21 Jun 22

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

10.0°C > 18.0°C: Just wisps of high cloud, otherwise clear. Some mist over the lake early. Almost calm. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 04:45 BST again again again

* = a photo today

While volume and frequency of bird song has been in decline for several weeks it was very quiet at times today as if the birds were recognising "its the longest day and its all downhill now until Christmas"!

Priorslee Lake: 04:40 – 05:40 // 06:55 – 09:25

(144th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- 16 Swifts were over the lake early but again none was seen thereafter.
- So where have all the recent Great Crested Grebes gone? Just four today after at least nine for several days.
- All the unidentified large gulls were flying NW to the East against the dawn light.
- I heard the Cetti's Warbler sing just once at 08:58 from the West end. Does that mean it is giving up? Or that it is too busy on parent duty?
- A Kingfisher was seen carrying food towards and over the dam. I last noted this behaviour during the breeding season three years ago when I postulated that there could be a nest in a downstream bank of the Wesley Brook.
- Bucking the trend of declining song two Chaffinches have started up again after several days of my hearing just their call-notes.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 4 Wood Pigeons only again
- 5 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 15 unidentified large gulls
- 29 Jackdaws
- 9 Rooks

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 16 Swifts: early only
- 1 House Martin

Warblers noted (figures in brackets relate to singing birds):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler: just
- 7 (6) Chiffchaffs
- 2 (1) Sedge Warblers
- 9 (8) Reed Warblers
- 13 (9) Blackcaps
- 3 (3) Garden Warblers
- 2 (1) Common Whitethroats

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 9 (7♂) Mallard
- no Moorhens
- 35 + 29 juvenile Coots
- 4 Great Crested Grebes only
- 2 Grey Herons: arrived separately
- 1 Kingfisher

Noted on / around the street lamp poles pre-dawn:
- *1 crane fly, probably Limonia nigropunctata
- 1 unidentified ichneumon sp.
- 1 Tetragnatha sp. stretch spider

Noted later:

New sightings for the year:

Flowers:
- *Nipplewort (Lapsana communis)

Repeat sightings:

Butterflies:
- Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus)
- Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)
- *Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus)
- *Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

Moths:
- Common Nettle-tap (Anthophila fabriciana)
- Common Marble (Celypha lacunana)
- Burnet Companion (Euclidia glyphica)

Bees, wasps etc.:
- Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
- *Garden Bumblebee (Bombus hortorum)
- Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)

Hoverflies:
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax)
- *Pellucid Fly (Volucella pellucens) [Pied Plumehorn]

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

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

Beetles:
- Swollen-thighed (Flower) Beetle (Oedemera nobilis)
- *pollen beetles on Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium)

Bugs:

None

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

Spiders:

None

Flowers
- *Meadow Vetchling (Lathyrus pratensis)
- *Tufted Vetch (Vicia cracca)
-*unknown yellow flower

I do not get to the lake before sunrise at the moment and anyway the sun rises so far to the NE it does not reflect too well in the lake. Here is this morning's post-sunrise behind a convenient distant tree in Ward Rough which is well to the other side of Castle Farm Way.

Nothing like so spectacular from the lakeside. Some Autumn(?) mist rising.

I managed to get a Ringlet butterfly (Aphantopus hyperantus) to briefly close its wings to show the rings on the underwing that gives the species its vernacular name.

A Red Admiral butterfly (Vanessa atalanta). I have not seen any for a while so this is likely to be from a new brood from eggs laid this year. I remain puzzled as to why my camera wants to show them as Orange Admirals.

Something I cannot recall seeing before – a bumblebee not with orange legs but with loaded pollen sacs. With a pale yellow collar...

..an even paler midriff and a white tail I suspect a Garden Bumblebee (Bombus hortorum) though I remain puzzled by the pollen sac. There is no specific reference to this in Steven Falk's Bees Field-guide with a single photo of a worker Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum) showing a loaded pollen sac. Perhaps all workers do this? It is certainly not a Common Carder Bee. It is feeding on Bramble (Rubus sp.) flowers.

"Bombers at 12 o'clock!". You will often see these Pellucid Flies (Volucella pellucens) hovering a few feet above your head. Well they are hoverflies. The alternative name for these is Pied Plumehorn. I would need a better camera to see the 'plume horns' - the plumes on the antennae.

