11 Jun 22

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

10.0°C > 15.0°C: Clear start with patches of cloud later. Light SW breeze increasing moderate even fresh at times. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 04:46 BST

* = a photo today

Priorslee Lake: 04:40 – 05:45 // 06:40 – 09:20

(135th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Another Mute Swan cygnet lost: just five remain.
- For the first time this year I noted House Martins – just two – flying too and from overhead the estate as if they might be nesting in the area. Numbers remain depressingly low this year.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 4 Canada Geese: outbound together
- 4 Feral Pigeons: together
- 1 Wood Pigeon
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 2 Cormorants: together
- 7 Jackdaws

Hirundines etc. noted:
- c.20 Swifts
- 2 House Martins

Warblers noted (figures in brackets relate to singing birds):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- 10 (9) Chiffchaffs
- no Sedge Warbler
- 8 (8) Reed Warblers
- 16 (11) Blackcaps
- 3 (2) Garden Warblers
- no Common Whitethroat

Counts from the lake area:
- 20 Canada Geese: arrived in separate groups of eight and 12.
- 2 + 5 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 6 (5♂) Mallard
- 2 Moorhens
- 30 + 19 (8 broods) Coots
- 3 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: adult, briefly

Noted on / around the street lamp poles pre-dawn:
- *1 probable Phantom Cranefly (Ptychopteridae sp.)
- 1 Clubiona sp. spider
- *1 female Leiobunum rotundum harvestman – first harvestman of the year

Noted later:

These are new sightings for the year:

Butterflies:
- Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)

Other flies:
- *semaphore fly Poecilobothrus nobilitatus

Beetles:
- *larva of a probable 2 Spot Ladybird (Adalia bipunctata)
- *Donacia simplex or D. vulgaris

These are repeat sightings:

Moths:
- Common Nettle-tap (Anthophila fabriciana): just two noted
- Timothy Tortrix (Zelotherses paleana).

Bees, wasps, etc.
- Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
- *Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius)
- *Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)
- *Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
- Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris)

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

Hoverflies:
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- *Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax)
- Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax)
- *Common Spotted Field Syrph (Eupeodes luniger)
- *Tiger Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus)
- Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)

Other flies:
- Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- Greenbottle Lucilia sp.
- Scorpion Fly (Panorpa sp.)
- *Owl Midge Psychodidae sp.

Beetles etc.:
- Swollen-thighed (Flower) Beetle (Oedemera nobilis)
- *Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis)
- *Nettle Weevil (Phyllobius pomaceus)

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

Spiders:
- Tetragnatha sp. stretch spider

Two for the price of one. A Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius) apparently sleeping it off after feasting on an orchid. As usual I cannot identify the orchid and now read that the marsh orchids freely hybridise with the spotted orchids which may explain my confusion when the pattern on the flowers matches none of the illustrations in my Flora reference.

A dozing Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)

I thought I had taken this bee's photo to clearly illustrate that many Buff-tailed Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) appear to have a white tail but that white is edged buff where it meets the rest of the abdomen. Then I noticed that there seemed to be almost no midriff band of colour and I worried that it was perhaps a Garden Bumblebee (Bombus hortorum). I decided it was not scruffy-enough for that species which, looking at photos on the internet, does not show the buff edging to the white tail.

An immature male Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) still to acquire full blue colouration. I am unsure why it is sitting with wings akimbo. I doubt they are still drying after its emergence as the body colour looks too well-developed.

Two for the price of one again. The upper insect is a Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax). The other a Tiger Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus).

This hoverfly is a Common Spotted Field Syrph (Eupeodes luniger). In this view it is easy to separate from the otherwise similar Migrant Field Syrph (Eupeodes corollae) because the yellow markings (lunules) do not wrap around the side of the abdomen but stop before the edge.

A most odd-looking cranefly I found on a street lamp pole pre dawn. It looks as if a child has been let loose with a crayon to imagine the wing pattern. I think its is probably one of the Ptychopteridae or Phantom Craneflies. Only two of the nine UK species are illustrated on the internet.

 I suspect this is a female semaphore fly Poecilobothrus nobilitatus. The males have white tips to their wings which they wave to attract the females and are therefore easier to identify with certainty.

A different individual. Note the way the light refracts on the compound eyes making them both green and red.

Even more obvious here when the two individuals look very different.

And here is a bad photo of a male. Strangely, if I have identified the females correctly, they outnumbered the males more than ten to one.

I had to take a photo of this Owl Midge Psychodidae sp.

This is a ladybird larva. The closest match I can find on the internet is that of a 2 Spot Ladybird (Adalia bipunctata). All ladybird larvae pass through four stages (instars) and not all the stages are illustrated.

You are about to get run over by a Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis).

I think this beetle is either Donacia simplex or D. vulgaris. Both are associated with waterside vegetation which is where I found it. It is supposed to be one of the leaf beetles but here looks to be attacking an aphid.

An inquisitive Nettle Weevil (Phyllobius pomaceus) looking to see what is on the other side of the leaf.

Doing her best to camouflage herself against the lichen growing on a street lamp pole is a female Leiobunum rotundum harvestman. My first harvestman of the year and about a month earlier than any previous records I have from this 'autumnal' group. The scientific 'rotundum' epithet is only relevant for the males: females, as here, are more elongated.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 05:50 – 06:40

(131st visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- I have no idea where the Canada Geese goslings were – perhaps they had wandered in to the estate. Perhaps they were lurking inside the island.
- The big increase in geese numbers at this time each year is not related to their breeding success here (usually unsuccessful) but is because birds from all the Telford lakes regard it as a safe place to be and with enough food available while they go through their annual moult and become flightless for several weeks.
- Two very well-grown Mallard ducklings were with a duck Mallard alongside the island.

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

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 5 Swifts

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

Noted on / around the water:
- 157 Canada Geese: no goslings noted
- 38 Greylag Geese
- 7 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans again
- 19 (15♂) + 2 (1 brood) Mallard
- 1 all-white duck (Aylesbury Duck)
- 7 (5♂) Tufted Duck
- 6 + 3 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 19 + 5 (3 broods) Coots
- 3 Great Crested Grebes

On / around the street lamp poles:

Nothing noted

Elsewhere:

Nothing of note

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

- An adult Moorhen with two juveniles seen at the lower pool.
- no Chiffchaff.
- 1 Blackcap singing very sporadically between the upper pool and the academy.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

- The Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) chrysalis remains.
- many midges

(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

Candles Landfill Site

4 Yellow-legged Gulls

c500 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

6 Herring Gulls

(Tom Lowe)

2007

Priorslee Lake

Common Tern

(Martin Adlam)

2006

Priorslee Lake

2 Ruddy Duck

(Ed Wilson)