29 Apr 25

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

9.0°C > 18.0°C: Fine with some high cloud. Hazy again. Very light mainly easterly breeze. Good visibility.

Sunrise: 05:42 BST

* = a species photographed today.
$ = my first sighting of the species for this year

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:10 – 06:15 // 07:20 – 09:45

(107th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- *the pair of Greylag Geese still with five goslings.
- the duck Pochard still present.
- a Common Sandpiper was seen on the dam-face at 08:30 but not previously.
- *the singing Willow Warbler still present.
- just one singing Sedge Warbler now.
- the Lesser Whitethroat was not heard until c.09:30.
- two singing Common Whitethroats noted.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 8 Canada Goose: single flew South; single did not know where it was going; a pair and a quartet inbound.
- 1 Stock Dove
- 14 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 11 Jackdaws
- 16 Rooks

Counts from the lake area:
- 8 Canada Geese
- *3 + 5 (1 brood) Greylag Geese: of these a single arrived
- 2 Mute Swans: no visit to the nest site noted.
- 4 (4♂) Mallard
- 1 (0♂) Pochard
- 6 Moorhens
- 32 + 13 (4 broods) Coots
- 6 Great Crested Grebes
- *1 Common Sandpiper: as noted
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, adult on football field c.06:10

Hirundines etc. noted:

None

Warblers recorded (the figure in brackets is birds noted singing):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- *1 (1) Willow Warbler
- 18 (15) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Sedge Warbler
- 10 (10) Reed Warblers
- 17 (16) Blackcaps
- 1 (1) Garden Warbler
- 1 (1) Lesser Whitethroat
- 2 (2) Common Whitethroats

Noted on the West end street lamp poles pre-dawn:

Moths:
none

Bees, wasps, etc.:
*3 ichneumon sp. perhaps Ophion obscuratus

Spiders:
1 Long-jawed Orb-web Spiders Tetragnatha sp.

Also noted later:

Butterflies:
*Orange-tip Anthocharis cardamines: males and female
*$ Green-veined White Pieris napi
*Speckled Wood Pararge aegeria

Bees, wasps etc.:
Common Carder Bee Bombus pascuorum
Buff-tailed Bumblebee Bombus terrestris
unidentified Nomad Bee sp.
*$ sawfly Aglaostigma aucupariae
*ichneumon, perhaps from the genus Lissonata.

Hoverflies:
*$ possible Figwort Blacklet Cheilosia variabilis
Tapered Dronefly Eristalis pertinax
*$ Short Melanostoma Melanostoma mellinum [Variable Duskyface]
Chequered Hoverfly Melanostoma scalare [Long-winged Duskyface]
*$ Common Pipiza Pipiza noctiluca [Common Pithead]
Grey-spotted Boxer Platycheirus albimanus [Grey-spotted Sedgesitter or White-footed Hoverfly]

Alder Flies:
Alder Fly Sialis lutaria

Other flies
Dark-edged Bee-fly Bombilius major
many unidentified flies

Dragon-/Damsel-flies:
none

Bugs:
*$ Dock Bug Coreus marginatus

Beetles:
Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni

Spiders:
*$ Zebra Spider Salticus scenicus
unidentified money spider

Sunrise view.

With the sun about to come above the horizon but obscured by haze.

Say "ah!". A cuddly Greylag Goose gosling.

Say "ah! ah!". Two cuddly Greylag goslings. Note they have proportionately thick legs and big feet. They have to scamper around after their parents.

I took some of my best photos of a Common Sandpiper in breeding plumage this morning.

A sleepy Common Sandpiper. Perhaps it was a long flight to get here.

Awake again.

Looking alert this way...

...that way.

And now standing up straight!

Singing away is the recently-arrived Willow Warbler. Points that separate this species from Chiffchaff (other than the very different song) are the more defined eye-brow (supercilium); the shorter, stouter bill; and the more attenuated appearance given by the slightly longer wings.

The same female Blackbird (the white-tipped feather confirms) still collecting nesting material alongside Teece Drive. This seems late to be nest building suggesting a replacement nest. I am tempted to suggest the original might have been destroyed by the tree felling...

I thought for a minute "White Wagtail". There is too much grey along the flanks and anyway this female was working the dam-face with a male that was clearly a Pied Wagtail. As far as I know there are no confirmed instances of the two races interbreeding.

Mrs Bullfinch appears to have been eating too many buds a could do with going on a diet.

This may look like a "white" butterfly and in a sense it is but...

...the underwing pattern identifies it as a female Orange-tip Anthocharis cardamines. This species of part of the family which contains the "whites".

And a male for good measure.

A Green-veined White Pieris napi. The veins are never "green" but they had to call it something to separate it from the Black-veined White – a species that does not occur in our area.

The first cooperative Speckled Wood Pararge aegeria of the year.

On street lamp poles pre-dawn there were three ichneumons. This is the best example and likely Ophion obscuratus. It looks to have "bug eyes".

Different individual: same species?

Another ichneumon. Obsidentify did not provide any suggestion. Google Lens suggested one of the 340 species of Lissonata. None is illustrated in NatureSpot.

