21 Aug 23

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

11.0°C > 20.0°C:  A clear start with mist that lifted to low stratus cloud for a while. Then sunny with only patchy but increasing cloud. Calm with light / moderate south-easterly breeze springing up. Very good visibility.

Sunrise:  06:02 BST

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

++ =  new species for me at this site.

* = a photo today

Priorslee Balancing Lake:  05:15 – 06:20 // 07:30 – 10:05

(167th visit of the year)

Bird notes:

- Juvenile Black-headed Gulls absent this morning and have been in very low numbers all month. I did not confirm any first summer bird either, though these are not easy to separate from adults at this time of year as they too are moulting in to adult winter plumage.

- A single adult Great Crested Grebe with a single well-grown juvenile was all I could locate.

Counts of birds noted flying over here:

- 54 Canada Geese: 16 outbound in four groups; 38 inbound in seven groups

- 20 Greylag Geese: four outbound as singles; 16 inbound together

- 2 Feral Pigeons: singles

- 1 Stock Dove

- 185 Wood Pigeons

- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: one adult; two immatures

- 1 Grey Heron

- 1 Jackdaw

Warblers noted (the number singing in brackets):

- 13 (0) Chiffchaffs

- *6 (0) Reed Warblers

- 2 (0) Blackcaps

Hirundines etc., noted:

- >2 House Martins: adult(s) and juvenile(s) heard only

Counts from the lake area:

- 13 Canada Geese: stopped off inbound

- 2 + 2 Mute Swans

- 5 (?♂) Mallard

- 2 Moorhens

- 81 Coots

- 1 + 1 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes

- 109 Black-headed Gulls on the football field area c.05:50: no juveniles. Just three (of these?) noted at the lake later.

- 1 Grey Heron

On or around the street lamp poles at dawn:

Moths:

-        6 Common Grass-veneers (Agriphila tristella)

-        *1 Cinnabar (Tyria jacobaeae): trapped in web

Other things

-        *1 Birch Shieldbug (Elasmostethus interstinctus)

-        1 Bridge Orb-web Spider (Larinioides sclopetarius)

Noted later:

Butterflies:

-        *Green-veined White (Pieris napi)

-        *Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)

-        Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina)

-        Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus)

-        *Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

Moths:

-        Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella)

-        *Cinnabar (Tyria jacobaeae) caterpillar

Bees / wasps etc.:

-        Andrena mining bee sp.

-        *Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)

-        *Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)

-        *Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)

-        Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris)

Hoverflies:

-        Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)

-        Stripe-winged Dronefly (Eristalis horticola)

-        *Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax)

-        Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax)

-        Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)

-        *Dead-head Hoverfly (Myathropa florea)

-        Bumblebee Plume-horned Hoverfly (Volucella bombylans)

-        *Lesser Hornet Hoverfly (Volucella inanis) [Wasp Plumehorn]

-        *Pellucid Fly (Volucella pellucens) [Pied Plumehorn]

Dragon-/damsel-flies:

-        *Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)

-        unidentified hawker sp(s). in flight only

Other flies:

-        *Scorpion Fly Panorpa sp.

-        greenbottle

Beetles:

-        7 Spot Ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata)

Bugs:

-        none

Also

-        White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis)

-        *white spider sp., possibly Flower crab spider (Misumena vatia)

One of this morning's Reed Warblers briefly peered out at me.

A female (a black dot in all four wings) Green-veined White butterfly (Pieris napi). From above the veins always look black even on very fresh specimens.

A different view of a Speckled Wood butterfly (Pararge aegeria): the underside. Note the tongue probing the over-ripe blackberry.

And the underside view of a Red Admiral butterfly (Vanessa atalanta).

A sad end but spiders have to eat. A Cinnabar moth (Tyria jacobaeae) caught up in a web. This taken by flash pre-dawn.

It was still there later and this by natural light.

With adults on the wing this Cinnabar caterpillar was unexpected. It is not even on its favourite food-plant of Common Ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris). It looks to be Nipplewort (Lapsana communis) or one of the other confusing plants with small yellow flowers.

Two for the price of one on a Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) flower. Bottom left is a Honey Bee (Apis mellifera). Top right is a small crab spider.

A closer view of the spider. It may be a Flower crab spider (Misumena vatia) though I cannot find any photos of that spider that are as 'black and white' as this. Also August is rather late in the year for this species to be seen.

And a closer view of the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) showing some white pollen from the bindweed on its pollen-sac.

