9 Aug 24

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

15.0°C > 19.0°C: Broken cloud with sunny intervals, mainly later. Moderate south-westerly breeze gusting fresh, especially early. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 05:43 BST

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

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:10 – 06:10 // 07:15 – 09:55

(171st visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- the geese were misbehaving today. Usually they all fly outbound early and then some of them stop off at the lake when they are inbound. Today at least 27 Canada Geese landed while outbound. As I then left for The Flash I am not too sure what happened to these. When I returned geese had started to return much earlier than usual and there were 131 Canada Geese on the lake. Geese seen inbound while I was still walking back from The Flash could also have stopped off at the lake for a while.
- strangely a much lower number of Wood Pigeons flying over.
- yesterday there were no gulls on the football field at c.05:55: today there were 94 Black-headed Gulls and one juvenile Herring Gull. Why? I postulate that yesterday's rain brought insects / spiders or whatever to the surface. At 07:20 there were no gulls but 12 Pied Wagtails.
- I think we must assume the Cetti's Warbler has gone and not become uncharacteristically quiet whilst raising a brood. Nevertheless it is puzzling that rather than just disappear it was singing intermittently for about a week before the last song was heard.

Counts of birds noted flying over:
- 101 Canada Geese: 43 outbound in four groups; 58 inbound in four groups: but see notes
- 44 Greylag Geese: 21 outbound in five groups; 23 inbound in four groups: but see notes
- 1 Stock Dove
- 78 Wood Pigeons
- 25 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 73 Jackdaws
- 52 Rooks

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 2 House Martins

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

Counts from the lake area:
- 131 Canada Geese: see notes
- 2 Mute Swans
- 20 (?♂) Mallard
- 6 adult and juvenile Moorhens
- 59 adult and juvenile Coots
- 3 + 1 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- 12 Black-headed Gulls (one juvenile) on the lake c.05:30: 94 on the football field at 05:55
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Kingfisher

Noted on the street lamps poles pre-dawn:

Moths:
- none

Flies:
- 1 plumed midge

Bees, wasps etc.:
- *sawfly sp.

Spiders, harvestmen etc.
- *2 species of spider
- *2 harvestmen Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus
- *1 unknown harvestman

Noted later:

Butterflies:
- *Speckled Wood Pararge aegeria
- Gatekeeper Pyronia tithonus

Moths:
- Straw Grass-moth Agriphila straminella [was Straw Grass-veneer]
- Pale Straw Pearl Udea lutealis

Bees, wasps etc.:
- *Honey Bee Apis mellifera
- Garden Bumblebee Bombus hortorum
- *Common Carder Bee Bombus pascuorum
- *Buff-tailed Bumblebee Bombus terrestris
- *!ichneumon Pimpla rufipes or Apechthis compunctor
- *!two other ichneumons

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.
- Parsley Blacklet Cheilosia pagana
- Marmalade Hoverfly Episyrphus balteatus
- *Stripe-faced Dronefly Eristalis nemorum
- *Tapered Dronefly Eristalis pertinax
- *Common Dronefly Eristalis tenax
- Chequered Hoverfly Melanostoma scalare [Long-winged Duskyface]
- *Twin-spot Boxer Platycheirus rosarum [Fourspot Sedgesitter Pyrophaena rosarum]
- *Common Twist-tail Sphaerophoria scripta [Long Hoverfly; Common Globetail]

Damsel-/dragon-flies:
- Southern Hawker Aeshna cyanea
- *Common Blue Damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum

Other flies:
- *!!Muscid fly Graphomya maculata: male
- *other unidentified flies noted

Bugs etc.:
- *Common Green Shieldbug Palomena prasina: instars only
- *Common Froghopper Philaenus spumarius

Beetles:
- none

Molluscs:
- *!(Great) Black Slug Arion agg.
- White-lipped Snail Cepaea hortensis

Spiders, harvestmen etc.
- none

New flowers:
- none

Dawn.

In the same hedge as the Chiffchaff I photographed yesterday so perhaps the same bird.

"Who me?"

Another Reed Warbler briefly seen between the leaves. Note the strong legs: handy to prevent them falling off the reeds in to the water.

At this angle the sloping forehead of this species is well displayed.

I do not often photograph Carrion Crows. From this perspective the bill shape shows well, very different from the pointed bill of the similar-sized Rook.

A Speckled Wood butterfly Pararge aegeria.

A normal-looking Common Carder Bee Bombus pascuorum.

This seems to be a dizzy-blond individual. Or perhaps just a faded example.

