11 May 25

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

8.0°C > 15.0°C: More in the way of high cloud this morning. Still fine and clear. Light north-easterly breeze sprang up after a calm start. Very good visibility.


Sunrise: 05:20 BST

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

After tomorrow and now that the Spring passage is about over I am intending to take a few days break from plodding around the lake and The Flash. I will be back!

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:15 – 06:20 // 07:40 – 09:30

(119th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- the pair of Canada Geese still with a single gosling
- the pair of Greylag Geese still with four goslings.
- one or more Mute Swans visited. While inside a wooded area I heard the wing-beats as they flew away and the new resident pen had come off the nest to join the cob, both with wings arched. Whether it was one or two birds I could not say but – see the notes from there – a pair visited The Flash later.
- the pair of Gadwall present early.
- I again saw an unidentified duck hastening in to cover pursued by three (?) small ducklings. She is not 'our' Gadwall which was visible elsewhere at the same time.
- the duck Pochard in her usual place.
- a pair of Tufted Duck is a late date for birds here in Spring.
- *at least two Great Crested Grebe juveniles confirmed on the back of an adult.
- one Common Sandpiper noted at 08:45 but nor previously.
- a Sedge Warbler was singing along the South side. Could it have been here all along? Or is it a tardy new arrival?.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 2 Stock Doves: pair
- 23 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Herring Gull
- 6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Sparrowhawk
- 2 Jackdaws
- no Rooks
- 3 Starlings

Counts from the lake area:
- 8 + 1 (1 brood) Canada Geese
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Greylag Geese
- 3+ Mute Swans: see notes
- 2 (1♂) Gadwall: see notes
- 6 (5♂) Mallard
- 1 (0♂) + 3? (1 brood) unidentified duck
- 1 (0♂) Pochard as ever
- 2 (♂) Tufted Duck
- 2 Moorhens
- 31 + 5 (2 broods) Coots
- *7 + 2? (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Common Sandpiper
- 1 Herring Gull

Hirundines etc. noted:
None

Warblers recorded (the figure in brackets is birds noted singing):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- 15 (14) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (1) Sedge Warbler
- 12 (12) Reed Warblers
- 10 (9) Blackcaps again
- 2 (2) Garden Warblers again

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

Flies:
- 1 plumed midge sp.

Noted later:

Butterflies:
*Green-veined White Pieris napi

Moths
none

Bees, wasps etc.:
Common Wasp Paravespula vulgaris

Hoverflies:
Cheilosia albitarsus agg. either C. ranunculi [Early Buttercup Cheilosia] or C. albitarsis [Late Buttercup Cheilosia]
Parsley Blacklet Cheilosia pagana
Spring Epistrophe Epistrophe eligans [Spring Smoothtail]
Tapered Dronefly Eristalis pertinax
Tiger Hoverfly Helophilus pendulus
Syrphus sp. S. ribesii / S. vitripennis

Alder Flies:
Alder Fly Sialis lutaria

Dragon-/Damsel-flies:
Azure Damselfly Coenagrion puella
*Common Blue Damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum [Common Bluet]
*$ Blue-tailed Damselfly Ischnura elegans

Other flies
*$ dagger fly Empis tessellata
*Scorpion Fly Panorpa communis (plus other not specifically identified)
*$ marsh fly Tetanocera ferruginea
*Common Crane-fly Tipula oleracea
yet more unidentified flies

Bugs:
Red-and-Black Froghopper Cercopis vulnerata

Beetles:
Alder Leaf Beetle Agelastica alni

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
*Long-jawed Orb-web Spider Tetragnatha sp.
*unidentified spider

New flowers for the year
None

A different view of the sunrise.

And again, looking "down sun" from the dam top.

There are two heads of juvenile Great Crested Grebes visible on the parent's back here. Maybe more tucked up?

Nothing species just a Pied Wagtail taking the sun.

A Green-veined White butterfly Pieris napi. The veins are never green though on the underwings of freshly-emerged specimens the black-veins are outlined in pale yellow. There is a species called Black-veined White that is larger, has no black other than the veins and does not occur in the UK!

