23 Jun 23

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

15.0°C > 19.0°C: Mostly a high overcast ahead of forecast rain. Light south-westerly breeze. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 04:46 BST: still

* = a species photographed today.

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

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 04:55 – 06:25 // 07:35 – 09:50

(135th visit of the year)

Birds noted flying over here:
- 8 Greylag Geese: outbound together
- 13 Wood Pigeons
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 7 Jackdaws

Warblers noted (the number singing in brackets):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- 1 (1) Willow Warbler
- 10 (9) Chiffchaffs
- 7 (7) Reed Warblers
- 11 (11) Blackcaps
- 1 (1) Garden Warblers
- 1 (0) Common Whitethroats
** yesterday's Common Whitethroat total should have read 2 (0) [and not 0 (2)!]

Hirundines etc., noted:
- 3 Swifts: early only

Counts from the lake area: it remains very quiet
- 2 + 2 Mute Swans
- 6 (5♂) Mallard
- 3 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 24 + 27 (? broods) Coots
- 10 + 3 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Black-headed Gull: arrived

Noted on and around the street lamp poles around dawn:
- 1 +*Round-winged Muslin moth (Thumatha senex)

Noted later:

Butterflies:
- *Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus)
- *Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus): many

Moths:
- Timothy Tortrix (Zelotherses paleana)
- *Common Marble (Celypha lacunana)
- Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
- +*Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella)
- Latticed Heath (Chiasmia clathrata)
- Silver Y (Autographa gamma)
- Burnet Companion (Euclidia glyphica)
- *plus a micro-moth with the Shropshire recorder for help.

Bees / wasps etc.:
- *Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
- Garden Bumblebee (Bombus hortorum)
- Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius)
- *Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum)
- Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris)

Hoverflies:
- *Bumblebee Blacklet (Cheilosia illustrata)
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- *Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax)
- Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax)
- Common Spotted Field Syrph (Eupeodes luniger)
- *Pied Hoverfly (Scaeva pyrastri)
- Common Twist-tail (Sphaerophoria scripta)
- Syrphus sp. (S. ribesii / S. vitripennis)
- *Bumblebee Plume-horned Hoverfly (Volucella bombylans)

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

Other flies:
- Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- *dagger fly Empis livida
- *semaphore fly Poecilobothrus nobilitatus
- aphids

Beetles:
- Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis)

Bugs:
- 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata): *larva, *pupae and adults
- +*Common Froghopper (Philaenus spumarius)

Also
- White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis)
- *Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum aka Helix aspersa)
- +*flowers of Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
- +*flowers of Black Medick (Medicago lupulina)
- +*flowers of Common Sorrel (Rumex acetosa)

As good as it got this morning. No colour to the sunrise.

A not very good photo of a Stock Dove to illustrate a point. This species will often glide with wings held raised as shown here. Wood Pigeons never do. Feral Pigeons do but always rock from side to side. With practice the species can be separated at great distance when gliding.

Rather early in the day for a crisp photo. Here is a juvenile Starling yet to get any spots. They do so from the belly upwards and can look rather odd during the moult.

This is an adult with the spots worn off from raising probably two broods.

My first female Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus) with no scent mark in the forewing.

I must have flushed fifty Ringlet butterflies (Aphantopus hyperantus) out of the long grass. Surprisingly not a single Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina).

Just to confuse: a different species of grass moth. This is a Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella) and can be separated from the Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella) by its lack of V-shaped cross-line on the outer edge of the wing. Good luck seeing that with the naked eye.

I must have flushed at least a dozen of these Common Marble moths (Celypha lacunana) this morning.

Amongst all the detritus associated with old spiders' webs at the very top of a street lamp pole I found my first Round-winged Muslin moth (Thumatha senex) of the year.

A micro-moth I cannot identify. Possibly and Ancylis sp. I am enlisting the Shropshire recorder's help.

A Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) with a heavy load in its pollen baskets.

A typically scruffy-looking Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum).

Not sure I have ever seen this before: a dead bumblebee.

Trying to stagger out of its exuvia this male Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) fell off the boxing ring and blew in to a spider's web from where I rescued it. Here it is sitting on my finger recovering.

A Bumblebee Blacklet (Cheilosia illustrata). It is those taxonomists again: why is this just about the only Cheilosia species that is not black and largely hairless while placed in this genus?

The abdomen of this hoverfly is most definitely 'tapered'. A Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax).

The hoverfly is a Pied Hoverfly (Scaeva pyrastri) which, as its name implies, is much less yellow than most hoverflies, often appearing black and white. It contrasts with the bright yellow of Common Ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris).

Not a bumblebee – it has short antennae. It is a Bumblebee Plume-horned Hoverfly (Volucella bombylans): a male of the red-tailed form.

Yesterday's photo of the dagger fly Empis livida did not show the 'dagger' (the piercing mouth-part) as clearly as this. Harmless to man.

Male semaphore flies Poecilobothrus nobilitatus are easy with their white-tipped wings. I have no idea what its minute friend might be.

Strange fly of the day: just look at the thighs on the rear legs. It has a very hunched-looking thorax. No idea!

The larva of a ladybird. I don't have illustrations of these for the whole range of ladybirds but I think it is a 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata).

The same applies to this pupa. Probably a 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata).

A Common Froghopper (Philaenus spumarius). This jumped out of the grass on to the back of my hand. The larvae are the familiar producers of 'Cuckoo-spit'.

