9 Sep 24

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

12.0°C > 13.0°C: A medium overcast start. A few breaks after 07:30 with sunny periods after 09:00. Fresh north-westerly wind. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 06:34 BST

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

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:20 – 09:10

(194th visit of the year)

Generally quiet: Mondays often are, presumably due to the extra disturbance of the weekend.

Bird notes:
- many more Black-headed Gulls (almost all adults): many fewer large gulls.
- Wrens were unusually quiet today. I normally use their first songs as a marker to look out for the passing Jackdaws and Rooks. Not this morning. It was 07:25 before I heard the first song. I only noted three birds singing / calling. Normally I would hear double figures any day, many more during the breeding season.

Counts of birds noted flying over:
- 4 Canada Geese: quartet inbound
- 37 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Collared Dove
- 2 Herring Gulls
- 15 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 97 Jackdaws
- 86 Rooks
- 2 Pied Wagtails

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 13 Barn Swallows: two flew South 07:40; 11 flew West together 07:50

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

Counts from the lake area:
- 63 Canada Geese: arrived in five groups, most from the East by the early time of 06:40
- 1 Greylag Goose: arrived with a group of Canadas
- 2 Mute Swans
- no Mallard (or any other ducks)
- 8 Moorhens
- 134 Coots
- 4 Great Crested Grebes
- c.65 Black-headed Gulls: also 282 counted on the football field c.07:00
- 21 Lesser Black-backed Gulls

Noted on the street lamps poles pre-dawn:

Moths:
- *1 Large Yellow Underwing Noctua pronuba

Flies:
- 1 plumed midge
- *1 !!Lauxaniid fly Minettia longipennis

Spiders, harvestmen etc.
- 1 Bridge Orb-web Spider Larinioides sclopetarius
- 1 harvestman Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus

Feedback: the micro-moth I photographed on one of the street lamp poles on Saturday is most likely one of the many Phyllonorycter species, most easily separated be the leaf mines of the larvae and certainly not from the rather faded and battered specimen in the photo. Thanks to the Shropshire recorder for trying!

Sailing Club HQ

Around the outside of the sailing club HQ pre-dawn:

Spiders:
- 26 spiders: all bouncing around in wind-blown webs. They don't get sea-sick then!

Noted later:
In often dull and windy conditions I saw nothing apart from:

Moths:
- *Common Nettle-tap Anthophila fabriciana

Bees, wasps etc.:
- Common Wasp Paravespula vulgaris

Other Flies:
- *!!Bright Four-spined Legionnaire Chorisops nagatomii
other unidentified flies

Beetles:
- Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni: adults

Molluscs:
- *Copse Snail Arianta arbustorum
- White-lipped Snail Cepaea hortensis

Fungus
- *unidentified fungus?

Not at a very helpful angle is this Common Nettle-tap moth Anthophila fabriciana.

A Large Yellow Underwing moth Noctua pronuba. It is a species that used to be caught in large numbers (>100 per night at this time of year) by those operating moth traps. It is now much-declined. I have never found many attracted to the street lamps here. This is my fifth in ten years.

This looks to be a Bright Four-spined Legionnaire Chorisops nagatomii. NatureSpot describes the similar Dull Four-spined Legionnaire C. tibialis as a small (4mm), slender fly with a metallic green thorax, and black and tan banded legs. It does not mention our species.

Obsidentify seems to have been correct as Steven Falk's Flickr entry describes it as "the scarcer of our two Chorisops species, distinguished from C. tibialis by its more extensively yellow tergites (especially in the female)", a feature evident here.

This fly seems to be Minettia longipennis. NatureSpot's description of it as a "black fly and orange-tinted wings that are considerably longer than the body and have a black base" matches as do the accompanying photos. A new[ly identified] species for me.

A smart Copse Snail Arianta arbustorum.

Fungus? I noted a number of these circular patterns on leaves today. I cannot get any identity for them. Fungus? or leaf mines of a fly?

