13 Jun 21

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

12.0°C > 19.0°C: Low/medium cloud to start, though clear to far NE. Cleared to blue sky 06:30. Cloud again from NW as I departed. Light S breeze. Excellent visibility.

Sunrise: 04:46 BST still

Priorslee Lake: 04:20 – 05:50 // 06:45 – 08:50

(118th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Two Stock Doves were on the football field early.
- I did a sweep count of the Coots from the 'boxing ring' on the dam, wrote the total in my log and looked up and there was a hitherto unseen drake Tufted Duck on the water. I wrote that in my log, looked up and there were three more drake Tufted Duck together. So where did they come from?
- 16 Swifts turned up by 04:35 but did not stay after 05:00. At c.07:00 as the cloud had cleared away there were c.20: these did not stay either.
- Three brood of ten juvenile Coots seen with a new brood of five along the S side. I could not locate the brood I heard calling from the reeds yesterday.
- A Great Crested Grebe took off at 04:50, circled high and left to the E. At that time I could see nine more on the water. Much later when I counted the Coots there were 10 Great Crested Grebe present. Did it return or had there been eleven?
- House Sparrows were again in the reeds along the S side. I have still not determined whether they are nesting here.

Overhead:
- 10 Greylag Geese: two singles and duo outbound; two singles and two duos inbound
- 8 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Black-headed Gull: adult
- 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: two (near) adults and two immatures again
- 11 Cormorants: two singles; three duos and a trio.
- 6 Jackdaws
- 17 Rooks

Hirundines etc., noted:
- >20 Swifts
- 2 Barn Swallows
- 3 House Martins

Warblers noted (the number in brackets is singing birds):
- 10 (10) Chiffchaffs
- 10 (8) Reed Warblers again
- 17 (16) Blackcaps
- 4 (4) Garden Warblers
- 3 (2) Common Whitethroats

Count from the lake area
- 4 + 2 (1 brood) Canada Geese: two arrived together but departed separately
- 2 + 5 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 8 (7♂) Mallard
- 4 (4♂) Tufted Duck: arrived
- 2 Moorhens
- 25 + 10 (3 broods) Coots
- 10+ Great Crested Grebes: see notes
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gull: one adult and two first years, briefly
- 1 Grey Heron: departed before 05:00

On / around the street lamps pre-dawn:
- 1 Green Carpet moth (Colostygia pectinataria)
- 1 Stretch spider sp (Tetragnatha sp.)

Noted later:

Moths:
- Common Nettle-tap (Anthophila fabriciana)
- Yellow-faced Bell (Notocelia cynosbatella)
- Timothy Tortrix (Zelotherses paleana)

Bees / Wasps:
- Garden Bumblebee (Bombus hortorum)
- Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)

Hoverflies:
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax)
- Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)
- Parhelophilus sp.
- Bumblebee Plume-horned Hoverfly (Volucella bombylans)

Damselflies:
- Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)
- Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans)

Other Flies:
- Black Snipe fly (Chrysopilus cristatus)

Beetles:
- Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis)

Spiders:
- Stretch spider sp (Tetragnatha sp.)

Mammals
- Grey Squirrel

Molluscs:
- White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis)

Newly identified flowers for the year:
- Elder (Sambucus nigra)

Images - Yesterday

Yesterday was a busy day and I have only just managed to download, check, edit and identify the photos. So before we start on today's photos here are some from Saturday

Another 'between the twigs' shot. A Common Whitethroat. It was scolding me gently and I rather assumed that it was a nervous juvenile. However the pale yellow iris suggests a female – a male would have an orange iris and I am sure I read juveniles have dark eyes. There is no hint a juvenile gape line.

A female Starling collecting food from the football field alongside Teece Drive. There are still up to 20 Starlings here or on the academy playing fields ferrying food to nests around the estate. I am sure these must be replacement broods for failures due to the very cold Spring.

At last – a butterfly. A Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria). We really are having a bad year so far. Perhaps the current warm weather will improve things.

At rest this Chocolate-tip (Clostera curtula) is not easy to identify as a moth with wings tightly held around the body and the end of the abdomen sticking up. I have two previous records from here – August 2015 and May 2019. Moth species #21 here this year.

Another Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum). It is one of the commonest bumblebees I am seeing at the moment and it is hard to realise that prior to 2000 this insect was unknown in the UK.

 An Orange-belted Leafwalker (Xylota segnis) - a hoverfly.

I thought perhaps this was also hoverfly but I then noted that the antennae were much too long. I think it is one of the Blood-bees (Sphecodes) - the first of this group of seventeen very similar UK species that I have seen. Many need genitalia examination to specifically identify and certainly need the abdomen to be seen without the wings obscuring the markings.

This is a rufescens form of a Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans). As this form matures the thorax and the blue abdominal segment become yellow-brown and the form is then known as rufescens-obsoleta.

A pair of Black Snipe flies (Chrysopilus cristatus). Both have the characteristic dark mark in the wing. It is the much less frequently seen female with the wider, yellowish body – the only one I have seen this year and there are dozens of males around. As far as I know it is unusual for flies to show sexual dimorphism where the sexes are different colours.

