7 Jun 23

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

9.0°C > 10.0°C: Overcast again. Light / moderate easterly wind again. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 04:48 BST

* = a photo of this species today

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:00 – 06:15 // 07:20 – 09:35

(121st visit of the year)

Another quiet morning.

Bird notes:
- *At last the Great Crested Grebe revealed the brood: four stripey-headed juveniles.
- The Sedge Warbler gave a few muffled calls – hardly what could be considered a song. I did see the vegetation shaking as it was moving around.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 4 Greylag Geese: two outbound together; two inbound together
- 3 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Herring Gull
- 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 2 Jackdaws

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

Hirundines etc., noted:
- >30 Swifts
- >6 Barn Swallows
- >4 House Martin

Counts from the lake area: it remains very quiet
- 28 Canada Geese: flew in together
- 2 + 2 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 3 (3♂) Mallard: again two ♂♂ on a roof in Teece Drive c.07:20 may have been two on the lake later
- 1 Moorhen
- 23 + 13 (6 broods) Coots
- *7 + 4 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes

+ = 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:
- 2 stretch spider Tetragnatha sp.

Noted later:

Butterflies:
- none

Moths:
- Timothy Tortrix (Zelotherses paleana)
- +*Blood-vein (Timandra comae)
- *Silver-ground Carpet (Xanthorhoe montanata)
- +*Yellow Shell (Camptogramma bilineata)
My moth species count for here in 2023 rises to 29.

Bees / wasps etc.:
- none

Dragon-/damsel-flies:
- *unidentified emergent damselfly

Hoverflies:
- *Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)

Other flies:
- *plumed midge (Chironomus plumosus)
- *Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus)

Beetles:
- +*perhaps Oedemera lurida

Bugs:
- +*Dock Aphid (Aphis rumicis)
- ++*plant bug Cyllecoris histrionius
- Common Green Capsid (Lygocoris pabulinus)

Also
- White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis)

This Great Crested Grebe has caught breakfast. The problem it now has is to manoeuvre the fish so it can swallow it head first. Difficult without hands.

No change.

Nor here.

That's better. And it is getting its greenery as well.

Down the hatch!

Don't forget to eat your greens.

Or not, as the case may be. My sympathies!

There certainly seems to be a juvenile riding on the adult's back. I was having trouble confirming this until...

Most unexpectedly the adult rose up and flapped its wings tipping the stripe-headed juveniles in to the water.

Four of them apparently none the worse for their ducking.

A trio of moths flushed from one small area of grass. This is a Blood-vein (Timandra comae).

This Silver-ground Carpet (Xanthorhoe montanata) was the first to appear and while pursing it to check its identity the other two distracted me. I need not have worried about this as it stayed in open view.

The last of the trio was a moth species I do not record every year. Here visible through a small gap in the vegetation is a Yellow Shell (Camptogramma bilineata).

It did not seem to be an auspicious morning for a damselfly to hatch. Here is a nymph emerging. Its exoskeleton will be left and form the exuvia while the body of the damselfly will dry out, the veins in the wings will be filled with blood and the uncoloured teneral form of the insect will then fly away. It will take some days for the colour to develop.

Just one hoverfly seen this morning: a female Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare). A female because the eyes do not meet and hence the chequered yellow markings are triangular.

After a blank morning in the dull weather yesterday I did at least see one Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus) today. I have no idea what the markings on the leaf are. The fly is a male so they are certainly not eggs!

This looks very like a Yellow Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria) but does not look very yellow. Females are less yellow than males though with a plumper abdomen so that does not quite fit. As with most species of fly there are several similar species.

With each abdomen segment having a pale end this looks to be a female plumed midge (Chironomus plumosus). Not sure why it is sitting with one wing akimbo.

Since the plant is a dock (Rumex sp.) I assume these are Dock Aphids (Aphis rumicis). I am unsure what is crawling over the aphids at the bottom right.

 This is the plant bug Cyllecoris histrionius.

This is almost certainly the nymph of this species. I first showed this photo as unidentified on 30 May.

Buttercups are a rich hunting ground for nectar-loving insects. This seems to be one of the false blister beetles and Oedemera lurida is, despite its scientific name, the only member that is not iridescent green. That said it was very dull light when I took this photo and I am sure the bright yellow of the flower will have made the beetle look somewhat atypical. So a provisional ID.

(Ed Wilson)

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

The Flash: 06:20 – 07:15

(112th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- I saw a duck Mallard with one duckling swimming toward the top end. Some five minutes later a duck Mallard with one duckling was beside the island. The same?
- This was my first for several weeks when I failed to see or hear a Great Spotted Woodpecker. I suspect the young have now fledged and dispersed. To where?

Birds noted flying over here:

None

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

Hirundines etc., noted:
- 1 House Martin

Noted on / around the water
- *76 Canada Geese
- 14 Greylag Geese
- 3 + 4 Mute Swans:
- *20 (14♂) + 2 (2 broods?) Mallard: see notes
- 1 (1♂) all-white duck (Peking(?) Duck)
- 13 (9♂) Tufted Duck
- *7 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 21+ 6 (3 broods) Coots
- *3 Great Crested Grebes

On / around the street lamp poles or elsewhere:
Nothing noted

Yesterday I showed a Canada Goose about to drop some of its flight feathers. Here are two such feathers; now dropped.

A duck Mallard with a duckling heading towards the top end, passing a duck Tufted Duck as they go.

A bit later and far away across the water here is a duck Mallard with a duckling. The same two?

A well-grown juvenile Moorhen. I refuse to photograph any ugly-looking juvenile Coots.

No perhaps quite the sleek profile usually shown by adult Great Crested Grebes. Could there be young on this adult's back?

(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

2009
Priorslee Lake
15 House Martins
15 Swifts
2 Chiffchaffs
Willow Warbler
(Ed Wilson)

The Flash
1 Tufted Duck
(Ed Wilson)