8 Jul 21

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

13.0°C > 19.0°C: Broken medium-level cloud soon cleared. Some puffy clouds after 08:30. Light SSW wind. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 04:56 BST

* = a photo today

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

(140th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- I saw a duck Mallard with a brood of two ducklings on two occasions: I suspect these were the same.
- All the Coot families seemed to be out on the water: another new brood, of three, located.
- A male House Sparrow was, unusually, on the dam-face.

Overhead:
- 2 Stock Doves
- 32 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Collared Dove
- 2 Cormorants: together
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: age not determined
- 4 Jackdaws
- 8 Rooks
- 10 Starlings: together

Hirundines etc., noted:
- >12 Swifts
- 1 Barn Swallow again
- 2 House Martins again

Warblers noted (the number in brackets is singing birds):
- 10 (9) Chiffchaffs
- 2 (2) Sedge Warblers again
- 6 (4) Reed Warblers
- 11 (6) Blackcaps
- 3 (3) Garden Warblers again
- 3 (2) Common Whitethroats

Count from the lake area
- 2 + 5 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 11 (10♂) + 2 (1 brood) Mallard: see notes
- 3 Moorhens again
- 39 + 17 (10 broods) Coots
- 6 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Cormorant: arrived and departed
- 1 Grey Heron: departed

On / around the street lamps pre-dawn:

Moths:
- *1 Ghost Moth (Hepialus humuli): dead in web
- 1 Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
- *1 Treble Brown Spot (Idaea trigeminata)
- 1 Riband Wave (Idaea aversata)

Other things:
- 1 Stretch spider (Tetragnatha sp.)

Noted later:

Butterflies:
- Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris)
- Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus)
- Large White (Pieris brassicae)
- Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)
- Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus)
- Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina)
- Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)

Moths:
- Common Nettle-tap (Anthophila fabriciana)
- Common Marble (Celypha lacunana)
- Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella): many hundred
- *Common Grey moth (Scoparia ambigualis)
- Shaded Broad-bar (Scotopteryx chenopodiata)
- *caterpillar of a Vapourer moth (Orgyia antiqua): star of the day!

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

Hoverflies:
- *Bumblebee Cheilosia (Cheilosia illustrata)
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax)
- *Marsh Tiger (Helophilus hybridus)
- Tiger Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus)
- Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)
- *Parhelophilus sp. most likely P. frutetorum
- Common Twist-tail (Sphaerophoria scripta) [was Long Hoverfly]
- *Syrphus sp. (S. ribesii / S. vitripennis)
- Pellucid Fly / Pied Plumehorn (Volucella pellucens)
- Xylota sp. As yesterday and today's photo is no more help

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

Other Flies:
- Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- Semaphore fly (Poecilobothrus nobilitatus)
- *Sicus ferrugineus (a Thick-headed Fly)
- Cranefly Nephrotoma quadrifaria

Beetles:
- 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata): larva only
- Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis): larva only
- *Common Red Soldier Beetle aka Hogweed Bonking-beetle (Rhagonycha fulva)
- *unidentified black soldier-beetle type

Molluscs:
- White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis)

Promoted to star of the day. Exactly what evolutionary pressure resulted in this? It is the caterpillar of a Vapourer moth (Orgyia antiqua). Most people get only mild irritation from most 'hairy caterpillars', though as with most stings some people have bad reactions. Cuckoos specialise in eating such caterpillars and have digestive systems that can cope. Most birds would avoid them.

Another puzzle. This is another female Ghost Moth (Hepialus humuli) also of the form humuli apparently in the clutches of what is probably a Bridge Orb-web Spider (Larinioides cornutus). I photographed one in a similar predicament on 30th June. How likely is it that the only two Ghost Moths this year have both been females and both ended up like this? How likely is it that I have failed to notice the first one still in the web for the last week? Are those spider's eggs at the edge of the wing?

This is a Treble Brown Spot moth (Idaea trigeminata). Despite its name most examples show only two spots on each pair of wings and many, like this, show only a single obvious dot. The band across the outer wing and the short dark area along the leading edge are diagnostic. Moth species #47 here this year for me.

My first Common Grey moth (Scoparia ambigualis) of the year. Normally I find these resting on lamp poles but this one flushed from vegetation. Moth species #48 here this year for me.

