23 Sep 22

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

12.0°C > 14.0°C: Broken medium level cloud early. Very low cloud spread in from the North. Some sunny spells at times but with much cloud persisting. Light NW wind. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 06:57 BST

* = a photo from today

The first real sign of Autumn migration was noted with Skylarks seen heading West at both the lake and The Flash.

Priorslee Lake: 05:35 – 09:15

(205th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Initially a trio of Gadwall with one of these a drake. Another drake flew (from where?) to join these. Later just one pair was visible.
- I counted 23 Great Crested Grebes. That seems to be more than the five resident pairs and their 10 juveniles. At the moment I cannot explain the difference!
- For some reason there were just three large gulls early, all overhead. There were also fewer seen later.
- All but one of the 121 Rooks were in one large group (with just six Jackdaws among them).
- At 05:45 a Tawny Owl was again calling from the Ricoh copse.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 1 Canada Geese: circled over
- 3 Feral Pigeons: together
- *2 Stock Doves: together
- *42 Wood Pigeons
- 15 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Herring Gull
- 10 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 3 unidentified large gulls
- 22 Jackdaws
- 121 Rooks
- 2 Skylarks
- 1 Meadow Pipits

Hirundines etc. noted:

None

Warblers noted:
- 1 Cetti's Warbler: in song in the NE area
- 6 Chiffchaffs: two of these in song
- 1 Blackcap

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 4 (2♂) Gadwall
- 21 (14♂) Mallard
- 10 Moorhens again
- 153 Coots
- no Little Grebes
- *23 Great Crested Grebes
- *c.175 Black-headed Gulls: 117 of these were on the football field c.06:55
- 2 Herring Gulls
- 1 Yellow-legged Gull
- 15 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- no unidentified large gulls
- 1 Grey Heron

Noted on / around very wet street lamp poles pre-dawn (a heavy dew):
- 1 Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperia carnea)
- 1 plumed midge
- *1 Zygina species of leafhopper
- *usual multiplicity of flies
- 4 springtail Pogonognathellus longicornis-type
- 1 Bridge Orb-web Spider (Larinioides sclopetarius)
- *1 male Leiobunum blackwalli harvestman

Noted later:
- Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris)
- *Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax)
- *Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax)
- *greenbottle Lucilia sp.
- Alder Leaf Beetle (Agelastica alni)
- Grey Squirrel

Some feedback from yesterday's sightings:

- The Shropshire bug recorder has confirmed the leafhopper was indeed Ribautiana tenerrima.
- And at the suggestion of Martin Adlam the recorder confirmed that what I thought might be a Dark Bush-cricket (Pholidoptera griseoaptera) was in fact a Tree Damsel Bug (Himacerus apterus).

Thanks to both of them.

No colour to the sunrise this morning. On the left of the photo the low cloud is beginning to appear.

A lone Canada Goose circled over for a while. Of course it was calling.

Two Stock Doves fly by. No white is visible on the necks or wings of these birds. On the right-hand bird the dark-bordered grey wing is seen clearly. Pairs of this species typically fly a lot closer together than do Wood Pigeons. They are a somewhat smaller species with smaller heads and shorter tails.

For comparison here is a Wood Pigeon.

An adult Great Crested Grebe with a fish...

 ...taking it to one of its begging off-spring...

...who snatches it away and down in goes.

Another first winter Black-headed Gull flying by.

A male Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax). Only males of this species have an abdomen that is 'tapered'.

This is also a male hoverfly (the eyes meet); it is also a dronefly; and as the abdomen is not tapered it is a Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax).

A bit of sun and out come the greenbottles Lucilia sp.

This seems to be a Zygina species of leafhopper. There are four species with this general form and a microscope is needed to separate them.

A better photo of one of the mid-sizes orange-bodied flies that inhabit the street lamp poles pre-dawn only.

And this is a smaller one, this one with clear wings.

From this photo it does seem as if this fly does have banded wing. Previously I have suspected it might have a banded abdomen or the markings might have been an effect of the camera flash. I still cannot decide what type of fly this might be.

There are 'white-wall tyres' around the eyes of this rounded harvestman which means it is a male Leiobunum blackwalli harvestman.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:20 – 10:30

(200th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- A bumper total of Moorhens. They do seem to have had a very successful breeding season.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 4 Skylarks
- 1 Jackdaw

Warblers noted:
- no Chiffchaffs heard

Noted on / around the water
- 26 Canada Geese
- 3 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 28 (18♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white duck (Aylesbury Duck)
- 10 (1?♂) Tufted Duck
- 21 Moorhens
- 30 Coots
- 1 Great Crested Grebe again
- 6 Black-headed Gulls: two first winters
- 3 Cormorants
- no Grey Herons

On / around the street lamp poles:
Nothing noted

Noted later:
- *Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris)
- *Meadow Field Syrph (Eupeodes latifasciatus)
- 2 Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus)

A Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris) on one of the street lamp poles. The parallel-sided yellow mark on the side of the thorax rule out other similar species.

I am getting my identification of this hoverfly checked. It looks unusual to me with the colour of the final tergite being rather orange-toned. Provisionally a Meadow Field Syrph (Eupeodes latifasciatus)

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

- *2 Square-spot Rustic moths (Xestia xanthographa)
- 4 owl midges Psychodidae sp.
- 18 other midges of various sizes
- 2 White-legged Snake Millipedes (Tachypodoiulus niger)
- *1 male Leiobunum rotundum harvestman

It is all Square-spot Rustic moths (Xestia xanthographa) at the moment. Here is one of the two I found on the wall of the tunnel.

And here is the other – a very worn one almost devoid of markings.

No 'white-wall tyres' around the eyes of this rounded harvestman which means it is a male Leiobunum rotundum harvestman.

(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 Whinchat

3 Snipe

1 Wigeon

(John Isherwood)

2011

Priorslee Lake

Common Sandpiper

(Ed Wilson)

2008

Priorslee Lake

Water Rail

(Ed Wilson)

2007

Priorslee Lake

Ruddy Duck

Kingfisher

696 Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martin

55 Meadow Pipit

(Ed Wilson)