3 Jul 23

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

12.0°C > 14.0°C: Mostly cloudy with a few breaks. Also two light passing showers. Moderate south-westerly breeze. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 04:52 BST

* = a species with a photo today

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

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:00 – 06:15 // 07:20 – 09:40

(145th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- I did not locate any juvenile Great Crested Grebes today. Perhaps they were sheltering from the wind.

Birds noted flying over here:
- 1 Feral Pigeon
- 2 Stock Doves: together
- 51 Wood Pigeons
- 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Sparrowhawk
- 1 Jackdaw

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

Hirundines etc., noted:
- c.40 Swifts: mainly early
- 1 Barn Swallow
- 4 House Martins

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 2 Mute Swans
- 10 (?♂) Mallard: [yesterday's figure should have read '11 (?♂)' and not '1 (?♂)']
- 1 + 3 (2 broods) Moorhen
- 32 + 39 (? broods) Coots
- 7 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Black-headed Gull: first year throughout
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: both adults, briefly, separately
- 1 Grey Heron: departed

Noted on and around the street lamp poles around dawn:

Moths:
- 1 Common Grey (Scoparia ambigualis)
- 1 *+Barred Red (Hylaea fasciaria)

otherwise:
- 2 Leiobunum rotundum harvestmen

Noted later in breezy, cool and mostly cloudy conditions:

Butterflies:
- Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus)
- Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina)
- *Comma (Polygonia c-album)

Moths:
- Common Marble (Celypha lacunana)
- *Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
- +Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba): got away!

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

Hoverflies:
- Bumblebee Blacklet (Cheilosia illustrata)
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- *Stripe-faced Dronefly (Eristalis nemorum)
- Migrant Field Syrph or Migrant Hoverfly (Eupeodes corollae)
- Common Spotted Field Syrph (Eupeodes luniger)
- *Tiger Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus)
- Common Twist-tail (Sphaerophoria scripta)
- Syrphus sp. (S. ribesii / S. vitripennis)
- Pellucid Fly (Volucella pellucens)

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

Other flies:
- Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- Dagger fly Empis tessellata
- Semaphore fly Poecilobothrus nobilitatus

Beetles:
- Alder Leaf Beetle (Agelastica alni): larvae
- *Rough-haired Lagria Beetle (Lagria hirta)
- *Common Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva)

Bugs:
- 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata): adults

Also
- *+unidentified spider sp
- White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis)

Newly photographed flowers:
- *+Rosebay Willowherb or Fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium)
- *+Hairy Tare (Vicia hirsuta).

About as good as it got most of the time: broken cloud.

Makes my neck ache just to look at this Long-tailed Tit having a preen. Against what light there was at 06:00 so not much colour.

In the gloom of the North side path before 06:00 I noted this juvenile Robin just beginning to get its red breast.

A butterfly I always like to see is Comma (Polygonia c-album).

And when they pose like this how could I resist.

The only grass moth that did not dive completely to cover in the wind was this Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella). It is rather faded and only just possible to make out the 'U' shape cross
line toward the rear of the wing. Only the camera would pick that up.

A Barred Red moth (Hylaea fasciaria) I found on a street lamp pole at dawn. Not very barred and not very red! It is at least eight years since I last recorded this species here.

A very washed out and sleepy Garden Bumblebee (Bombus hortorum).

A rather better specimen with the conspicuous yellow band across the midriff.

The only drone fly I noted today and rather a puzzle at that. It looks hairy-enough to be a bee though the short antennae dictate otherwise. Searching Steven Falk's Flickr photos there are several
female Stripe-faced Dronefly (Eristalis nemorum) that look this hairy and with very little orange marking on the abdomen.

'Stripe-faced' indeed!

A female Tiger Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus). I have seen very few of this usually common hoverfly so far this year unlike Marmalade Hoverflies (Episyrphus balteatus) and Common Spotted Field Syrphs (Eupeodes luniger) which seem to be in profusion.

Perhaps a better photo of a Rough-haired Lagria Beetle (Lagria hirta).

