11.0°C > 13.0°C: Clear enroute with low stratus spreading quickly across the whole sky. Lifted somewhat but stayed cloudy. Calm start with light NNE breeze later. Good visibility.
Sunrise: 04:47 BST yet again
* = a photo today
Priorslee Lake: 04:15 – 05:20 // 06:15 – 08:05
(131st visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- A Pheasant calling, apparently from somewhere along the N side: I have not heard any here for several months.
- A duck Mallard with three small ducklings is the third brood I have seen here this year. None of the others has survived.
- The Swifts slept in today, the first arriving at 05:05 with just six soon afterwards. Juts one seen in the distance later.
- Just one Garden Warbler heard singing and some way from any previously noted locations in the SW area.
- c.60 Starlings in the area, many of them juveniles. I counted 42 on the academy playing field and others calling from the hedges when another party of 14 arrived.
Overhead:
- 5 Wood Pigeons
- 2 Common Buzzards again
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: ages not determined
- 2 Cormorants: singles
- 2 Jackdaws
Hirundines etc., noted:
- c.6 Swifts
Warblers noted (the number in brackets is singing birds):
- 14 (10) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (0) Sedge Warbler
- 10 (6) Reed Warblers
- 14 (13) Blackcaps
- 1 (1) Garden Warblers
- 3 (2) Common Whitethroats
Count from the lake area
- 2 + 5 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- *9 (8♂) + 3 (1 brood) Mallard
- 4 + 2 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 33 + 21 (7 broods) Coots
- 6 Great Crested Grebes still
- 1 Grey Heron: departed
On / around the street lamps pre-dawn:
- 1 Bridge Orb-web Spider (Larinioides cornutus)
- 1 Stretch spider sp (Tetragnatha sp.)
Noted later: not much in the dull conditions.
Moths:
- Timothy Tortrix (Zelotherses paleana)
- *Green Oak Tortrix (Tortrix viridiana)
- Common Marble (Celypha lacunana)
Other flies:
- *Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- Grouse Wing (Mystacides longicornis) [caddis]
- *unknown fly reminiscent of a semaphore fly
- *Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- Grouse Wing (Mystacides longicornis) [caddis]
- *unknown fly reminiscent of a semaphore fly
Spiders:
- *possible Common Candy-striped Spider (Enoplognatha ovata)
- *possible Common Candy-striped Spider (Enoplognatha ovata)
Molluscs:
- *Glass snail sp.
- *Glass snail sp.
Also
- *unknown possible beetle larvae
I flushed this pale moth and it remarkably was then happy for me to get close to photo it. I has a typical Tortrix moth shape and seems to be a rather faded Green Oak Tortrix (Tortrix viridiana). Most of those that I have seen previously have been a quite bright green.
- *unknown possible beetle larvae
The duck Mallard allowed me to photo two of her three ducklings on a brief foray out of cover of the reeds.
This tiny snails looks like a glass snail sp. I don't think I'll be able to get a more specific identity.
Another one I need help with. I have no idea what this tiny creature might be. I assume a beetle larva?
(Ed Wilson)
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- The Chiffchaff was still singing, rather intermittently, by the lower pool.
Nothing noted on the roof of the Priorslee Avenue tunnel.
(Ed Wilson)
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(116th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- Just one well-grown juvenile Coot. Perhaps some others were being brooded.
- I eventually managed to see the Great Crested Grebes lurking under an overhanging fallen tree – thanks to two Greylag Geese that invaded their space and put them briefly in the open.
Birds noted flying over here:
- 2 Jackdaws
Hirundines etc., noted:
None
Warblers noted (the number in brackets is singing birds):
- 2 (2) Chiffchaffs
- 3 (3) Blackcaps again
On /around the water:
- 128 + 1 Canada Geese
- 34 Greylag Geese again
- [no Greylag x Canada Goose located]
- 3 + 2 (1 brood) Mute Swan
- 31 (22♂) Mallard: no ducklings seen
- 9 (7♂) Tufted Duck
- 4 + 2 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 1 juvenile Coot: see notes
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
Nothing else of note.
- 2 (2) Chiffchaffs
- 3 (3) Blackcaps again
On /around the water:
- 128 + 1 Canada Geese
- 34 Greylag Geese again
- [no Greylag x Canada Goose located]
- 3 + 2 (1 brood) Mute Swan
- 31 (22♂) Mallard: no ducklings seen
- 9 (7♂) Tufted Duck
- 4 + 2 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 1 juvenile Coot: see notes
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
Nothing else of note.
(Ed Wilson)
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On this day