28 May 22

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

8.0°C > 13.0°C: Broken medium-low cloud cleared temporarily after 06:45 but clouded up to the W again after 08:00. Brisk WNW wind throughout. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 04:46 BST

The trip to Anglesey was mostly a success:
- at the North Wales Wildlife Trust reserve at Cemlyn Bay the Arctic, Common and Sandwich Terns all behaved with the bonus of a pair of Black Guillemots in the bay.
- at the RSPB South Stack Reserve the Common Guillemots and Razorbills were in abundance with a supporting cast of gulls, Fulmar and Kittiwake. I failed to find any of the four pairs of Puffins reported to be present. Gannet and Manx Shearwater were seen over the sea. A pair of Wheatears was a bonus though the best display was give by a Chough digging for grubs close-by.
There will be a Readers Corner set of photos in a few days.

Meanwhile today's photos will come tomorrow: apologies.

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

(124th visit of the year)

Best today was a Dunlin in summer plumage seen flying around low over the water at 05:25. It was not seen again. My bird species #89 here this year.

An omission from Thursday's report was a Little Grebe persistently calling along the N side. It was calling again today. My previous record of this species here was back on 2 April.

Other bird notes:
- Juvenile Chiffchaffs noted.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 2 Canada Geese: duo inbound
- 2 Greylag Geese: duo inbound also
- 2 Stock Doves: pair
- 8 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Herring Gulls: immature
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: immatures
- 4 Cormorant: two singles and a duo
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 2 Jackdaws

Hirundines etc. noted:

- >60 Swifts
- 3 Barn Swallows
- 2 House Martins

Warblers noted (figures in brackets relate to singing birds):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler as ever
- 13 (8) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Sedge Warbler again
- 7 (7) Reed Warblers again
- 13 (11) Blackcaps again
- 3 (3) Garden Warblers again
- no Common Whitethroat

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 1 (1 brood) Canada Geese
- 2 + 8 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 5 (4♂) Mallard
- 2 (1♂) Tufted Duck: arrived again
- 3 Moorhens
- 23 + 10 (4 broods) Coots
- 1 Little Grebe: heard only
- 4 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Dunlin, briefly
- 1 Black-headed Gull: first year, briefly

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

Noted later:

Butterflies:
- Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)

Moths:
- Common Nettle-tap (Anthophila fabriciana)
- Common Roller (Ancylis badiana)
- a carpet-type to be identified

Bees, wasps, etc.
- Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)
- Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum)
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)

Hoverflies:
- Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax)
- Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)
- Dead-head Hoverfly (Myathropa florea) [Batman Hoverfly]: first of year for me

Damselflies:
- Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)
- Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans)
- Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella)
- Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula)

Other flies:
- Grouse Wing caddis fly (Mystacides longicornis)
- Scorpion Fly (Panorpa sp.)

Beetles etc.:
- Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis)
- Nettle Weevil (Phyllobius pomaceus)

Bugs:
- Red-and-Black Froghopper (Cercopis vulnerata)

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

Spiders:
- Tetragnatha sp. stretch spider

Mammals:
- 2 Grey Squirrels

New flowers for the year noted:

None

This is the first year Black-headed Gull that visited briefly. It has the dark hood of an adult but note the black tail-tip that it will lose on its next moult. That moult is just starting with single loose inner primary feathers on each wing about to be dropped and replaced.

This Great Crested Grebe seems to have a complete meal for the day but needs to swallow it first. Not easy!

It periodically had a rest, probably to try and reposition the fish to a better swallowing angle.

Another attempt.

My mother used to say "your eyes are bigger than your tummy" when I could not finish my food.

It almost seems able to dislocate its jaw to make the fish fit.

Another rest.

And amazingly this time it went straight down. The fish is a Tench (Tinca tinca).

I have now identified the mystery 'carpet-type' moth as a Twin-spot Carpet (Mesotype didymata). There are a number of different 'twin-spot' carpet moths named from the pair of dark marks toward the back of the wings about a quarter of the way in from the wing-edge. This is a new species for me in Shropshire. A common moth that varies in size and colour across the country. The background here is the wooden fence between Teece Drive and the Wesley Brook and this seems to have given the result a warmer tone than I recall. Moth species #28 here this year for me.

I had this in my logs as a Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax). It isn't. The photo shows yellow areas on the legs and so it is a Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax). This is a female: only the males of this latter species show a tapered body. More apologies. Both these normally abundant species were on the wing in late March though have been unusually scarce since.

The barring on the thorax identifies this as a Dead-head Hoverfly (Myathropa florea). I never thought this was a particularly apposite name for the species. Neither am I convinced by Stephen Falk calling it the Batman Hoverfly. My first 2022 record of this species.

A splendid Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula). I am seeing more of this species this year. It is always the first damselfly I see in very early May but thereafter I almost always only seen the blue species.

The light was not at the best angle to show this beetle on a Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) flower. I think it is a female Lesser Thick-legged Flower Beetle (Ischnomera cyanea). It is only the males that have the thickened hind femur.

Tetragnatha sp. stretch spiders are very common at the moment lurking to capture unsuspecting flies. This shows just how long the front pairs of legs are and also the joints in those legs.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 05:55 – 06:40

(120th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- The usual one well-grown gosling and six smaller goslings were not seen: I suspect they were in gardens along one or the arms of Wordsworth Drive where some of the other adults were. The brood of three small goslings and their parents were also nearby.
- Just the two 2021 Mute Swans seen together. Where does the other hide?
- Broods of 12 and two Mallard ducklings seen. I wonder whether the brood of two relates to either of the broods of eight and three seen on Thursday.
- A Pied Wagtail seen on the E side grass was my first here since 4 April.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 1 Jackdaw
- 1 Raven

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 1 Swift
- 1 House Martin

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

Noted on / around the water:
- 69 + 3 (1 brood) Canada Geese: see notes
- 3 Greylag Geese
- 2 Mute Swans
- 21 (17♂) + 14 (2 broods) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white duck (Aylesbury Duck)
- 3 (2♂) Tufted Duck
- 6 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 20 + 7 (3 broods) Coots
- 1 Great Crested Grebe only

Noted on / around the street lamp poles:
- 1 Pale Tussock moth (Calliteara pudibunda): same position for its sixth day.

Noted elsewhere:
- 1 Grey Squirrel

Mum Mallard with her twelve baby ducklings.

Another duck Mallard with just two slightly older ducklings.

A juvenile Moorhen. The hint of the white flank marking and white under tail is starting to show. Note the two-tone bill and slight brown tone to the back feathers.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

- 4 juvenile Moorhens with adults seen at the lower pool.
- Both Chiffchaff and Blackcap still singing alongside the lower pool.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

- The erstwhile caterpillar of a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly (Aglais urticae) is now most definitely a chrysalis.

The Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) caterpillar has now turned in to a chrysalis, as I expected. According to the web "Most butterflies and moths stay inside of their chrysalis... for between five to 21 days", though some species over-winter as a chrysalis and stay that way for several months.

(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

2012

Nedge Hill

2 Ravens mobbing Kestrel.

(John Isherwood)

2010

Priorslee Lake

Ringed Plover

(Ed Wilson)

2009

Priorslee Lake

Red Kite

(Ed Wilson)