I do like bumblebees especially when they look like this: a Garden Bumblebee (Bombus hortorum).

This is a Bumblebee Cheilosia (Cheilosia illustrata). I am used to hoverflies looking like bumblebees: this one looks more like an Andrena mining bee despite its rather misleading vernacular name. It is a handsome insect.

This specimen shows the cloud in the wing more clearly which makes it one of the easiest species of Cheilosia to identify.

This hoverfly with a 'tiger striped' thorax and extensive yellow on the abdomen I now think is a Marsh Tiger (Helophilus hybridus). I previously have identified some as Large Tiger Hoverfly (Helophilus trivittatus) [which I have seen]: that species is a bright lemon yellow whereas this is faded, especially around the edges of tergite two and all across tergite three.

These two are Parhelophilus hoverflies and most likely P. frutetorum. This genus of hoverflies is unusual in that the males eyes do not meet so I cannot tell whether this is a pair or not.

A great shot of a Syrphus sp. hoverfly (S. ribesii / S. vitripennis) capturing the important hind leg colour. Sadly as it is a male that does not help with its identification!

A rather strange insect with an obvious yellow face which rests with its abdomen tucked under. It is the Thick-headed Fly Sicus ferrugineus.

It did not take the Common Red Soldier Beetles aka Hogweed Bonking-beetles (Rhagonycha fulva) long to live up to their new name. One yesterday and several pairs today, like this one.

A small black beetle with reddish legs and relatively long antennae. I have not been able to come up with an identity for this. On Common Hawkweed (Hieracium vulgatum) which gives it scale.

A rather unusual angle looking square-on this moth on the roof of the tunnel made its identification somewhat more difficult. The rusty markings provided the clue – it is an Iron Prominent (Notodonta dromedarius). Normally from the side the 'prominent' - a group of projections on the edge of the forewings that stick up when the wings are folded at rest. I saw my first in Shropshire at The Flash last August.

One of the Leiobunum rotundum-type harvestmen. Identification at the species-level requires examination of the ring around the eyes.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

- A Blackcap was heard calling by the lower pool.

On the roof of the Priorslee Avenue tunnel

- *1 Iron Prominent (Notodonta dromedarius)
- 1 caddis fly sp.
- *1 Leiobunum rotundum-type harvestman

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 05:35 – 06:25

(125th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Mallard numbers low again. Why? One duck with three ducklings seen. Four birds noted on a house roof.
- Coot juveniles:
- three juveniles asleep in the nest alongside Derwent Drive
- one well-grown juvenile by the island
- three reasonably small juvenile at the top end
- three newly hatched juveniles by the southern-most bridge
- one only juvenile by the northern-most bridge: this a second-brood bird from this nest, quite well-grown and seemingly without extant siblings.
- A single Great Crested Grebe was also seen yesterday but I forgot it from the log.
- House Martins seen making food passes to presumed juveniles: no juvenile calls heard [the first calling juveniles this year were over my Newport house on 6th July]

Birds noted flying over here:
None

Hirundines etc., noted:
- 8 Swifts
- 4 House Martins including juvenile(s)

Warblers noted (the number in brackets is singing birds):
- 2 (2) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Blackcap only

On /around the water:
- 119 Canada Geese
- 39 Greylag Geese
- 1 Greylag x Canada Goose
- 3 + 2 (1 brood) Mute Swan
- 17 (11♂) + 3 (1 brood) Mallard
- 22 (20♂) Tufted Duck
- 6 + 2 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 11 juvenile Coots (5 broods): see notes
- 1 Great Crested Grebe

Also noted, moths on different lamp posts:
- 1 Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
- *1 Barred Marble (Celypha striana)
- 1 Riband Wave (Idaea aversata)
- *1 Nutmeg (Anarta trifolii)

And
- 1 Grey Squirrel

Not my best: my first Barred Marble moth (Celypha striana) of the year spattered in dew.

A new moth for my Shropshire list is this Nutmeg (Anarta trifolii). Not sure of the origin of the name. Moth species #18 at The Flash this year.

(Ed Wilson)

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On this day
2019
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2014
Priorslee Lake
Today's Sightings Here

2007
Priorslee Lake
A pair of Siskins close to the lake
(Martin Adlam)