9 Sep 25

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

8.0°C > 15.0°C: Clear start and calm. Patchy low cloud soon arrived. Cloud lifted somewhat with a few breaks as a light, and later a moderate, south-easterly breeze picked up. Mostly very good visibility.

Sunrise: 06:34 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: 05:20 – 09:20

(217th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- five visiting Mute Swans throughout. The resident cob visited these five grouped together but gave no chase, just raising his wings and then paddling away again.
- no obvious juvenile Great Crested Grebes seen and no juvenile begging calls heard. Only five birds noted.
- a Common Sandpiper noted c.06:45. Not thereafter
- c.15 Barn Swallows and c.10 House Martins were hunting insects along the South side.
- still a large count of Chiffchaffs, some singing away undeterred by the chilly start.
- no fly-over Pied Wagtails and none on the football field. A few Black-headed Gulls were on the football field c.06:50 so there must have been some food available.
- the low number of over-flying Jackdaws continues. Puzzling.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 4 Canada Geese: outbound together
- 31 Greylag Geese: inbound together
- 23 Wood Pigeons only
- 1 Herring Gull
- 21 Lesser Black-baked Gulls
- 1 Cormorant
- 8 Jackdaws
- 144 Rooks

Counts from the lake area:
- *7 Mute Swans
- 11 (♂?) Mallard
- 11 Moorhens
- *138 Coots
- 5 Great Crested Grebes
- 1 Common Sandpiper: departed?
- c.100 Black-headed Gulls
- 4 Herring Gulls
- 35 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 2 Cormorant: one arrived and departed; another arrived
- 1 Grey Heron: arrived 06:05

Hirundines etc. noted:
- *c.15 Barn Swallows
- c.10 House Martins

Warblers recorded (the figure in brackets is birds noted singing):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler
- 22 (6) Chiffchaffs
- 2 (0) Blackcaps

On the West end street lamp poles around-dawn:
Nothing noted
Cool with all the poles heavily dew-covered.

Noted elsewhere:

Butterflies:
- Speckled Wood Pararge aegeria

Moths:
- none

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

Flies:
- *Muscid fly Azelia nebulosa or similar
- Greenbottle Lucilia sp.

Mammals:
- 2 pipistrelle-type bats

The so-called Blood Moon does not look bloody here. About 36 hours after it was a full moon it looks almost round though the craters visible at the bottom of the view indicate it is already being slightly cross-lit.

Looking south-west from the dam with the moon reflected in the water. The bright area on the horizon is light pollution from the town which is reflecting a discharge, perhaps water vapour, perhaps not, from one of the factory units in Stafford Park.

 The sun attempting to rise through the mist and low cloud.

Three of the visiting Mute Swans feeding among one of the rafts of Coots on the plentiful supply of weed.

One of many Barn Swallows feeding low over the water. The angle of the sun was wrong and I could not get a better angle as the reeds are too tall.

The birds were diving down to pluck insects off the surface of the water.

A good trick if you can do it: fly the right way up and twist your neck through almost 180 degrees!

 "What big eyes your have".

The best of a mediocre bunch.

This seems to be the Muscid fly Azelia nebulosa or similar. There are seven species in the genus and, as so often, a microscope and the identification key is needed to determine the identity. A. nebulosa is the only one illustrated in NatureSpot which may be relevant.

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Moths: [45 species here before today; no addition]
none

Flies:
no moth flies Psychodidae sp. [Drain Fly or Owl Fly]
5 midges of various species only

Arthropods:
2 White-legged Snake Millipedes Tachypodoiulus niger

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
none

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Flash: 09:25 – 10:25

(211th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- as usual probably more geese inside the island.
- *the duck Mallard with her four well-grown ducklings still together.
- a duck Common Teal still present.
- a low count of Tufted Duck – just eight with only two of them apparently drakes.
- always difficult to be sure with the submarine Great Crested Grebes but apparently six adults and only three (now independent) juveniles.
- *one Cormorant present when I arrived: two separate duos flew in.

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

Noted on / around the water:
- 67 Canada Geese
- 8 Greylag Geese
- 8 Mute Swans
- *36 (?♂) + 4 (1 brood) Mallard
- 1 (0♂) Common Teal
- 8 (2?♂) Tufted Duck
- 13 Moorhens
- 70 Coots
- 6 + 3 (? broods) Great Crested Grebes: see notes
- 6 Black-headed Gulls
- *5 Cormorants: see notes
- 1 Grey Heron

Warblers recorded (the figure in brackets is birds noted singing):
- 2 (0) Chiffchaffs
- 1 (0) Blackcap

Noted around the area:

Moths:
- 1 Chevron Grass Moth Agriphila geniculea [previously Elbow-stripe Grass-veneer]
- *1 Light Emerald Campaea margaritaria

Bees, wasps, etc.:
- Honey Bee Apis mellifera
- *Common Carder Bee Bombus pascuorum
- Common Wasp Paravespula vulgaris

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- none

The Mallard family with mum right centre. Bottom right looks to be a boy with the pale bill while the lower left looks to be a girl with the brown side to her bill.

A typically unkempt-looking Cormorant about to splash down. Cormorants have loose feathering and as they land the airflow "stalls" over the wings lifting these loose feathers. I am not sure whether the Coot is merely watching or apprehensive.

A Light Emerald moth Campaea margaritaria too high up a street lamp pole for a decent photo. I noted one in the area back in mid-June. This is an individual from the second generation.

Undercarriage lowered as this Common Carder Bee Bombus pascuorum prepares to land on the flowers. I suppose that is its right antenna at a strange angle and catching the light. It does look strange.

(Ed Wilson)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2013
Priorslee Lake
3 Shovelers
(Ed Wilson)

2011
Priorslee Lake
Common Sandpiper
Possible Yellow-legged Gull
Wheatear
(Ed Wilson)

2010
Priorslee Lake
3 Teal
4 Swifts
1 Sedge Warbler
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
Kingfisher
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
Kingfisher
(Ed Wilson)