23 Jun 24

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

15.0°C > 20.0°C: Broken cloud with some good sunny spells. Moderate westerly breeze. Excellent visibility.

Sunrise: 04:47 BST

* = a species photographed today
! = a new species for me here this year
!! = a new species for me in Shropshire

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:05 – 06:05 // 07:10 – 09:30

(136th visit of the year)

Bird notes:

Counts of birds noted flying over:
- 11 Wood Pigeons
- 14 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Cormorant
- 28 Jackdaws
- 11 Rooks
- 14 Starlings: together

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 12 Swifts
- 2 Barn Swallows
- 1 House Martin

Warblers noted (the figure in brackets relates to birds heard singing):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- 15 (10) Chiffchaffs
- 12 (11) Reed Warblers
- 1 (1) Common Whitethroat
- 13 (12) Blackcaps
'nominal' warbler:
- 1 (1) Goldcrest

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 Mute Swans
- 4 (4♂) Mallard
- 3 Moorhens
- 22 + 9 (4 broods) Coots
- 3 Great Crested Grebes: one of these flew off West at 05:30
- 1 Grey Heron

Noted on the street lamps poles pre-dawn:

Again nothing

Noted later:

Butterflies:
- *Speckled Wood Pararge aegeria
- Ringlet Aphantopus hyperantus : many
- Meadow Brown Maniola jurtina

Moths:
- *Common Nettle-tap Anthophila fabriciana
- *Garden Grass-veneer Chrysoteuchia culmella

Bees, wasps etc.:
- Honey Bee Apis mellifera
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee Bombus terrestris
- *!Crabonid wasp
- *!!sawfly Athalia sp.

Hoverflies

The first name is according to Stephen Falk. The name in square brackets is that given by Obsidentify or other sources. The scientific names are common. The species are presented in alphabetic order of those scientific names.
- Bumblebee Blacklet Cheilosia illustrata [Bumblebee Blacklet]
- *Parsley Blacklet Cheilosia pagana [Parsley Blacklet]
- Tapered Dronefly Eristalis pertinax
- *Common Dronefly Eristalis tenax
- Tiger Hoverfly Helophilus pendulus
- Short Melanostoma Melanostoma mellinum [Variable Duskyface]
- Chequered Hoverfly Melanostoma scalare [Long-winged Duskyface]
- *Large Narcissus Fly Merodon equestris var. flavicans [Narcissus Bulb Fly]
- *Grey-spotted Boxer Platycheirus albimanus [Grey-spotted Sedgesitter or White-footed Hoverfly]
- *!!Twin-spot Boxer Platycheirus rosarum [Fourspot Sedgesitter Pyrophaena rosarum]
- *Bumblebee Plume-horned Hoverfly Volucella bombylans
- Orange-belted Leaf Licker Xylota segnis [Orange-belted Leafwalker]

Damsel-/dragon-flies:
- *Azure Damselfly Coenagrion puella
- Common Blue Damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum

Other flies:
- long-legged fly Dolichopus wahlbergi
- Grouse Wing caddis fly Mystacides longicornis
- *Greenbottle Lucilia sp.
- *!Tiger Cranefly Nephrotoma flavescens
- dung fly of genus Scathophagidae
****various unidentified flies
but
- no Black Snipeflies Chrysopilus cristatus after dozens in recent days

Bugs etc.:
- none

Beetles:
- Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni
- Harlequin Ladybird Harmonia axyridis var. succinea
- False Blister Beetle Oedemera lurida or O. virescens
- *Swollen-thighed Beetle Oedemera nobilis

Molluscs:
- White-lipped Snail Cepaea hortensis

Spiders:
- none

New flowers noted
- none

Broken cloud most of the morning.

An unusual sighting. A Feral Pigeon standing in the middle of Teece Drive. The local birds are usually in a gang and stay mainly around the roof-tops though they must come down to feed. A lone bird like this is often a lost Racing Pigeon. Not this one as it has no leg rings.

Often dismissed as "rats with wings" they are nevertheless smartly plumaged. This is the form most-closely resembling Rock Dove, their wild ancestors that now only inhabit remote Scottish Island cliffs in the UK.

Bonus points if you can identify this bird in flight!

 This may, or may not, help. It is a Great Spotted Woodpecker bounding over.

A female Starling. It can be identified as a female by the pink base to the bill (blue on males); and the arrow-shaped white tips to the back feathers. Note the new uni-coloured flight feathers as it starts its post-breeding moult.

A Speckled Wood butterfly Pararge aegeria. An unusually dark specimen. They are often much browner.

A Common Nettle-tap moth Anthophila fabriciana.

A typically surprised-looking Garden Grass-veneer moth Chrysoteuchia culmella. Taken through a mass of grass stems it illustrates how quickly the gold tip to the wing quickly wears away.

A Crabonid wasp is the best I can do identifying this creature.

Another only partial identity. It is one of the Athalia sawflies. There are nine species in the genus and they can only be separated by microscopic examination.

A Bumblebee Blacklet hoverfly Cheilosia illustrata.

A very common hoverfly. It is a Parsley Blacklet Cheilosia pagana. Separation of most Cheilosia species is not easy. This one is not too hard.

A Common Dronefly Eristalis tenax . It can be separated from Tapered Dronefly E. pertinax by the mainly dark front legs and, because it is male (the eyes meet) because the abdomen is not tapered. Neither species of female shows an obviously tapered body.

