4 Jun 23

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

7.0°C > 12.0°C: A clear start. Low cloud from the north-east after 06:00 only began to break after 08:30. Calm early; light / moderate north-east wind springing up. Good visibility and rather hazy.

Sunrise: 04:50 BST

* = a photo of this species today

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:00 – 06:15 // 07:15 – 09:25

(118th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Still unable to confirm that one pair of Great Crested Grebes has young.
- The second of the two singing Willow Warblers seems to have given up.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 2 Greylag Geese: inbound together
- 1 Stock Doves
- 4 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Jackdaw

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

Hirundines etc., noted:
- c.30 Swifts
- 1 House Martin

Counts from the lake area: it remains very quiet
- 13 Canada Geese: 11 arrived together, stayed c.20 minutes and departed; two others arrived later
- 2 + 2 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 4 (3♂) Mallard
- 4 (2♂) Tufted Duck: gone by 05:45
- 3 Moorhens
- 24 + 11 (5 broods) Coots
- 8+ ? (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: briefly

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

Noted on and around the street lamp poles at dawn:
- Nigma walckenaeri (spider)

Noted later: when the wind is in the east it blows on to the sunny areas keeping the insect numbers low.

Butterflies:
- none

Moths:
- Plum Tortrix (Hedya pruniana)
- +*Brown Silver-line (Petrophora chlorosata): moth species #27 for me here this year

Bees / wasps etc.:
- *Garden Bumblebee (Bombus hortorum)
- *Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum)
- Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius)
- Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum): including a nest
- +*German Wasp (Vespula germanica)
- *ichneumon sp.
- *sawfly Tenthredo sp.

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

Hoverflies:
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax)

Other flies:
- Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- *Grouse Wing caddis fly (Mystacides longicornis)
- *owl midge (Psychodidae sp.)
- *Yellow Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria)
- *cranefly Tipula lunata
- *Common Crane-fly (Tipula oleracea)
- *another small cranefly sp.
- *plumed midge sp.

Beetles:
- Alder Leaf Beetle (Agelastica alni)
- Raspberry Beetle (Byturus tomentosus)
- *A flea beetle possibly Podagrica fuscicornis

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

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

Fine, clear and calm early. It did not last!

A Chiffchaff apparently staring vacantly in to the distance.

Not much better from this angle. One of two birds calling incessantly. This shows no sign of being a juvenile so perhaps a female calling to her brood?

The constantly singing Sedge Warbler is staying mainly obscured by vegetation. A reasonably clear shot showing the broad creamy eye-stripe.

 More Common Whitethroat pictures. One bringing food for the juveniles.

And more food. I can almost identify the beetle if not the caterpillar.

A close-up.

A closer-up!

A juvenile Pied Wagtail still with a gape line.

What a sweetie!

And a third: I assume all from the same brood.

A Brown Silver-line moth (Petrophora chlorosata).

Not sure about this bumblebee. The yellower tone to the collar suggests a Garden Bumblebee (Bombus hortorum) but there is just a hint of orange between the white tail and black abdomen which might suggest a Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) [they don't have all-buff tails]. My vote would be Garden Bumblebee.

A Tree Bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum). I am always surprised that when I look at my photos how close I have been to these insects!

Another puzzle. As far as I can tell the only bumblebee that is all black apart from a white tail is the dark form of a queen Tree Bumblebee.

The triangular shape to the yellow on the side of the thorax identifies this as a German Wasp (Vespula germanica).

Munching on the fence alongside Teece Drive. Another way to separate this from the regular wasp is the face – Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris) has a dark anchor-shaped mark on its face. But who want to look that closely!

An ichneumon. A check of the NatureSpot web site shows several with white areas in the antennae but none with the white tips evident here.

This is one of the Tenthredo species of sawfly. These yellow and black individuals need to be examined by an expert. I am not!

I cannot recall seeing a 'spiv' Grouse Wing caddis fly (Mystacides longicornis) before, with its antennae slicked back.

 I do not see to many of these owl midges (Psychodidae sp.) during the day.

Note sure whether the Yellow Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria) is sizing up the beetle or the other way around.

A distinctively marked cranefly: probably Tipula lunata though there are similar species. This is of course a female with an ovipositor. Exactly what her mouth is stuck in to is unclear.

Another female cranefly. I think this is a Common Crane-fly (Tipula oleracea).

 I am never sure when an insect is too big to be called a midge and therefore a cranefly. I would judge this is one of the smaller craneflies. It is missing a leg. It also appears to have white halteres which is a bit odd.

What a splendid looking fly!

An unusual angle on a very small and hairy fly.

A similar angle on a tiny plumed midge. The plumes on the antennae are almost half the size of its wings.

This tiny insect (my thumbnail for comparison) seems to be a flea beetle and possibly Podagrica fuscicornis.

The only thing on any of the street lamp poles at dawn this morning was this spider which I think is Nigma walckenaeri.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:20 – 07:10

(109th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Still more geese.
- Single Stock Doves heard calling by the medical centre and along the East side. Same bird?

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

Warblers noted (the number singing in brackets):
- 6 (4) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Blackcap

Hirundines etc., noted:
- 7 Swifts
- 1 House Martin

Noted on / around the water
- 78 Canada Geese
- 9 Greylag Goose
- 3 + 4 Mute Swans:
- 25 (21♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white duck (Peking(?) Duck)
- 10 (6♂) Tufted Duck: 2 (1♂) flew off East together
- 6 Moorhens
- 22+ 4 (4 broods) Coots
- 4 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: adult; departed

Noted on / around the street lamp poles:
- *possible Common Marbled Carpet moth (Chloroclysta truncata)
- *Figure of Eighty moth (Tethea ocularis)

Noted elsewhere:
- Alder Leaf Beetles (Agelastica alni)

Not a very sharp picture of not a very well-marked moth. I am going with Common Marbled Carpet (Chloroclysta truncata) as a provisional identification. This is a very variable species and it is the most common species carpet moth that is flying at the moment. That said it does not resemble any of the forms I can recall having seen before. I am getting it checked by the Shropshire recorder. A hitherto unseen plumed midge has crashed the photo.

Less of a problem with this: a Figure of Eighty moth (Tethea ocularis) named for the white marking on the wing.

(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

2012
Holmer Lake
Black Swan
(Marilyn Morton)