26 May 22

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

9.0°C > 15.0°C: Again mixed. Mostly clear with light winds initially. Increasing cloud and strengthening fresh WSW wind throughout. Excellent visibility.

Sunrise: 04:58 BST

There will be no report from me tomorrow as I am off for a day's bird-watching on Anglesey

Priorslee Lake: 04:35 – 05:40 // 06:40 – 09:15

(122nd visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- The trio of first year Black-headed Gulls was an unusual sighting at this date. I would not normally expect to see this species until just about the longest day when failed breeding birds will start drifting back.
- Bird song is now very much fading away. I hope this means that birds are too busy attending to nestlings or fledglings and have little spare time.

Birds noted flying over here:
- *3 Canada Goose: trio inbound
- 11 Wood Pigeons
- 3 Black-headed Gulls: first year birds together
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: adult
- 1 Cormorant
- 1 Common Buzzard yet again
- 6 Jackdaws
- 3 Rooks
- 1 Starling

Hirundines etc. noted:
- c.50 Swifts
- 2 Barn Swallows
- 8 House Martins

Warblers noted (figures in brackets relate to singing birds):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler as ever
- 9 (6) Chiffchaffs only
- 1 (1) Sedge Warbler
- 7 (7) Reed Warblers
- 13 (11) Blackcaps only
- 3 (3) Garden Warblers
- 1 (1) Common Whitethroat

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 1 (1 brood) Canada Geese
- 2 + 8 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 6 (5♂) Mallard
- 2 (1♂) Tufted Duck: arrived
- 2 Moorhens again
- 24 + 13 (4 broods) Coots
- 5 Great Crested Grebes

Noted on / around the street lamp poles pre-dawn:
- 1 Pale Tussock moth (Calliteara pudibunda): same place for its third morning

Noted later:
In windy and dull conditions.

Moths:
- *Plain Gold (Micropterix calthella)
- Common Nettle-tap (Anthophila fabriciana)
- *Silver-ground Carpet (Xanthorhoe montanata)

Bees, wasps, etc.

None

Hoverflies:
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)

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

Other flies:
- Scorpion Fly (Panorpa sp.)
- *Owl midge sp.

Beetles etc.:
- soldier beetle Cantharis rustica
- 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata)
- *Common or Red-headed Cardinal Beetle (Pyrochroa serraticornis)
- *Nettle Weevil (Phyllobius pomaceus)
- *an unidentified species of beetle

Bugs:
- plant bug: probably Calocoris alpestris
- Nettle Aphid (Microlophium carnosum)

Slugs / snails:
- White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis)

Spiders:
- Tetragnatha sp. stretch spider

Mammals:
- Grey Squirrel

New flowers for the year noted:
None found

Slightly over-dramatised by the camera it illustrates the way the weather changed soon after dawn. Clear to the E; clouding from the W.

I noted yesterday at The Flash how the Canada Geese were starting to shed their wing-feathers as they commenced their post-breeding moult. Here are two of the trio that flew over the lake this morning also showing this. Most birds drop each flight feather from both wings as pairs so that they are evenly balanced. Several pairs of feathers might be missing or partially regrowing at any one time. With geese (and ducks) that drop all their flight feathers more or less together, becoming flightless while they regrow, I guess 'pairing' of the drop is not so important and the unbalanced effect seen here is not unusual.

The dull conditions enabled the sheen on the Plain Gold moths (Micropterix calthella) to be seen to good effect. Note the yellow tuft on the crown.

A better view of a Silver-ground Carpet moth (Xanthorhoe montanata). Unlike yesterday's Common Carpet moth (Epirrhoe alternata), Silver-ground Carpet shows one very obvious cross-band with all the other markings being much less pronounced.

A not very blue male Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum). When damselflies first emerge they have very little pigmentation. This takes several days to fully develop. Identification has to be done on other features and here I used the club-like marking on segment two to identify it. To my chagrin I got this wrong the other day and said it was the Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella) that was so marked. I have put myself in detention and am writing 50 lines "common blue is a club and azure a U-shape".

An Owl midge in daytime. There were several around today and I was unable to get very close to any of them. Those I find pre-dawn I can almost touch and they ignore my torch.

There are two different species of mainly red beetle. This is the Common or Red-headed Cardinal Beetle (Pyrochroa serraticornis). The other species has a black head and is unsurprisingly called the Black-headed Cardinal Beetle (Pyrochroa coccinea).

I cannot say much about this beetle which is apparently falling in to a buttercup. It is not one of the usual pollen beetles as these are brown and much smaller. In natural light this beetle looked all dark and only as I edited it did I note that it is really dark green. Are the antennae meant to be bent like that or is the effect of diving in?

By far my best photo of a Nettle Weevil (Phyllobius pomaceus). Note the rather strange swellings on the legs. This is normal. I have no idea of their function.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 05:45 – 06:35

(119th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- The usual one well-grown gosling and six smaller goslings were together. Another brood of three small goslings nearby.
- As I arrived at least 19 of the Canada Geese departed together – my view was partially blocked by trees to get a complete figure. Later two arrived together. That still left many more on the water today.
- All three Mute Swans seen together.
- A brood of eight Mallard ducklings, perhaps those noted Tuesday still all extant. Another brood of just three very new ducklings. It seems that later broods of ducklings tend to fare better than early broods at least in part because the drakes are no longer disposed to harass the ducks.
- The Moorhen brood that I photographed as two on the nest was seen as three in the water today. Another brood of two juveniles was alongside Derwent Drive.
- All four juvenile Coots from the usual brood were together for a change. Two more juveniles were along the E side again.

Birds noted flying over here:

None

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 8 Swifts

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

Noted on / around the water:
- 89 + 10 (3 broods) Canada Geese: see notes
- 4 Greylag Geese: one of these arrived
- 3 Mute Swans
- *19 (15♂) + 11 (2 broods) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white duck (Aylesbury Duck)
- 4 (3♂) Tufted Duck yet again
- 5 + 5 (2 broods) Moorhens
- 20 + 6 (2 broods) Coots
- 2 Great Crested Grebes

Noted on / around the street lamp poles:
- 1 Pale Tussock moth (Calliteara pudibunda): same position as the previous three days.
- 1 Tetragnatha sp. stretch spider

Elsewhere:
Nothing of note

Easier to count in a photo than in real life when they are whizzing about. All eight ducklings seems to have survived three days.

A different brood of just three even smaller ducklings. Not well-behaved and keeping with mum to protect them either.

No doubt the council have a reason for trashing the vegetation here during the nesting season. Something did need to be done about the mud that washes on to the path in heavy rain. But it has been doing so for several years and the problem could have been fixed at any time over the past few winters. "Covid you know".

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

- No Mallard.
- 2 juvenile Moorhens seen at the lower pool.
- Both Chiffchaff and Blackcap again singing alongside the lower pool.
- A Starling was calling from a roof-top as if warning nestlings or juveniles of predators around (Magpies?). Most of the local Starlings have fledged their young and departed the area.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

- *The same caterpillar of a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly (Aglais urticae) as yesterday.
- 1 Tetragnatha sp. stretch spider

I am not sure I ever seen information about a caterpillar turning in to a chrysalis. Videos concentrate on the emergence of the butterfly or moth from the chrysalis. I suspect this might be the first stage in this Small Tortoiseshell caterpillar (Aglais urticae) becoming a chrysalis.

(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

2009

Priorslee Lake

Oystercatcher

Common Sandpiper

2 Common Terns

(Ed Wilson)

2007

Priorslee Lake

Common Tern

(Ed Wilson)