30 Apr 25

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

9.0°C > 17.0°C: Fine, again with some high cloud. Less hazy. Very light, mainly easterly breeze. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 05:40 BST

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

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:10 – 06:10 // 07:15 – 09:40

(108th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- the pair of Greylag Geese still with five goslings.
- a visiting pair of Mute Swans included the erstwhile resident pen with blue Darvic ring 7JSS. Today she was with another (near?) adult: her previous visits have been with a first year bird. The now resident pen spent almost all the time at the nest site.
- the duck Pochard still present.
- a change with the warblers. The Willow Warbler gone; all Sedge Warblers moved on; the Lesser Whitethroat not heard and may either have gone or now be paired and busy with nesting duties.
- just on singing Common Whitethroat noted.
- the clearer visibility enabled many more Jackdaws to be logged on their roost dispersal to the East.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 4 Canada Goose: two pairs outbound
- 1 Stock Dove
- 15 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Herring Gull
- 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 10 distant unidentified large gulls together
- 109 Jackdaws
- 18 Rooks

Counts from the lake area:
- 8 Canada Geese
- *2 + 5 (1 brood) Greylag Geese
- *4 Mute Swans: a pair(?) visited and were chased away
- 6 (5♂) Mallard
- 1 (0♂) Pochard
- 6 Moorhens again
- 35 + 9 (3 broods) Coots
- 8 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, adult on football field again until c.06:10
- 1 Cormorant: arrived

Hirundines etc. noted:

None

Warblers recorded (the figure in brackets is birds noted singing):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- no Willow Warblers
- 20 (17) Chiffchaffs
- no Sedge Warblers
- 11 (10) Reed Warblers
- 23 (18) Blackcaps
- 1 (1) Garden Warbler
- no Lesser Whitethroats
- 1 (1) Common Whitethroat

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

Moths:
*1 Common Plume Emmelina monodactyla

Flies:
*$ 1 male St Mark's Fly or Hawthorn Fly Bibio marci
1 "chimney sweep" midge

Plant Bug:
*$ 1 male Harpocera thoracica

Spiders:
*$ 1 House Spider Eratigena duellica

Noted later:
NB: I concentrated on trying to find Ramson Hoverfly Portevinia maculata that associates with Ramsons (wild Garlic). I didn't! What I did note below was mainly "in passing".

Butterflies:
Orange-tip Anthocharis cardamines: males only
$ Small White Pieris rapae
*Speckled Wood Pararge aegeria

Moths:
*$ Green Long-horn Adela reaumurella

Bees, wasps etc.:
*Orange-tailed Mining Bee Andrena haemorrhoa aka Early Mining Bee
*$ Early Bumblebee Bombus pratorum
Buff-tailed Bumblebee Bombus terrestris
For some reason the vegetation that had been alive with Nomad Bees yesterday was devoid of them today

Hoverflies:
*Tapered Dronefly Eristalis pertinax
Migrant Field Syrph Eupeodes corollae [Migrant Hoverfly; Migrant Aphideater]
*Tiger Hoverfly Helophilus pendulus
Chequered Hoverfly Melanostoma scalare [Long-winged Duskyface]
Common Pipiza Pipiza noctiluca [Common Pithead]
*Syrphus sp. S. ribesii / S. vitripennis

Alder Flies:
Alder Fly Sialis lutaria

Other flies
St Mark's Fly or Hawthorn Fly Bibio marci
Dark-edged Bee-fly Bombilius major
many unidentified flies

Dragon-/Damsel-flies:
*Large Red Damselfly Pyrrhosoma nymphula
unidentified "blue". My earliest record of any of this group sadly got away.

Beetles:
Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni

Generally a clearer sky this morning.

Just about sunrise. Plenty of evidence of the aircraft arriving from the States to mainland Europe in the dead vapour trails.

Looks as if one of the adult Greylag Geese is having to quell an argument amongst the off-spring. Note the tiny stubby-wings one of them shows.

The visiting Mute Swans about to depart. The erstwhile resident pen is the closer bird. From the swelling at the base of the bill on her companion that is certainly a cob. It is not often you see the difference so starkly.

Takes a lot of effort to get airborne.

Here is the evidence – blue 7JSS.

A Speckled Wood butterfly Pararge aegeria.

A definite surprise. This Green Long-horn moth Adela reaumurella flew in while I was trying to photo something else and as soon as I took this shot it flew out again. Note the black and white antennae. Not a moth species I see every year: 2022 was my last sighting.

On a street lamp pole pre-dawn was my third Common Plume moth Emmelina monodactyla this year.

An Orange-tailed Mining Bee Andrena haemorrhoa

An Early Bumblebee Bombus pratorum.

It looks like a male Tapered Dronefly Eristalis pertinax and indeed it is. I did not recall seeing the white band across the abdomen. These are hairs between the segments of the abdomen (tergites) and looking at Steven Falk's Flickr photos this is not at all unusual.

