9 Nov 23

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

6.0°C > 8.0°C: Mainly broken cloud with a few sunny intervals, especially later. Light to moderate southerly breeze. Excellent visibility.

Sunrise: 07:21 GMT

+ = my first sighting of this species at this site this year.
++ = new species for me at this site.
* = a species photographed today

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:50 – 09:15

(233rd visit of the year)

The only significant passage this morning involved Fieldfare.

For the second day a contractor's vessel was working the lake removing some of the invasive weed. This resulted in the Tufted Ducks flying off and probably contributed to a lower number of Coot.

Bird notes:
- Not only has the Wood Pigeon passage ceased but they seem to have taken the local birds with them. I saw only eight in the trees around the lake and just 38 on local movements
- After the initial arrival of c.110 Lesser Black-backed Gulls around dawn (with a Herring Gulls with them) another 133 arrived soon after from the north-east with all of these on the water together. A few more later.

Counts of birds noted flying over:
- 1 Greylag Goose: inbound
- 38 Wood Pigeons
- 4 Herring Gulls
- 92 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 6 Cormorants: a single, a duo and a trio
- 1 Common Buzzard
- 70 Jackdaws
- 5 Rooks
- 2 Skylarks: together
- 28 Starlings: three groups
- 646 Fieldfare: in 13 groups
- 14 Redwings: in 4 groups
- 1 Pied Wagtail
- 4 Siskins

Counts from the lake area:
- 4 Canada Geese: two pairs arrived separately; one of these departed with...
- 1 Greylag Goose: arrived and departed
- 2 + 2 Mute Swans
- 6 (4♂) Mallard
- 35 (16♂) Tufted Duck: all departed (to The Flash?)
- 3 Moorhens
- 119 Coots: the rest gone or hiding from the weed-collector?
- 1 Great Crested Grebe
- >115 Black-headed Gulls
- 18 Herring Gulls
- 313 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 3 Cormorants: single and duo arrived and departed
- 1 Grey Heron: departed

The (semi) nocturnal community on or around the street lamp poles at dawn:

Moths:
- none

Otherwise:
- *1 cranefly Limonia nubeculosa
- 1 springtail Tomocerus vulgaris
- *1 beetle sp., perhaps Salpingus ruficollis
- *1 other beetle sp., probably one of the Rove Beetles Staphylinidae
- 1 Bridge Orb-web Spider (Larinioides sclopetarius)
- 2 Nursery Web Spiders (Pisaura mirabilis)
- 1 Long-jawed Orb-web Spider Tetragnatha sp.
- 1 harvestman Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus
- 3 harvestmen Paroligolophus agrestis

Noted later on the Teece Drive fence:
- 1 Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis): pupa
- 4 Alder Leaf Beetles (Agelastica alni)
- 1 harvestman Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus
- 1 harvestman Paroligolophus agrestis

Fungus found.

No new ones

 Long-tailed Tit feeding time.

Always on the move.

Always!

 That's better: a pose.

"Did you just take my photo?"

I am sure it is the angle and this one has not been gorging on food!

Another poseur.

About to turn left is this cranefly Limonia nubeculosa. Relatively easy to identify with the patterned wings.

This beetle is perhaps Salpingus ruficollis. There are, as so often, similar species.

Running about rather too quickly was this other beetle, probably one of the Rove Beetles Staphylinidae.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:20 – 10:55

(217th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- I assume some of the Tufted Duck were refugees from the weed collection at the Balancing Lake

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 131 Fieldfare: together

Noted on / around the water:
- 5 Canada Geese
- 3 Greylag Geese
- 2 + 4 Mute Swans
- 1 (1♂) Gadwall
- 33 (20♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white feral duck
- 2 (1♂) Common Teal
- *63 (>25♂) Tufted Duck
- 4 (0♂) Goosander
- 13 Moorhens
- 36 Coots
- 6 Great Crested Grebes
- 32 Black-headed Gulls
- *2 Herring Gulls: both third winters
- 2 Cormorants
- 1 Grey Heron
- 1 Kingfisher

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

Moths:
- 1 Sprawler (Asteroscopus sphinx)
Nothing else

Noted elsewhere around The Flash:

Butterflies:
- *Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

Bees / wasps etc.:
- *Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris): dozens

Hoverflies:
- *Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax)
- *Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax)

Other flies:
- *Root-maggot fly Hylemya partita
- *Muscid fly Polietes meridionalis
- *Bird Blowfly (Protocalliphora azurea)
- there were plenty of the usual suspects among the hordes of flies.

New group of fungus found:
- *a species of Crepidotus, perhaps Variable Oysterling (Crepidotus variabilis)

Of the existing reported fungus I noted:
- a third line of Trooping Funnel (Clitocybe geotropa)
- *Common Bonnet (Mycena galericulata)
- *possible Bark Bonnet (Mycena speirea)
- *a better view of Candlesnuff Fungus (Xylaria hypoxylon)

A duck Tufted Duck.

