12 Aug 22

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

16.0°C > 22.0°C: Clear skies. Almost calm. Good visibility – a bit hazy at times.

Sunrise: 05:46 BST

* = a photo from today

Priorslee Lake: 04:35 – 06:05 // 07:10 – 09:05

(173rd visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- No Great Crested Grebe was sitting on the nest in the SE area. Two adults were seen close-by, neither looking as if they had juveniles on their back. Later I could not relocate these birds. Neither did I see the lone adult along the South side.
- At c.05:39 there were 18 Magpies and two Carrion Crows apparently feeding on the concrete slipway. Feeding on what? I could not see anything obvious. It seems unusual that so many Magpies would be peacefully(?) together outside their roost sites.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 19 Canada Geese: outbound in five groups
- 5 Greylag Geese: trio outbound; duo inbound
- 2 Feral Pigeons: together
- 69 Wood Pigeons
- 20 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 22 Jackdaws
- 4 Rooks

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 6 Barn Swallows
- 3 House Martins

It is perhaps worth noting that the final four or five Swifts are still around my part of Newport despite many others leaving before the end of July.

Warblers noted (figures in brackets relate to singing birds):
- no Cetti's Warbler
- 2 (0) Chiffchaffs only
- 1 (0) Reed Warbler only
- 5 (0) Blackcaps

Counts from the lake area:
- 3 Canada Geese: arrived together
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 21 (?♂) Mallard
- 7 adult / juvenile Moorhens
- 79 adult / juvenile Coots only: see notes
- *10 + 7? (four broods) Great Crested Grebes
- 42 Black-headed Gulls
- 6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: all briefly
- 1 Kingfisher

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

Moths:
- *1 Hawthorn Argent (Argyresthia bonnetella)
- *1 Notch-wing Button (Acleris emargana)
- 1 Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella)
and:
- 1 Common European Earwig (Forficula dentata)
- 1 Clubiona sp. spider
- *1 small money spider
- 2 Bridge Orb-web Spiders (Larinioides sclopetarius)
- 3 Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus harvestman
- 1 Leiobunum rotundum/blackwalli harvestman: a male which yet again was too high up for me to check which species

Noted later:
Many things still hiding from the heat

New for this year:
Nothing

Repeat sightings:

Butterflies:
None

Moths:
- Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella)
- *Straw Grass-veneer (Agriphila straminella)
***: as usual most grass moths went unchecked

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

Hoverflies:
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax)
- Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax)
- *Common Spotted Field Syrph (Eupeodes luniger)
- Tiger Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus)
- Dead-head Hoverfly (Myathropa florea) [Batman Hoverfly]
- *Lesser Hornet Hoverfly (Volucella inanis) [Wasp Plumehorn]

Damsel/Dragonflies
- Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)

Bugs:
- *Hairy Shieldbug [aka Sloe Bug] (Dolycoris baccarum)

I have been sent a report from Twitter that a male Lesser Emperor Dragonfly (Anax parthenope) has been identified in the sailing club area. As previously noted I am not able to identify most dragonflies in flight and I rarely spot any perched.

Confirmed at the same time was the presence of Purple Hairstreak butterflies (Favonius quercus). These tree-top specialist of, as their scientific name implies, oak trees are unlikely to be flying at the time of my visits.

And some feedback from Keith, the Shropshire bug man, on Wednesday's two bugs. I had correctly identified the plant bug as Campyloneura virgula. The other bug is confirmed as the common but rarely seen planthopper Ledra aurita. It is very well-camouflaged on its preferred habitat of lichen-covered tree trunks. It is known to be attracted to light: street lamp poles have very little lichen. It is also known as the Eared Leafhopper which would have been more obvious had I not taken the photo looking from a perfect plan view.

Lastly yesterday's unidentified moth sharing the photo with a Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella) was a Small Grey (Eudonia mercurella).

Two dabbling Mallard disturb the otherwise mill-pond stillness of the lake.

I think this probably proves this pair of Great Crested Grebes have just two juveniles. They should allow them on the water in the next few days which will confirm the number.

A moulting adult Black-headed Gull. On the right wing there are four old feather though one of them looks to be misaligned and probably about to be replaced. Some of the inner primaries have fully regrown and one at least is still to complete its growth.

I agree with this juvenile Blackbird. It is hot!

This is a new moth for me though I read that it is a common species. It is a Hawthorn Argent (Argyresthia bonnetella) and species #75 for me at the lake this year.