It may look like an umbellifer but the feathery leaves point to a different family. It is Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) in the same family as daisies.

I promised a better photo of Meadowsweet [or Mead Wort] (Filipendula ulmaria) when the flower-head was more open. Here it is.

On the dam-top near the boxing ring is a small carpet of Black Medick (Medicago lupulina).

A plant I often think of as a dock is Common Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) [it is in the same family as docks]. What you do not often notice are...

...the delicate flowers.

They are rather smart-looking. A Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum aka Helix aspersa). They are not very 'intelligent smart' as this was setting off to cross Teece Drive which might have dried up its mucus membranes. I threw it in the wood.

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Flash: 06:30 – 07:30

(124th visit of the year)

Best today was my first Common Sandpiper here this year and my first returning post-breeding wader of the year. Unusually I did not log any on Spring migration here. Bird species #72 for me here this year.

Bird notes:
- The Canada Goose with the 'angel wing' deformity was noted for the first time for some weeks despite it necessarily being a permanent fixture.
- The Mute Swans were on the island and I could not see how many cygnets there were.

Birds noted flying over here:

None

Warblers noted (the number singing in brackets):
- 8 (6) Chiffchaffs
- 2 (2) Blackcaps

Hirundines etc., noted:
- c.8 Swifts
- 2 House Martins

Noted on / around the water
- 142 Canada Geese
- 78 Greylag Geese
- 2 + ? Mute Swans
- 22 (18♂) Mallard
- no all-white duck (Peking(?) Duck)
- 10 (4♂) Tufted Duck
- 7 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 23 + 7 (3 broods) Coots: one of these a second brood for a pair with three well-grown juveniles for the first brood.
- 1 Great Crested Grebe
- 1 Common Sandpiper
- 1 Grey Heron

Noted on / around the street lamp poles around the water:
- 1 +*Common Grey moth (Scoparia ambigualis)
- 1 ++*Small Fan-foot moth (Herminia grisealis)

Noted elsewhere around The Flash:
- +Common Marble (Celypha lacunana)
- Garden Grass-veneer moth (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
- +*Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella)
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus): there were more here than at the lake.
- *Alder Leaf Beetle (Agelastica alni): adults and larvae

also
- 1 Garden Grass-veneer moth (Chrysoteuchia culmella) between the lake and The Flash on a street lamp pole.

Some of the drake Mallard are now well in to their post-breeding moult when they become difficult to separate from ducks. The bill stays all yellow (often with a greenish tinge). Even the curly tail feather is missing.

Record shot of a Common Sandpiper a long way away on the island. A Greylag Goose in front; behind on the left is part of a Mute Swan cygnet asleep; and behind on the right part of an adult Mute Swan.

This is a Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella) and can be separated from the Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella) by its lack of V-shaped cross-line on the outer edge of the wing. Good luck seeing that with the naked eye.

On the wrap-around of a street lamp pole I found this Common Grey moth (Scoparia ambigualis).

Ignore all the creamy white fluff: it is nothing to do with the Small Fan-foot moth (Herminia grisealis) at the very top of street lamp pole.

I am not sure about this fly – but then I am not sure about most flies. There is a fly this colour – Phaonia pallida – but that is much larger and more robust. A very different fly for sure.

These are larvae of the Alder Leaf Beetle (Agelastica alni), munching their way through the surface of an Alder leaf. The small black things are what is politely called 'frass'. Droppings if you prefer.

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On this day can be found via the yearly links in the right-hand column.

Sightings from previous years without links are below

2012
Priorslee Lake
Plover sp.
(Ed Wilson)

2008
Priorslee Lake

Marsh Warbler
Unlikely as it seems I am pretty convinced about this on the basis of the song alone I was walking along the W end path at c.06:15 when a strange song caught my attention: there had been young Reed Warblers flitting about the area away from the reeds and it sound 'Acro-like'. But it was far too fast and I then assumed it was a Sedge Warbler (especially after my bird in the town centre last week). But the sound was all wrong with what seemed more like Garden Warbler tones, though with the characteristic Acro dynamics.
The bird was singing from a small patch of bushes growing in the fence at the W end of the yacht compound and I had the choice of a close view directly in to the bright sun; or going the 'other side' and trying to see between the yachts at some distance. I decided to stay where I was and in response to gentle phishing I got a good-enough glimpse to confirm it was a Reed / Marsh and not Sedge Warbler and certainly an Acro.
The song continued to puzzle and included all manner of oddities, sounding at times like juvenile Great Tit begging, all while singing at full volume.
I decided that the best thing would be to try and record the bird so I dashed back to the car for my digital tape recorder. When I returned the bird was not singing and phishing produced only a Wren and a pair of Bullfinches!
Revisited the area twice more for some 15 minutes on each occasion without success: was not too surprised as it was a small and rather unlikely spot for the bird to stay in.
Worth rechecking - but I went all around the lake twice without hearing anything untoward.
Only my second-ever UK Marsh Warbler - the last was as long ago as when they bred in Worcestershire! But familiar with the birds abroad as recently as May in Poland where I heard maybe 20.
I really cannot see what else it might have been: I am not that confident to say it WAS a Marsh Warbler song, only that I have no idea what else it could have been and it fits the general pattern of song.

(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Village
A pair of Siskins
(Martin Adlam)

2006
Priorslee Lake
Common Tern
(Ed Wilson)