This is the sawfly Aglaostigma aucupariae. Sawflies are closely related to wasps and ichneumon. Note the yellow shoulders and the (partly obscured) orange band across the abdomen.

Obsidentify is 100% sure this hoverfly is a Figwort Blacklet Cheilosia variabilis. It would be a new species for me and I need to do some more work to be happy about its identity.

I think this hoverfly is Short Melanostoma Melanostoma mellinum. Although the folded wings are obscuring the abdomen pattern the abdomen seems to widen slightly and this is a diagnostic feature of this species.

This hoverfly with longer than usual antennae, a dark wing cloud and two faint marks on the front of the abdomen is a Common Pipiza Pipiza noctiluca. It is a female and only the female show the marks on the otherwise all-black body.

I am going to name this species of midge "Chimney-sweep midge".

A Dock Bug Coreus marginatus. Very easy to identify on shape and colour with no confusion species.

One of the few spiders I am confident to identify. It is a Zebra Spider Salticus scenicus here on the wall of the sailing club HQ.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Flies
2 Psychodidae sp. [Drain Fly, Moth Fly or Owl Fly]
3 midges of at least three species

Spiders:
*1 money spider sp.

One of the very many money spiders that I cannot begin to identify.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:20 – 07: 15

(104th visit of the year)

Bird notes
Highlight today was a party of about six House Martins that appeared overhead, circled the estate area to the East and departed. Resident birds appeared over Newport yesterday afternoon so the main arrival seems to be taking place. Bird species #67 for me here in 2025 - as it was in both 2023 and 2024 though on both those occasions it was in to May before I recorded any.

Other bird notes:
- despite often behaving as mostly paired the Tufted Duck seem to change number and composition every day.
- as it is an odd-numbered date there were an even number of Great Crested Grebes: two!
- my fourth Sedge Warbler of the year here was noted singing intermittently from somewhere at the bottom end – I never established exactly where.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 2 Jackdaws: singles again

Noted on / around the water:
- 18 Canada Geese
- 1 Greylag Goose
- 1 Mute Swan: the other resident presumed to be on the island.
- 16 (14♂) Mallard
- 14 (9♂) Tufted Duck
- 4 Moorhens again
- 23 + ? (1 brood) Coots: juveniles still being brooded and not visible
- 2 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Herring Gull: moulting immature briefly
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: adults, departed.

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 6? House Martins

Warblers recorded (the figure in brackets is birds noted singing):
- 6 (4) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Sedge Warbler
- 7 (5) Blackcaps

Noted elsewhere:
On various street lamp poles:

Moths:
none

Springtail:
*1 Tomocerus vulgaris

I found this springtail Tomocerus vulgaris on one of the street lamp poles. The two transverse bands are a good clue to its identity though these are composed of scales which tend to wear off.

(Ed Wilson)

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2014
Nedge Hill
2 Lesser Whitethroat
10 Wheatear
(John Isherwood)

2013
Priorslee Lake
2 Great Crested Grebes
1 Common Sandpiper
4 Reed Warblers
2 Common Whitethroat
18 Blackcaps
7 Chiffchaffs
5 Willow Warblers
(Ed Wilson)

The Flash
3 Greylag Goose
1 Richardson's / Cackling-type Canada Goose
1 Pochard
11 Tufted Duck
4 Blackcaps
3 Chiffchaffs
5 Willow Warblers
(Ed Wilson)

Nedge Hill
2 Red-legged Partridges
Swallows
7 Wheatear
2 Common Whitethroats
3 Blackcaps
1 Chiffchaffs
4 Bullfinches
(Ed Wilson)

2011
Priorslee Lake
3 Common Sandpipers
(Ed Wilson, John Isherwood)

Nedge Hill
2 Wheatear
(John Isherwood)

2010
The Wrekin
1 Wood Warbler
4 Common Redstart
1 Pied Flycatcher
(Paul Rutter)

2009
Priorslee Lake
Common Sandpiper
1 Sand Martin
2 Swallows
6 Reed Warblers
Common Whitethroat
3 Blackcap
4 Chiffchaff
3 Reed Buntings
3 Linnets
1 Yellowhammer
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
4 Great Crested Grebe
6 Tufted Duck
2 Ruddy Duck
3 Swifts
2 Sand Martins
4 Swallows
4 Cormorants
1 Kestrel
1 Sparrowhawk
3 Common Sandpipers
2 Grey Wagtail
6 Blackcap
1 Garden Warbler
2 Sedge Warbler
2 Reed Warblers
5 Chiffchaff
3 Greenfinch
2 Reed Bunting
(Ed Wilson, Martin Adlam)

Nedge Hill
1 Ring Ouzel
Common Whitethroat
2 Swallows
(Martin Adlam)

Priorslee Flash
2 Greylag Geese
1 Grey Wagtail here
2 Chiffchaffs
1 Reed Bunting
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
3 Great Crested Grebes
2 Ruddy Ducks
1 Common Buzzard
1 Kestrel
1 Swallows
1 Grey Wagtail
4 Sedge Warbler
2 Reed Warblers
4 Blackcaps
2 Garden Warbler
5 Chiffchaffs
3 Willow Warblers
2 Lesser Whitethroat
4 Greenfinches
2 Reed Buntings
(Martin Adlam)