16 Jun 24

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

9.0°C > 13.0°C: Early low cloud mainly melted away by 06:30. Clear for a while then broken mid-level cloud after 07:30. Moderate south-westerly breeze. Excellent visibility.

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: 05:05 – 06:15 // 07:30 – 09:30

(130th visit of the year)

Due to the soaking and beaten-down vegetation I did not make my usual early circumnavigation, making just one circuit after the vegetation was somewhat drier. I thought it might affected some of the warbler counts. If it did it was apparently only the Blackcaps.

Bird notes:
- no sign of the duck Mallard with ducklings.
- the continued sporadic appearance of Tufted Duck is making it difficult for me to record "last of first winter" in my log.
- as I arrived I counted 19 Swifts flying off West as singles, duo. By 08:00 there seemed to be the now usual number (c.40). All different birds?
- I have occasionally seen a Common Whitethroat at the West end c.05:30. Today I noted three together so they have successfully bred here despite the lack of recent song.

Counts of birds noted flying over:
- 1 Stock Dove
- 18 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Collared Dove
- 1 Herring Gull
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Cormorant
- 4 Jackdaws

Hirundines etc. noted:
Largest numbers at onset of rain
- >40 Swifts
- >*10 Barn Swallows
- >6 House Martins

Warblers noted (the figure in brackets relates to birds heard singing):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- *16 (13) Chiffchaffs
- 9 (9) Reed Warblers
- 10 (9) Blackcaps
- *3 (3) Common Whitethroats
'nominal' warbler:
- 4 (4) Goldcrests

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 Mute Swans
- 7 (6♂) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) Tufted Duck
- 3 Moorhens
- 27 + 13 (8 broods) Coots
- 3 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull

Noted on the street lamps poles pre-dawn:

Moths:
- *!!1 Red-barred Tortrix Ditula angustiorana
- *1 Straw Dot Rivula sericealis

Springtails:
- 1 springtail Tomocerus vulgaris type

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

Butterflies:
- none

Moths:
- Common Marble Celypha lacunana
- *Buff Ermine Spilosoma lutea
- *!Snout Hypena proboscidalis

Bees, wasps etc.:
- none

Hoverflies:
- none

Damsel-/dragon-flies:

Singles only of each
- *Common Blue Damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum
- Blue-tailed Damselfly Ischnura elegans

Other flies:
- Black Snipefly Chrysopilus cristatus: only two males noted
- *!dagger fly Empis livida
- greenbottle Lucilia sp.
- Grouse Wing caddis fly Mystacides longicornis
- *Scorpion Fly Panorpa sp.
- Yellow Dung Fly Scathophaga stercoraria

Bugs etc.:
- none

Beetles:
- Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni
- *Swollen-thighed Beetle Oedemera nobilis

Molluscs:
- White-lipped Snail Cepaea hortensis

Spiders:
- *Cucumber Green Orb Spider Araniella sp. either A. cucurbitina or A. opisthographa

New flowers noted
- *!Yellow Rattle Rhinanthus minor

I wondered why this Chiffchaff was calling quietly rather than singing. You try singing with a mouthful of insects. It was probably calling quietly t a fledged juveniles nearby.

Not much light at 05:30 and they were somewhat distant. Here are three Common Whitethroats. The bird at the top with a grey head is a male. There is a begging juvenile directly below it. At the bottom...

...another juvenile looking for food. This is the same tree that a male (this one?) often used as a song perch when he first arrived.

There were many more Barn Swallows flying around this morning presumably because there were newly-fledged juveniles with their parents. These two juveniles, still with a very obvious gape-line, were resting on the dam face as their parents hunter food.

Sadly they flew off before I noted any adults come to feed them.

A juvenile Long-tailed Tit starting to moult in to adult plumage – the dark 'face mask' of juvenile plumage is looking blotchy.

On a street lamp pole at dawn was this Red-barred Tortrix moth Ditula angustiorana. My first for at least 14 years here.

I noted this Buff Ermine moth Spilosoma lutea resting on vegetation under a street lamp later in the morning – I probably overlooked it earlier. It does not look particularly 'buff'. However it is not gleaming white as is a White Ermine S. lubricipeda and this latter species shows more extensive black dotting.

