28 Aug 24

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

15.0°C > 17.0°C: Barely broken medium-level cloud with several light showers. Almost calm. Humid. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 06:15 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 – 06:40 // 07:45 – 09:55

(187th visit of the year)

Bird Notes
*Highlight today was a VERY distant Great (White) Egret flying south-east a long way to the south-west at 08:25.

Other bird notes:
- three Gadwall were flying around, low over the water c.06:00 and I was able to confirm two drakes and a duck. I have no idea where they came from or where they went.
- there were no Black-headed Gulls again on the football field at c.06:25. Today there were 17 Wood Pigeons at this time. At c.09:45 there were four Starlings and 17 Pied Wagtails along with a few Wood Pigeons and Magpies.
- most of the large gulls, almost all adult Lesser Black-backs, dropped in for a wash and drink before continuing South.
- a group of at least 25 Goldfinches were in the Ricoh hedge area. Many of them were juveniles.

Counts of birds noted flying over:
- 21 Canada Geese: nine outbound in two groups; 12 inbound together
- 87 Greylag Geese: 35 outbound in four groups; 52 inbound together
- 2 Stock Doves: together
- 89 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Herring Gull
- 24 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Great Egret: as highlighted
- 86 Jackdaws
- 61 Rooks

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 6 House Martins

Warblers noted (the figure in brackets relates to birds heard singing):
- 5 (1) Chiffchaffs
- 3 (0) Reed Warblers
- 2 (0) Blackcaps
- 1 (0) Common Whitethroat
''nominal' warbler:
- no Goldcrests

Counts from the lake area:
- 96 Canada Geese: arrived in at least 11 groups
- 1 Greylag Goose: arrived with a group of Canadas
- 2 Mute Swans
- 3 (2♂) Gadwall: briefly
- 11 (?♂) Mallard
- 5 Moorhens
- 101 Coots
- 4 + 1 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- 4 Black-headed Gulls on the lake by c.05:45: none on the football field at c.06:25 or later
- 6 Herring Gulls
- 101 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Grey Heron: departed

Noted on the street lamps poles pre-dawn:

Moths:
- *1 !Common Masoner Blastobasis adustella [was Dingy Dowd]
1 Common Grass-moth Agriphila tristella [was Common Grass-veneer]
- *1 Small Phoenix Ecliptopera silaceata

Beetle:
- 1 Harlequin Ladybird Harmonia axyridis var. succinea: same place as last two days: dead?

Spiders, harvestmen etc.
- *6 Bridge Orb-web Spiders Larinioides sclopetarius
- 3 harvestmen Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus

Sailing Club HQ

I again prowled around the outside of the sailing club HQ pre-dawn:

Moths:
- *1 Copper Underwing agg. Amphipyra pyramidea agg.: same place for five days but a third noted tucked up: perhaps there always has been?

Grasshoppers, Crickets etc.:
- *1 !!Oak Bush-cricket Meconema thalassinum

Spiders:
- 26 spiders: nothing unusual

Noted later:

Butterflies:
- Speckled Wood Pararge aegeria

Moths:
- *!!Common Purple & Gold Pyrausta purpuralis

Bees, wasps etc.:
- Honey Bee Apis mellifera
- Common Carder Bee Bombus pascuorum

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
- Chequered Hoverfly Melanostoma scalare [Long-winged Duskyface]
- *Twin-spot Boxer Platycheirus rosarum [Fourspot Sedgesitter Pyrophaena rosarum]

Other flies:
- *European Crane-fly Tipula paludosa

Bugs:
- *Dock Bug Coreus marginatus

Molluscs:
- White-lipped Snail Cepaea hortensis

No colourful sunrise this morning. A time exposure: the Castle Farm Way street lights illuminating the trees; and the car headlights streaking by.

There were a few breaks before the rain.

Yes well. Just about classifies as a record shot of the VERY distant Great (White) Egret. It is mainly the size of the wing that separates this from a Little Egret at this range. It does have proportionally larger feet and bill though this is hard to judge here.

 These birds can be confusing. The brown patches each side of the breast are the best clue here.

Easier from this angle with yellow in the wing and a distinctly pointed and rather pale bill. Usually in a flock with adults which also helps. A juvenile Goldfinch. It will be in to November before the red face is fully developed on this year's youngsters.

All the Feral Pigeons that I have previously noted on the roofs in Teece Drive have been the "standard" blue morph birds, looking much like their Rock Dove ancestors. This was the first of the many birds with variable amounts of white in their plumage that I have noted here. Such individuals are often to be seen in the groups wheeling over the houses near The Flash.

