22 Jun 22

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

13.0°C > 19.0°C: Early mist and very low cloud started to lift c.06:00 but was after 08:00 before any substantial sunny intervals. Light NNW wind, gusting moderate early. Poor visibility to start, gradually becoming very good.

Sunrise: 04:46: mornings drawing in!

* = a photo today

Priorslee Lake: 04:40 – 05:35 // 06:40 – 09:30

(145th visit of the year)

Many numbers affected by early poor visibility

Bird notes:
- After two days with apparently only four Great Crested Grebes I noted seven today.
- One of the three Black-headed Gulls was an adult that flew West. The other two were circling high overhead and could not be aged.
- Dire numbers of Swifts, Swallows and House Martins. Singles of each only. Swifts seem to be in reasonable numbers locally but the other two species are well down even on recent years.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 2 Stock Doves: together
- 10 Wood Pigeons
- 3 Black-headed Gulls
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Cormorant
- 8 Jackdaws
- 2 Rooks

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

Warblers noted (figures in brackets relate to singing birds):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- 14 (12) Chiffchaffs
- no Sedge Warblers
- 10 (6) Reed Warblers
- 14 (12) Blackcaps
- 2 (2) Garden Warblers
- 1 (1) Common Whitethroat

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 11 (8♂) Mallard: also a pair on roof in Pitchford Avenue again
- 2 (1♂) Tufted Ducks: departed
- 3 Moorhens
- 38 + 23 juvenile Coots: see notes
- 7 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Grey Heron: departed

On / around the street lamp poles pre-dawn:

Nothing noted

Noted later:

New sightings for the year:

Moths:
- *probable flat body-type micro moth

Bees, wasps etc.:
- *Wall Mason Wasp (Ancistrocerus parietinus)

Flies:
- *Owl midge Psychodidae sp

Bugs:
- *unidentified presumed Mirid (plant) bug

Fish:
- none identified but after the recent spawning activity there are at least five dead fish on the surface. Two or three is usual I am told: five rather unusual

Flowers:
- *Perennial [or Field] Sow-thistle (Sonchus arvensis)
- *Square-stalked St John's-wort (Hypericum tetrapterum)
- *Welted Thistle (Carduus crispus)

Repeat sightings:

Butterflies:
- *Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus)
- Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus)

Moths:
- Common Nettle-tap (Anthophila fabriciana)
- Common Marble (Celypha lacunana)

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

Hoverflies:
- Two-banded Wasp Hoverfly (Chrysotoxum bicinctum)
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax)
- *Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)
- Bumblebee Plume-horned Hoverfly (Volucella bombylans)
- *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.
- Grouse Wing caddis fly (Mystacides longicornis)
- Scorpion Fly Panorpa sp.
- *Semaphore fly Poecilobothrus nobilitatus

Beetles:
- Swollen-thighed (Flower) Beetle (Oedemera nobilis)
- 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata)
- pollen beetles on on both buttercups (Ranunculus sp.) and Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium)

Bugs:

None

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

Spiders:
- Tetragnatha sp. stretch spider

Hands up: dreadful photo. This male Blackbird with numerous white feathers only ever seems to appear around dawn and is much more wary than most of its brethren. It, or a similar bird, has been around for at least two years.

Great lighting on this male Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus). I still have yet to see a female – without the scent gland in the forewing - this year.

What seems to be a new moth for me and as yet I do not have an ID. It looks to be one of the 'flat-body' group.

This wasp would not stay still and I managed just two rather poor photos. I think I can identify it as a female Wall Mason Wasp (Ancistrocerus parietinus). The abdomen shows a broad yellow band at the top and then three yellow bands toward the tip, the upper one being broader than the other two. To get an idea of its small size it is feeding from grass seed-heads.

This view shows it has two yellow spots at the base of the thorax and a yellow collar. The typical wasp antennae show better here. They do nest in walls – hence mason wasp - but more often in bramble and elder stems. I recorded my first here on 12 July 2021.

