18 Jun 24

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

10.0°C > 13.0°C: Wall-to-wall blue for about 15 minutes. Low cloud spread from north-west. Even a few spots of light drizzle. Moderate north-westerly breeze. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 04:46 BST: as early as it gets

* = 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 – 06:00 // 07:10 – 09:50

(132nd visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- as I arrived at 05:00 two noisy Oystercatchers were flying high West to the North.
- at least three juvenile Reed Warblers from two different broods were noted.
- strange behaviour from the Starlings on the football field c.05.50. At least 25 were feeding in a right group when they suddenly all took off and flew off West. None of the Wood Pigeons feeding in the area so much as raised a wing and I could see no predator overhead. After a few minutes the drifted back, seemingly reluctant to settle on the ground, stopping on the fence a nearby trees.

Counts of birds noted flying over:
- 2 Canada Geese: outbound together
- 27 Wood Pigeons
- 2 Oystercatchers: together
- 3 Herring Gulls
- 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 10 Jackdaws
- 3 Rooks

Hirundines etc. noted:
- *c.25 Swifts: throughout
- 4 Barn Swallows
- *6 House Martins

Warblers noted (the figure in brackets relates to birds heard singing):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- 11 (10) Chiffchaffs
- 14 (11) Reed Warblers
- 10 (19) Blackcaps
- no Common Whitethroats
'nominal' warbler:
- 1 (1) Goldcrest

Counts from the lake area:
- 1 Canada Goose: chased away
- 2 Mute Swans
- 7 (6♂) Mallard
- 1 Moorhen
- 27 + 7 (4 broods) Coots
- 1 Great Crested Grebe
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull: flew off the football field 05:45

Noted on the street lamps poles pre-dawn:

Flies:
- *1 probable Pond Olive mayfly Cloeon dipterum

Noted later:
A struggle to find much in the cloudy conditions

Butterflies:
- Large Skipper Ochlodes sylvanus

Moths:
- Common Marble Celypha lacunana
- unidentified grass moths flew away
- *as yet unidentified Tortrix moth
- *Blood-vein Timandra comae

Bees, wasps etc.:
- *Buff-tailed Bumblebee Bombus terrestris: asleep

Hoverflies:

The first name is according to Stephen Falk. The name in square brackets is that given by Obsidentify. The scientific names are common. The species are presented in alphabetic order of those scientific names.
- Common Dronefly Eristalis tenax: just one

Damsel-/dragon-flies:
- Common Blue Damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum: just two

Other flies:
- *!long-legged fly Botanophila fugax
- Black Snipefly Chrysopilus cristatus: many hundred males noted; no females seen
- *long-legged fly Dolichopus wahlbergi
- *!!root-maggot fly Hylema sp.
- Grouse Wing caddis fly Mystacides longicornis
- Scorpion Fly Panorpa sp.
- *!!Tachinid fly Phasia hemiptera
- semaphore fly Poecilobothrus nobilitatus

Bugs etc.:
- none

Planthoppers, lacehoppers etc.
- Common Froghopper Philaenus spumarius

Beetles:
- Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni
- *False Blister Beetle: Oedemera lurida or O. virescens

Molluscs:
- White-lipped Snail Cepaea hortensis

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

New flowers noted
- *Common Ragwort Jacobaea vulgaris; now open – just
- *Water Forget-me-not Myositis palustris
- *Tufted Vetch Vicia cracca

Fifteen minutes in and the cloud is already streaming from the north-west.

More Swifts!

 Even as it turns away the bulging throat, full of insects for its brood, is obvious.

Another.

From this angle it is possible to see how small the bill is. That is deceptive as when fly-catching the bill opens in to a large gape for hoovering up the prey.

Not all Swifts. Here is about the best I could manage in the dull conditions of a passing House Martin.

A House Martin that seems to have a deformed bill. This must hamper its ability to catch on the wing.

A moth that I will need the help of the Shropshire Recorder to identify. The two apparent options on what is clearly a Tortrix moth are: Lead-coloured Tortrix Acleris sparsana which does not fly before August. Or, on shape, Green Oak Tortrix Tortrix viridana which is normally bright green!