A very fresh Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum) attempting to extract nectar from what remains of a Common Knapweed flower (Centaurea nigra).

A riot of colour: a Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) feeding on a Buddleia spike.

A male Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax) with a rush of blood to the head. Insects seem to able to function at all angles.

It seems to be a bumper year for Dead-head Hoverflies (Myathropa florea). I cannot recall ever having seen so many.

A Lesser Hornet Hoverfly (Volucella inanis). Steven Falk uses the name Wasp Plumehorn and from the enlarged photo it is just possible to see that the antennae, always short on hoverflies, are indeed plumed.

Also a riot of colour. A Pellucid Fly (Volucella pellucens) also feeding on a Buddleia spike.

A female Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum). Females outnumbered males this morning by a substantial margin.

I have not seen one of these Scorpion Flies Panorpa sp. for several weeks. I presume this is a new generation. This is a female lacking the 'sting' (really the genitalia) shown by males.

Well it was a long way up the street lamp pole in the dark, almost out of reach of the camera flash. It is a Birch Shieldbug (Elasmostethus interstinctus). These are very similar to the Hawthorn Shieldbug (Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale), the easiest distinguishing feature being the larger and more pointed 'shoulders' on the latter species.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash:  06:25 – 07:25

(155th visit of the year)

Bird notes:

- The third white Mute Swan was out of the water again this morning. Seems that the locals have been providing it with food.

- On Thursday there was a late brood of nine Mallard ducklings. I noted eight today. The same brood?

- Coot numbers 'best effort'. I counted 55 all together against the East side of the island: there could have been more – or fewer!

- A juvenile Common Buzzard was heard begging from trees at the top end.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:

None

Warblers noted (the number singing in brackets):

- 7 (0) Chiffchaffs

- 1 (0) Blackcap

Hirundines etc., noted:

- House Martin(s) heard only

Noted on / around the water

- 6 Canada Geese

- 3 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans

- 17 (?♂) + 8 (1 brood) Mallard

- [all-white feral duck not seen]

- 30 (>8♂) Tufted Duck

- 5 Moorhens only

- 70 Coots

- *5 + 2 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes

- no Black-headed Gulls

- *4 Cormorants: two of these arrived

- *2 Grey Herons

Noted on / beside the street lamp poles around the water etc.:

Moths:

-        1 Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella)

-        *1 Swallow Prominent (Pheosia tremula)

Other things

-        2 Red-legged Shieldbugs (Pentatoma rufipes)

Elsewhere around The Flash:

Nothing of note

At this time of year drakes of most species of duck acquire what is called 'eclipse plumage'. They are then difficult to distinguish from ducks. This is because they need camouflage while they are briefly flightless as they renew their flight feathers. Adult drake Mallard retain their yellow-green bill at all times, as seen here.

A duck Mallard with her eight ducklings. They look very small: are they the same as the brood of nine I recorded last Thursday?

The legs on Great Crested Grebes are set well back on their body to provide power for swimming after fish. They are very ungainly on land and although they can fly strongly once airborne they will often prefer to skitter across the surface of the water which they can do with surprising speed.

Sharing a roost are two of the four Cormorants and one of the two Grey Herons present.

Two more Cormorants arrived. This is one of them, an immature with white on its belly.

And here the two arrivals splash-down together.

And the other Grey Heron in flight.

My second Swallow Prominent moth (Pheosia tremula) of the year here.

From this angle the 'prominent' is visible as the wings come together. Why 'swallow' I have no idea.

(Ed Wilson)

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

Moths:

-        1 Common Grass-veneer (Agriphila tristella)

-        2 Single-dotted Wave (Idaea dimidiata)

Other things:

-        *1 Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperia carnea)

Wrong colour! This Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperia carnea) is not well camouflaged against the very different green of a metal fence paling around the Priorslee Academy boundary.

(Ed Wilson)

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Noted in the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Moths:

-        none

Other things

-        1 cranefly Tipula lateralis

-        several midges

-        *1 Banded Mosquito (Culiseta annulata)

-        39 White-legged Snake Millipedes (Tachypodoiulus niger) at least!

-        *several unidentified spiders

One of the largest mosquitoes found in the UK is this Banded Mosquito (Culiseta annulata). Lack of feathering on the antennae means it is a female and therefore sucks blood to aid her egg production. Males feed on nectar.

One of several spiders. None was identified.

(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
Nedge Hill
2 Redstart
7 Ravens
(John Isherwood)

2006
Priorslee Lake
Shag
3 Kingfishers
(Ed Wilson)