23 Jun 22

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

13.0°C > 21.0°C: Mostly clear. Some cloud to the East and South later tended to fade away. Calm. Very good visibility though rather hazy later.

Sunrise: 04:46

* = a photo today

Priorslee Lake: 04:40 – 05:40 // 06:55 – 09:35

(146th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- It was good to see the duck Mallard with two fast growing ducklings. I had not seen them for several days.
- While some broods of juvenile Coots are very new a few birds from the earliest broods are becoming a challenge to separate from adults when viewed from any distance. I may have to start reporting a single figure for both adults and juveniles. It seems to have been reasonably successful season for this species.
- A Grey Heron flew off West at 05:25 and was perhaps the bird noted at The Flash later. It, or another, was at the lake by 07:45.
- As has been the trend recently there were only one or two House Martins present most of the time. Suddenly there were many calls and eight were evident. They did not stay.
- Just one Garden Warbler heard singing this morning.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 5 Stock Doves: duo and trio
- 8 Wood Pigeons
- 3 Herring Gulls
- 6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 4 Cormorants: together
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 21 Jackdaws
- 4 Rooks

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 4 Swifts
- 1 Barn Swallow
- 8 House Martins

Warblers noted (figures in brackets relate to singing birds):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler: single song
- 10 (9) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Sedge Warbler
- 10 (8) Reed Warblers
- 14 (11) Blackcaps
- 1 (1) Garden Warbler
- 1 (1) Common Whitethroat again

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 10 (6♂) + 2 (1 brood) Mallard
- 2 Moorhens
- 34 + 25 juvenile Coots: see notes
- *5 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 or 2 Grey Herons: see notes
- 1 Kingfisher

On / around the street lamp poles pre-dawn:

Nothing noted

After a warm night I expected to find moths on the lamps. It was not to be

Noted later:

New Sightings
I concentrated on trying to find new sightings for the year with rather mixed results:

Moths:
- A burnet moth flew past me and disappeared: I have only previously recorded Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet (Zygaena lonicerae) here but Six-spot Burnet (Zygaena filipendulae) is also possible.

Bees, wasps etc.:
- *A mining bee (Andrena sp.) noted. A nightmare to specifically identify!
- *An unidentified ichneumon (aren't they all?)

Dragonfly:
- A large hawker-type dragonfly flew by. Would need to see it perched!

Beetle:
- *Spotted Longhorn beetle (Rutpela maculata): more luck with this though it did not stay.

Flowers:
- *Common Sorrel (Rumex acetosa): also known as Red Sorrel, Sheep's Sorrel, Field Sorrel and Sour Weed'

Repeat sightings:

Butterflies:
- Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus)
- Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)
- Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus): second record here
- Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus)
- Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae)

Moths:
- Common Nettle-tap (Anthophila fabriciana)
- Timothy Tortrix (Zelotherses paleana)
- Common Marble (Celypha lacunana)
- *Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
Plus many unidentified moths flushed from the grass.

Bees, wasps etc.:
- Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)

Hoverflies:
- Bumblebee Cheilosia (Cheilosia illustrata)
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax)
- Common Spotted Field Syrph (Eupeodes luniger)
- Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)
- Pellucid Fly (Volucella pellucens) [Pied Plumehorn]

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

Other flies:
- Greenbottle Lucilia sp.
- Scorpion Fly Panorpa sp.
- Yellow Swarming Fly (Thaumatomyia notata)

Beetles:
- Swollen-thighed (Flower) Beetle (Oedemera nobilis)
- Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis)
- pollen beetles on on both buttercups (Ranunculus sp.) and Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium)

Mammals:
- Grey Squirrel

Flowers:
- *Marsh Thistle (Cirsium palustre)

Yesterday's unknown bug remains largely unknown. Keith Fowler tells me it is a nymph of an Anthocorid bug, (a family of minute pirate bugs). He notes "they all look the same at this stage".

A 'clear as a bell' dawn.

And calm later as well.

Only available at dawn was the duck Mallard and her two my now well-grown ducklings. Where do they hide away?

One of the variable number of Great Crested Grebes. Five today.

An unbelievably cooperative grass moth. Normally they flush away only to dive deep in to long grass never to be seen again. This individual decided that the place to hide was the door frame of one of the fisherman's car. It is a very fresh specimen showing how the longitudinal line splits. It also illustrates how the cross-line near the outer edge of the wing makes a 'U' shape. These are features of Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella). The pale blue (grey?) eyes on this group of moths always makes them looked surprised. The moth is less than 0.5" long – 11 mm for those of you who have the vaguest notion of metric measurements.

My unknown mining bee (Andrena sp.). To my eyes most of the 67 UK species look very similar, not helped by males and females of each species sometimes looking different. Only some of the species occur in our area and many of these are mainly on the wing in Spring. Frankly I have no idea but it is a smart-looking bee.

Yet another insect enjoying the plentiful supply of buttercup nectar is an unidentified ichneumon.

This Spotted Longhorn beetle (Rutpela maculata) paused just long-enough for me to grab this shot. It is on a Common Spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii). The beetle was formerly known as Strangalia maculata should you look it up in an older reference. I see it most years.