A moth that escaped the camera yesterday but not today. A Blood-vein Timandra comae. I flush this species from the long grass every year.

Apparently fast asleep on a swaying grass stem is a Buff-tailed Bumblebee Bombus terrestris.

This is a probable Pond Olive mayfly Cloeon dipterum. Obsidentify wasn't too helpful: "Signal Crayfish" was its determination.

I have managed to get a probable identity for this long-legged fly I have seen for some day. It is likely Botanophila fugax.

My best example of the long-legged fly Dolichopus wahlbergi showing that the swelling on the mid-tarsus is feather-like.

This is a root-maggot fly of the Hylema genus. All of them are characterised by the white stripe on the side of the thorax. Species determination is 'hard'. I have no previously identified a fly from this group.

Another new fly for my collection and a very distinctive one at that. It is the Tachinid fly Phasia hemiptera. This is a male with a dark cloud in his wings. The female has clear wings that also lack the curve along the outer edge.

It has been nagging at my mind. This is what I have been recording this year as False Blister Beetle Oedemera lurida or O. virescens. Last year I was recording the smaller of the two green beetles as Lesser Thick-legged Flower Beetle Ischnomera cyanea. So I double-checked. The latter species has a more rounded tip to the abdomen and my records this year are correct. But what did I see last year? Hmm.

It is over a week since I noted Common Ragwort Jacobaea vulgaris at this stage of development at The Flash. It shows how the microclimates vary, probably accentuated this year by the recent wet and cool conditions.

This is Water Forget-me-not Myositis palustris. It has been in flower for a while but I have only just realised it was 'different' from the other forget-me-not species already noted.

Tufted Vetch Vicia cracca as photographed at The Flash yesterday.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Only noted

Flies:
- *1 cranefly Nephrotoma quadrifaria

The cranefly Nephrotoma quadrifaria was the only occupant I noted today.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:05 – 07:05

(135th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- Four additional (sub)adult Mute Swans today being chased out of the water by the resident cob.
- the trio of Canada Goose goslings seen: they are well-developed enough to be easily overlooked. I will not record them separately in future.
- at least four Mallard ducklings noted. Their mother took them in to cover before I could get a good look.
- four Great Crested Grebes. A pair seem to inhabit area with the overhanging trees at the top end and can be hard to see. The cob swan on the warpath was forcing them in to the open..
- I did not hear the Reed Warbler today.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:

None

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 2 House Martins

Warblers noted (the figure in brackets relates to birds heard singing):
- 4 (4) Chiffchaffs
- no Reed Warbler
- 1 (1) Blackcap
'nominal' warbler:
- no Goldcrests

Noted on / around the water:
- 224 + 3 (1 brood) Canada Geese: see notes
- 23 Greylag Geese
- 1 Canada x Greylag Goose
- 6 + 3 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- *23 + 4? (1 brood) Mallard: sexes of adults not determined: see notes
- 3 (2♂) Tufted Duck
- 5 + 2 (2 broods) Moorhens
- 17 + 1 (1 brood) Coots: where were they hiding?
- 4 Great Crested Grebes

Noted elsewhere around The Flash:

Moths:
- *1 Treble Brown Spot Idaea trigeminata

Flies:
- *1 long-legged fly, perhaps Sciapus platypterus

Beetles:
- Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni

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

An illustration of why I have temporarily given up sexing Mallards. This looks like a duck until you examine the bill. It is pale. So the bird must be a drake. It is moulting in to what is called "eclipse" plumage so that it is better camouflaged when it moults all its flight feathers at the same time and becomes flightless. It will then moult again in to breeding finery come late August. Sexing now is possible when the bill is out of the water but as they are often feeding it would take too long to identify each one.

High up a street lamp pole at the bottom of squirrel alley I noted this Treble Brown Spot moth Idaea trigeminata. I didn't name it!

Not an insect I can recall seeing before. It is one of the long-legged flies, probably a Sciapus species and most likely S. platypterus.

Long-jawed Orb-web Spiders Tetragnatha sp. seem to be everywhere at the moment. This one is having a rush of blood to his (because of the large palps) head on a street lamp pole.

(Ed Wilson)

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Sightings from previous years

2010
Trench Lock Pool
4 drake Pochard
(Ed Wilson)