18 Apr 24

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

2.0°C > 8.0°C: Early frost. Fine and clear with only a few wisps of high cloud. Calm early with a light north-westerly breeze developing. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 06:07 BST

* = a species photographed today

Again fewer Willow Warblers at the Balancing Lake but still plenty around The Flash. More Blackcaps at the Balancing Lake.

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

(84th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- another Grasshopper Warbler heard c.05:30 but so distant and intermittent I was unable to get a positive location. Somewhere in the Ricoh grounds near the noisy M54?
- I noted a while ago that there seemed to be four singing Chaffinches. There aren't now! Most mornings I record none singing or otherwise. Occasionally one is singing to the East of Castle Farm Way. Not today.

Counts of birds noted flying over:
- 4 Canada Geese: a pair flew outbound and a pair flew North
- 2 Greylag Geese: a pair outbound
- 2 Stock Doves: together
- 14 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Collared Dove
- 5 Cormorants: together

Hirundines etc. noted:

None

Warblers noted (the figure in brackets relates to birds heard singing):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- 3 (3) Willow Warblers
- *15 (11) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Grasshopper Warbler
- *18 (12) Blackcaps
- 1 (1) Common Whitethroat

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 Canada Geese: the resident pair throughout
- 2 Mute Swans
- 1 (1♂) Mallard: also 3 (3♂) on the upper pool
- *12 (8♂) Tufted Duck: of these a drake flew in and presumably the same bird flew out
- 3 Moorhens
- 23 Coots
- 3 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Common Sandpiper
- 1 Cormorant: arrived

Noted on the street lamps poles pre-dawn:

Frosted!

Beetles:
- 1 Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni

Noted later:

Surprisingly little in sunny conditions. Perhaps the insects had finished basking in the sun and were busy

Butterflies:
- *Orange-tip Anthocharis cardamines

Bees wasps etc.:
- *Orange-tailed Mining Bee Andrena haemorrhoa
- Honey Bee Apis mellifera

Hoverflies:
- *Tapered Dronefly Eristalis pertinax
- Chequered Hoverfly Melanostoma scalare

Flies:
- Alder Fly Sialis lutaria
- other miscellaneous fly species

Beetles:
- Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni
- 7 Spot Ladybird Coccinella 7-punctata

New flowers for the year
- *Green Alkanet Pentaglottis sempervirens

At last: a decent sunrise.

Some mist over the lake early.

The drake Tufted Duck that flew in and quickly out again. Note the 'tuft' streaming in the wind.

A Chiffchaff looking coy.

And here he is again sitting on a clump of last year's Ash keys.

A Mr. Angry. A male Blackcap shouts its song with its head-feathers raised.

My first butterfly of the year here: a male Orange-tip Anthocharis cardamines. Females lack the orange and are easily confused with 'white' butterflies. The underside of the hind wings of both sexes is mottled black and white and an easy identification – at least it would be if the species ever seemed to show them at rest!

Obsidentify was sure this is an Orange-tailed Mining Bee Andrena haemorrhoa.

Nothing species here just a pleasing view of a male Tapered Dronefly Eristalis pertinax feeding on a sun-lit Dandelion Taraxacum sp.

I found this flowering Green Alkanet Pentaglottis sempervirens on the bank of the 'football field'. I am sure the council's contractors will soon be mowing this and all the Dandelions before long.

Plane of the day. Some very clear contrails this morning. This is a Boeing 747 800 series of Cargolux en route from Chicago's O'Hare Airport to its home city of Luxembourg. Note the 'mask' on its nose.

Here is the FlightRadar24 data. So why is the airport code for O'Hare Airport at Chicago 'ORD'? Because when it was built in 1945 it was called Orchard Field. The airport was renamed in honour of O'Hare after Edward “Butch” O'Hare a WWII naval aviator. The airport code did not change any more than did that of Speke Airport at Liverpool when it was renamed John Lennon International.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Flies:
- *2 craneflies Tipula lateralis

The pattern on the wings identifies this cranefly as Tipula lateralis, a species that flies from Spring through to Autumn.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the Balancing Lake and The Flash:

Flies:
- 1 plumed midge Chironomus plumosus

Spiders:
- *1 running crab spiders, likely Philodromus dispar.