This hoverfly is a Large Narcissus Fly Merodon equestris. There are many different colour forms of both sexes of this species. Obsidentify gave the form of this specimen as flavicans which I cannot trace in the literature.

A Grey-spotted Boxer hoverfly Platycheirus albimanus.

Find of the morning for me as my first-ever Twin-spot Boxer hoverfly Platycheirus rosarum. Obsidentify calls it Fourspot Sedgesitter and it does indeed show two other faint spots. It also, unusually, places it in a different genus and calls it Pyrophaena rosarum. Whether it or Steven Falk are the most up-to-date taxonomically I cannot say.

It is a very common species of hoverfly at certain times of the year I don't think I have seen so many Bumblebee Plume-horned Hoverfly Volucella bombylans as I am seeing at the moment.

As here.

And here.

The common damselfly that I least frequently probably because I only check a very few of the 100s I see most mornings. This Azure Damselfly Coenagrion puella did seem slimmer-bodied when I saw it in flight. The identification mainly hinges on the marking on the top visible segment of the abdomen: a 'U' shape for this species.

A Greenbottle Lucilia sp. contrasting well with the buttercup.

 I could not get a better angle on my first Tiger Cranefly Nephrotoma flavescens of the year.

One of today's unidentified flies.

A female Swollen-thighed Beetle Oedemera nobilis. She does not have swollen thighs but does sit with here elytra (wing cases) partly open.

I don't think the spider that owns the web will go hungry!

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Moths:
- *1 Common Marbled Carpet Chloroclysta truncata

A Common Marbled Carpet Chloroclysta truncata of the most-easily recognised form with rufous shading. Individuals that lack this shading can be confused with other species of carpet moths.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:10 – 07:05

(139th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- The Mute Swans confused today. There was one at the top end sitting on a pile of twigs that I assumed was an 'extra' bird again. However I only saw one other adult by the island and did not see any cygnets. It is possible they were inside the island - the vegetation is too thick to see inside most of the island.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 1 Cormorant
- *1 Sparrowhawk

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 6 Swifts
- 4 House Martins
All appeared when the Sparrowhawk flew over.

Warblers noted (the figure in brackets relates to birds heard singing):
- 7 (6) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Blackcap
'nominal' warbler:
- 2 (2) Goldcrests

Noted on / around the water:
- 222 Canada Geese: goslings not identified
- 38 Greylag Geese
- 1 Canada x Greylag Goose
- 2 Mute Swans: see notes
- 23 Mallard: sexes not determined
- no Tufted Duck
- 6 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 19 + 5 (3 broods) Coots: includes one very new brood of at least three
- 2 Great Crested Grebes

Noted elsewhere around The Flash:

Moths:
- *1 Treble Brown Spot Idaea trigeminata

Beetles:
- many Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni
- *1 !longhorn beetle Grammoptera ruficornis

Molluscs:
- *White-lipped Snail Cepaea hortensis

A Sparrowhawk overhead. The fine barring on the breast indicates this a male, the smaller of the sexes.

This Treble Brown Spot moth Idaea trigeminata was hiding away somewhat and not giving me a clear shot.

I have seen this longhorn beetle at the Balancing Lake. It is my first sighing here. It is a Grammoptera ruficornis.

A smart White-lipped Snail Cepaea hortensis

All the marked dead and somewhat dying Ash trees are no more. At least some of the dead wood has been left to rot naturally.

(Ed Wilson)

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Sightings from previous years

2012
Priorslee Lake
Plover sp.
(Ed Wilson)

2008
Priorslee Lake

Marsh Warbler
Unlikely as it seems I am pretty convinced about this on the basis of the song alone I was walking along the W end path at c.06:15 when a strange song caught my attention: there had been young Reed Warblers flitting about the area away from the reeds and it sound 'Acro-like'. But it was far too fast and I then assumed it was a Sedge Warbler (especially after my bird in the town centre last week). But the sound was all wrong with what seemed more like Garden Warbler tones, though with the characteristic Acro dynamics.
The bird was singing from a small patch of bushes growing in the fence at the W end of the yacht compound and I had the choice of a close view directly in to the bright sun; or going the 'other side' and trying to see between the yachts at some distance. I decided to stay where I was and in response to gentle phishing I got a good-enough glimpse to confirm it was a Reed / Marsh and not Sedge Warbler and certainly an Acro.
The song continued to puzzle and included all manner of oddities, sounding at times like juvenile Great Tit begging, all while singing at full volume.
I decided that the best thing would be to try and record the bird so I dashed back to the car for my digital tape recorder. When I returned the bird was not singing and phishing produced only a Wren and a pair of Bullfinches!
Revisited the area twice more for some 15 minutes on each occasion without success: was not too surprised as it was a small and rather unlikely spot for the bird to stay in.
Worth rechecking - but I went all around the lake twice without hearing anything untoward.
Only my second-ever UK Marsh Warbler - the last was as long ago as when they bred in Worcestershire! But familiar with the birds abroad as recently as May in Poland where I heard maybe 20.
I really cannot see what else it might have been: I am not that confident to say it WAS a Marsh Warbler song, only that I have no idea what else it could have been and it fits the general pattern of song.
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Village
A pair of Siskins
(Martin Adlam)

2006
Priorslee Lake
Common Tern
(Ed Wilson)