2 May 22

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

9.0°C > 11.0°C: Low / medium overcast. Calm start with very light W breeze. Moderate visibility with some murk initially: becoming very good.

Sunrise: 05:37 BST

* = a photo today

Priorslee Lake: 05:10 – 05:55 // 06:55 – 09:00

(102nd visit of the year)

The full-house of warblers for here this year with a Lesser Whitethroat singing from the densest area of the Ricoh hedge. Bird species #87 here in 2022 for me. Another nine warbler species day. Probably too much to hope that another Grasshopper Warbler might turn up and make it ten.

Bird notes:
- Of the 10 Barn Swallows groups of three and six flew through N. The lone bird may have come from the Priorslee Village area where they sometimes nest.
- A second Sedge Warbler singing this morning from the NE area. The bird in the NW / W area was very mobile (or just perhaps there is a third).
- More Reed Warblers now arrived and singing: seven noted.
- Just one Garden Warbler noted.
- Also just one Common Whitethroat which was most reluctant to sing. Perhaps he has seen his rival off?

Birds noted flying over here:
- 2 Canada Geese: pair outbound
- 3 Greylag Geese: single outbound; pair inbound
- 2 Stock Doves: together
- 3 Wood Pigeons only
- 1 Cormorant
- no Jackdaws or Rooks

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 10 Barn Swallows

Warblers noted (figures in brackets relate to singing birds):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- 1 (1) Willow Warbler
- 15 (14) Chiffchaffs
- 2 (2) Sedge Warblers
- 7 (7) Reed Warblers
- 21 (15) Blackcaps
- 1 (1) Garden Warbler
- 1 (1) Lesser Whitethroat
- *1 (1) Common Whitethroat

Counts from the lake area:
- 3 Canada Geese: a pair arrived and were soon chased away by the resident
- 2 Mute Swans: pen on nest
- 6 (5♂) Mallard
- 3 Moorhens
- 16 + 4 (1 brood) Coots
- 4 Great Crested Grebes
- 2 Common Sandpipers
- *2 Herring Gulls: adults together briefly for a wash and drink
- 1 Grey Heron: departed?

Noted on / around the street lamp poles pre-dawn:
- *several flies, some likely to be St Mark's or Hawthorn Flies (Bibio marci)
- *1 ichneumon sp., just possibly Tromatobia lineatoria
- *1 Striped Millipede (Ommatoiulus sabulosus)
- 1 Clubiona sp. spider

Noted later in cloudy conditions:
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
- Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)
- *Platycheirus sp. hoverfly
- *a fly of the genus Hilara
- Alder Fly (Sialis lutaria)
- *Caddis fly sp.
- *Scorpion Fly (Panorpa sp.)
- Fox on the edge of the football field.

These two Herring Gulls dropped in for a drink...

 ... and bathe.

Not quite adults with the left-hand bird showing much black on the lower mandible (and a hint on the upper mandible); also a small amount of brown in the folded wing. The right-hand bird could pass as an adult though there is a small amount of black on the bill.

Not much light or contrast today but at least this male Common Whitethroat sat up and stayed still.

And showed how it got its name!

Not 100% about this but it may well be a male St Mark's Fly or Hawthorn Fly (Bibio marci). These appear remarkably regularly on St. Mark's Day (25 April) for about four weeks. They are easy to tell in flight as they dangle their legs.

Rather similar though the antennae are slightly longer and the wing veins less obvious.

This fly is one of the genus Hilara. In this group the males have swollen front tarsi which they use to produce silk to wrap prey as a courtship gift for the female. The fly equivalent of a bunch of roses? These flies are closely related to dagger flies (Empis sp.)

I found this hoverfly at rest and could not get a better angle on it. I am sure it is one of the Platycheirus group. To have any chance of a specific identity I would have needed to see the abdomen markings from above.