This spider is one of the running crab spiders and likely Philodromus dispar. The background here is, believe it or not, a street lamp pole with a substantial growth of lichen.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:25 – 07:20

(86th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- where has the all-white feral duck gone? I have not seen it for a week now.
- a Mistle Thrush was singing from trees to the West of the houses.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 2 Greylag Geese

Warblers noted (the figure in brackets relates to birds heard singing):
- *15 (15) Willow Warblers
- 6 (5) Chiffchaffs
- 10 (9) Blackcaps
'nominal' warbler:
- *3 (1) Goldcrest

Noted on / around the water:
- 18 Canada Geese
- 4 Greylag Geese: of these one flew off
- 2 + 4 Mute Swans
- 13 (11♂) Mallard
- 14 (10♂) Tufted Duck
- 5 Moorhens
- 21 Coots
- 1 Great Crested Grebe

Noted elsewhere:

Flies:
- plumed midge Chironomus plumosus
- *two species of cranefly

Beetles:
- 1 Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni on a street lamp pole

Flowers:
- *all-white Bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta

 At last some sun to see some of the many Willow Warblers. Here is one.

 "Give us a song".

Another Willow Warbler.

And another singing.

And yet another.

One of two Goldcrests that were chasing around.

Unusually photogenic...

...here with the crest partially raised showing the red it shows when threatening a rival.

Not often I get to photograph this species so here is another.

I am not at all sure about this cranefly. The banded thighs suggest it might be Epiphragma ocellare though the thorax marks are more akin to Tipula confusa. This latter species does not have banded thighs and is a late-Summer flying species. So...

I think this cranefly is Tipula rufina. Note the black 'knees'!

I noted this clump of all-white Bluebells probably Hyacinthoides hispanica 'White City'. This cultivar of the introduced Spanish Bluebell freely naturalises.

(Ed Wilson)

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Sightings from previous years

2014
Priorslee Lake
4 Common Sandpiper
(John Isherwood)

Nedge Hill
1 Lesser Whitethroat
7 Wheatear
6 Lapwing
Whitethroat
(John Isherwood)

2013
Nedge Hill
21 Wheatears
3 Common Redstart
Common Whitethroat
(Peter Jordan, Ian Grant)

2012
Priorslee Lake
1 Sedge Warbler
25 Swallows
6 House Martins
1 Sand Martin
Chiffchaff
Willow Warbler
Blackcap
(John Isherwood, Martin Grant)

Nedge Hill
1 Redstart
1 Wheatear
(John Isherwood)

2009
Priorslee Lake
17 Tufted Duck
1 Common Sandpiper
Swallows
House Martins
Sand Martins
2 Reed Warblers again
(Ed Wilson)

Nedge Hill
Lapwing
Green Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Redstart
(Ed Wilson)

2008
Priorslee Lake
1 Wigeon
4 Willow Warblers
15 Sand Martins
27 Swallows
2 Gadwall
4 Tufted Ducks
2 Kestrels
9 Chiffchaffs
(Ed Wilson)

The Flash
2 Sand Martins
6 Swallows
2 Blackcaps
4 Chiffchaffs
17 Willow Warblers (11 in song)
4 Redpolls

Nedge Hill
2 Willow Warblers

Trench Lock
2 Sand Martins
7 Swallows
2 Chiffchaff
3 Willow Warblers

2007
Priorslee Lake
4 Common Sandpipers
1 Garden Warbler
Chiffchaff
Reed Bunting
1 Ring-necked Parakeet
(Ed Wilson, Martin Grant)

The Flash
1 Common Sandpiper
1 Curlew
(Ed Wilson)


Wood Lane
1 Grasshopper Warbler
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
1 Swallow
1 Sand Martin
4 Great Crested Grebes
1 Heron
3 Tufted Duck
2 Ruddy Duck
5 Common Sandpiper
1 Kestrel
1 Buzzard
1 Skylark
2 Grey Wagtail
1 Willow Tit
5 Greenfinch
1 Linnet
3 Reed Bunting.
(Martin Adlam)

Lanes east of Priorslee Lake
4 Pheasants
4 Skylarks
4 Blackcaps
2 Chiffchaffs
2 Willow Warblers
8 Linnets
4 Yellowhammers
1 Redwing
1 Tree Sparrow
1 Common Whitethroat
2 Stock Dove
2 Jay
2 Kestrel
(Martin Adlam)
1 Willow Tit
5 Greenfinch
1 Linnet
1 Redpoll
4 Reed Bunting
(Martin Adlam)