Friends of Priorslee Lake Wildlife Site: 14 Oct 25

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

11.0°C > 12.0°C: Again low cloud with light drizzle early. Cloud somewhat higher than yesterday. Light and variable, mainly easterly wind. Good visibility.

Sunrise: 07:34 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

Today saw the first significant Autumn passage with Skylarks and Redwings over both the Balancing Lake and The Flash and Siskins at the former.

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:45 – 09:30

(250th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- a lone Lapwing flew West c.09:00 returning East a few moments later.
- a large number of Black-headed Gulls today with c.450 noted by 07:20 making a lot of noise and surrounding the Mute Swans that appeared to remain fast asleep. When I went to check the football field there were c.75 birds leaving as the robot lawn mowers got to work and the council van drove around emptying the litter bins.
- in contrast no more than 30 Lesser Black-backed Gulls arrived c.07:00. These soon departed. Around 08:30 at least 110 arrived.
- again one Song Thrush heard singing quietly.
- three days without any calling Chiffchaffs being heard. Perhaps they have gone / shut up for the Winter.

Very many birds were gathered around the Teece Drive gate area and I used Merlin to see whether it could alert me to anything my ears and brain were overlooking. I am not sure it helped. It told me it had heard Brambling: possible but I heard nothing. Next was Ring Ouzel which while not impossible was much more likely to have been a Blackbird. And then it alerted me to Redwing and while I had seen a flock pass over earlier I was unable to hear at the time. Yesterday I was supposed to have heard Hawfinch – which sounded like a Robin to me. Be wary!

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- *84? Greylag Geese: inbound together
- 3 Feral Pigeons
- 24 Wood Pigeons
- 1 Lapwing
- 3 Black-headed Gulls: very high South
- 1 Herring Gull
- 9 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 89 Jackdaws
- 141 Rooks
- 18 Skylarks: two groups
- 10 Starlings: together
- *49 Redwings: together
- 1 Pied Wagtail
- 12 Siskins: together

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 Mute Swans
- 23 (13♂) Mallard
- 10 (4♂) Tufted Duck
- 11 Moorhens
- 36 Coots
- *4 Great Crested Grebes
- c.450 Black-headed Gulls
- 13 Herring Gulls
- c.140 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Grey Heron

Warblers recorded (the figure in brackets is birds noted singing):
- 1 (1) Cetti's Warbler again
- no Chiffchaffs again

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

Moths:
- *1 Oak Longhorn Carcina quercana [was Long-horned Flat-body]
- *7 November Moth types Epirrita sp.

Springtails:
- 1 springtail Pogonognathellus longicornis-type

Flies:
- 3 winter craneflies Trichocera sp.
- *1 unidentified fly

Beetles:
- *1 unidentified ground beetle

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- *3 Bridge Orb-web Spiders Larinioides sclopetarius [Bridge Orbweaver]
- *1 Orb-web spider Metellina segmentata
- 2 Long-jawed Orb-web Spider Tetragnatha sp.
- 2 other unidentified spiders
- *1 male harvestman Leiobunum blackwalli
- 1 harvestmen Paroligolophus agrestis

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

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

Slugs, snails etc.
- 1 unidentified snail

Noted later elsewhere:

Bees, wasps, etc.:
- European Hornet Vespa crabro: the nest site still active

Fungi:
- *yesterday's Weeping Widow Lacrymaria lacrymabunda revisited
nothing else

All the returning Greylag Geese in one frame today. I make it 84. If you have nothing better to do... But are they returning? To where? The Flash – perhaps but from where? I am not seeing them going out. Belvide Reservoir, 10 miles to the East, recently reported a record total of over 800 Greylag Geese. Perhaps these birds come from there to go to the Shropshire farmland?

Two Great Crested Grebes looking significantly different. Is the bird on the left a first-winter bird?

I don't think so. I would expect a first-winter to still show remnants of the "humbug" facial stripes.

No question about this being an adult-winter bird.

I cannot suggest why they do look different.

Well: you can tell it is a Lapwing.

Not very edifying. Part of a my first flock of Redwings in the second-winter period.

An Oak Longhorn moth Carcina quercana. The Micromoth Field Guide has this species as single-brooded flying in July and August. I recorded one on 23 July this year. Looking at the West Midlands Moths web site then the last ten sightings (up to the end of 2024) were all in October so it looks as if this species is now double-brooded at least as far North as the Midlands.

