21 Aug 22

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

14.0°C > 16.0°C: Broken cloud at multiple levels to start with giving *excellent sunrise. More general cloud after c.08:45. Light SW breeze. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 06:01 BST

* = a photo from today

Priorslee Lake: 04:50 – 06:25 // 07:25 – 09:10

(178th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- A Little Grebe was seen on the water at 05:30 only. No calls were heard.
- The five pairs of Great Crested Grebes were all with their juveniles. There were two other pairs of adults without juveniles.
- A Common Buzzard sitting on a street lamp pole in Teece Drive dropped on to something at the edge of the Ricoh copse and carried it away towards the loudly begging juvenile. I could not see what it had caught other than to say it was smaller than a Rabbit and had four legs dangling.
- The group of seven Barn Swallows flying SE at 08:15 seemed to be migrating. Rather earlier than usual I would have thought.
- The party of c.15 House Martins seen high to the North at 08:20 was my largest count since the Spring passage finished.
- A Cetti's Warbler was heard calling from the NW area. Then about 30 minutes later it, or another, called from the NE area.
- A Reed Warbler was again heard calling from vegetation along the South bank of the water.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 64 Canada Geese: outbound in five singles / groups
- 6 Feral Pigeons: three separate duos
- 1 Stock Dove
- 86 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Collared Dove again
- 42 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 6 Jackdaws
- 8 Rooks
- 18 Starlings: together

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 9 Barn Swallows: 1 S 08:00; 7 SE 08:15
- c.15 House Martins high to N 08:20

Warblers noted (no singing birds):
- 1 or 2 Cetti's Warblers: see notes
- 6 Chiffchaffs
- 5 Blackcaps
- 1 Reed Warbler again

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 10 (?♂) Mallard
- 10 Moorhens
- 73 Coots
- 1 Little Grebe
- 14 + 11 (five broods) Great Crested Grebes
- 29 Black-headed Gulls
- 11 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Grey Heron
- 1 Kingfisher

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

Moths:
- *5 Common Grass-veneers (Agriphila tristella)
- *1 Single-dotted Wave (Idaea dimidiata)

and:
- *various unidentified flies
- *1 female Chironomus plumosus plumed midge
- 2 Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus harvestmen

Noted later:

New for the year

- *Broad-banded Epistrophe hoverfly (Epistrophe grossulariae)

Repeat sightings:

Butterflies:
- Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)

Moths:
- none – I did not flush any grass moths!

Bees, wasps etc.:
- Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)

Hoverflies:
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax)
- Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax)
- *Dead-head Hoverfly (Myathropa florea) [Batman Hoverfly]
- Lesser Hornet Hoverfly (Volucella inanis) [Wasp Plumehorn]

Other flies:
- Lucilia sp. of greenbottle
- *Sarcophaga sp. of flesh fly
- *unknown green midge

Definitely a sunrise worth getting up for. Here it is early, before the street lights went out.

And later at maximum colour and extent.

Here from a different perspective

One of the five Common Grass-veneer moths (Agriphila tristella) on and around the street lamps this morning. This one has folded its right wing over its left, partially obscuring the marking as the pale streak splits in to four. I have searched the internet to try and find out, amongst those species of moths that overlap their wings at rest, whether a particular species of moth will always fold say, as here, the right wing over the left. Or whether it is random. I cannot find any information.

Not my best. I took this just to double-check its identity as a Single-dotted Wave moth (Idaea dimidiata). Only later did I realise that it was my first at the lake this year – moth species #80.

Look! No visible means of support. This Broad-banded Epistrophe hoverfly (Epistrophe grossulariae) is living up to is hoverfly moniker as it prepares to land on Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium).

Here is another specimen feeding on flowers of Imperforate St John's-wort (Hypericum maculatum). It looks broad-bodied from this angle...

...but less so here.

A Dead-head [or Batman] Hoverfly (Myathropa florea) tucks in to Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium).

A definite orange tone to this species. With the light at the right angle very hairy too.

The angle somewhat accentuates the markings and the contrast on what you might think is an unmistakeable fly. It is certainly one of the Sarcophaga species of flesh flies but specific identification requires "detailed examination by an expert" which I am not.

More or less a random fly species that I found on a street lamp pole. No ideas as to the species.

Another fly I cannot identify. I think it might be a wood gnat species. As usual there are many to choose from and they all look similar to the untutored eye.

This is what a female Chironomus plumosus plumed midge looks like. Very short and simple antennae.

The Chironomus plumosus plumed midge comes in different colour forms including green though in all forms the body segments are separated by a dark line. So this green individual with pale separating the body segments must be a different species of midge.

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Flash: 06:30 – 07:20

(174th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- One of the Mute Swans again went for a long fly-around having been put to flight by the adult pen. She is getting more aggressive now she feels here cygnets are capable of looking after themselves for short periods.
- The drake Gadwall visible again. I suspect he was lurking unseen yesterday.
- Another bumper Coot count. If I got it right there were 41 of these along the East side of the island.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 1 Black-headed Gull

Warblers noted (no song recorded):
- 1 Chiffchaff

Noted on / around the water:
- 16 Canada Geese
- 6 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 1 (1♂) Gadwall
- 23 (?♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white duck (Aylesbury Duck)
- 35 (?♂) Tufted Duck
- 17 Moorhens again
- 79 Coots
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- *21 Black-headed Gulls: no juvenile / first-winter birds
- 1 Cormorant
- *2 Grey Herons

Noted on / around the street lamp poles:
- *1 small dark brown beetle
- *2 Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus harvestmen

The adult winter Black-headed Gull does not look too happy at sharing the handrail with a Grey Heron. Note how the heron's feet are gripping the rail.

The Grey Heron did not seem too worried about me provided I stayed some way away. A zoom portrait.

The small dark brown beetle I found on one of the street lamp poles. There are too many similar-looking beetles for me to attempt an identification.

A close-up of one of the Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus harvestmen. This one has all its legs for a change. They do look as if the legs would easily 'plug and play'!

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Between the lake and The Flash:

Noted:
- 1 Elbow-stripe Grass-veneer (Agriphila geniculea) on the same street lamp pole

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Moths:
- *1 Small Grey (Eudonia mercurella)
- 1 Double-striped Pug (Gymnoscelis rufifasciata)

and
- many and various midges
- 1 White-legged Snake Millipede (Tachypodoiulus niger)
- 1 stretch spider Tetragnatha sp.

This Small Grey moth (Eudonia mercurella) that was on the wall of the tunnel. I have now racked up an impressive total of 20 moth species in the tunnel this year.

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On this day can be found via the yearly links in the right-hand column.

Sightings from previous years without links are below

2012

Nedge Hill

2 Redstart

7 Ravens

(John Isherwood)

2006

Priorslee Lake

Shag

3 Kingfishers

(Ed Wilson)