Planes of the day. This is a Westland-built SNIAS SA 341C Gazelle HT.2 operated by The Gazelle Squadron Display Team in the last livery applies when in Royal Navy service. The 'CU' code on the tail refers to Royal Navy Air Station (RNAS) Culdrose, also known as HMS Seahawk. Demobbed military aircraft that operate in period livery are exempt from displaying their civil registration. I identified this as appropriately registered G-ZZLE from flight trackers, the helicopter's transponder uses the civil identity.

This is another Gazelle, this one painted in Army camouflage. I cannot get the specific identity for this because, as usual, when aircraft are in close formation only one will have its transponder active. These two were returning from performing at The International Ayr Show – Festival of Flight along the shore-front at Ayr. The participating aircraft used nearby Prestwick Airport as their base. The Gazelle Squadron are based near Wantage.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Moths:
- *1 Flame Carpet Xanthorhoe designata

Flies:
- *4 plumed midges

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

Woodlice:
*1 Common Rough Woodlouse Porcellio scaber

Molluscs:
*1 presumed Slippery Snail Cochlicopa lubrica [or Slippery Moss Snail]

Spiders:
- 3 spiders: none specifically identified:
- *1 female harvestman Leiobunum blackwalli

A note very 'flame' Flame Carpet moth Xanthorhoe designata I found, typically, on the ceiling in the tunnel.

One of the four male plumed midges here.

On the right a Common Rough Woodlouse Porcellio scaber. On the left another of the male plumed midges. At the bottom is probably the Slippery Snail Cochlicopa lubrica [or Slippery Moss Snail] that I photographed in more or less the same place on 26 August. The photo is not sharp-enough to be certain.

A female harvestman Leiobunum blackwalli. The specific feature of the female of this species is the dark saddle widening posteriorly and ending abruptly. Females and males have a white surround to their eyes. Harvestmen only have a single pair of eyes, unlike the six or, more usually, eight of spiders.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:15 – 10:15

(197th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- no Shoveler but two Common Teal and the two Little Grebe seen again
- many more Mallard today: but none seen earlier at the Balancing Lake. Perhaps moved here?

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 2 Herring Gulls

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 6 House Martins

Warblers noted (the figure in brackets relates to birds heard singing):
- 1 (1) Chiffchaff: singing as I arrived. Nothing more seen or heard thereafter
'nominal' warbler:
- 2 (0) Goldcrests

Noted on / around the water:
- 11 Canada Geese
- Greylag Geese heard only from inside island (them: not me)
- 4 + 3 (1 brood) Mute Swan
- 37 (25♂) Mallard
- 2 (?♂) Common Teal
- 77 (?♂) Tufted Duck
- 4 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 133 + 7 (2 dependent broods) Coots
- 2 Little Grebes
- 3 Great Crested Grebes
- 52 Black-headed Gulls
- 7 Cormorants
- 2 Grey Herons

Noted elsewhere around The Flash:

Moths:
- none

Flies:
- *only unidentified flies

Beetles:
- >5 Alder Leaf Beetles Agelastica alni: adults

Bugs:
- *12 Common Green Shieldbugs Palomena prasina: four adults with eight instars of various ages.

Spiders, harvestmen etc.
- 2 harvestmen Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus
- 1 male harvestman Leiobunum blackwalli

A smart-looking fly whatever it is!

There seemed to be adults and instars of Common Green Shieldbugs Palomena prasina everywhere. This instar has started to acquire the speckling of the adult bugs.

A later instar with the wings starting to develop.

More-developed still with the orange eyes more apparent.

A fully-winged adult.

This will be an Ivy flower in due course. Throughout October these flowers will be an important source of nectar for a range of insects – butterflies, bees, wasps, hoverflies and other flies.

(Ed Wilson)

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Sightings from previous years

2013
Priorslee Lake
3 Shovelers
(Ed Wilson)

2011
Priorslee Lake
Common Sandpiper
Possible Yellow-legged Gull
Wheatear
(Ed Wilson)

2010
Priorslee Lake
3 Teal
4 Swifts
1 Sedge Warbler
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
Kingfisher
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
Kingfisher
(Ed Wilson)