Another bumper haul of strange things

Moths:
- *1 Green Carpet (Colostygia pectinataria)

and:
- *1 Pond Olive mayfly (Cloeon dipterum)
- *several different flies
- *3 plumed midges
- *1 mosquito
- *1 small beetle
- *2 springtails on at least Pogonognathellus longicornis
- 1 Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus)
- 1 Bridge Orb-web Spider (Larinioides sclopetarius)

Noted later

Even less than yesterday:

Hoverflies:
- Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)

Beetles:
- *Alder Leaf Beetle (Agelastica alni)

Mammals:
- pipistrelle-type bat sp.
- another bat sp. Seemed too large for a Pipistrelle and too small for a Noctule. So?

Just about as good as it got this morning. Much low cloud here and when that started to break there was much medium level cloud as well.

Goodie: more gulls! And again all away in the distance. On the right a (near?) adult Lesser Black-backed Gull and apart from the bird behind it the others are immature Lesser Black-backed Gulls. So what is the different bird? Good question. To my eyes the back colour is too dark for a Herring Gull. The browner tones toward the wing tip suggest it is an immature (third year?).

Here it looks significantly larger than the immature Lesser Black-back next to it. Herring Gulls average larger than Lesser Black-backed Gulls and males of both species also average larger than the females.

I waited for ages for it to do something to show the wing pattern. But I am only partly wiser. It clearly has an extensive black tail band which would suggest it is a second year bird. There seems to be some dark shading in the inner part of the wing. This, the dark tone of the back and the prominent tail band at this age all point to it being a Yellow-legged Gull.

After that struggle here is an apparently easier one. It looked like an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull with the naked eye with the wings obviously darker than a Herring or Lesser Black-backed Gull. The photo shows it is an immature as it has a few black feathers in the tail and a few dark feathers in the trailing edge of the outer secondary feathers. But there is an oddity. The inner primaries, which will be new, are paler than the rest of the wing; the secondaries are no broadly tipped white; and there is no white 'mirror' in the outer primary. Why? I have still a lot to learn about these large gulls.

Just about the easiest of the carpet moths to identify is this Green Carpet (Colostygia pectinataria). It takes my moth species count at the lake this year to 86.

My first mayfly of the year – well it is September! It was sitting on the back of a street lamp pole and I was not about to climb amongst the nettles to get a better angle for the photo. It is probably a Pond Olive (Cloeon dipterum).

One of the very common plumed midges (Chironomus plumosus). A male with the plumed antennae.

"Grandma: what big eyes you have"! "All the better to see you with"! The brown shading on the wings of this fly makes the body appear a strange shape. I can't say any more about this fly.

A different reddish fly with a shorter, wider and striped abdomen. Another I cannot begin to identify.

One of the Pogonognathellus longicornis springtails seems to be interested in what looks like a small midge.

The long proboscis identifies this as a mosquito. The simple, banded antennae suggest it is a female. Quite what the objects are extending near the tip of the proboscis is hard to say. There are about 30 species of mosquito known from the UK and the females of all the species feed on blood in order to get their eggs to develop. Only a few of the species are known to bite us humans and none of these mosquitoes is known to transmit any infections.

What I believe to be an Alder Leaf Beetle (Agelastica alni) here tucking it to the delicious flowers of Stinging Nettles. Yum!

The small brown beetle on one of the street lamp poles. This is shaped like a soldier beetle but less than half its size.

Aircraft of the day. G-CODA is an MD 369E helicopter owned by Whirlybirds Helicopters of Chepstow. Nothing to do with the American 'Whirlybirds' TV series of the late 1950s which used Bell 47 helicopters. The original design was by the Hughes Helicopters (at one time owned by Howard Hughes) and known as the Hughes 500. It is used by the US Army as the OH-6 Cayuse. Hughes Helicopters was acquired by McDonnell Douglas in 1984. For reasons that are not entirely clear (marketing?) the 369E is the name given to the MD500E (E for executive) model. This airframe was built in 2009.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:40 – 07:30 again

(184th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- The fourth cygnet was briefly noted on the island looking rather dishevelled. When I looked again it had disappeared – back inside the island?
- The drake Gadwall was seen displaying to the Mallard while the two ducks were paddling about happily elsewhere.
- All four juvenile Great Crested Grebes were with the only parent I noted.
- Three Grey Herons were keeping well away from each other.

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

Warblers noted:
- 2 Chiffchaffs again

Noted on / around the water:
- 5 Canada Geese
- 6 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- *3 (1♂) Gadwall
- 29 (19♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white duck (Aylesbury Duck)
- 9 (?♂) Tufted Duck only
- 16 Moorhens
- 38 Coots again
- 1 + 4 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- 21 Black-headed Gulls again
- 2 Cormorants
- 3 Grey Herons

Noted on / around the street lamp poles or elsewhere:
- *1 ichneumon probably Netelia tarsata

Later

Nothing noted

You know I like taking photos of drake Gadwalls. Here, for a change, are some photos of duck Gadwalls. Note here the white in the wing (the speculum); the hint of chestnut in the wing (more prevalent in the drake); and the extensive orange edge to the bill (the bill is all black in the drake).

Here she is on the water.

And this is the other duck Gadwall. They have become quite tame and, as the first photo showed, come out of the water. They joined the Mallard when food was offered but stayed discretely in the background.

Almost a repeat of yesterday's sighting at the lake with this large orange and nocturnal ichneumon many feet up a street lamp pole. I have no reason to change yesterday's ID of it as probably Netelia tarsata.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash:

- 1 Chiffchaff calling above the upper pool as I transited towards The Flash
- 1 Chiffchaff calling at the lower pool as I transited back: the same?

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

- 1 Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperla carnea)
- 2 different species of cranefly, one of which was *Tipula lateralis
- 4 owl midges Psychodidae sp.
- 16 midges of various sizes
- 4 White-legged Snake Millipedes (Tachypodoiulus niger)

This is the cranefly Tipula lateralis. Identify by the pale line down the centre of the abdomen. It is a female with the ovipositor on the tip of the abdomen. The other smaller cranefly here did not want to be photographed.

(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

Nedge Hill

1 Hobby

1 Wheatear

(John Isherwood)

2010

Priorslee Lake

Tawny Owl

5 Swifts

(Ed Wilson)

2006

Priorslee Lake

Common Tern

2 Swifts

(Ed Wilson)

Friends of Priorslee Lake Wildlife Site

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1 Sep 22