Females of the Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis) look so different that I spent ages looking for an alternative. None of the other 'green beetles' iridesce like this and I read it is typical of this species to rest with the elytra (wings) held slightly open.

A mystery. The round surface is the about-to-open knuckle of a Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) which has been invaded by what I thought might be aphids but having enlarged the photo I am not convinced. Indeed there looks to be at least three different species of insect involved.

Another spider to be identified. I think the round white 'tail' is her egg sac.

For many years I logged this flower as Red Dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum). I am not sure what it was that caused to re-identify it, hopefully correctly, as Hedge Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica).

I mentioned on Friday that I had seen the first flowers of Cleavers (Galium aparine). I messed the photo up then so here is one – small inconspicuous white flowers among this rambling and very hairy (sticky) plant.

Images - Today

Now to try and catch up, some photos I took today:

The area of cloud that lasted until 06:30 had not quite covered the sky at 04:30 and allowed a brief colourful sunrise.

Why does this drake Tufted Duck not show a tuft? Ask me another. It shows no other features that would suggest any of the confusion species so Tufted Duck it is in the log.

Why was it sitting apart from these three 'tufted' drake Tufted Ducks (and a Coot)? Pass?

A juvenile Long-tailed Tit. The dark sides to the head will be lost before September when it has moulted in to adult plumage.

Compare this faded Green Carpet moth (Colostygia pectinataria) with fresh specimen at The Flash yesterday. Moth species #23 here this year.

Looking very much like a bird dropping this Yellow-faced Bell moth (Notocelia cynosbatella) can be easily overlooked. I find it most years. It was moth species #24 here this year.

For once side-on so the legs are easy to see. As they are mostly dark this must be a Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax) rather than the very similar Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax) that has yellow in the legs.

Another Garden Bumblebee (Bombus hortorum). On this specimen the normally yellow band across the abdomen seems a bit faded.

My favourite bee is this Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum).

I think I have been guilty of not looking up enough while searching for insects. This flower is Elder (Sambucus nigra) and has clearly been open for some while.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

- It was the Blackcap's turn to sing by the lower pool.

and
- on the wall of the Priorslee Avenue tunnel an unidentified chrysalis.

Images - Yesterday

Yesterday was a busy day and I have only just managed to download, check, edit and identify the photos. So before we start on today's photos here are some from Saturday

A Common Marbled Carpet moth (Dysstroma truncata) on the roof of the tunnel. There is a very similar species – the Dark Marbled Carpet – but luckily that never has the red tinged form as shown on this specimen.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 05:55 – 06:40

(103rd visit of the year)

Yesterday's bird notes for here were a copy of those from Friday and should be disregarded – too hasty! There was nothing dramatic to report.

Today's bird notes:
- The usual June build up of geese as they prepare to become flightless while they replace all their flight feathers. It seems the island makes this a safe place. Whether there is enough weed to feed them this year remains to be seen.
- Just two Mallard ducklings. Is this a much reduced brood from Thursday's seven? Or another brood?
- A Stock Dove was on the grass alongside the first part of Derwent Drive with Wood Pigeons.
- Three well-grown juvenile Moorhens with a parent by one of the bridges.
- All three previously known Coot juveniles located.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 4 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Jackdaw again

Hirundines etc., noted:
- 5 Swifts

Warblers noted (the number in brackets is singing birds):
- 2 (2) Chiffchaffs
- 4 (4) Blackcaps

On /around the water:
- 131 Canada Geese
- 8 Greylag Geese
- 1 Greylag x Canada Goose
- 3 + 2 (1 brood) Mute Swan
- 27 (19♂) + 2 (1 brood) Mallard
[yesterday's Mallard totals were again mistyped – read 27 (20♂)!]
- 12 (9♂) Tufted Duck
- 6 + 3 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 3 juvenile Coots (3 broods)
- 1 Great Crested Grebe

Also noted
- 1 Figure of Eighty moth (Tethea ocularis) on lamp pole a long way from where one was last seen in squirrel alley.
- 1 Pale Tussock moth (Calliteara pudibunda) where it was yesterday.

Images - Yesterday

Yesterday was a busy day and I have only just managed to download, check, edit and identify the photos. So before we start on today's photos here are some from Saturday

A Green Carpet moth (Colostygia pectinataria). When they are as fresh a specimen as this then identification is easy. The green soon fades and then it is can be hard as there are similar species.

Images - Today

Now to try and catch up, some photos I took today:

Moulted primary flight feathers of Canada Geese. As with most ducks and geese all the flight feathers are dropped before new ones grow and the birds become flightless for a while.

Mrs. Mallard with just two small ducklings.

Two of the juvenile Moorhens go a-clambering. Moorhens are very good at climbing bushes with those long toes.

This Figure of Eighty moth (Tethea ocularis) was on a much shorter lamp pole and lower down on the pole allowing a better angle to highlight the marking that gives it its name.

(Ed Wilson)

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On this day
2020
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2019
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2017
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2016
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2013
Priorslee Flash
1 Greylag x Canada Goose
(Ed Wilson)