Priorslee Balancing Lake: 06:00 – 09:15
The Flash: 09:20 – 10:358.0°C: No real change. The early light drizzle went on longer, the cloud seemed even lower and the visibility poor throughout. Light easterly wind.
Sunrise: 07:21 GMT
* = a photo to be uploaded later: watch the blog for information.
Priorslee Balancing Lake:
(241th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- all 25 adults and 3 first years present early with two adults and the most recently arrived first year flying off East at 07:20.
Birds noted flying over: in very misty conditions
- 9 Wood Pigeons
- 4 Herring Gulls
- 9 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Cormorant
- 183 Jackdaws
- 15 Rooks
- 20 Fieldfare: two groups
- 13 Redwings: two groups
- 1 Pied Wagtail
Birds noted leaving roosts around the lake:
- c.330 Starlings: most simultaneously left both ends of the lake in six groups with four stragglers.
Counts from the lake area:
- 39 Canada Geese: departed in two main groups
- 25 + 3 Mute Swans: see notes
- 9 (7♂) Mallard
- 2 (1♂) Tufted Duck
- 4 Moorhens
- 208 Coots: still too dull for an accurate total
- 3 Great Crested Grebes
- c.500 Black-headed Gulls
- *14 Herring Gulls
- *1 Caspian Gull: first winter
- *28 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- *2 Grey Herons: the second stayed longer this morning until chased away
- 1 Cormorant: see arriving or leaving – I could not decide. Not seen before or afterwards.
Noted on the street lamps poles pre-dawn:
Moths:
- 1 Feathered Thorn Colotois pennaria: for its third day
Lacewings:
- *1 Common Green Lacewing Chrysoperia carnea
Flies:
- *1 caddisfly, almost certainly Chaetopteryx villosa
- 1 female Spotted-winged Drosophila Drosophila suzukii
- 2 plumed midges
- 2 wood gnats, perhaps Sylvicola fenestralis
- 9 unidentified craneflies, probably Tipula sp.
- 2 winter craneflies Trichocera regelationis
Barkflies:
- 1 barkfly Ectopsocus briggsi agg.
Springtails:
- *6 globular springtails of several species probably including Dicyrtomina saundersi
- 1 springtail Pogonognathellus longicornis
- 1 springtail Tomocerus vulgaris
Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- *1 Long-jawed Orb-web Spider Tetragnatha sp.
- 1 harvestman Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus
- 1 male harvestman Leiobunum rotundum
Around the outside of the Telford Sailing Club HQ pre-dawn:
Barkflies:
- *1 barkfly Ectopsocus briggsi agg.
- 16 Valenzuela flavidus
Beetles:
- 1 Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni
Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
13 spiders of several species, not determined
Noted later:
Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- *3 harvestmen Dicranopalpus ramosus/caudatus
In the Priorslee Avenue Tunnel pre dawn:
not visited this morning
The Flash:
(244th visit of the year)
Bird notes:
- *the all-white drake Mallard-based feral bird has reappeared. I last logged him on 08 April. Where has he been?
- at least 35 Goldfinches were flying around tree-tops on the island.
Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- *2 white feral-type Greylag Geese
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- *1 Sparrowhawk
- 10 Fieldfare: together
Noted on / around the water:
- 5 Canada Geese
- 6 + 2 (1 brood) Mute Swans
- *37 (26♂) Mallard
- 1 (?♂♀) 'feral-type' Mallard
- *1 (♂) feral all-white Mallard ['Aylesbury Duck']
- 15 (8♂) Tufted Duck
- 18 Moorhens
- 139 Coots
- 1 Little Grebe
- 1 Great Crested Grebe
- 12 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Herring Gull: adult
- 1 Grey Heron
Noted around The Flash:
Moths:
- *1 possible Bittersweet Moth Scrobipalpa costella: if confirmed it will be a new moth for me.
*1 Winter Moth Operophtera brumata
Bees, wasps etc.:
- 1 Common Wasp Paravespula vulgaris
still around despite the colder temperature
Springtails:
- *3 species of globular springtail sp.
Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- 1 male harvestmen Leiobunum blackwalli
(Ed Wilson)