22 Jun 21

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

8.0°C > 15.0°C: Again started with cloud to E, tending to fade away by 06:30 Then clear until puffy clouds developed after c.08:45. Moderate N breeze. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 04:46 BST: the mornings are drawing in!

* = a picture today.

Priorslee Lake: 04:10 – 05:35 // 06:30 – 09:40

(126th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- The first three Swifts arrived 04:25 with good numbers throughout. At least 25 seen together and likely many more birds involved..
- No sound from a second Garden Warbler along the N side.
- *Three Grey Wagtails on the dam: at least two of these were juveniles.

Overhead:
- 2 Greylag Geese: duo outbound
- 2 Stock Doves: together
- 7 Wood Pigeons again
- *2 Common Buzzards
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: both first year birds
- 1 Jackdaw only
- 1 Rook only

Hirundines etc., noted:
- >25 Swifts
- 1 Barn Swallow
- no House Martins

Warblers noted (the number in brackets is singing birds):
- 16 (11) Chiffchaffs
- 13 (8) Reed Warblers
- 8 (8) Blackcaps
- 3 (2) Garden Warblers
- *6 (2) Common Whitethroats

Count from the lake area
- 2 + 5 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 10 (9♂) Mallard
- 3 Moorhens
- 37 + 20 (9 broods) Coots
- 4 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Grey Heron: departed
- 1 Kingfisher

On / around the street lamps pre-dawn:
- *1 Silver-ground Carpet moth (Xanthorhoe montanata)
- *1 Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata)

Noted later:

Butterflies:
- *Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus)
- Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)
- *Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus): new for the year

Moths:
- Silver-ground Carpet (Xanthorhoe montanata)

Bees / Wasps:
- *Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
- Garden Bumblebee (Bombus hortorum)
- Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum)
- Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris)

Hoverflies:
- *Broad-banded Epistrophe (Epistrophe grossulariae)
- *Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax)
- Common Spotted Field Syrph (Eupeodes luniger)
- Tiger Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus)
- *Dark-saddled Leucozona (Leucozona laternaria)
- Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)
- Syrphus sp. (S. ribesii / S. vitripennis)
- *Pellucid Fly or Great Pied Hoverfly (Volucella pellucens)
- *Superb Ant-hill Hoverfly (Xanthogramma pedissequum)

Damselflies:
- Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)
- Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans)
- *Broad-bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa)

Other Flies:
- Black Snipe fly (Chrysopilus cristatus)

Beetles:
- *Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis)
- 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata)
- *Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis) - larva only

Bugs:
- Dock Bug (Coreus marginatus)

Spiders:
- Cucumber Green Orb Spider (possibly Araniella cucurbitina)

You did not miss much in the way of sunrise. The band of cloud to the E melted away after sun-up.

One of the Common Buzzards that seems to be nesting in the small wood between Castle Farm Way and the M54 eastbound.

A pensive-looking Common Whitethroat. This seems to have a pale eye and with the lack of contrast between the head and back I suspect a female.

Another 'angry bird' - a juvenile Common Whitethroat.

And here it is again. It is not being sick, just giving its churring alarm call. Note the yellow gape and also the very short wing coverts.

Very pale and washed out - a juvenile Grey Wagtail. Just a hint of a yellow wash on the under-tail.

A Large Skipper butterfly (Ochlodes sylvanus) almost glowing in the sun. All skippers are prone to resting with the forewings held at an angle.

A slightly unusual view of a Speckled Wood butterfly (Pararge aegeria) showing the underwing. This species typically rests with wings akimbo.

My first attempt at a Silver-ground Carpet moth (Xanthorhoe montanata) was not very good. I promised to do better but did not expect to find on on a lamp pole pre-dawn. I usually flush these moths from vegetation around the lake, which I have notably failed to do so far this year. Anyway this shows the features well – typical carpet-moth shape; silvery background; rather wide dark band with a black 'comma' in the band on each forewing.

This Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata) is a common and unmistakeable moth. Species #30 here this year for me.

