9 Sep 22

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

13.0°C > 14.0°C: Heavy rain until c.05:30 then more intermittent until after 06:00. Low cloud throughout. Light W breeze. Good visibility, moderate in heaviest rain.

Sunrise: 06:33 BST

* = a photo from today

Priorslee Lake: 05:15 – 09:05

(192nd visit of the year)

All numbers affected by the rain and poor light.

Bird notes:
- A trio of Tufted Duck were seen in flight at 06:25 and were presumably the birds seen on the water later. One of these was certainly a drake: I would not like to be drawn on the sex of the others.
- A smaller number of Great Crested Grebes noted: the same was true for Moorhens and Coots. Some were probably sheltering in the reeds and not too much should be read in to these lower totals.
- A Tawny Owl was calling from the lower pool between the lake and The Flash at 05:35 and later presumably the same bird was calling from the Ricoh copse.
- The two Barn Swallows were low over the West end and the Ricoh factory and therefore likely birds breeding locally (in the village) rather than migrants.

Birds noted flying over here:
- Canada Geese: only heard outbound
- 5 'dabbling ducks', likely Mallard but too dark at 06:20
- 8 Feral Pigeons: a duo and two trios
- 138 Wood Pigeons: one fewer than yesterday
- 1 Black-headed Gull
- 1 Herring Gull
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 15 unidentified large gulls
- 1 Grey Heron
- 2 Jackdaws
- 7 Rooks
- 2 Pied Wagtails

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 2 Barn Swallows: see notes
- 3 House Martins

Warblers noted (no song recorded unless specifically noted):
- 8 Chiffchaffs: one heard in song

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 4 (1♂) Gadwall
- 15 (8♂) Mallard
- 3 (1+♂) Tufted Duck
- 6 Moorhens
- 102 Coots
- 21? Great Crested Grebes: see notes
- 53 Black-headed Gulls: 41 of these were on the football field at 06:25
- 1 Herring Gulls
- 23 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 2 Grey Herons

Noted on / around the street lamp poles pre-dawn

Another bumper haul of strange things

- various plumed midges
- *two different species of mainly red fly, one possibly the Muscid fly Phaonia pallida
- 2 Bridge Orb-web Spider (Larinioides sclopetarius)
- 1 Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus harvestman

Noted later in wet and overcast conditions:

Flies:
- *male Tipula sp. (oleracea/paludosa) cranefly

Beetles:
- Alder Leaf Beetle (Agelastica alni)

Mammals
- Grey Squirrel
- pipistrelle-type bat

I see this species of fly frequently and assume it to be the Muscid fly Phaonia pallida. If so then...

...I assume this isn't as it is about half the size.

This is a male cranefly. I may have got yesterday's example from the tunnel wrong. Two Tipula species (T. oleracea and T. paludosa) are difficult to tell apart, especially the males (females have different length wings in relation to their abdomen). I read that T. oleracea, the Common Cranefly, is more often seen in Summer whereas T. paludosa is the classic Autumn cranefly. This example may well be that latter species. At rest they both often appear as if the wings are on the wrong way round. It is only on craneflies that the halteres are obvious. Halteres are the reduced hind wings of all true flies and act like gyros to orientate flies in flight.

Disappearing rapidly around the top of a street lamp pole was this spider. The markings are not that clear but I do recall seeing a spider with such marks previously.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:10 – 10:05

(188th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- The three adult Mute Swans that departed yesterday seem to have gone for good.
- For about the fourth time in recent weeks a Stock Dove was calling from a house roof at the end of Westcroft Walk.
- The exact number of Cormorants was difficult to establish with bird flying around and changing places. Some were, rather unusually, heard calling. Seven was the minimum number.

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

Warblers noted:
- 2 Chiffchaffs

Noted on / around the water:
- 25 Canada Geese: most of these arrived
- 3 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 1 (1♂) Gadwall
- 27 (16♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white duck (Aylesbury Duck)
- 9 (?♂) Tufted Duck
- 13 Moorhens
- 49 Coots
- 1 + 4 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes still
- 7 Black-headed Gulls: two first winters
- 7 Cormorants
- no Grey Herons

On / around the street lamp poles:

Nothing noted

Noted later:

The following flowers not previously noted this year in my log

- *Honeysuckle berries (Lonicera sp.)
- *Fat Hen (Chenopodium album)

And feedback from the Shropshire bug recorder has confirmed the froghopper I photographed on the Redshank flower on Wednesday to be a Common Froghopper (Philaenus spumarius). This is a spectacularly variably marked species: see Here

Yesterday I showed a photo of a Honeysuckle flower (Lonicera sp.). I did take a photo of the berries but the camera failed to focus properly (my excuse!). Here are some of those rather strange-looking berries. The berries are mildly toxic. Our native form, L. periclymenum, has been augmented by introduced species and cultivars which are sometimes encountered as garden escapes. Such species may be more (or less) toxic.

I must learn to engage brain. I came across a plant I could not identify and used the PlantNet app. with this result. I did not recognise either of the suggestions and in my confusion forgot to take a photo of the plant: doh! Checking with the NatureSpot web site tells me that Chenopodium album is what I know as Fat Hen. Stand-by for a photo of the plant tomorrow (or look in the hedgerow beneath the bank of Ivy near the academy). [C. ficifolium, the alternative suggestion from the app., is native to the Middle East. It has spread across the world alongside introduced grain crops. In the UK its is mainly confined to the south-east]

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

- 1 Common Plume moth (Emmelina monodactyla): same place as yesterday
- 1 Red-green Carpet moth (Chloroclysta siterata): also same place as yesterday
- 1 owl midge Psychodidae sp.
- 13 other midges of various sizes, including a female Chironomus plumosus
- 3 White-legged Snake Millipedes (Tachypodoiulus niger)

There is not much else to show from today so we had better have another owl midge Psychodidae sp. Note that this individual has a single white area in the middle of its antennae whereas others I have photographed recently have had banded antennae. This may or may not be relevant to the specific identification from the 99 known species in the UK.

For some reason all the midges here that I checked in detail were female without the plumed antennae. This one is I think Chironomus plumosus though without the shape of the plumes it is hard to be certain. Certainly the pale base to each abdominal segment supports this identification.

(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

3 Shovelers

(Ed Wilson)

2011

Priorslee Lake

Common Sandpiper

Possible Yellow-legged Gull

Wheatear

(Ed Wilson)

2010

Priorslee Lake

3 Teal

4 Swifts

1 Sedge Warbler

(Ed Wilson)

2007

Priorslee Lake

Kingfisher

(Ed Wilson)

2006

Priorslee Lake

Kingfisher

(Ed Wilson)