This cranefly was not well-positioned at dawn for a good photo. It struck me as 'different', being rather orange-toned and with three spots in each wing. It fits Limonia nigropunctata on the dipterist crane fly crib sheet. A new species for me.

If you look carefully amongst the flowers of this Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) you can see about 40 tiny black pollen beetles.

And here a group of them in close-up. No idea as to species though.

The PlantNet app. let me down. I thought I would try some of the yellow 'hawk-things' - Hawkweeds, Hawk bits and the like. Most of them have been in flower a while and the important leaf-shapes are buried among other vegetation. I do know that the relative lengths of the calyx and the petal are important features so I tried this. The 'most likely' answer was 'Common Dandelion' which it most certainly is not! After that result is suggested many low-percentage 'hawk-things' so was no help.

I had more luck with this yellow flower. Nipplewort (Lapsana communis) it said. And checking my flora that looks a good call.

I also tried the app. to see whether my previous identification of this as Meadow Vetchling (Lathyrus pratensis) was correct. It agreed.

I gave it the other species of vetch that I regard as easy and it again agreed with me: this is Tufted Vetch (Vicia cracca).

Back by popular demand(?) is 'plane of the day'. Here is a Boeing 747-800 series Jumbo freighter of Cargolux en route from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to Luxembourg Airport. Your best chance of riding in one of these aircraft it to send yourself as freight though the freight area is only kept at about 15C. You can just about make out the airline logo and name under the nose and almost read the registration LX-VCJ.

Two 'planes of the day'. This is Boeing 787-9 series Dreamliner of the Canadian airline WestJet starting its descent in to London Gatwick Airport having originated at Lester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto. One airline, I cannot remember which, introduced a livery with a dark underside to the rear fuselage extending diagonally on to the tail-fin. It was very distinctive at the time but many airlines have now copied the idea. The registration is not quite so easy t read: it is C-GURP.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 05:45 – 06:50

(140th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Once again I did not specifically note any Canada Goose goslings: they could have been lost in the melee.
- Rather disturbing behaviour by two Mute Swans with some aggression between them. One of them was the pen with the ducklings but I could not decide whether she was the aggressor or was being hassled. The cygnets were left alone for a while during the dispute. I have completely lost track of which swans are which. None of them ever seem to come close-enough for me to read any rings. Three were standing on the island one day last week and none of those was ringed.
- Just two small ducklings with a duck Mallard located.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 1 Common Buzzard: my first for ages here
- 2 Jackdaws
- 2 Starlings

Hirundines etc. noted:

None

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

Noted on / around the water:
- 218 Canada Geese
- 1 Canada x Greylag Goose
- 54 Greylag Geese
- 7 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 28 (25♂) + 2 (1 brood) Mallard
- 1 all-white duck (Aylesbury Duck)
- 8 (6♂) Tufted Duck
- 7 + 5 (3 broods) Moorhens
- 18 + 3 (2 broods) Coots
- 3 Great Crested Grebes

Noted on / around the street lamp poles:

Moths:
- *3 Small Grey (Eudonia mercurella)
- *1 Mottled Beauty (Alcis repandata)
- *1 Straw Dot (Rivula sericealis)
Bringing my moth species total for here this year to 17.

Also seen
- 1 owl midge Psychodidae sp.

Elsewhere:

Nothing noted

There were three of these Small Grey moths (Eudonia mercurella) on different lamp poles this morning. Here is #1

And #2. I do need to get this one double-checked as there are similar species and this individual has a much less distinct white cross-line at the one-third point in the wing.

And #3 sitting at a difficult angle to get a decent shot.

This moth is a Mottled Beauty (Alcis repandata) and was sitting sideways across a lamp pole.

My first-ever Straw Dot moth (Rivula sericealis) here, resting in typical head-down pose. They do not usually rest on lamp poles but in long grass.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

- no Moorhens seen or heard at the upper pool
- one adult and five juvenile Moorhens seen at the lower pool.
- no warblers seen or heard

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

- just a few 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

Priorslee Lake

Possible Black-necked Grebe seen by locals yesterday evening.

(Ed Wilson)