A freshly-emerged male Common Blue Damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum yet to acquire the blue colouration. Some females stay this colour.

My first Blue-tailed Damselfly Ischnura elegans damselfly of this year. Other "blue" damselflies have a blue tail but only this species has that combined with an otherwise all-dark abdomen. Note also the pale mark in the wing toward the tip (the pterostigma) that is dark in other species.

A fearsome-looking fly. It is a dagger fly Empis tessellata, the largest of the dagger flies and the only one with orange at the base of the wings.

Slightly less intimidating from this angle.

The only scorpion fly I bothered to check was this well-positioned Panorpa communis.

Another fearsome looking fly.

It looks slight less fearsome from this angle. It is the marsh fly Tetanocera ferruginea.

And then there were four (legs on this Common Crane-fly Tipula oleracea).

My fault! I flushed the fly in to the spider's web and the spider rushed out. I think the spider is a Long-jawed Orb-web Spider Tetragnatha sp. and he may have bitten off more than he can chew as although it is hard to see it is a dagger fly Empis sp. he is tangling with. The fly managed to break free.

A tiny spider lurking in a buttercup. Identification is made harder because this is the underside of the spider. It remains unidentified.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Moths:
*1 Common Swift Korscheltellus lupulina

Flies
4 Psychodidae sp. [Drain Fly, Moth Fly or Owl Fly]
31(!) midges of various species.

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
*1 Garden Spider Araneus diadematus [Garden Cross Spider]
1 unidentified spider

A Common Swift moth Korscheltellus lupulina on a wall of the tunnel. I have found singles of this species in each of the last four year, usually in June and usually on the ceiling.

Also in the tunnel against the wall was this Garden Spider Araneus diadematus. It is just possible to see the cross mark at the front of the abdomen that gives rise to its alternative name of Garden Cross Spider. Because it was sitting on a web in front of the wall the flash from the camera created a confusing shadow.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:25 – 07:35

(116th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- *a visiting pair of Mute Swans. I never got a good-enough look at the pen to see whether she was ringed. The cob certainly wasn't.
- the brood of five Mallard ducklings appeared to be more than a week old.
- a Great Crested Grebe again.
- a Great Spotted Woodpecker seemed to be ferrying food to a site somewhere alongside squirrel alley.
- *two parties of Long-tailed Tits seen, both with recently-fledged juveniles

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

Noted on / around the water:
- 15 Canada Geese
- 1 Greylag Goose
- *3 Mute Swan: a visiting pair. The other resident presumed to be on the island.
- 24 (19♂) + 5 (1 brood) Mallard
- 1 (1♂) all-white feral Aylesbury Duck
- 2 (2♂) Tufted Duck
- 7 Moorhens
- 19 Coots
- *1 Great Crested Grebe
- 1 Herring Gull: immature

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 2 Swifts
- 1 Swallow

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

Noted around the area:

Moths
*1 Brimstone Moth Opisthograptis luteolata

Flies:
numerous different midges

Mites:
*a tiny (2mm) mite, possibly a Velvet Mite Eutrombidium rostratus.

I think he means business. The resident cob spies a visitor...

And gives chase...

..and again.

They appear. They disappear. They reappear. This Great Crested Grebe was today's reappearing birds.

There were two parties of Long-tailed Tits around the area, both containing recently fledged juveniles. Here is one. Note the very different facial pattern that will only be present for a few weeks.

Another view.

What a sweetie!

I am sure that adults do not have such a pronounced eye-lid.

A Brimstone Moth Opisthograptis luteolata and still not as "crisp" a photograph as I would like. My excuse this time is that it was towards the top of the tallest street lamp pole in the area.

The best I could do to show this tiny (2mm) mite, possibly a Velvet Mite Eutrombidium rostratus. Mites (and ticks) are in the same group of species as spiders in having eight legs.

Answers on a postcard...

(Ed Wilson)