19 May 22

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

9.0°C > 11.0°C: Early patches of high cloud rapidly replaced by scattered cloud below a high overcast. Light mainly W breeze. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 05:07 BST

* = a photo today

Priorslee Lake: 04:40 – 05:50 // 06:45 – 09:00

(115th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- One of the broods of Coots seemed, improbably, to contain seven juveniles, obviously at least a week old. Not only is this unusually large for a brood but most broods quickly lose one or more juveniles soon after hatching. I could only see one pair of adults; and anyway parents are usually very protective of their own young and will kill young from another brood that come too close.
- The four House Martins were feeding over the new estate to the N of the lake. Are they nesting here? This species likes to swoop upwards in to its nest. Thus as estates acquire fences and as the trees grow the martins struggle to access their under-eaves nest.

Birds noted flying over here

Not much in poor conditions.
- 6 Wood Pigeons only
- 6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: all (near) adults and all singly
- 2 Cormorants: singles
- 12 Jackdaws
- 2 Rooks

Hirundines etc. noted:
- c.20 Swifts
- 1 Sand Martin: briefly
- 3 Barn Swallows
- 4 House Martins

Warblers noted (figures in brackets relate to singing birds):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- 9 (9) Chiffchaffs
- 2 (2) Sedge Warblers
- 7 (7) Reed Warblers
- 10 (10) Blackcaps
- 2 (2) Garden Warblers
- 1 (1) Common Whitethroat

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 2 (1 brood) Canada Geese
- 2 + 8 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 6 (4♂) Mallard
- 3 Moorhens
- 21 + 11 (3 broods) Coots only
- 4 Great Crested Grebes

Noted on / around the street lamp poles pre-dawn:
- 1 Small Phoenix moth (Ecliptopera silaceata)
- 1 Clouded Silver moth (Lomographa temerata)
- 1 mayfly sp.
- 1 possible Garden Spider (Arameus diadematus)

Very little noted later in cloudy conditions:
- Rhogogaster-type sawfly sp.
- White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis)
- Tetragnatha sp. stretch spider

The skies were mostly cloud-free before dawn.

It looked cloudier to the SE – on the right of this photo.

A Sedge Warbler sitting up straight and taking note of what is going on.

Looking all around. The wide creamy eye-brow is the best visual identification feature though with all warbler song and call are probably easier once you know them.

This Garden Warbler is, as I have previously stated, noted for having no identification features. In fact sitting here, most unusually on an exposed perch, it does not look much like a warbler at all.

 It flew in to one of its favourite trees where, for a change, I was able to see it in the open.

The buff crescent that shows here across the breast is not a typical feature of this rather plain bird. It makes up for looking plain by having a lovely flowing song – which you can't hear in this photo!

A moth I see almost every year is this Small Phoenix (Ecliptopera silaceata).

Not in the best position at the very top of a street lamp pole is this Clouded Silver moth (Lomographa temerata). It is at least eight years (as far back as my computer moth records go) since I saw this common-enough species here. The two lines are dew on spider-web outliers catching the flash light. These two moths take my year moth species tally to 22.

Apparently asleep in a buttercup is an adult sawfly. It has some resemblance to the Rhogogaster group of insects. Beyond that I would not like to comment. There are 500 species of these wasp-related insects in the UK. They can be separated from all the other wasps and ichneumons by the absence of a 'wasp waist'.

I plead guilty to causing many deaths this morning. There were dozens of Tetragnatha sp. stretch spiders lurking in the vegetation and as I walked past small gnats or midges were flushing in to the spiders' trap. Here is the result of one such encounter.

And not just death to gnats and midges. This spider caught and managed to deal with a cranefly that was bigger than the spider was. The spider's body is clamped to the underside of the cranefly's body. The pale mark in the wing suggests this is probably a Tipula lateralis cranefly. It is a male, with no ovipositor at the end of the abdomen.

The cross-shaped mark on the top of the abdomen suggests this is a Garden Spider (Arameus diadematus). I will get it checked as the colour looks unusual for this species.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 05:55 – 06:40

(112th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- I caught up with many of yesterday's missing Mallard when a group of seven (six drakes) flew around and pitched in to the water.
- When I arrived there were two pairs of Tufted Duck. Later I could only locate one pair. Did the others fly off or did they climb inside the island?
- My first Moorhen chicks of the year. They seemed reasonably well-grown and have probably been being brooded when I am around since they hatched.
- A third Great Crested Grebe still present.
- Surprisingly what seems most likely to be the same Common Sandpiper as yesterday was still here, often lurking inside the island.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: adult
- 1 Jackdaw
- 2 Ravens

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 12 Swifts

Warblers noted (figures in brackets relate to singing birds):
- 5 (5) Chiffchaffs again
- 2 (2) Blackcaps only

Noted on / around the water:
- 46 + 8 (2 broods) Canada Geese: of these none flew off – group of five and two pairs
- 1 Greylag Goose again
- 3 Mute Swans
- 21 (17♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white duck (Aylesbury Duck)
- 4 (2♂) Tufted Duck
- 4 + 2 (1 brood) Moorhens only
- 19 + 4 (1 brood) Coots
- 3 Great Crested Grebes again
- 1 Common Sandpiper still

On / around the street lamp poles or elsewhere:

Nothing noted

The first time I have noticed these two well-grown juvenile Moorhens. What looks like a brown shoulder-patch is in fact the vestigial wing.

Here is the same juvenile standing up stretching its soon-to-be wing and showing the shafts on which the feathers will develop. I apologise for the quality of these photos: the birds were under overhanging vegetation in the darkest part of water.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash

- two Moorhens at the lower pool with presumed juveniles heard calling.
- 1 Chiffchaff singing now at the lower pool again
- 2 Blackcaps singing: one by the upper pool; one by the lower pool

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel

- just two midges seen

Thanks again to Martin Adlam for helping with yesterday's unusually marked small fly. It is certainly one of the Chloropidae or grass flies and seem likely to belong to either of the Meromyza or Thaumatomyia genera. There is very little information about either group on the internet where identification is noted as 'difficult'. Not a group of insects I can recall ever having seen.

(Ed Wilson)

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On this day can be found via the yearly links in the right-hand column.

Sightings from previous years without links are below

2013

Priorslee Lake

Curlew 

Grasshopper Warbler

(Ed Wilson)

Wrekin

5 Tree Pipits

2 Common Redstart

2 Spotted Flycatchers

5 Pied Flycatcher

5 Wood Warblers

Tawny Owl

(Ed Wilson)

2012

Priorslee Lake

Grasshopper Warbler

(Ed Wilson)

Wrekin

21 Crossbill

4 Wood Warbler

Pied Flycatcher

Common Redstart

Tree Pipit

(Glenn Bishton)

2006

Priorslee Lake

2 Ruddy Ducks

(Ed Wilson)