A new moth for the year. It is now called a Common Masoner Blastobasis adustella. I am not sure that is an improvement over its previous name of Dingy Dowd but perhaps the PC police won't permit calling anything 'dingy' any more.

This is a rather faded Common Purple & Gold moth Pyrausta purpuralis. I usually see its close relative, the Mint Moth P. aurata, in June. Not this year. The larvae of both species feed on mints (Mentha sp.) and there is abundant Water Mint M. aquatica around the lake.

Another Small Phoenix moth Ecliptopera silaceata. This is a different individual to the one I photographed on the same street lamp pole yesterday. That one showed more irregular edging to the wide cross band and was more typical of the species.

For the last three days the Copper Underwing-type moths have been lurking more-or-less out of sight under the guttering of the sailing club HQ. This was the only one I could see this morning, just about sitting in the open.

Steven Falk calls this hoverfly Twin-spot Boxer Platycheirus rosarum. Quite how and why it got the alternative name, used by Obsidentify, of Fourspot Sedgesitter is unclear. They even give it a slightly different scientific name Pyrophaena rosarum.

As Autumn approaches so does Daddy Long-legs time. This is a European Crane-fly Tipula paludosa and will be one of the most common species over the next few weeks.

Find of the morning was my first-ever Oak Bush-cricket Meconema thalassinum. A cricket and not a grasshopper because it has long antennae. This one is a female – the curved ovipositor indicates that. This I found on the wall of the sailing club HQ before dawn.

An easy bug: the Dock Bug Coreus marginatus.

Yes I know we have seen a lot of these Bridge Orb-web Spiders Larinioides sclopetarius but this angle shows the species has a reddish triangular mark at the base of its cephalothorax. I do not recall noticing this previously. How do they remember which leg is holding which strand of their web?

Another sailing club HQ find was this well-positioned Missing Sector Orb-web Spider Zygiella x-notata. Here it is easy to see why the alternative name is "Silver-sided" Sector Spider – the name used by Obsidentify.

Plane of the day. It is a McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15E Strike Eagle of the United States Air Force's 494 Fighter Squadron, one of four squadrons forming the 48 Fighter Wing. It is based at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk and making an unusually low transit to the famous "Mach Loop" low-flying area in Wales.

Here is the (minimal) FlightRadar24 data, possibly for this aircraft. There were two Strike Eagles flying in close formation and as is usual only one activates its transponder to avoid giving Air Traffic Control a heart attack when they see two aircraft much too close-together. The '00' part of its identity refers to the US Fiscal Year in which the aircraft was procured – 2000 in this case. The second part ('3000' here) used to be issued sequentially with each year restarting at '0001'. The relatively small number of aircraft purchased each year these days meant that aircraft of the same type could have the same sequence number in different years. A new system was devised. It is complex and I am sure someone (else) knows.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Moths:
- *1 Red Underwing Catocala nupta

Isopods:
- *1 Common Shiny Woodlouse Oniscus asellus

Centipedes & Millipedes:
- 14 White-legged Snake Millipedes Tachypodoiulus niger

Spiders:
- 1 Missing Sector Orb-web Spider Zygiella x-notata [Silver-sided Sector Spider]

If only all moths were as well-behaved as this Red Underwing Catocala nupta, sitting neatly on the wall of the tunnel.

Also well-behaved was this Common Shiny Woodlouse Oniscus asellus.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:45 – 07:40

(190th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- just one of the two 'extra' Mute Swans flew a circuit and returned.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 8 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

Hirundines etc. noted:

None

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

Noted on / around the water:
- 4 Canada Geese
- 1 Greylag Goose
- *4 + 3 (1 brood) Mute Swan
- 27 (?♂) Mallard
- 43 (?♂) Tufted Duck
- 6 Moorhens
- 78 + 6 (3 dependent brood) Coots
- 4 Great Crested Grebes
- 33 Black-headed Gulls
- *4 Cormorants
- 1 Grey Heron

Noted elsewhere around The Flash:

Moths:
- *2 Single-dotted Waves Idaea dimidiata

Spiders, harvestmen etc.
- 3 harvestmen Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus

The action is "nearly" frozen. One of the two extra near(?) adult Mute Swans made an apparent unforced circuit.

All four Cormorants took to the water and were diving in to what seemed to be a shoal of small fish, often emerging triumphant – as here.

Down the hatch it goes.

There must have been another 'hatch' of these Single-dotted Wave moths Idaea dimidiata. This is one of two this morning, both in a different location to the two I noted yesterday.

(Ed Wilson)

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Sightings from previous years

2013
Priorslee Lake
2 Teal
(Ed Wilson)

2010
Priorslee Lake
Turtle Dove
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
Pair Ruddy Duck
(Malcolm Thompson)