29 May 23

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

7.0°C > 12.0°C: Clear start: area of low cloud spread from East c.07:00: clear again by 07:30 then puffy clouds after 08:15. Moderate northerly wind making it feel distinctly chilly. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 04:56 BST

* = a photo of this species today

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:00 – 06:35 // 07:40 – 09:30

(112th visit of the year)

Highlight this morning was a Hobby that flew fast and low carrying prey East at 06:10. It takes my 2023 bird species total for here to 91.

Other bird notes:
- No Common Whitethroats seen or heard.
- A Mistle Thrush was singing from the south-east wooded area at 06:20. What was surely a different bird was singing from the Ricoh copse alongside Teece Drive at 06:35

Birds noted flying over here:
- 10 Canada Geese: octet outbound; duo inbound
- 1 Stock Dove
- 6 Wood Pigeons only
- 10 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Cormorant
- *1 Sparrowhawk
- *1 Hobby
- 4 Jackdaws

Warblers noted (the number singing in brackets):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- 2 (2) Willow Warblers
- 11 (8) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Sedge Warbler
- 9 (7) Reed Warblers
- 13 (11) Blackcaps
- 1 (1) Garden Warbler
- no Common Whitethroats

Hirundines etc., noted:
- *>20 Swifts
- *3 Barn Swallows
- 2 House Martins

Counts from the lake area: it remains very quiet
- 2 + 2 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 7 (5♂) Mallard
- 1 Moorhen only
- 30 + 19 (7 broods) Coots
- 6 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: briefly

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

Noted on the street lamp poles at dawn:
- ++*1 Seraphim (Lobophora halterata)

Noted later: chilly wind kept numbers low.

Butterflies:
- none

Moths:
- Plain Gold (Micropterix calthella)
- *Common Roller (Ancylis badiana)
- +*Small Purple & Gold (Pyrausta aurata)

Bees / wasps etc.:
- *Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum)

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

Hoverflies:
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- *Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax)
- Syrphus sp. (S. ribesii / S. vitripennis)
- +*Common Twist-tail (Sphaerophoria scripta) [was Long Hoverfly]

Other flies:
- *Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- Yellow Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria)
- *several unidentified fly species!

Beetles:
- Raspberry Beetle (Byturus tomentosus)
- Nettle Weevil (Phyllobius pomaceus)

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

Also
- White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis)
- *Clubiona spider species
- stretch spider Tetragnatha sp.

Fighting Coots had disturbed the early calm waters. A brisk wind soon did the same.

A photo reveals something I can rarely see 'in the flesh': Swifts have white on their throats and part of the face.

Again here. Note too how deep the fork of the tail can be when the angle is right.

But never so forked as on a Barn Swallow!

 Bad photos of raptors this morning. A Sparrowhawk carrying prey.

Even worse: the rapidly departing Hobby! They are so fast that my the time I realised what it was, turned the camera on and zoomed in the bird was well away. I am amazed the camera managed to 'see' it at all.

Another Common Roller (Ancylis badiana) to compare with the one I photographed yesterday.

A Small Purple & Gold moth (Pyrausta aurata). I see this species most years, always in the same general area along the south-side close to the water. The caterpillars feed on various species of mint which I have always found to be more prevalent along the north-side.

I found this moth at the top of one of the street lamp poles around dawn. It had gone later. It is my first-ever Seraphim (Lobophora halterata) in Shropshire.

Splott! An Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) dives in to its food. This is a male.

And a different individual. The red tail is not apparent from this angle, but...

 ..a slight change of angle reveals that tail.

A close-up of a male Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) showing how hairy they are. I did not notice any Azure Damselflies (Coenagrion puella) today but there were many hundreds of damselflies that I did not specifically identify.

Despite looking somewhat tapered from this angle this is a Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax) because the hind leg is all dark and the tibia swollen. Also it has faint lines down the thorax that Tapered Dronefly (E. pertinax) never shows.

This is my first Common Twist-tail hoverfly (Sphaerophoria scripta) this year. This species was called Long Hoverfly. This is a female – the males are 'longer'. Note the size – it is sitting across a blade of grass.

I am going to have to do some more research on this. I am sure it is a hoverfly but I cannot say what species. Note how the rear legs are being used to clean its wings.

A better photos of a Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus) than the one I took at The Flash yesterday. This is now a very common species. Note the tapering abdomen, the dark mark in the wing and the very obvious halteres.

A great-looking fly, whatever it is!

And a different fly with its tongue out.

I found this Clubiona spider on the wall of the sailing club HQ.

Another find on a street lamp poles around dawn was this critter. I have no idea! Long antennae and no obvious wings.

Several of the Hawthorns (Crataegus monogyna) have slightly pink-tinged flowers.

Also pink-tinged was this Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) though these seem to be the unopened umbels only. This umbellifer can be recognised by the large petals on the outside of the umbels.

Plane of the day. An ASL Airlines Belgium Boeing 747 Jumbo freighter

Here is the FlightRadar24 data. Liege is a major freight airport with no night-time curfew. The Boeing customer code '09' indicates this aircraft was delivered new to China Airlines of Taiwan and the aircraft is leased from them. The registration (or what the US calls the tail number) starts OE- which means the aircraft is registered in Austria even though it has a Belgian operator. The airline was formerly known as TNT Airlines which only partly explains why the flight code remained TAY!

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:40 – 07:35

(103rd visit of the year)

Birds noted flying over here:
- 1 Collared Dove: apparently not one of the regular singing local birds
- 2 Jackdaws
- 1 Starling

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

Hirundines etc., noted:
- c.15 Swifts: hard to count!
- 3 House Martins

Noted on / around the water
- 25 Canada Geese
- 10 Greylag Geese
- 3 + 7 Mute Swans
- 22 (19♂) Mallard
- [the all-white duck (Peking(?) Duck) not found]
- 4 (3♂) Tufted Duck
- 6 Moorhens
- 23+ 5 (3 broods) Coots
- 3 Great Crested Grebes

On / around the street lamp poles:

Nothing noted

Noted elsewhere:
- Yellow Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria)
- Alder Leaf Beetles (Agelastica alni)

The Wren is still here but not singing for me!

(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
1 Sedge Warbler
5 Reed Warbler
(John Isherwood)

Long Lane, Wellington
2 Dunlin
1 Sanderling
(Andy Latham)

2009
Priorslee Lake
4 Tufted Ducks
Ed Wilson

2007
Priorslee Lake
Swifts
Kestrel
Great Black-backed Gull
(Martin Adlam)