Caddis flies are hard to identify. This illustrates the general shape of this group with slightly curved and forward-pointing long antennae; and a characteristic shape to the rear of the folded wings. The arrangement and number of spurs on each pair of legs helps with identification – a bit!

My first Scorpion Fly (Panorpa sp.) of the year. The 'sting' is the male genitalia. Note the mouthparts – these flies feed on dead insects that they frequently steal from spiders' webs. There are three species in the UK, the wing pattern is no longer thought to be a definitive identification feature. For males "P. germanica has thickened parallel hypo-valves on the male genital capsule, which are calliper shaped in P. communis". Show me your hypo-valves!

I have not recorded one of these previously. It seems to be a Striped Millipede (Ommatoiulus sabulosus). The stripe is in reality brown: it is the camera flash that is being reflected to make it look like a dotted white line.

This ichneumon is rather unusual in having yellow at the back of the head and striping on the thorax. There is a Natural History Museum Beginner’s guide to identifying British ichneumonids on the web that covers some 40 of 2500(!) UK species. My reading of that suggests this might be Tromatobia lineatoria. But then again there may be many that look similar.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:00 – 06:50

(99th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Four Canada Geese goslings were presumed to be from the same brood though they were among a gaggle of six adults.
- *A pair of Mallard with just two ducklings.
- A low count of Tufted Duck again. The drake Pochard from last week, not surprisingly, gone.
- One pair of Coots was noted with two juveniles – one with one parent out on the water; the other was being brooded by the other parent in the nest where there could have been more. Begging juveniles were heard elsewhere from a hidden nest.
- The two Lesser Black-backed Gulls flew low through together: one a (near) adult and one an immature.
- No Willow Warblers seen or heard.
- No Sedge Warbler but now a Reed Warbler singing in the small patch of reeds alongside Derwent Drive. A bird held territory here in 2020 and may have bred as I saw two birds on several occasions. One arrived and sang for two days last year but was probably disturbed by fishermen before it established its territory: it was not seen or heard subsequently. Bird species #62 here so far in 2022.
- There seems to be at least three Goldcrest territories in the area.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Starling

Warblers noted (figures in brackets relate to singing birds):
- no Willow Warblers
- 6 (6) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Reed Warbler
- 7 (6) Blackcaps

Noted on / around the water:
- 47 + 4 (1 brood) Canada Geese: of these a pair departed
- 4 Greylag Geese
- 4 Mute Swans
- *20 (16♂) + 2 (1 brood) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white duck (Aylesbury Duck)
- 6 (4♂) Tufted Duck
- 9 Moorhens
- 24 + >2 (2 broods) Coots: see notes
- no Great Crested Grebe

Noted on / around the street lamp poles
- *1 Swallow Prominent moth (Pheosia tremula): moth species #6 here in 2022.
- 1 owl midge sp.

Elsewhere.

Nothing of note

A grab shot for which I had to use flash as an approaching Magpie caused the Mallard to wisely move their remaining brood in to the water and swim off.

This is a Swallow Prominent moth (Pheosia tremula). This species is double-brooded and I missed the early brood last year with my first specimen turning up in August. In 2020 I logged one from this early brood on 01 May. I record it almost every year though this specimen was unusually on a lamp pole by the medical centre. I normally see them resting on lamp poles in the wooded area at the top left.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash

- At least two Mallard heard fighting and then flying from the lower pool.
- 1 Chiffchaff singing between the pools.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel

- nothing noted

(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

Wrekin

6 Tree Pipits 

1 Wheatear 

5 Pied Flycatchers 

2 Common Redstarts 

3 Wood Warblers 

(Ed Wilson)

2012

Priorslee Lake

Whimbrel

Grasshopper

5 Common Sandpiper

Wheatear

(John Isherwood)

Wrekin

1 Wood Warbler

1 Common Redstart

3 Tree Pipit

2 Pied Flycatcher

(J Reeves)

2006

Priorslee Lake

3 Common Sandpipers 

2 Ruddy Ducks

(Ed Wilson)