4 Dec 24

Priorslee Balancing Lake only

2.0°C > 4.0°C: Very misty. Light easterly wind. Poor / very poor visibility.

Sunrise: 08:04 GMT

* = a species photographed today.

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 06:05 – 09:05

(265th visit of the year)

It was clear when I left Newport. It was only low-level mist with the stars visible when I arrived here. The mist soon thickened and the sky became obscured.

Bird notes:
- I have only logged what I could see – which wasn't much.

Birds noted flying over:

None

Counts from the lake area:
- 8 Canada Geese
- 21 + 2 Mute Swans
- 2 (1♂) Gadwall
- 5 (4♂) Mallard
- 2 (0♂) Tufted Duck
- >3 Moorhens
- ? Coots
- >1 Great Crested Grebes
- ? Black-headed Gulls
- ? Herring Gulls
- ? Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Kingfisher

Noted on the street lamps poles pre-dawn:
Dew covered.

Moths:
- *1 Winter Moth Operophtera brumata
- *1 Mottled Umber Erranis defoliaria

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- *1 harvestman Paroligolophus agrestis

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

Moths:
- *1 Winter Moth Operophtera brumata

Nothing else seen

One of two Winter Moths Operophtera brumata this morning. This dew-covered example was on one of the street lamp poles, and one of the two that has recently been repaired.

This is what they look like when not covered in dew. It was the only pre-dawn inhabitant of the walls of the Telford Sailing Club HQ. Both these are male moths – the females of this species cannot fly, having only vestigial wings.

This example of Mottled Umber Erranis defoliaria is neither 'mottled' nor 'umber'. The shape of the outer cross-band is diagnostic. Again a male with females of this species being flightless. It also was on the mole of a recently repaired street lamp – at the top of the tallest pole

A harvestman Paroligolophus agrestis. Like most species of harvestman the second and fourth pairs of legs are longer than the other legs.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash
No visit made to The Flash: too misty

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel
As there was nothing to be seen of the lake I decided to walk to & from here

Flies etc.:
- *6 midges of at least two species

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- *1 Daddy-long-legs Spider Pholcus phalangioides, also known as Long-bodied Cellar Spider
- *1 possible Missing Sector Orb-web Spider Zygiella x-notata [Silver-sided Sector Spider]

Noted elsewhere:
What was most likely a Water Vole Arvicola terrestris [a species also known as Water Rat after "Ratty" in Kenneth Grahame's "Wind in the Willows"] paused and then ran past me well before the sun didn't rise.

The mist was obscuring the lake so I decided to visit the Priorslee Avenue tunnel. This gnat / midge (there is no scientific distinction between these species) is perhaps a male because...

...this one, which looks to be the same species, has shorter wings (or longer abdomen), so may be a female. Shorter wings in the female are a trait of some fly species.

With plumed antennae this is a male but it is a different species, about half the length of the previous examples.

And another gnat. Are these antennae plumed? If so the design is somewhat different.

This is a Daddy-long-legs Spider Pholcus phalangioides, also known as Long-bodied Cellar Spider. Not in a cellar but on a wall on Priorslee Avenue tunnel.

This might be a Missing Sector Orb-web Spider Zygiella x-notata. Google Lens thinks it is but there are no photos that show such extensive pale marks down the centre of the abdomen. Obsidentify had several suggestions, none of which fit any better.

(Ed Wilson)

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2012
Priorslee Lake
3 Gadwall
9 Pochard
20 Tufted Ducks
1 (1) Goosander
155 Coots
28 Herring Gulls
1 Great Black-backed Gull
14 Redwings
2 Fieldfares
c.368 Jackdaws
97 Rooks
(Ed Wilson)

2009
Priorslee Lake
3 Cormorant
33 Mute Swans
Water Rail
13 Pochard
85 Tufted Ducks
274 Coots
1000 Black-headed Gulls
2000 Lesser Black-backs
3 Yellow-legged Gulls
1 Great Black-backed
5 Redwings
2 Willow Tit
c.325 Jackdaws
20 Siskins
4 Reed Buntings
(Ed Wilson/John Isherwood )

2006
Priorslee Lake
3 Cormorants
15 Pochard
45 Tufted Ducks
1 eclipse drake Ruddy Duck
2 Sparrowhawks
2 Buzzards
1 Kestrel
>700 Black-headed Gulls
324 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
8 Herring Gulls
1 Great Black-backed Gull
649 Wood Pigeons
25 Robins
22 Blackbirds
16 Fieldfares
4 Song Thrushes
6 Redwings
322 Jackdaws
224 Rooks
2 Siskins
5 Reed Buntings
(Ed Wilson)

2005
Priorslee Lake
140 Golden Plover
8 Cormorants
900 Black-headed Gulls
c.250 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
13 Pochard
43 Tufted Duck
2 Little Grebes
225 Coot
371 Jackdaws
313 Rooks
6 Redwings
32 Fieldfares.
8 Reed Buntings
19 Robins
30 Blackbirds
16 Greenfinches
(Ed Wilson)