Two Common Red Soldier Beetles (Rhagonycha fulva) getting friendly, showing how they have recently acquired the vernacular name of Hogweed Bonking Beetles (my poor mother would be turning in her grave).

Another in my growing collection of photos of unidentified spiders.

Rosebay Willowherb or Fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium) has clearly been in flower for some while. High time I took a photo of it.

It has taken me a while to get a reasonable sharp photo of white / pale lilac flowered this plant in the vetch family. I believe it to be Hairy Tare (Vicia hirsuta).

Plane of the day. With a bit of tweaking I was able to reveal the registration painted under the cabin. This enabled me to identify it as a AgustaWestland AW109SP GrandNew registered to Hadleigh
Aviation LLP. with a London W1 address. Which doesn't tell me much.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:20 – 07:15

(134th visit of the year)

*A most unusual experience. As I was walking past the back of the academy to start my  circumnavigation I met a walker, her dog on its lead with an almost full-grown Canada Goose gosling waddling along behind. The walker told me that the gosling has been walking toward Priorslee Avenue but saw her and tagged along. She said that her dog usually chased geese but it was ignoring the gosling. The gosling promptly transferred its attentions to me and followed me to Derwent Drive where I tried to persuade it in to the water. It seemed disinterested in taking to the water and stayed looking confused in the middle of the road. The question arises as to where it came from. During the breeding season no goslings survived for more than a few days old either here or at the Balancing Lake.

Other bird notes:
- Another very new brood of Coots. Some of the earlier broods seem to have disappeared.

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

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

Hirundines etc., noted:
- 2 House Martins

Noted on / around the water
- 161 Canada Geese
- 62 Greylag Geese
- 1 Canada x Greylag Geese
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 21 (?♂) Mallard: no ducklings seen
- 1 (1♂) all-white feral duck.
- 18 (?♂) Tufted Duck
- 4 + 2 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 22 + 12 (5 broods) Coots
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Grey Heron: departed

Noted on / around the street lamp poles around the water:
- 1 Common Grey (Scoparia ambigualis)
- 1 Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella)
- 1 *Small Fan-footed Wave (Idaea biselata)

Noted elsewhere around The Flash:

Dull and windy here.
- Alder Leaf Beetle (Agelastica alni): larvae
- *+Common Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva)

Here is the Canada Goose gosling that followed me around.

A Small Fan-footed Wave (Idaea biselata). The single dark spot in both fore- and hind-wings help narrow the choice of 'wave' moths.

Two Common Red Soldier Beetles (Rhagonycha fulva) getting friendly here as well as at the lake.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the lake and The Flash on / around street lamp poles:

Moths:
- 1 *Little Grey (Eudonia lacustrata)
- 1 *+Treble Brown Spot (Idaea trigeminata)
- 1 *+Small Dusty Wave (Idaea seriata)
and:
- 7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata): pupa

There are several similar species. I think this is a Little Grey (Eudonia lacustrata) rather than a Common Grey (Scoparia ambigualis). Size, hard to judge anyway, is not a significant determinant. To my eyes the curve of the wing fits Little Grey better but the difference is subtle.

A Treble Brown Spot moth (Idaea trigeminata) on a dog poo sign attached to a street lamp pole. The dark along the leasing edge of the wing separates this species from several others in the same genus...

...such as this Small Dusty Wave (Idaea seriata) (and the Small Fan-footed Wave seen at The Flash)

(Ed Wilson)

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Note
And some catching up courtesy of the Shropshire micro-moth recorder.

Thanks Mike.

This moth I found on 23 June at the lake is almost certainly a Pea Moth (Cydia nigricana). I saw another the following day.

On 29 June I found this moth lurking on a sign at The Flash. It is an Ash-bud Moth (Prays fraxinella). Both of these are new moths for me. I now have to go amend the sequence numbers I have given to species I have found since. This gives me 58 species at the lake; 26 at The Flash; and 11 between the two. Some species have been found in more than one location.

(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
Priorslee Lake
Grasshopper Warbler reeling
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
2 Common Sandpipers
2 drake Ruddy ducks
(Ed Wilson)