11 Oct 24

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

1.0°C > 8.0°C: Early frost though ground not frozen. Mist over the lake took a while to clear. Essentially calm. Very good visibility away from the mist at the lake.

Sunrise: 07:29 BST

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:45 – 09:25

(214th visit of the year)

Bird notes
Many more large gulls (almost all Lesser Black-backs). Fewer Black-headed Gulls. A smaller Wood Pigeon passage though perhaps in part because it took me by surprise that many of the groups were passing South to the East – all were to the West yesterday

Other bird notes:
- the 17 visiting Mute Swans still present.
- 17 Tufted Duck were seen circling over at 06:55 and appeared to leave to the West. I have assumed that the 11 birds on the water later were different individuals.

Counts of birds noted flying over:
- 2 Canada Geese: inbound together
- 17 (?♂) Tufted Duck: see notes
- 402 Wood Pigeons: of these 366 were noted in migrant flocks heading South
- 8 Lesser Black-backed Gulls!
- 5 Cormorants together
- 307 Jackdaws
- 115 Rooks only
- 2 Skylarks

Birds seen leaving roost around the lake:
None

Warblers noted (the figure in brackets relates to birds heard singing):
They did not like the cold weather!
- no Cetti's Warbler
- 1 Chiffchaff

Counts from the lake area:
- 13 Canada Goose: stayed
- 19 Mute Swans
- 10 (8♂) Mallard
- 11 (4♂+) Tufted Duck: see notes
- 2 Moorhens
- 190 Coots
- 4 Great Crested Grebes
- *35 Black-headed Gulls
- *11 Herring Gulls
- c.335 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- *1 Cormorant: arrived and departed
- 1 Grey Heron

Football Field
I did not visit the football field early

Noted on the street lamps poles pre-dawn:
Not much on the frost-covered poles

Moths
- *1 November Moth agg. Epirrita dilutata agg. [Autumnal, November, Pale November Moths]

Flies:
- 1 cranefly Tipula confusa

Slugs, snails etc.;
- 1 Wrinkled Snail Xeroplexa intersecta

Spiders, harvestmen etc.
- 1 (part of a) running crab spider Philodromus sp.: same as yesterday
- 1 harvestman Paroligolophus agrestis

Sailing Club
Around the outside of the Telford Sailing Club HQ pre-dawn:

Beetles:
- 1 Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni

Spiders, harvestmen etc.
- 8 spiders only: only the smaller individuals noted

Noted later:
Nothing

"I spy a buoy". A first winter Herring Gull wishes to land on a buoy occupied by a first winter Black-headed Gull.

That seems to be a good move by the Black-headed Gull.

"My buoy".

A Cormorant arrives to look for fish. The outer part of the left wing is in the sun which is why it looks so pale.

The belly is not jet-black suggesting this is not yet full adult. Perhaps three or four years old. Note the long tail.

They always splash-down tail-first even though the feet are pushed forward to bring the bird to a halt.

The early rising mist.

Right at the top of a street lamp pole, perhaps getting some warmth even from the LED lamps, was a member of the November Moth aggregate. Epirrita dilutata agg.

Planes of the day and nowhere near as dangerous as it looks. The lower one is a Boeing 737-800 Series of Jet2. The upper an Airbus A320 of eazyJet.

Not much lateral separation.

Apologies for the blurred photo - it freezing out there. The FlightRadar24 data shows the Jet2 flight is taking passengers from Newcastle to sunny (they hope) Palma. Note it is flying at 37,000 feet. The call-sign 'EXS' originates from way-back in 2002 when Jet2 when what was Channel Express changed its name to Jet2.

A slightly less blurred photo with FlightRadar24 showing the easyJet Airbus is taking its passengers from Edinburgh to Zurich - too early for skiing? Note it is flying at (more or less) 39,000 feet illustrating the standard 2,000 feet separation for aircraft flying the same direction (South in this instance). Aircraft flying in the opposite direction fly at even thousands of feet so there is always a 1,000 separation. In practice the air-lanes would normally be slightly off-set so the separation would be lateral as well. One day I'll explain why EZY58LZ is the same as U23291 - it would take too long here.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Flies:
- *1 cranefly Tipula lateralis
- *3 plumed midges
everything else hiding

Not my best-ever photo of the cranefly Tipula lateralis, included here as it illustrates well the halteres, the pin-shaped bodies that are the reduced hind wings on all true flies which act as gyroscopes. These are far more noticeable on craneflies than most species of fly. This male can be assigned to species by the combination of a pale line down his abdomen and a pale mark just about visible in his wing.

With 'simple' antennae this is a female plumed midge. It could be one of several species.

Here is a male with his plumed antennae, primed to sniff out the pheromones given off by the female. His abdomen is longer and more slender than the female above. He might, or might not, be the same species.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:30 – 10:35

(217th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- slightly fewer Tufted Duck today.
- another big number of Moorhens. Many of then juveniles now out and about and becoming bold.
- this date last year I logged 41 Coots. I have no idea why there are so many this year and have been for weeks: many more that bred around here.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 55 Jackdaw: a quartet and a groups of 51
- 1 Skylark

Warblers noted
None

Noted on / around the water:
- 5 Canada Geese
- *8 Greylag Geese: two of these arrived together
- 6 + 3 (1 brood) Mute Swans: one cygnet not located
- 27 (19♂) Mallard
- 108 (?♂) Tufted Duck
- 1 (0♂) Goosander
- *25 Moorhens
- 151 Coots
- 5 Great Crested Grebes
- 3 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Cormorant

Noted around The Flash:

Bees, wasps etc.:
- *1 Buff-tailed Bumblebee Bombus terrestris
- *3 Common Wasps Paravespula vulgaris

Bugs:
- *>30 Nettle Groundbugs Heterogaster urticae
- 1 Common Green Shieldbug Palomena prasina: instar

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

Fungus:
- Dark Honey Fungus Armillaria ostoyae

The Greylag Goose has just called loudly with its breath visible in the chilly conditions.

Two Mute Swans splash down. These are not the residents: they lack the Darvic leg ring and also have paler bills suggesting they are not yet of breeding age (five to seven years).

Some of the immature Moorhens are becoming bold. This was one of three on the path alongside Derwent Drive and seemed unconcerned about my presence.

A Buff-tailed Bumblebee Bombus terrestris investigating the first just-opening flowers of the Ivy.

And a Common Wasp Paravespula vulgaris has the same idea.

Perhaps a better photo of the fly with grey stripes on the thorax and an orange abdomen that I believes to be Phaonia subventa.

Well it is one way to keep warm. What is the collective noun for Nettle Groundbugs Heterogaster urticae? A heap? Of course it could be an orgy.

A male harvestman Leiobunum blackwalli. This can be separated from the similar L. rotundum by looking at the two eyes on the top front of the abdomen. This one shows a white surround: on L. rotundum they are black. You do need to get close!

(Ed Wilson)

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Sightings from previous years

2011
Priorslee Lake
14 Redwing
(Ed Wilson)

2010
Priorslee Lake
Common Gull, though it could have been Mew/Ring-billed Gull!
Yellow Legged Gull
(Mike Cooper/Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
2 Ruddy Ducks
42 Redwing
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
4 Wigeon
1 Shoveler
8 Pochard
64 Tufted Ducks
30 Robins
(Ed Wilson)