7 May 22

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

10.0°C > 13.0°C: Early low cloud started to break after 07:30 with good sunny intervals by 08:00. Moderate NW wind. Good visibility, improving somewhat as the cloud lifted.

Sunrise: 05:27 BST

* = a photo today

Priorslee Lake: 04:50 – 06:00 // 06:55 – 09:25

(105th visit of the year)

At last: a Swift! Just the one on yet another day with very few hirundine-types. My 88th bird species this year here.

Bird notes:
- A party of noisy Magpies (aren't they always) included one with no tail – a juvenile?
- A pair of House Sparrow was seen along the S side. Then a male was seen carrying food at the W end. Birds from the estate seem to 'invade' the lake most years. I have yet to prove breeding.
- Just two Sedge Warblers noted.
- Surprisingly all the 14 Blackcaps noted today were singing males: none was heard calling.
- The singing Garden Warbler was along the S side early only.
- I heard a Lesser Whitethroat give its rattling call twice. On both occasions it was too far away for me to pinpoint its location. It could have been two birds or, more likely, one bird moving through.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 3 Canada Geese: trio outbound
- 6 Greylag Geese: three pairs separately inbound
- 1 Feral Pigeon again
- 2 Stock Doves: together
- 3 Wood Pigeons only
- 2 Collared Doves: singles
- 2 Herring Gulls: both immatures
- 8 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: one first year; others (near) adults
- 2 Cormorants: together
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 11 Jackdaws
- 1 Rook yet again

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 1 Swift
- 1 Sand Martin
- 3 Barn Swallows

Warblers noted (figures in brackets relate to singing birds):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- 16 (13) Chiffchaffs
- *2 (2) Sedge Warblers
- 8 (8) Reed Warblers
- 14 (14) Blackcaps
- 1 (1) Garden Warbler: see notes
- 1 (1) Lesser Whitethroat
- 3 (2) Common Whitethroats

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 3 (1 brood) Canada Geese
- 2 Mute Swans: pen on nest
- 3 (3♂) Mallard
- 3 Moorhens again
- 18 + 4 (1 brood) Coots
- 6 Great Crested Grebes
- 4 Herring Gulls: second / third years together briefly c.05:30
- 1 Cormorant: immature, briefly
- 1 Grey Heron: departed

On / around the street lamp poles pre-dawn:
Nothing noted

Noted later:

Butterflies:
- *Orange-tip (Anthocharis cardamines)
- *Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)

Moths
- Common Nettle-tap (Anthophila fabriciana)

Bees / wasps etc.:
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
- *ichneumon sp.

Hoverflies
- Gossamer Hoverfly (Baccha elongata)
- Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax)
- Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)

Other things:
- St Mark's Fly or Hawthorn Fly (Bibio marci)
- Greenbottle Lucilia sp.
- *Alder Leaf Beetle (Agelastica alni)
- *Common Green Shieldbug (Palomena prasina)
- *Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis)
- Tetragnatha sp. stretch spider
- Grey Squirrel

It is a while since I saw a Cormorant in the water here. This immature was having a wash as I returned from The Flash and soon, as here, departed.

The Sedge Warbler in the bramble scrub behind the sailing club shelter has been very difficult to photograph. It sings deep in cover, does a display flight and dives back in somewhere else. Here it peers out at me showing its trademark broad creamy eyebrow.

Patience rewarded when it popped out briefly to sing for me.

This was as close as I dared go without disturbing it. I am on full zoom and have enlarged the result.

Another male Orange-tip butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines). I had not previously appreciated the dotted white border at the wing tip: nor had I realised that the orange tip is itself tipped brown.

Yesterday's Speckled Wood butterfly (Pararge aegeria) photo looked a bit washed out. I had a different camera today and this seems to be a better representation of what they really look like.

Hard to know what to make of this. I originally thought it might be one of the thick-headed flies but it is the body that appears thick. That is I think because it has a prey item under its abdomen. There does seem to be an excess of legs. It may even be an ichneumon as it looks a bit 'wasp-waisted' though if it is I would have expected it to have longer antennae. Pass.

This certainly is an ichneumon. Without a better view of any markings on the abdomen, here covered by the wings, I have no chance of an identification. But chances are slim anyway as there are over 2500 known species in the UK.

Handily on an Alder leaf is this Alder Leaf Beetle (Agelastica alni). It has apparently already started munching the leaf.

My first Common Green Shieldbug (Palomena prasina) of the year.

This Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis) seems to have tied itself in a knot. I think it is either mating or eating prey (perhaps both!). There are certainly too many legs for one spider.

Through a gap in the cloud is a United Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner en route from Chicago to Frankfurt. It is in United's new livery with blue-painted engine cowling. Strangely it does not have 'UNITED' painted in billboard lettering on the belly.

Also United Airlines but without the blue-painted engine cowling. It is a much older Boeing 777-200 series en route from San Francisco to Paris Charles de Gaulle.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:05 – 06:50

(102nd visit of the year)

A very quiet morning.

Bird notes:
- Only one Canada Goose goslings noted and that nearly run-over as the family wandered across Derwent Drive to visit the gardens.
- For the first time I can recall there were no Tufted Ducks visible. Even during the hardest of winters when the water is almost all iced over a few manage to stay lurking under overhanging vegetation. Most odd.

Birds noted flying over here:

None

Hirundines etc. noted:

None

Warblers noted (figures in brackets relate to singing birds):
- 6 (6) Chiffchaffs again
- 3 (3) Blackcaps
So where have all yesterday's Blackcaps gone?

Noted on / around the water:
- 32 + 1 (1 brood) Canada Geese: of these six flew off as three separate pairs
- 8 Greylag Geese: of these four departed together
- 3 Mute Swans
- 19 (15♂) Mallard: no ducklings noted [yesterday's totals should have read 23 (18♂)]
- 1 (1♂) all-white duck (Aylesbury Duck)
- no Tufted Duck
- 6 Moorhens only
- 24 + 3 (1 brood) Coots
- 2 Great Crested Grebes

Noted on / around the street lamp poles
- *1 springtail sp.

Elsewhere.

Nothing of note

The only thing I found on the street lamp poles this morning was this springtail sp. It looks like a Pogonognathellus longicornis-type.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash

- 3 (3♂) Mallard at the lower pool
- 1 Moorhen at the lower pool.
- 1 Chiffchaff singing at the upper pool again.
- 2 Blackcaps: one singing and one calling beside the lower pool.

also
- 1 springtail sp.
- 1 Tetragnatha sp. stretch spider

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel

- many plumed and other midges as usual
- *the remains of a cranefly
- 1 owl midge
- *1 millipede sp. again

The remains! This looks to have been a cranefly. The body has been neatly removed from all the inedible parts. As these have not dropped off the wall I assume that they are held in spider's silk and that a spider was the culprit.

This may very well be the same millipede that I pondered over yesterday, From this angle it looks as if it could be a Striped Millipede (Ommatoiulus sabulosus) after all.

(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

Nedge Hill

Yellow Wagtail

3 Wheatear

(John Isherwood)

2012

Wrekin

2 Wood Warblers

4 Pied Flycatchers

(Mike Stokes)

2011

Nedge Hill

2 Wheatear

(John Isherwood)

2008

Priorslee Lake

18 Mute Swans

(Martin Adlam)

2006

Priorslee Lake

Pair of Ruddy Ducks

(Ed Wilson)