6 Jul 22

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

15.0°C > 16.0°C: Low / medium overcast. Light rain 'in the air' at times. Moderate West wind. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 04:54 BST

* = a photo today

Very poor light much of the time and generally quiet.

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

(153rd visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Many juvenile Coots not readily separable from adults: all birds in a single total from now/
- A single Barn Swallow that briefly stopped to drink was the only hirundine I saw today.
- I did not hear any song from a Garden Warbler.
- I saw no Pied Wagtails on the football field at 05:30: just gulls – two Black-headed and one Lesser Black-backed – among the usual Wood Pigeons and Magpies.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 2 Feral Pigeons: together
- 2 Stock Doves: duo
- 47 Wood Pigeons
- 5 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Sparrowhawk: female on size
- 2 Common Buzzards
- 49 Jackdaws
- 2 Rooks

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 1 Barn Swallow

A very poor showing

Warblers noted (figures in brackets relate to singing birds):
- 11 (9) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Sedge Warblers
- 6 (6) Reed Warblers
- 10 (8) Blackcaps
- no Garden Warblers

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 15 (?♂) Mallard
- 2 Moorhens
- 76 adult and juvenile Coots
- *7 Great Crested Grebes again
- 4 Black-headed Gulls: all adults; two on the football field at 05:30 may or may not have been additional birds
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: adult; one on the football field at 05:30 may or may not have been an additional bird
- 1 Grey Heron
- 1 Kingfisher: heard only again

Noted on / around the street lamp poles post-dawn:

Moths:
- *3 Garden Grass-veneers (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
- *1 Riband Wave (Idaea aversata)
- *1 Round-winged Muslin (Thumatha senex)

Also:
- *1 soldier beetle either Malthodes marginatus or perhaps M. minimus
- 1 Bridge Orb-web Spider (Larinioides sclopetarius)

Noted later: it stayed cloudy and it was breezy except where sheltered from West wind:

New for this year:

Moths:
- *Latticed Heath (Chiasmia clathrata)

Flies
- *unknown caddis fly sp.

Beetles:
- *Common Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva)

Plants:
- *barley (Hordeum sp.)
- *Bistort (Polygonum bistorta)
- *Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum)
- *Common Oats (Avena sativa)
- *Rosebay Willowherb or Fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium)

Repeat sightings:

Butterflies:
- Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus)
'brown' butterflies will fly in cloudy conditions if warm-enough (>c.12°C)

Moths:
- *Common Marble (Celypha lacunana)
- Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella)

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

Hoverflies:
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)
- Common Twist-tail (Sphaerophoria scripta) [was Long Hoverfly]
- Pellucid Fly (Volucella pellucens) [Pied Plumehorn]

Dragon/Damselflies
- Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)

Other flies:
- Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- semaphore fly Poecilobothrus nobilitatus

Beetles:
- *pollen beetles as usual.

Snails / Slugs etc.
- White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis)

It looks as if one of the Great Crested Grebes has at last decided to nest. Most unusually the nest is outside the reeds. I am not sure this will be able to survive the wash from the water-skiing.

At 05:30 this adult Common Buzzard was standing on one of the lamp poles in Teece Drive. I am sure this species is nesting in the adjacent copse as I hear the juvenile's begging call on some days.

A particularly cleanly marked example of the Common Marble moth (Celypha lacunana).

A rather poor shot of a Riband Wave moth (Idaea aversata), this specimen with the solid area between the cross-lines is the so-called ribband form.

Compare with the so-called remutata form of the moth where the area between the cross-lines is unshaded. I see this form more frequently. This individual was at The Flash.

A fortuitous shot. The moth on the left is, as I expected when I took the photo to check, a Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella). Only when I looked at the photo back home did I notice the other moth: my first Round-winged Muslin (Thumatha senex) of the year.

It was a struggle to get this photo of a Latticed Heath moth (Chiasmia clathrata). It had buried itself deep in the long grass. I hope to do better on a sunny day when it might be more disposed to fly and settle with its wings open. My moth species total for here this year is now 55.

I found this caddis fly in the sailing club shelter. I have inverted it for easier viewing. I cannot identify it.

My first Common Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva) of the year. The back right foot of this one is standing on one of the hundreds of pollen beetles that are around at the moment. The soldier beetles were numerous today and...

...showing why they have been given the alternative vernacular name of Hogweed Bonking Beetle.

Another rather poor shot of a small beetle a long way up a lamp pole pre-dawn. It is a soldier beetle of the genus Malthodes. It is hard to judge its size. It is either M. marginatus or perhaps M. minimus.

Alongside Castle Farm Way where the verge has been disturbed and probably repaired with soil from the surrounding building site I found this. It looks rather like Common Oats (Avena sativa). It could possibly have escaped naturally from the fields to the East of the road and germinated on the disturbed ground.

Right alongside was perhaps a species of barley (Hordeum sp.). I cannot go further and there are several species of wild grasses that look similar. Which is not surprising as barley, oats and wheat are all cultivated from of grasses.

To complete the trio and only feet away I found a few stems of what seems to be Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum).

This is the first flower of Bistort (Polygonum bistorta) I have seen this year. It likes damp ground and will become especially abundant along the South side of the lake.

The spikes of Rosebay Willowherb or Fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium) are now opening. There are hundreds of plants at the West end of the lake where the scrub was cut by the sailing club. They did this to ensure that there was wind to fill their sails is they manoeuvred near the launch area.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 05:45 – 06:35

(149th visit of the year)

The light-level was too low to be able to reliably sex the ducks as they enter their eclipse (moult) plumage. It was also too dull to find all the adult Coots huddled along the edge of the island. Juveniles Coots have white breasts and bellies and are easier to find.

Bird notes:
- Two of the adult Mute Swans seem to have departed.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull
- 4 Jackdaws: singles

Hirundines etc. noted:

None

Warblers noted (figures in brackets relate to singing birds):
- 3 (3) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Blackcap

Noted on / around the water:
- 207 Canada Geese
- 1 Canada x Greylag Goose
- 78 Greylag Geese again
- 5 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 25 (?♂) Mallard: no ducklings seen
- 1 all-white duck (Aylesbury Duck)
- 11 (?♂) Tufted Duck
- 3 + 5 (3 broods) Moorhens
- ? + 8 (4 broods) Coots
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Grey Heron

Noted on / around the street lamp poles or elsewhere
- *1 Riband Wave moth (Idaea aversata)
- 1 Tetragnatha sp. stretch spider

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

- Moorhen(s) heard only at both pools/
- No warblers seen or heard.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

- *1 Double-striped Pug moth (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata)
- The usual few midges of various sizes.

This Double-striped Pug moth (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata) was on one wall of the tunnel. Members of the pug moth group seem to like it here as this is the third species I have found in the tunnel this year.

(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

2010

Priorslee Lake

2 Common Sandpiper

(Ed Wilson)