A Buff-tailed Bumblebee Bombus terrestris. The 'buff tail' is the thin buff line between the white end and the black of the abdomen.

Worker Buff-tailed Bumblebees are not very large: here is one compared with a Honey Bee Apis mellifera.

This ichneumon is either Pimpla rufipes or Apechthis compunctor. Males cannot be separated from photos: females of these species have different-looking ovipositors.

I cannot get an identity for this ichneumon.

And a third ichneumon from today: another unidentified species.

On a street lamp pole pre-dawn. The long antennae suggest this is a sawfly. There is little else to help with further identification.

 The white between the tergites on this hoverfly suggest this is a Stripe-faced Dronefly Eristalis nemorum. A female and the stripe is not so obvious as on a male.

This Tapered Dronefly Eristalis pertinax seems to have been feeding and as a result covering its hairs in pollen.

A good view of a Common Dronefly Eristalis tenax.

A male Twin-spot Boxer hoverfly Platycheirus rosarum.

Common Twist-tail hoverflies Sphaerophoria scripta are small – here a male sits on the square stem of Cleavers Galium aparine.

The only damselfly I noted this morning was this male Common Blue Damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum. It is close to the end of the flight season of this species. That said there was a fresh exuvia on the boxing ring since yesterday.

This fly is a Muscid fly Graphomya maculata. It can be identified as it is a male with brown on the side of its abdomen. The females only have white marks and are much more difficult to separate from other Muscid flies.

Another and rather unusual pre-dawn street lamp pole sitter was this unidentified species of fly...

... and this one, likely to be one of the Dolichopus species of long-legged flies.

More unidentified flies intent on ensuring there will be another generation. Slightly puzzling is that the leading fly is presumably the female but is clearly significantly larger than what I assume is her suitor.

One of the flesh fly species. Does anyone remember Marty Feldman?

An instar of a Common Green Shieldbug Palomena prasina.

A Common Froghopper Philaenus spumarius. This is a very variably-marked species. The head is pointing to the right!

There were eight of these black slugs crawling painfully across the stone-covered path on the top of the dam. Why? Dissection of the slug's genitalia is necessary to identify them at the species level.

Two spiders on the same street lamp pole pre-dawn. The upper one may be one of the House Spider group Eratigena sp. I cannot suggest an identity for the lower.

I cannot get a positive ID for this harvestman. The long pedipalps might suggest Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus but generally these sit with the legs held more bunched and at right angles as....

...with these two. I do not know whether it is possible to visually sex this species.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Moths:
- *1 Single-dotted Wave Idaea dimidiata

Other things:
- 12 White-legged Snake Millipedes Tachypodoiulus niger

Despite a gale blowing through the tunnel this Single-dotted Wave moth Idaea dimidiata had flattened itself against the wall.

Compare with this one on a street lamp pole around The Flash.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:15 – 07:10

(174th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- there were double the number of Mallard from yesterday. So where did they all come from? Not the Balancing Lake where the number was also slightly higher than yesterday.
- soon after I arrived a swirling group of at least 25 House Martins were high overhead. These soon dispersed but throughout there were comings and goings with up to 15 birds present. My largest counts of this species outside the Spring passage at the Balancing Lake.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 1 Jackdaw

Hirundines etc. noted:
- >25 House Martins: see notes

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

Noted on / around the water:
- 10 Canada Geese
- 1 Greylag Goose
- 2 + 3 (1 brood) Mute Swan
- 54 (?♂) Mallard
- 25 (?♂) Tufted Duck
- 6+ 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 69 + 6 (5 broods) Coots
- 3 Great Crested Grebes
- 14 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Cormorant: departed
- 1 Kingfisher

Noted elsewhere around The Flash:

Moths:
- *1 Single-dotted Wave Idaea dimidiata

Bees, wasps etc.:
- 1 wasp sp.: either German Wasp Vespula germanica or Common Wasp V. vulgaris

Beetles:
- *2 Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni larvae

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

One of a number of Alder Leaf Beetle larvae Agelastica alni that seem fixated on climbing street lamp poles.

Unidentified small snail.

(Ed Wilson)

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Sightings from previous years

2012
Priorslee Lake
Green Sandpiper
(Ed Wilson)

2011
Priorslee Lake
2 Lapwings
(Ed Wilson)

2009
Priorslee Lake
4 Little Egrets
(Ed Wilson)

2008
Priorslee Lake
Peregrine Falcon
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
Redshank
(Ed Wilson)