12 Aug 24

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

17.0°C > 19.0°C: Light showers early. Cleared with some good sunny spells. The more showers and an approaching thunderstorm suggested I high-tail it away. Light / moderate south-easterly wind. Very good visibility. Humid.

Sunrise: 05:48 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 – 06:15 // 07:20 – 09:00

(174th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- just 10 Black-headed Gulls noted on the lake. None on the football field at 06:00. Unusually 30 (no juveniles) there at 07:25. Did the rain showers bring the food to the surface?
- no passage of large gull today.
- a pair (and perhaps a trio) of Gadwall flew in. Three birds arrived together, certainly a drake and duck Gadwall. I was not sure about the third but later I could only find a single duck bird. Was this the third?
- biggest surprise was a pair of Pochard. Normally only a mid-winter visitor here though they do breed in the Midlands, some years as close as Belvide Reservoir, just 12 miles to the East. Can I really put today's date in my master log as "first of second winter"?
- no Pied Wagtails today.

Counts of birds noted flying over:
- *79 Canada Geese: 53 outbound in three groups; 26 inbound in two groups
- no Greylag Geese
- 1 Feral Pigeon
- 4 Stock Doves: a duo and two singles
- 65 Wood Pigeons
- 23 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 51 Jackdaws
- 30 Rooks

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 2 House Martins

Warblers noted (the figure in brackets relates to birds heard singing):
- 6 (0) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (0) Reed Warblers
- 3 (0) Blackcaps
'nominal' warbler:
- 1 (0) Goldcrest

Counts from the lake area:
- 46 Canada Geese: two present early: others arrived in multiple small groups
- 2 Mute Swans
- 2 (3?) (1♂) Gadwall
- *20 (>8?♂) Mallard
- *2 (1♂) Pochard
- 5 adult and juvenile Moorhens
- 62 adult and juvenile Coots
- *4 + 1 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- 10 Black-headed Gulls on the lake c.05:45: 30 on the football field at 07:25
- 2 Herring Gulls
- 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Grey Heron
- 1 Kingfisher

Noted on the street lamps poles pre-dawn:

Moths:
- *1 Straw Grass-moth Agriphila straminella [was Straw Grass-veneer]
- 1 Garden Straw Agapeta hamana [was Common Yellow Conch; Hook-marked Straw-moth]

Flies:
- 1 dance fly Tachydromia umbrarum
- 3 male plumed midges of at least two species

Bugs etc.:
- 1 Red-legged Shieldbug Pentatoma rufipes

Molluscs:
- 1 White-lipped Snail Cepaea hortensis: unusual at the top of a street lamp pole pre-dawn

Other things:
- *1 presumed Blunt-tailed Snake Millipede Cylindroiulus punctatus

Spiders, harvestmen etc.
- *1 spider Araneus sp., probably not A angulatus
- *1 spider Metellina sp.
- 1 harvestmen Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus

Noted later:

Butterflies:
- Green-veined White Pieris napi
- *Meadow Brown Maniola jurtina

Moths:
- Straw Grass-moth Agriphila straminella [was Straw Grass-veneer]: at least three

Bees, wasps etc.:
- Honey Bee Apis mellifera
- *Common Carder Bee Bombus pascuorum
- Buff-tailed Bumblebee Bombus terrestris

Hoverflies:
The first name is that used by Stephen Falk. The name in square brackets is that given by Obsidentify or other sources if different. Scientific names are normally common. The species are presented in alphabetic order of those scientific names.
- Marmalade Hoverfly Episyrphus balteatus
- *Plain-faced Dronefly Eristalis arbustorum [Eurasian Drone Fly]

Damsel-/dragon-flies:
- Common Blue Damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum
- unidentified hawker species

Other flies:
- 1 owl midge Psychodidae sp.
- other unidentified flies noted

Bugs etc.:
- none

Beetles:
- *Pollen Beetle Meligethes sp.
- *Spotted Longhorn Beetle Rutpela maculata

Molluscs:
- White-lipped Snail Cepaea hortensis

Spiders, harvestmen etc.
- none

New flowers:
- none

Between the showers some interesting sunrise effects.

The rising sun was shining through the areas of rain.

The thunderstorm approaches. Time for me to go!

