30 Sep 25

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

7.0°C > 12.0°C: Clear early with only a few patches of cloud and light mist over the water. More broken cloud later. Calm. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 07:10 BST

* = a species photographed today
$ = my first sighting of the species for this year
$$ = my first ever recorded sighting of the species in the area

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:35 – 09:10

(238th visit of the year)

Update
Yesterday I showed a photo of four flying ducks and noted "You will probably have to take my word for it that these are four Common Teal". You should not have taken my word for it and thankfully Tom Lowe didn't either. He has pointed out the long thin necks identifies them as $ Pintail. I am enormously grateful to Tom for putting me back on the straight and narrow yet again. As my school report use to say so often: "must try harder"! This brings my bird species total this year to 101 – so far.

Today's bird notes:
- eight Mallard (I hope!) flew off to the East around dawn. They may or may not have returned but are not included in the counts.
- back to four Great Crested Grebes. None of them is an immature.
- another large arrival of gulls commencing with at least 350 Lesser Black-backed Gull by 06:50 with up to 300 Black-headed Gulls by 07:00. There may have been more: a low-flying helicopter put them all to flight with many leaving. Among those settling back on the water could well have been new arrivals.
- when I went to check the football field I noted 45 Black-headed Gulls flying off: there was none on the grass.
- a small later arrival of large gulls after 08:00 produced the only Herring Gulls on the water.
- the Jackdaws and Rooks different again with three sizeable groups of Rooks and only a scatter of Jackdaws.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 32 Greylag Geese: inbound in three groups
- 49 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Herring Gull
- 21 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 43 Jackdaws only
- 176 Rooks
- 2 Pied Wagtails

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 Mute Swans
- 13 (5♂) Mallard
- 3 (0♂) Tufted Duck
- 7 Moorhens
- 39 Coots
- 4 Great Crested Grebes
- >300 Black-headed Gulls
- 4 Herring Gulls
- >350 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Grey Heron: seen briefly

Hirundines etc. noted:
None

Warblers recorded (the figure in brackets is birds noted singing):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- 5 (1) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (0) Blackcap

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

Moths:
- *1 Garden Rose Tortrix Acleris variegana: same as yesterday

Springtails:
- *1 springtail Pogonognathellus longicornis

Other flies:
- 1 Spotted-winged Drosophila Drosophila suzukii
- 1 fly Dryomyza anilis
- 1 winter cranefly Trichocera sp.

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- 1 Walnut Orb Weaver Nuctenea umbratica
- 1 harvestman Paroligolophus agrestis

Noted on the walls of the sailing club HQ pre-dawn:

Flies:
- 1 plumed midge Chironomus plumosus
- 1 cranefly Tipula confusa
- *1 unidentified fly

Slugs, snails etc.:
- 1 snail, not identified

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- 27 spiders: usual suspects

Noted later elsewhere:

Bees, wasps, etc.:
- European Hornet Vespa crabro: at least 10 around the nest site

Flies:
- 2 craneflies Tipula confusa
- *1 dead European Cranefly Tipula paludosa in a spider web

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

Fungus:
- *Shaggy Inkcap or Lawyer's Wig Coprinus comatus

Around dawn this was the view looking westward with cloud approaching. Mist hangs over the water. The disturbed area in the middle of the water is several hundred mainly Lesser Black-backed Gulls.

Here looking at the unspectacular sunrise. The disturbed area of water on the left is the few remaining Black-headed Gulls.

Well after sunrise with the cloud closer. The lake flat calm with all the gulls departed.

Confusing Mallard. Superficially they look like ducks but certainly the plain pale bills on the left two means they are drakes, likely from one of this year's broods. Both show long, plain primary feathers, also an indication of them being drakes.

An adult "king of the castle" Goldfinch.

Another chance to see....yesterday's Garden Rose Tortrix Acleris variegana was still in the same place but slightly less dew bespattered. The species part of the scientific name indicates it has a variety of forms. Most have the a significant part of the forewing white, wholly so in some instances.

The springtail Pogonognathellus longicornis. The dew is covering the banding normally obvious on the abdomen.

I found this fly on one wall of the Telford Sailing Club HQ. It looks a lot like a female Spotted-winged Drosophila Drosophila suzukii but is at least twice the size. Unidentified!

Neatly wrapped up is a dead European Cranefly Tipula paludosa in a spider web. It was a female – note the ovipositor.

A classic harvestman Paroligolophus agrestis. A small species with a pale line down the abdomen and legs that change width half way along.

I intended to show the progressive decline in the Shaggy Inkcap Coprinus comatus I photographed on Sunday and Monday. I could not locate its collapsed remains this morning. Here is a new one, split open (not by me!) to show the innards.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Flies:
- 1 moth fly Psychodidae sp. [Drain Fly or Owl Fly]
- 1 winter cranefly Trichocera sp.
- 80 midges of various species

Arthropods:
- 14 White-legged Snake Millipedes Tachypodoiulus niger

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- 5 spiders: usual suspects

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:15 – 10:20

(229th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- only eight Mute Swans noted.
- *a duck Common Teal (honest!) lurking by the island.
- ten Cormorants counted.

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

Noted on / around the water:
- 5 Canada Geese
- 4 Greylag Geese
- *8 Mute Swans
- 33 (10♂) Mallard
- *1 (0♂) Common Teal
- 23 (5?♂) Tufted Duck
- 10 Moorhens
- 91 Coots
- *7 Great Crested Grebes: not all aged
- 7 Black-headed Gulls
- 10 Cormorants
- no Grey Heron

Warblers recorded:
None

Noted around the area:

Bees, wasps, etc.:
- Common Carder Bee Bombus pascuorum
- Common Wasp Paravespula vulgaris: just one

Flies:
- moth fly Psychodidae sp. [Drain Fly or Owl Fly]

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- *1 female harvestman Leiobunum blackwalli

Little and large. In front of the Mute Swan is a duck Common Teal.

The juvenile Great Crested Grebes still show stripes on the head when close-to. Birds can be hard to age at a distance.

A view of a female harvestman Leiobunum blackwalli showing her unique dark saddle marking to good effect. Less obvious is the white around the oculum, present on both sexes.

(Ed Wilson)