With a pale line along the wing not obviously bordered by a darker area and then splitting in to four or five pale fingers this is a classic Straw Grass-veneer moth (Agriphila straminella). Very common and probably hundreds in the grass around water.

This is what they look like after a few weeks when most of the markings have worn away.

As you might gather from its vernacular name the wings of this Notch-wing Button moth (Acleris emargana) are supposed to look this shape. A species I record most years.

For some reason although insects were generally scarce there were more species of hoverfly in the wing today than I have seen for some days. This attractive hoverfly with rather comma-like yellow marks (lunules) is a Common Spotted Field Syrph (Eupeodes luniger)

It was good to see more of these Lesser Hornet Hoverflies (Volucella inanis). There were at least three today.

When I first noticed this shield-bug I thought it had been trapped by a spider and wrapped up for its larger. Apparently not so – this Hairy Shieldbug (Dolycoris baccarum) just seems to be burrowing in the fluff of willow-herb flowers. Also known as the Sloe Bug. There are plenty of sloes around the lake.

A very small money spider on one of the street lamp poles. No idea about the species.

Two aircraft of the day passing each other. Going left to right is an Airbus A330 200 series freighter operated by EAT Leipzig in DHL livery and en route from Cincinnati's Northern Kentucky International Airport (see Wednesday's note) to Milan. Going the other way is a Boeing 787 900 series Dreamliner of Etihad Airways en route from Abu Dhabi to Dublin. Co-incidentally the freighter was delivered new to Etihad Airways as a passenger aircraft. The two aircraft are as nowhere near as close as they appear here with both lateral and vertical separation foreshortened by the distance of view. Believe it or not they were just south of Lincoln when I photographed them!

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:10 – 07:05

(169th visit of the year)

*The water is now covered with the largest amount of weed that I have ever seen. It must be very difficult for the young Coots in the area to move around and it is concentrating the birds at the top end.

Bird notes:
- Even fewer Mallard today. Neither did I see the all-white Aylesbury-type duck. Since this bird never seems to fly perhaps they were all trying to cool, staying hidden inside the island?
- A Common Buzzard was flushed from trees in squirrel alley. It seems many weeks since I last saw a buzzard in this area.
- House Martin(s) were once more heard calling and seemed to be 'down sun' of me but I still could not locate them.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 8 Jackdaws

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

Noted on / around the water:
- 35 Canada Geese: fours of these flew off
- 6 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 12 (?♂) Mallard only
- [the all-white duck (Aylesbury Duck) not noted]
- 31 (?♂) Tufted Duck
- 11 adult / juvenile Moorhens
- 62 adult / juvenile Coots
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- 2 Black-headed Gulls: no juveniles
- 1 Cormorant: arrived
- 1 Grey Heron again

Noted on / around the street lamp poles:
- *1 Riband Wave moth (Idaea aversata)
- 1 Red-legged Shieldbug (Pentatoma rufipes): on a different pole
- 1 Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus harvestman

As one of the residents remarked to me it looks more like a field than a lake. But then at the moment most fields look brown!

This Riband Wave moth (Idaea aversata) was sitting in a most awkward position near the top of a tall street lamp pole. It was half in full sun and half in the shade. A bit of photo editing was needed to reduce the contrast. This specimen is of the form where the area between the central cross-lines is not dark.

I give up! Another attempt at photographing the Purple Loosestrife flowers (Lythrum salicaria). Accept the fact they look better in real life.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

Noted:
- 1 Chiffchaff calling beside the lower pool

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

- *2 female Banded Mosquitoes (Culiseta annulata)
- 5 owl midges Psychodidae sp. yet again.
- 1 White-legged Snake Millipede (Tachypodoiulus niger)

I had to look hard at this photo to convince myself I was seeing a long proboscis and it was not one of its legs being held at an unusual angle. The shadow confirms it. It is a female Banded Mosquito (Culiseta annulata), They do not bite or sting. They pierce your skin with their proboscis and suck your blood out to be used to develop their eggs. When they do this they inject a liquid which numbs the pain of the piercing of the skin. It is this saliva fluid which eventually causes itching and is also the vector for many nasty diseases that the mosquito unwittingly carries, malaria for example. Mosquitoes do not carry malaria in the UK – it is too cold(?!). Males go their merry way feeding on nectar.

Normally I would have thrown this rather out of focus image away bit it does more clearly show the proboscis.

(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
2 Common Sandpipers
(Ed Wilson)

2011
Priorslee Lake
Ruddy Duck
1 Common Sandpiper
>50 Linnets
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
Little Egret
(Ed Wilson)