Mark one eye-ball loses out. I thought and logged 22 Canada Geese. The photo shows 24. Log amended.

A drake Mallard partially moulted in to breeding plumage. He already has the chestnut chest and the long pale primaries. Otherwise still in the more camouflaged so-called eclipse plumage acquired while he was flightless during the species' annual wing-moult.........

........and a duck Mallard looking much as she always does.

More of less a record shot of the pair of Pochard, the drake on the right of the photo.

The juvenile Great Crested Grebe stretches one developing wing.

And begs to be fed. Note it has lost what I consider to be the ugly pink area in front of its eye that it had when really small. Why does it need this bare area of skin?

'Brown' butterflies are more tricky when they sit wings held one behind the other obscuring their diagnostic spot markings. This, identified by the shape of the boundary between dark and light on the underwing, is a Meadow Brown Maniola jurtina, a species I had not seen for some days and supposed was at the end of its season. In flight it did seem too large for a Gatekeeper Pyronia tithonus. It did also seem too dull but that could just have been because it was a worn individual.

A moth that was on a street lamp pole and that nearly got away. I saw where this Straw Grass-moth Agriphila straminella had landed. I was less fortunate with the very distinctive Garden Straw moth Agapeta hamana which took off before I could photograph it, never to be seen again.

I do like Common Carder Bees Bombus pascuorum.

A Marmalade Hoverfly Episyrphus balteatus shares a flower with two tiny Pollen Beetles Meligethes sp. It seems the only way to identify these beetles is to dissect the genitalia of any males found. Some other time...

 This small drone fly is a male Plain-faced Dronefly Eristalis arbustorum.

A Spotted Longhorn Beetle Rutpela maculata. This is my third distinct sighting of this species this year. While I see the species annually usually it is just once or on a few concurrent days.

I presume a Blunt-tailed Snake Millipede Cylindroiulus punctatus. Even though it does not have a blunt tail I cannot see what else it might be.

Not a very clear photo of a spider a long way up a street lamp pole pre-dawn which is perhaps why Obsidentify suggested Araneus angulatus, a species not in either NatureSpot or earkingbirds. Let us settle on Araneus sp.

A spider Metellina sp.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Moths:
- none

Flies:
- 2 cranefly Tipula lateralis

Other things:
- *1 (Common) Striped Woodlouse Philoscia muscorum
- 30 White-legged Snake Millipedes Tachypodoiulus niger

Spiders, harvestmen etc.
- 2 Missing Sector Orb-web Spider Zygiella x-notata [Silver-sided Sector Spider]

A (Common) Striped Woodlouse Philoscia muscorum.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:20 – 07:15

(176th visit of the year)

Bird notes:

New Bird Species
- the two fly-over Linnets were my first of the year here (and I did not record any in 2023). Bird species #73 for me here in 2024. Perhaps from the same flock as seen the previous two days at the Balancing Lake,

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 2 Linnets

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 1 House Martin

Warblers noted (the figure in brackets relates to birds heard singing):
- 7 (0) Chiffchaffs
'nominal' warbler:
- no Goldcrests

Noted on / around the water:
- 9 Canada Geese
- 2 Greylag Geese
- 2 + 3 (1 brood) Mute Swan
- 34 (?♂) Mallard
- 24 (?♂) Tufted Duck
- 6 + 4 (2 broods) Moorhens
- 59 + 7 (4 broods) Coots
- 6 Great Crested Grebes
- *31 Black-headed Gulls: at least six of these juveniles
- 1 Grey Heron

Noted elsewhere around The Flash:

Moths:
- none

Spiders, harvestmen etc.
- 1 harvestman Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus

A relatively recently fledged Black-headed Gull still showing ginger/brown tones on its nape and lower back.

The same bird from underneath. Note the alula feather sticking out of the middle of the leading edge. This is used to give the bird manoeuvrability at low speed. Modern aircraft have leading edge flaps, extended at low speed, for the same reason.

(Ed Wilson)

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Sightings from previous years

2013
Priorslee Lake
2 Common Sandpipers
(Ed Wilson)

2011
Priorslee Lake
Ruddy Duck
1 Common Sandpiper
>50 Linnets
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
Little Egret
(Ed Wilson)