The first chance I have had to photograph a Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) this year. The cool weather has kept them away it seems.

The first of five hoverfly photos today. This is a Broad-banded Epistrophe (Epistrophe grossulariae) characterised by the parallel bands and the slight hint of pale lines on the thorax.

The business-end of a female Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax) with its tongue stuck in to flowers of Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium). The mainly dark front legs rule out this being a Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax). Because it is a female her abdomen would not look tapered and it is the legs colour that separates.

Last year I saw my first specimen of this hoverfly – just a single individual. It is a Dark-saddled Leucozona (Leucozona laternaria).

My first record of this hoverfly this year – a Pellucid Fly or Great Pied Hoverfly (Volucella pellucens).

A hoverfly that Steven Falk names as Superb Ant-hill Hoverfly (Xanthogramma pedissequum). It is indeed a superb hoverfly that positively glows

I have shown a Broad-bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa) previously. I did not note at that time that it was, like this specimen, a female. Males have a powder blue abdomen.

These are two caddis flies that I now know to be called Grouse Wing (Mystacides longicornis), though I am not sure why that have that appellation. Dig those long banded antennae, though one of them only has one antenna. I usually see these dancing in numbers above the lakeside vegetation on still days.

A female Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis) typically resting with the elytra slightly held apart. The femurs on all the legs are slightly swollen.

This is a larva of a Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis) (plus a bit of my finger and nail)

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

- A Chiffchaff singing by the upper pool.
- A Blackcap singing by the lower pool and one calling by the upper pool/

Also
- Two Common Pug moths (Eupithecia vulgata) on the roof of the Priorslee Avenue tunnel again but neither in the same location as yesterday.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 05:40 – 06:25

(111th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Well now here is a conundrum: two adult Canada Geese seen with a well-grown but, I would judge, unfledged juvenile. Tempting to think these might be the birds from the lake but how did they get here? And did the juvenile not look slightly too well-grown to be that bird? Also I am not sure they are necessarily safer with the cob Mute Swan here quite capable of killing any goose he takes a dislike too.
- Low number of Mallard found and five of these were in the road well up Wordsworth Close.
- The juvenile Coots today consisted of one well-grown bird by the island; one from another brood by the island; one from a brood alongside Derwent Drive; and at least two in the nest of a new brood in one of the cut-offs by a bridge. Yesterday's new brood alongside the same bridge was being brooded and the number extant not determined.
- I thought I glimpsed one Great Crested Grebe underneath the collapsed tree at the edge of the island – where I saw them both yesterday. But try as I might I could not confirm the sighting.
- My first Grey Wagtail here since 12th April when the ringed male moved its allegiance to the lake.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 10 Feral Pigeons
- 1 Jackdaw yet again
- 3 Starlings
- 1 Grey Wagtail

Hirundines etc., noted:
None

Warblers noted (the number in brackets is singing birds):
- 1 (1) Chiffchaff only
- 3 (3) Blackcaps

On /around the water:
- 105 + 1 (1 rood) Canada Geese: see notes
- 10 Greylag Geese
- no Greylag x Canada Goose located
- 3 + 2 (1 brood) Mute Swan still
- 15 (11♂) Mallard only
- 9 (7♂) Tufted Duck
- 5+ 3 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 5 juvenile Coots (4 broods): see notes
- > Great Crested Grebe

Nothing else of note

The conundrum. This appears to be two adult Canada Geese leading a juvenile – rather too large to be described as a gosling I feel though I am not sure when goslings cease to be such. The white chinstrap is fuzzy but is it too well defines for this to be the bird last seen at the lake on Sunday? If it is that bird how did it get here; if it isn't where did it come from?

(Ed Wilson)

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On this day
2020
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2012
Priorslee Lake
Common Tern
(Ed Wilson)

2009
Priorslee Lake
Pochard
Nuthatch
Swarm of bees
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
Drake Ruddy Duck
(Ed Wilson)