These tiny yellow flowers belong to Common Sorrel (Rumex acetosa). This plant looks a lot like a dock as it probably should as they share the Rumex genus. I have never noted flowers on the spikes any species of dock: they just look reddish brown. It seems male and female flowers occur on separate plants. I do not know which this is.

Now that the heads are open on this thistle I used the app. to confirm its identity as a Marsh Thistle (Cirsium palustre).

Today's aircraft. You can probably work out this belongs to Qatar Airways. What is not quite so obvious is that it belongs to their Crystal Cargo division. A7-BFD is a Boeing 777-200 Freighter and is en route from Los Angeles International Airport to Luxembourg Airport. Taken at 05:00. Later the atmosphere conditions changed and aircraft stopped leaving vapour trails and were hard to see through a haze layer.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 05:45 – 06:50

(141st visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Still no obvious Canada Goose goslings and rather fewer adults for no apparent reason. I doubt any can fly at the moment.
- The adult Mute Swan was 'upending' to bring up weed for the cygnets. A photo revealed just enough to show it had a green Darvic ring and hence confirm it is 'our' pen Mute Swan.
- Two large ducklings again with a duck Mallard. Also one small duckling with another duck Mallard – it almost looked small-enough to be a new brood.
- Of yesterday's second brood of at least five juvenile Coots today I could only see four being brooded under the adult. Two more new broods were evident, each of two juveniles. The lone well-grown juvenile completed the count of nine juveniles.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 1 Cormorant

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 2 Swifts
- House Martin(s) heard only

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

Noted on / around the water:
- 189 Canada Geese
- 1 Canada x Greylag Goose still
- 55 Greylag Geese
- *7 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- *21 (19♂) + 3 (2 broods) Mallard
- 1 all-white duck (Aylesbury Duck)
- 10 (7♂) Tufted Duck again
- 7 + 7 (3 broods) Moorhens
- 18 + 9 (4 broods) Coots
- 3 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Grey Heron again

On / around the street lamp poles or elsewhere

Nothing noted

Noted elsewhere:
- *Tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum) flowers alongside squirrel alley
- *Nettle Rust Fungus (Puccinia urticata)

The camera wins again. On the left leg of the adult Mute Swan it is just possible to make out part of the green Darvic ring which is an 'out of county' ring and sported by the resident pen. I could not see this through my binoculars. It is the first time I have managed to confirm that the cygnets are hers.

This looks to me like the sole survivor of yet another brood of Mallard ducklings: it seems too small to be from any brood I have seen previously.

Catching up on last year when I photographed this flower, described it as a St. John's Wort and then realised I could not tell from that photo whether it was a Common (or Perforate) St. John's-wort (Hypericum perforatum) or an Imperforate St. John's-wort (H. maculatum). I then promptly forgot to look again and photograph the leaves to get a positive identification. A year later and guess what? I was wrong anyway. It is Tutsan (H. androsaemum).

This deformity of the leaf of Common or Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) is caused by Nettle Rust Fungus (Puccinia urticata). The myriad of small circles are the fruiting bodies of the fungus.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

- Adult and juvenile Moorhens heard at both pools.
- No warblers seen or heard

also
- *Black Horehound (Ballota nigra) in flower beside the Wesley Brook.

I found this flower growing on the bank of the Wesley Brook just where it disappears under Priorslee Avenue. Out with the PlantNet app. It told me it is Black Horehound (Ballota nigra). "Never seen it before" I thought. Only to discover it is in my lake log from 2017!

(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

2012

Priorslee Lake

Plover sp.

(Ed Wilson)

2008

Priorslee Lake

Marsh Warbler

Unlikely as it seems I am pretty convinced about this on the basis of the song alone

I was walking along the W end path at c.06:15 when a strange song caught my attention: there had been young Reed Warblers flitting about the area away from the reeds and it sound 'Acro-like'. But it was far too fast and I then assumed it was a Sedge Warbler (especially after my bird in the town centre last week). But the sound was all wrong with what seemed more like Garden Warbler tones, though with the characteristic Acro dynamics.

The bird was singing from a small patch of bushes growing in the fence at the W end of the yacht compound and I had the choice of a close view directly in to the bright sun; or going the 'other side' and trying to see between the yachts at some distance. I decided to stay where I was and in response to gentle phishing I got a good-enough glimpse to confirm it was a  Reed / Marsh and not Sedge Warbler and certainly an Acro.

The song continued to puzzle and included all manner of oddities, sounding at times like juvenile Great Tit begging, all while singing at full volume.

I decided that the best thing would be to try and record the bird so I dashed back to the car for my digital tape recorder. When I returned the bird was not singing and phishing produced only a Wren and a pair of Bullfinches!

Revisited the area twice more for some 15 minutes on each occasion without success: was not too surprised as it was a small and rather unlikely spot for the bird to stay in.

Worth rechecking - but I went all around the lake twice without hearing anything untoward.

Only my second-ever UK Marsh Warbler - the last was as long ago as when they bred in Worcestershire! But familiar with the birds abroad as recently as May in Poland where I heard maybe 20.

I really cannot see what else it might have been: I am not that confident to say it WAS a Marsh Warbler song, only that I have no idea what else it could have been and it fits the general pattern of song.

(Ed Wilson)

2007

Priorslee Village

A pair of Siskins

(Martin Adlam)

2006

Priorslee Lake

Common Tern

(Ed Wilson)