This hoverfly would not rest with its wings open to show the abdomen markings. I thought it was most likely a Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare) and checking with Steven Falk's Flickr photos the leg pattern matches, with yellow 'knees' and yellow toward the end of the legs.

Another view. If you look at the shiny thorax you can see my reflection!

Yesterday a Pellucid Fly (Volucella pellucens) was flying above my head. Here is one at rest. Can we see that it is, as Steven Falk calls it, a Pied Plumehorn?

Enlarged as much as I dare I could just about convince myself the antennae are plumed.

This is the very common Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus). I took this photo as the way the light was shining through the wing made it look as if the wing was tinged bronze as well as showing the usual dark area along the edge. Thus I thought it might be one of other snipefly species. Not so.

Another trick of the light. I thought I had captured both male and female Semaphore flies Poecilobothrus nobilitatus, the male having the pale tip to his wings. Not so: on closer inspection these are two males.

And here is one of them illustrating how hairy the legs are and also the rather unusual antennae.

A furry, cuddly owl midge Psychodidae sp. This one looked about half the size of those I usually see.

I am sure this is a Mirid (or Plant) bug though which it might be I cannot trace.

I was sure I knew this flower but I wondered what the PlantNet app. would say. It said Field Sow-thistle but of course it also gave me the scientific name as Sonchus arvensis. From my Flora I knew it as Perennial Sow-thistle.

I tried the app. on this and it came up with Square-stalked St John's-wort (Hypericum tetrapterum). I checked it out at the time – it had a square stalk. Later I checked with my Flora and the general arrangement of the flowers atop the stems with narrow leaves checks out. Apologies about the drunken angle but I had to take a flash photo from below as there was too much confusing vegetation around the plant to isolate it from any other direction.

Another ID from the PlantNet app. is this yet-to-flower Welted Thistle (Carduus crispus).

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 05:40 – 06:35

(140th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Again no obvious Canada Goose goslings.
- Two large ducklings with a duck Mallard. Probably two of the recent group of four. I hope the other two have declared UDI and are happy on their own somewhere.
- Several of the juvenile Moorhens are sufficiently independent to be straying well away from 'home' and it is not easy to ascribe some individuals to a known brood.
- Just one of the six juvenile Coots was a more or less independent bird, the others being a very new second brood of at least five not noted previously.
- A family group of Goldcrests including at least two juveniles was seen at the bottom end of squirrel alley.

Bird noted flying over here:

None

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 3 Swifts

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

Noted on / around the water:
- 205 Canada Geese
- 1 Canada x Greylag Goose
- *42 Greylag Geese
- 7 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 23 (19♂) + 2 (1 brood) Mallard
- 1 all-white duck (Aylesbury Duck)
- *8 (6♂) Tufted Duck again
- 7 + 7 (3? broods) Moorhens
- 18 + 6 (2 broods) Coots
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Grey Heron

On / around the street lamp poles or elsewhere
Nothing noted

So where did yesterday's moths go?

Elsewhere:

Nothing noted

The Greylag Geese appear in fluctuating numbers yet this view suggests they won't be flying anywhere soon. Note how the still growing wing-feathers fall far short of the tail.

Two drake Tufted Ducks with the left-hand bird moulting in to winter plumage. In a few weeks they will become difficult to separate from ducks.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

- Adult and juvenile Moorhens heard at the upper pool.
- Three juvenile Moorhens seen at the lower pool.
- One Chiffchaff singing intermittently near the lower pool.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

- *1 owl midge Psychodidae sp.
- very few other midges

Contrast this owl midge Psychodidae sp. with the one I photographed at the lake. It is larger, less hairy and with fewer markings on the wings. So that is two of the 99 species in the UK ticked-off. But which two?

(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

Priorslee Lake

Common Tern

(Ed Wilson)

2009

Priorslee Lake

Pochard

Nuthatch

Swarm of bees

(Ed Wilson)

2006

Priorslee Lake

Drake Ruddy Duck

(Ed Wilson)