26 May 23

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

9.0°C > 15.0°C: Clear apart from an area of medium cloud c.07:00 – c.08:00. Light breezes mainly from the East. Good visibility and rather hazy.

Sunrise: 04:59 BST

* = a photo of this species today

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:05 – 06:30 // 07:30 – 09:25

(110th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- A Garden Warbler was heard calling and another singing briefly. Perhaps they have young?
- A Mistle Thrush was singing from tree-tops near the Castle Farm Way gate at 05:50. None was seen or heard later.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 4 Canada Geese: two singles and a duo outbound
- 2 Greylag Geese: duo outbound
- 41 Wood Pigeons
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: adult and immature
- 3 Jackdaws
- 1 Rook

Warblers noted (the number singing in brackets):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- 2 (2) Willow Warblers
- 10 (8) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Sedge Warbler
- 9 (9) Reed Warblers
- 12 (12) Blackcaps
- 2 (1) Garden Warbler
- 1 (1) Common Whitethroat

Hirundines etc., noted:
- 4 Swifts
- 2 Barn Swallows

Counts from the lake area: it remains very quiet
- 4 Canada Geese: a trio arrived and departed; a single did the same
- 2 + 2 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 4 (2♂) Mallard
- 3 Moorhens
- 27 + 23 (8 broods) Coots
- 6 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Cormorant: arrived and departed
- 1 Grey Heron: departed

+ = my first sighting of this species this year.
++ = new species for me.

Noted on the street lamp poles around dawn:
- +*1 Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet (Xanthorhoe ferrugata)
Hooray. It is a start!

Noted later: despite less wind and good sunshine the number and variety of insects seemed low.

Butterflies:
- Orange-tip (Anthocharis cardamines)
- +*Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus)

Moths:
- +*Silver-ground Carpet (Xanthorhoe montanata)

Bees / wasps etc.:
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)
- Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris)

Dragon-/damsel-flies:
- Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella)
- Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)
- Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans)

Hoverflies:
- Early or Late Buttercup Cheilosia [Cheilosia ranunculi (Early ...) or C. albitarsis (Late ...)]
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- *Common Spotted Field Syrph (Eupeodes luniger)
- Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)
- *Large Narcissus Fly (Merodon equestris)
- *Syrphus sp. (S. ribesii / S. vitripennis)
- *+Bumblebee Plume-horned Hoverfly (Volucella bombylans)

Other flies:

- *+Bramble Sawfly (Arge cyanocrocea)
- Grouse Wing caddis fly (Mystacides longicornis)
- Tiger Cranefly (Nephrotoma flavescens)
- Scorpion Fly Panorpa sp.
- *+Tachinid Fly Tachina fera
- *the daily unidentified fly

Beetles:
- Lesser Thick-legged Flower Beetle (Ischnomera cyanea)

Bugs:
- Red-and-Black Froghopper (Cercopis vulnerata)

Also
- White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis)
- *Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis)
- stretch spider Tetragnatha sp.

Almost a sunrise. Somewhat hazy.

The Cormorant did not stay long. Here it is leaving.

A Jay bounded past me soon after dawn. Took quite some work with the photo editor to extract this amount of data. Upperwing and...

 ...underneath.

Two juvenile Starlings. Note their 'bandit mask', a feature retained as they gradually moult in to the spotted adult plumage, the head being the last to get the black glossy feathering.

An adult Long-tailed Tit with no black around the eye.

A very obliging male Common Blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) displaying its upper-wing.

And nearby another showing me his underwing markings.

At last: a moth on the street lamp posts when I arrived. This is a Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet (Xanthorhoe ferrugata). There are number of 'carpet moths' and separation is not always easy. For me the small notch near the outer edge of the front of the dark bar is the clue. The 'twin-spot' located at the back outer edge are barely visible on the right wing only.

This carpet moth goes by the moniker Silver-ground Carpet (Xanthorhoe montanata) for obvious reasons. It is easily flushed from vegetation during the day during its short flight season.

This is, with thanks as ever to Martin Adlam, a Bramble Sawfly (Arge cyanocrocea) and not as I originally thought a Red-girdled Mining Bee (Andrena labiata).

A Common Spotted Field Syrph (Eupeodes luniger). On this species the yellow markings stop short of the side of the abdomen. On the equally frequently-encountered Migrant Field Syrph or Migrant Hoverfly (Eupeodes corollae) the yellow wraps around the sides.

The short antennae indicate this is not a bee. It is a hoverfly, specifically a Large Narcissus Fly (Merodon equestris). It is a very variable species that may have a black thorax and with white, ginger or black hairs on he abdomen.

I managed to take a photo of a Syrphus hoverfly that shows what I thought were the hind legs. It doesn't help the identification because it is a male so the colour of the hind-legs is immaterial and anyway I now see the hind legs are being used to clean its abdomen and are tucked under the wing out of sight. So Syrphus sp. it stays. Note that unlike the Eupeodes group where the scutellum is dark on this group it is a brassy-yellow.

Another 'not a bee but a hoverfly'. This is a Bumblebee Plume-horned Hoverfly (Volucella bombylans).

A very distinctive fly with the black band down its orange abdomen. I can even identify it as the Tachinid Fly Tachina fera.

Today's unknown fly. One of the Muscid group judging by its hairy appearance.

A different angle on a Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis). At least two of its eight eyes seem to be looking at me. It was moving its palp all the while, perhaps eating a meal? The length of the palps suggest it is a male.

Plane of the day with a difference. FlightRadar24 told me only that this is a Dassault Falcon 50 with the tail number (as the Americans call the aircraft's identity) of N23FM. It did not disclose the routing. Indeed most executive jets have everything other than the type of aircraft hidden. I looked up N23FM on the FAA Database, available on line. It told me the aircraft was built in 2000 and is registered to a trustee company in Utah - as are very many executive jets, hiding their owner's identity. Cost new between $3 and $4 million. Seating arrangement: flexible eight to 12.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:35 – 07:25

(100th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- No Canada Goose gosling seen.
- Drake Shoveler not seen.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull
- 5? Cormorant: glimpsed through trees
- 2 Starlings

Warblers noted (the number singing in brackets):
- 4 (4) Chiffchaffs
- 7 (7) Blackcaps

Hirundines etc., noted:
- 2 Swifts
- 1 Barn Swallow
- 2 House Martins

Noted on / around the water
- 28 Canada Geese
- 2 Greylag Geese
- *3 + 7 Mute Swans
- 18 (16♂) Mallard: no ducklings
- 1 (1♂) all-white duck (Peking(?) Duck)
- 8 (4♂) Tufted Duck
- 7 Moorhens
- 22+ 6 (4 broods) Coots
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Cormorant: departed

Noted on / around the street lamp poles:
- 1 stretch spider Tetragnatha sp.

Noted elsewhere:
- Alder Leaf Beetles (Agelastica alni)
- *flowers of Cleavers (Galium aparine)
- *flowers of Bittersweet [or Woody Nightshade] (Solanum dulcamara)

Proud mother with her brood neatly in tow.

It is the hairy plant Cleavers (Galium aparine) that has these tiny inconspicuous white flowers.

The flowers of Bittersweet [or Woody Nightshade] (Solanum dulcamara). All parts of this plant are poisonous though it won't kill you unless you eat an awful lot. The leaves are supposed to smell of burnt rubber if you crush them. After you!

(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

2009
Priorslee Lake
Oystercatcher
Common Sandpiper
2 Common Terns
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
Common Tern
(Ed Wilson)