A Straw Dot moth Rivula sericealis. This was on a street lamp pole at dawn (and it stayed there until I departed). I cannot recall seeing this species resting on a pole before.

An appropriately-named moth. It is a Snout Hypena proboscidalis. I flush a few of these most years as I am walking round.

I was confused when I saw this climbing around a grass stem. It is a female Common Blue Damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum, the only one I saw in the cloudy conditions. I also only saw a single Blue-tailed Damselfly Ischnura elegans.

New for the year is this dagger fly Empis livida.

A female Scorpion Fly Panorpa sp. Females lack the 'sting' at the tip of the abdomen which is actually the genitalia of the males.

The daily fly puzzle. A Muscid fly but beyond that...

The elytra (wing cases) being held well apart is a clue that this is a Swollen-thighed Beetle Oedemera nobilis. It is female because it does not have the swollen thighs. Most days I see very few, if any females. Today this was the only one I saw: no males for a change.

The underside of a Cucumber Green Orb Spider Araniella sp. either A. cucurbitina or A. opisthographa. This small spider spins its web across a concave leaf and then lays in wait for something to blunder in. Note the red tip to the abdomen that characterises these two species.

New flower for the year. I think Yellow Rattle Rhinanthus minor . Obsidentify confirmed that "in real life" but when shown this edited photo it identified it as Great Yellow Rattle R. alectorolophus. My (rather elderly) Flora suggests this latter plant does not occur in the UK and anyway the flowers are close-mouthed whereas these are open-mouthed. I always try to double-check any identification.

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Only noted

Flies:
- *1 cranefly, species undetermined

 An interesting-looking cranefly for which I have been unable to get an identity.

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Flash: 06:20 – 07:25

(133rd visit of the year)

New Bird Species
Two additions to my 2024 bird list here. In the order recorded:
- a Reed Warbler was singing from the reeds alongside Derwent Drive. At this date I assume it is a failed breeder looking to try elsewhere. Whether it can find a mate it this late date is questionable. There is a precedent for this behaviour here. There has also been at least one normal-time breeding attempt in the same patch of reeds.
- an Oystercatcher flew North over the water at 07:25. My only previous record here was of a fly-over on 15 June 2021 – a remarkably similar date when it was also my 72nd bird species of the year here.

Other bird notes:
- *there were seven sub-adult Mute Swans this morning when I arrived with both resident adults chasing them and leaving the cygnets to fend for themselves. Five of the sub-adults then took off, circled once and departed leaving just two at the mercy of the aggressive cob.
- *a very new brood of 11 Mallard ducklings noted.
- five Great Crested Grebes noted.
- two Stock Doves, presumably a pair, were noted drinking at the edge of the island, flying off together.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 1 Oystercatcher
- 1 Herring Gull

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

Warblers noted (the figure in brackets relates to birds heard singing):
- 5 (5) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Blackcap
'nominal' warbler:
- 1 (1) Goldcrest

Noted on / around the water:
- 198 Canada Geese, as yesterday: no goslings seen
- 16 Greylag Geese
- 1 Canada x Greylag Goose
- *9 + 3 (1 brood) Mute Swans: later 4 (sub)adults only
- *13 + 11 (1 brood) Mallard: sexes of adults not determined
- 3 (3♂) Tufted Duck
- *7 + 3 (2 broods) Moorhen
- *23 + 7 (4 broods) Coots
- 5 Great Crested Grebes

Noted elsewhere around The Flash:

Moths:
- 1 Common Grey Scoparia ambigualis

Flies:
- 1 Yellow Dung Fly Scathophaga stercoraria

Beetles:
- many Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni

Five of the non-resident Mute Swans upped and departed. Here they go.

A duck Mallard with her brood. Hard to count bunched like this. Trust me: there are eleven.

Easier like this!

Not easy to see what is going on here. A Moorhen and a Coot having a dispute. The result seemed to be a draw.

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sightings from previous years

2008
Priorslee Lake
Spotted Redshank
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
2 Ruddy Duck
(Ed Wilson)