight with very prominent hairs at each tergite ought to be easy to ID. 'Ought'. Another that requires more work.

This hoverfly is Leucozona lucorum. It likes nettles (they do have flowers) and Hedge Garlic and, apparently, Dandelions.

Among our smallest hoverflies is the Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare).

Not a species of hoverfly I have seen too often and I need to check with my expert. I think it is a female Pipiza noctiluca or Common Pipiza.

This fly may look distinctive but there are surprising number of very similarly marked flies belonging to several different genera shown on the web. Perhaps one for later? Perhaps pass!

The other way around.

(Ed Wilson)

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Woodhouse Lane: 07:45 – 08:55

(21st visit of the year)

More of a wander up and down the lane today. Very poor as a photographic sortie but a few bits and pieces:
- Two Red-legged Partridges were running up and down the completed compost heaps in one of the fields.
- A pair of Stock Doves flying around. Probably the birds I sometimes see flying over the lake.
- Two Barn Swallows flew directly (well as directly as swallows ever do) N over the fields and had nothing to do with the lake or with the farms where they nest.

- At least five male Common Whitethroats, three of which were confirmed as pairs.

Some numbers
- 2 Red-legged Partridges
- 2 Stock Doves
- 2 Barn Swallows
- 3 (2) Chiffchaffs
- 2 (2) Blackcaps
- 8 (5) Common Whitethroats
- 6 (3) Skylarks
- 5 Linnets
- 7 (1) Yellowhammers (all males, one singing)
also noted
- Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)
- Epistrophe eligans hoverfly

There was little to show for my walk up and down the lane. Best was this male Yellowhammer showing its rusty rump and looking this way ...

 ... and that.

Not too easy to see but a Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum) in the White Dead-Nettle flowers (Lamium album). The ginger thorax and buff tail identify. One of many discarded Foster's cans gatecrashes the photo. Sadly typical of Telford these days.

This is the hoverfly Epistrophe eligans. It is particularly numerous at this time of year as it likes Hawthorn blossom. Making do with a Dandelion here.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash

- A pair of Moorhens at both pools with one of each sitting on a nest.
- 1 (1) Blackcap alongside the lower pool again.
- 1 (1) Garden Warbler by the lower pool. Although it only sang very briefly, twice, I am now convinced there is a bird here. Today it was in the trees of the first gardens visible as you walk up past the lower pool. I was looking in to the light so visual ID was not possible.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:05 – 06:45

(72nd visit of the year)

Bird notes
- Now a reduction in Canada Geese numbers.
- The number of Tufted Duck was hard to ascertain. Three drakes and a duck were seen scurrying off inside the island. How many more are lurking there?
- Another Common Sandpiper record is notable. I usually see a few each year. This has been a better than average year.

Noted flying over here.

Nothing

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 1 Barn Swallow flew N at 06:15

Warblers noted
- 3 (3) Chiffchaffs
- 3 (3) Blackcaps

On the water
- 19 Canada Geese
- 5 Greylag Geese: two of these departed
- 3 + 6 (1 brood) Mute Swan
- 24 (17♂) Mallard only!
- 11 (8♂) Tufted Duck
- 9 Moorhens
- 20 Coots
- 2 Great Crested Grebes: these were omitted from the last two days' logs in error
- 1 Common Sandpiper

Nothing else of note seen later

Six cygnets. I had wondered whether the seventh might have been hitching a ride on mum's back yesterday. Certainly not today.

(Ed Wilson)

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On this day

2020

Priorslee Lake

Today's Sightings Here

2019

Priorslee Lake

Today's Sightings Here

2016

Priorslee Lake

Today's Sightings Here

2015

Priorslee Lake

Today's Sightings Here

2014

Priorslee Lake

Today's Sightings Here

2013

Nedge Hill

Yellow Wagtail

3 Wheatear

(John Isherwood)

2012

Wrekin

2 Wood Warblers

4 Pied Flycatchers

(Mike Stokes)

2011

Nedge Hill

2 Wheatear

(John Isherwood)

2008

Priorslee Lake

18 Mute Swans

(Martin Adlam)

2006

Priorslee Lake

Pair of Ruddy Ducks

(Ed Wilson)