15 Jun 24

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

8.0°C > 10.0°C: A very bright start – as my mother would have said "too bright to last": and she would have been correct. Some mist (Autumn already?). Clouded by 08:15 with rain by 09:15. Light southerly breeze after a calm start. Excellent visibility ahead of the rain.

Sunrise: 04:46 BST

* = a photo in today's blog.
! = a new species for me here this year
!! = a new species for me in Shropshire

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:00 – 06:25 // 07:25 – 09:15

(130th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- a duck Mallard with two small ducklings was a surprise.

Counts of birds noted flying over:
- 17 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Herring Gull
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Cormorant
- 2 Jackdaws

Hirundines etc. noted:
Largest numbers at onset of rain
- >*30 Swifts
- >*6 Barn Swallows
- >10 House Martins

Warblers noted (the figure in brackets relates to birds heard singing):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- 10 (10) Chiffchaffs
- 8 (8) Reed Warblers
- 14 (13) Blackcaps
'nominal' warbler:
- 4 (4) Goldcrests

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 Mute Swans
- *6 (4♂) + 2 (1 brood) Mallard
- 2 Moorhens
- 23 + 10 (6 broods) Coots
- 3 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Grey Heron: departed 05:30

Noted on the street lamps poles pre-dawn:

Moths:
- *2 Common Grey Scoparia ambigualis

Worm:
- *1 presumed Common Earthworm Lumbricus terrestris

Spiders:
- 1 Long-jawed Orb-web Spider Tetragnatha sp.

Noted later:
First thing the vegetation was soaking after heavy rain yesterday evening. Later it was cloudy. Numbers very low.

Butterflies:
- none

Moths:
- *!!Common White Wave Cabera pusaria
- *Latticed Heath Chiasmia clathrata

Bees, wasps etc.:
- none

Hoverflies:
- none

Damsel-/dragon-flies:
- Common Blue Damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum
- Blue-tailed Damselfly Ischnura elegans

Other flies:
- Black Snipefly Chrysopilus cristatus: only two males noted
- greenbottle Lucilia sp.
- Grouse Wing caddis fly Mystacides longicornis

Bugs etc.:
- none

Beetles:
- Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni
- *longhorn beetle Grammoptera ruficornis
- False Blister Beetle Oedemera lurida or O. virescens
- *!!Small Poplar Borer Saperda populnea

Molluscs:
- White-lipped Snail Cepaea hortensis

Spiders:
- none

New flowers noted
- none

A duck Mallard with her two very small ducklings. I do not see ducklings here every year.

More Swifts I am afraid!

This one seems to have been drawn through a hedge backwards with a very battered right wing.

Again

Seems to fly strongly-enough.

A different bird with a full load of insects in its crop / cheeks.

For a change a Barn Swallow. Note on of its tail-streamers has broken off. I am not sure which sex this is: apparently female Barn Swallows prefer males with long, even-length streamers....

...probably like this one.

A juvenile Great Tit. Can be aged by the fuzzy outline to both the cap and, especially, the 'zip' down the belly.

 Butter wouldn't... A juvenile Starling on the fencing around the football field.

One of two Common Grey moth Scoparia ambigualis at the top of the same street lamp pole around dawn. Neither was well-positioned for a photograph. This was the better of the two.

A Common White Wave moth Cabera pusaria. With the feathery antennae this must be a male. I was lucky to see this: I flushed a Wood Pigeon and as it clattered in to trees the moth fluttered down to rest on the vegetation. My initial thought was it was a dog rose petal but it seemed not quite to be in "free-fall". It is a common-enough moth but is my first for at least the 14 years covered by my computerised logs.

Lurking in the wet grass I noted this Latticed Heath moth Chiasmia clathrata.

There has to be at least one unidentified fly per day. This is it.

The first indication that this was a 'different' beetle was that it was holding its elytra (wing-cases) closed. I then noted that it had long antennae. It is the longhorn beetle Grammoptera ruficornis.

Find of the day was this longhorn beetle known as the Small Poplar Borer Saperda populnea. It is thanks to Obsidentify that I can name this. It is not shown in either the NatureSpot or eakringbirds.com web sites and I had to resort to Mr. Google to confirm its identity. Needless to say a new insect for me. There are plenty of Poplar trees in the area.

What I presume us a Common Earthworm Lumbricus terrestris had made it half-way up a street lamp pole around dawn.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Nothing noted

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:20 – 07:15

(132nd visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- one adult Mute Swan was with the cygnets. All the others were together. So which resident was looking after the cygnets while the other resident seemed happy consorting with the 'visitors'?

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 3 Jackdaws: single and duo

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 2 Swifts
- 2 House Martins

Warblers noted (the figure in brackets relates to birds heard singing):
- 5 (5) Chiffchaffs
- 2 (2) Blackcaps
'nominal' warbler:
- 3 (3) Goldcrests

Noted on / around the water:
- 198 Canada Geese: no goslings seen
- 4 Greylag Geese
- 1 Canada x Greylag Goose
- 8 + 3 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- 18 Mallard: sexes not determined
- *4 (3♂) Tufted Duck
- 7 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhen
- 23 + 7 (5 broods) Coots
- 2 Great Crested Grebes

Noted elsewhere around The Flash:

Beetles:
- many Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni

A duck Tufted Duck with much white around the base of her bill, unusual at this date. Why is it not a duck Scaup? The head-shape is wrong – a Scaup's crown is highest behind the eye: also the white would be more cleanly vertically-sided. Not easy without a photo to examine at leisure.

(Ed Wilson)

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Sightings from previous years

2010
Priorslee Lake
5+ Willow Tits in the trees alongside the M54 slip-road
(J W Reeves)

2006
Priorslee Lake
Just 2 Mute Swan cygnets remaining, possible Mink in the area
(Martin Adlam)