8 Aug 23

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

10.0°C > 15.0°C: Medium-level overcast after some early breaks. Light mainly southerly breeze. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 05:40 BST

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

A few more Magpies recorded today but numbers still well down on normal. Why?

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:15 – 06:20 // 07:25 – 09:45

(158th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- One or more House Martins heard high over c.05:50 but not seen. A single overhead at 07:30.
- I was wring yesterday to have suggested that the Reed Warblers had all departed. One was singing and another calling from reeds alongside the dam today.

Counts of birds noted flying over here:
- 9 Canada Geese: outbound as a single and four duos
- 110 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: adult
- *1 Common Buzzard
That's all!

Warblers noted (the number singing in brackets):
- 14 (0) Chiffchaffs
- 2 (1) Reed Warblers
- 2 (0) Blackcaps

Hirundines etc., noted:
- 1+ House Martin(s)

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 + 2 Mute Swans
- 5 (?♂) Mallard
- 6 Moorhen
- 76 Coots: including one quite new juvenile
- *6 + 3 (2 broods) Great Crested Grebes
- 56 Black-headed Gulls on the football field c.06:00: one juveniles noted. 22 (of these?) later at the lake.
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: adult, very briefly

Noted on and around the street lamp poles around dawn:

Moths:
- none

and:
- 1 female Leiobunum blackwalli harvestman

Noted later:

Butterflies:
- Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina)
- Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus)

Moths:
- *Common Roller (Ancylis badiana)
- *Satin Grass-veneer (Crambus perlella)
- *Straw Grass-veneer (Agriphila straminella)
- *Shaded Broad-bar (Scotopteryx chenopodiata)

Bees / wasps etc.:
- Red-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius)
- Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)
- *Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris)

Hoverflies:
- Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus)
- *Chequered Hoverfly (Melanostoma scalare)
- +*Glass-winged Syrphus (Syrphus vitripennis)

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

Other flies:
- Yellow Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria)
- *Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus)
- *Grouse Wing caddis fly (Mystacides longicornis)
- *cranefly Tipula oleracea

Beetles:
- ++*22 Spot Ladybird (Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata)

Bugs:
- unidentified planthopper

Also
- *+ Knopper Oak Gall
- White-lipped Snail (Cepaea hortensis)

The contrast has perhaps been slightly exaggerated by the camera but there was a dramatic sky at dawn.

"Red sky in the morning, shepherds' warning". It did drizzle a bit much later but not really anything to worry about.

The first brood of Great Crested Grebe juveniles are almost as big as their adult parents. One on the left was still noisily begging for food. Well why not!

Rather 'against the light' (what light?) was this passing Common Buzzard.

Common Roller (Ancylis badiana) is a splendidly-marked micro-moth very easy to overlook.

A Satin Grass-veneer (Crambus perlella). This is the more common almost white and apparently unmarked form though on fresh specimens shadow markings of the brown warringtonellus form can be discerned.

A different specimen from underneath. All the grass-moths show spurs on their legs and often hold their antennae erect.

Another poorly-marked grass-moth. The spotting along the wing tip provide the best clue to this being a Straw Grass-veneer (Agriphila straminella).

It is getting toward the end of the flight season for Shaded Broad-bar moths (Scotopteryx chenopodiata). This specimen has lost much of the colouration.

Chequered Hoverflies (Melanostoma scalare) seem to like settling on the flowers of Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis).

Another individual on a different flower.

It is not often I get a photo of one of the difficult Syrphus ribesii / S. vitripennis pair that clearly shows the hind leg. The extent of dark and yellow on the hind leg is the best way to identify the individual species. Using Steven Falk's Flickr site I can confirm this is the species he names as Glass-winged Syrphus (Syrphus vitripennis).

Just emerged and drying off on the 'boxing ring' was my only damselfly of the day. It is a Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum). The pattern on the abdomen indicates this a female.

The whole insect.

A Black Snipefly (Chrysopilus cristatus). I do not recall seeing this species this late in the year.

Resting at a most unusual angle is a Grouse Wing caddis fly (Mystacides longicornis). You have to look very hard to see the long antennae...

...which are only marginally more apparent from this angle.

I have just shown the part of this cranefly that aids identification. This is a female of the very common Tipula oleracea: a female because of the ovipositor at the end of the abdomen. Specific identification is by a combination of features: its large size; the dark line down the abdomen; and with brown along the leading edge of the wing.

An unidentified fly. Light interference is creating a rainbow-like colouration in the wings.

I have no idea what is going on here. A fly seems to be eating the remains of a Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris). What removed the head and thorax of the wasp will remain a mystery.

Another new ladybird species for me is this 22 Spot Ladybird (Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata).

And for good measure another!

While I have been away the Water Mint (Mentha aquatica) has come in to flower.

This is a Knopper Oak Gall on an oak tree, the result of a wasp (Andricus quercuscalicis) laying eggs at the catkin stage. The wasps themselves are rarely seen unless allowed to hatch from the gall in an enclosure.

Currently the most abundant umbellifer is Wild Angelica (Angelica sylvestris). Here an umbel is emerging from the characteristically large sheath. When open the umbel is much more rounded than the still-flowering Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium).

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:25 – 07:20

(147th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- An unexpected and late brood of just three Mallard ducklings straying rather too close to one of the Grey Herons.
- Four Collared Doves together on a roof in Derwent Drive presumed a family party.
- Most of the 19 Moorhens were juveniles though I did not specifically separate them in my count.
- A Sparrowhawk flushed from trees at the top end.
- No finch species seen or heard.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 1 Starling

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

Hirundines etc., noted:
- 2 House Martins, flew through

Noted on / around the water
- 10 Canada Geese
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- *28 (?♂) + 3 (1 brood) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white feral duck.
- 23 (?♂) Tufted Duck
- 19 Moorhens
- 35 Coots
- 4 Great Crested Grebes
- no Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Cormorant
- *2 Grey Herons
- 1 Kingfisher

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

Moths:
- none

other things:
- *1 Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus harvestman

Elsewhere around The Flash:

Nothing noted

A late brood of Mallard this morning. Here is mum and one of her trio of ducklings.

And the other two ducklings wandering off.

 "Don't get too close to the Grey Heron!"

Four Collared Doves together on the same roof suggests a family party.

A Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus harvestman I found on one of the street lamp poles.

(Ed Wilson)

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

Moths:
- *1 Straw Grass-veneer (Agriphila straminella)
- *1 unidentified grass moth, possibly of the Crambus group.
- *1 Riband Wave (Idaea aversata)

This is a Straw Grass-veneer (Agriphila straminella), the most abundant of the grass moths currently flying.

I have to admit defeat in identifying this rather worn grass moth. The wide white stripe evident toward the front of the folded wing suggests one of the Crambus group but neither the size (it was smaller than the Straw Grass-veneer) nor the lack of markings toward the wing tip support that theory.

Yet another Riband Wave moth (Idaea aversata). Every one of the specimens I have seen this year has been of this plain form remutata that lacks the grey band between the two outer cross lines.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel

Nothing noted

(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

2011
Priorslee Lake
Ruddy Duck
(Ed Wilson)

2008
Priorslee Lake
Wheatear
(Ed Wilson)