"Are you looking at me?" They never look happy.

And a drake. It is only when you see them this clearly you appreciate what an admixture of tones the feathers are. A rather spindly tuft at the moment.

A drake Tufted Duck: I think. Still some brown feathers to be moulted out of the flanks before he is in full breeding plumage. However the absence and any hint of a 'tuft' on the nape and the head shape with the peak well forward both suggest Greater Scaup. The black on the tip of the bill is rather less than I would expect on a drake Tufted Duck – compare with the previous bird. A drake Greater Scaup would show white vermiculations on the back and this does not. The two species do hybridise and I wonder.

One of the two third winter Herring Gulls.

And the other. A more massive bill on this one.

I keep saying will today see the last of the Red Admiral butterflies (Vanessa atalanta). A Common Wasp (Paravespula vulgaris) photobombs the shot.

 A male Tapered Dronefly (Eristalis pertinax).

And a Common Dronefly (Eristalis tenax). Just the two species of hoverfly noted today.

My app only gets me so far with some of the flies. It tells me this is one of the Root-maggot flies. Searching on the NatureSpot web site suggests Hylemya partita is most likely with the grey along the side of the thorax.

I think this is the Muscid fly Polietes meridionalis. There appears to be a dusting of orange in front of the eyes which separates this species from other Polietes.

A rather handsome-looking fly. Probably a Bird Blowfly (Protocalliphora azurea), so called as this species lays its eggs in the nests of birds and the larvae clean up the droppings.

The upper and...

...lower surface of today's new fungus. It is a species of Crepidotus, probably Variable Oysterling (Crepidotus variabilis). That species favour broken twigs and small branches in late Autumn. Apologies this is not as sharp as it could be.

A different group of Common Bonnet (Mycena galericulata).

A better view of Candlesnuff Fungus (Xylaria hypoxylon). Only when I checked the photo on the camera did I notice the tiny 'toadstool' alongside. It is possibly a Bark Bonnet (Mycena speirea).

Plane of the day #1. This is a 30-year old Lockheed C-130H Hercules of the US Air Force. A four-engined turboprop with drop tanks between the engines containing added fuel. This particular example is operated by the Delaware Air National Guard (ANG) out of Wilmington. The ANG is part of the US Air Force reserve. It is most unusual to see aircraft at this altitude (it was at 25000') leaving vapour- or contrails. Must be unusual atmospherics.

Plane of the day #2. Lockheed C-130H Hercules #2.

I remembered to look at the FlightRadar24 information for the flight – such as it is. No doubt something to do with the Middle East conflict. This one is assigned to the Georgia Air National Guard and based at Savannah. The first part of US Military serial – the '94' here - relates to the US Fiscal Year in which the aircraft was paid for, usually the year it was built: 1994. The second part '6707' used to restart at '0001' each year and run sequentially as aircraft were ordered. Recently an alternative system with the last three indicating the sequence number of a particular type, irrespective of build date, has been adopted.

(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

2013
Priorslee Lake
4 Wigeon
4 Gadwall
1 Pochard
60 Tufted Duck
1 Water Rail
235 Coots
7 Song Thrushes
118 Fieldfare
30 Redwings
466 Jackdaws
139 Rooks
c.450 Starlings from roost
(Ed Wilson)

2012
Priorslee Lake
c.100 Greylag Geese
3 Gadwall
8 Pochard
18 Tufted Ducks
153 Coots
c.500 Black-headed Gulls
c.450 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
10 Herring Gulls
1 Great Black-backed Gull
118 Wood Pigeons
103 Redwings
154 Fieldfares
809 Jackdaws
201 Rooks
7 Siskin
(Ed Wilson)

The Flash
1 Pink-footed Goose
c.100 Greylag Geese
41 Canada Geese
41 Tufted Duck
12 Goosander
(Ed Wilson)

2011
Priorslee Lake
Yellow legged Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
(John Isherwood)

2010
Priorslee Lake
28 Pochard
65 Tufted Duck
46 Greenfinches
5 Fieldfares
11 Redwings
12 Siskins
(Ed Wilson)

The Flash
2 Goosanders
1 Pochard
45 Tufted Duck
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
Great Black-backed Gull
1 Gadwall
1 Shoveler
2 Wigeon
Peregrine Falcon
(Ed Wilson/John Isherwood)

2006
Priorslee Lake
23 Pochard
75 Tufted Ducks
950+ Black-headed Gulls
1204+ Lesser Black-backed Gulls
499 Wood Pigeons
11 Meadow Pipits
23 Robins
23 Blackbirds
13 Fieldfares
4 Song Thrushes
18 Redwings
1 Willow Tit
321 Jackdaws
241 Rooks
22 Greenfinches
9 Reed Buntings
(Ed Wilson)