A Tiger Hoverfly Helophilus pendulus. I wonder what the flower was and why I didn't log it?

One of those puzzling Syrphus sp. either Common Banded Hoverfly S. ribesii or Glass-winged Syrphus S. vitripennis.

A very hairy fly this is a male St Mark's Fly or Hawthorn Fly Bibio marci. This species is so-named because it appears as if by magic every year on St Mark's Day, April 25th just when Hawthorn is starting to flower. It is easy to recognise as small groups fly around with legs hanging down. It is less-often seen perched. The female is very different-looking with a tiny head and black wings.

My second Large Red Damselfly Pyrrhosoma nymphula of the year.

This is plant bug, a male Harpocera thoracica: there seems to be no vernacular name.

A House Spider Eratigena duellica that has been in the wars and lost a leg.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Moths:
*1 Water Carpet Lampropteryx suffumata

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

On the ceiling here I found this Water Carpet moth Lampropteryx suffumata

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:15 – 07:10

(105th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- this sets a precedent: it is an even-numbered date there were an even number of Great Crested Grebes. That has not happened for a while.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 1 Jackdaw

Noted on / around the water:
- 14 Canada Geese
- 2 Greylag Geese
- 1 Mute Swan: the other resident presumed to be on the island.
- 19 (16♂) Mallard
- 11 (7♂) Tufted Duck
- 1 Moorhens only: all busy at nest sites?
- 24 Coots
- 2 Great Crested Grebes

Hirundines etc. noted:

None

Warblers recorded (the figure in brackets is birds noted singing):
- 5 (5) Chiffchaffs
- 5 (5) Blackcaps

On a street lamp pole

Moths:
*1 Swallow Prominent Pheosia tremula

Elsewhere

New flower for the year
*Ivy-leaved Toadflax Cymbalaria muralis

This Swallow Prominent moth Pheosia tremula was on the next-door street lamp pole to the only I saw three days ago.

Not new but a mass of blossom. Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna flowers.

I am not 100% about this small plant and its tiny flowers. I think Ivy-leaved Toadflax Cymbalaria muralis.

(Ed Wilson)

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Between the Balancing Lake and The Flash:

Of interest

*the Moorhens on the lower pool have young
a Reed Warbler was singing quietly alongside the lower pool. My first here (I have noted Sedge Warblers in transit occasionally in the past).

A Moorhen chick, my first of the year. Strange that goslings are cuter than their adult goose parents: this does not apply to Moorhens!

(Ed Wilson)

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2013
Priorslee Lake
1 Common Sandpiper
2 Raven
2 Reed Warbler
(John Isherwood)

Nedge Hill
1 Whinchat
1 Yellow Wagtail
1 White Wagtail
2 Common Redstart
40 Wheatear
(John Isherwood)

Long Lane, Wellington
3 Whimbrel
(JW Reeves)

2012
Priorslee Lake
1 Lesser Whitethroat
1 Reed Warbler
(John Isherwood)

Nedge Hill
1 Common Redstart
15 Wheatear
1 Lesser Whitethroat
2 Raven
(John Isherwood)

The Wrekin
2 Pied Flycatchers
Common Redstart
(Observer Unknown)

2009
Priorslee Lake
Hobby
2 Red-legged Partridge
Lesser Whitethroat
Cormorant
5 Lapwings
6 Reed Warblers
3 Whitethroats
8 Blackcaps
5 Chiffchaffs
4 Linnet
(Ed Wilson)

2008
Priorslee Lake
17 Mute Swans
(Martin Adlam)

2007
Priorslee Lake
1 Swift
c.20 Sand Martins
1 Swallow
6 House Sparrows
2 Sparrowhawk
Buzzard
Kestrel
2 Stock Dove
2 Grey Wagtails
1 Sedge Warbler
4 Reed Warblers
Chiffchaff
126 Jackdaw
(Ed Wilson)

Nedge Hill
2 Buzzards
Swallow
Ring Ouzel
2 Common Whitethroat
1 Chiffchaff
2 Linnets
(Ed Wilson)

Priorslee Flash
3 Great Crested Grebes
Reed Bunting
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
5 Great Crested Grebes
2 Greylag Geese
6 Tufted Ducks
2 Common Sandpiper
1 Cuckoo
1 Skylark
c.10 Sand Martins
c.8 Swallows
c.20 House Martins
1 Meadow Pipit
2 Grey Wagtails
32 Wren
26 Blackbirds
2 Sedge Warblers
3 Reed Warblers
2 Lesser Whitethroats
2 Garden Warbler
10 Blackcaps
6 Chiffchaffs
1 Willow Warbler
1 Jay
11 Chaffinches
8 Greenfinches
3 Reed Buntings
(Ed Wilson)