One of seven November Moth types Epirrita sp. on various street lamp pole pre-dawn. It is not often that you see one this clearly marked. Normally....

...they look like this though not always with wings akimbo.

A small fly which I cannot begin to identify. An orange thorax and apparently black abdomen though it is difficult to be sure that it is not the wings that are black. Obsidentify did not help and Google Lens suggested a plant bug which it isn't.

Yes well! An unidentified ground beetle. Beetles have a nasty habit of just "letting go" and dropping to the ground when my torch beam hits them. This one was doing just that.

Yesterday I showed a ventral view of one of two Bridge Orb-web Spiders Larinioides sclopetarius. Here is the plan view of one of three of that species of spider I noted today.

Another Orb-web spider Metellina segmentata this one with a very different abdomen pattern to the one I photographed yesterday.

I managed one in-focus photo of this male harvestman Leiobunum blackwalli. It does appear the oculum is white-bordered. It is not white-enough. It is the camera flash that is reflecting off a black-bordered oculum.

Another view of yesterday's Weeping Widow fungus Lacrymaria lacrymabunda. No sign of weeping as yet.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Moths:
- none

Flies:
- *2 moth flies Psychodidae sp. [Drain Fly or Owl Fly]
- 1 winter cranefly Trichocera sp.
- *41 midges of various species
- *unidentified aphid sp.

Arthropods:
- no White-legged Snake Millipedes Tachypodoiulus niger
- 1 Common Rough Woodlouse Porcellio scaber

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- 7 spiders: usual suspects again

One of two moth flies Psychodidae sp. in the company of one of the "regular" midges.

Certainly not one of the regular midges with long antennae, well-defined banding on the abdomen and wings extending well beyond the body. Almost certainly an aphid. If it were green I would be tempted to suggest Common Sycamore Aphid Drepanosiphum platanoidis.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:35 – 10:45

(247th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- 14 Mute Swans today.
- 22 Goosander: two drakes again
- *four Great Crested Grebes seen
- just the one Redwing noted over
- a most unusually-large party of 34 Skylarks pursuing a duo that flew north-east a few moments earlier.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull
- 47 Jackdaws, very loosely together
- 2 Grey Wagtails

Noted on / around the water:
- 3 Canada Geese
- >67 Greylag Geese: more inside the island?
- 14 Mute Swans
- 31 (21♂) Mallard
- 3 (2?♂) Tufted Duck
- 22 (2♂) Goosander
- 15 Moorhens
- 98 Coots again
- *4 Great Crested Grebes
- 5 Black-headed Gulls
- 14 Cormorants
- 1 Grey Heron

Warblers recorded.

None

Noted around the area:

Moths:
- *1 November Moth type Epirrita sp.:

Bees, wasps, etc.:
- none

Flies:
- *1 barkfly, probably Elipsocus hyalinus
- 1 moth fly Psychodidae sp. [Drain Fly or Owl Fly]
- *1 greenbottle fly Lucilia sp.

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- 1 harvestmen Paroligolophus agrestis

Fungi:
- *same Conifer Mazegill Gloeophyllum sepiarium as yesterday

One Great Crested Grebe looking very coy. No doubt about these two both being adult-winter birds.

How do they do that? Cormorants look ungainly birds. Its all an act.

Just one November Moth type Epirrita sp. here and another unusually well-marked specimen.

A tiny insect. I believe it to be a barkfly and probably Elipsocus hyalinus though NatureSpot adds it is "one of several similar species and close examination is needed in order to identify it". There is no explanation as to what the examination entails.

I puzzled over this fly for a while. I am almost certain it is one of the greenbottles Lucilia sp. and it is the way the light is falling on the abdomen that makes it look like a bright pale area when in fact it is the same glossy green as the rest of the thorax and abdomen which are not reflecting the light.

The underside of what I thought yesterday was a probable Conifer Mazegill Gloeophyllum sepiarium. It does indeed have maze gills.

(Ed Wilson)

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2011
Priorslee Lake
14 Redwing
(Glenn Bishton)

2010
Priorslee Lake
1 Wigeon
2nd winter Common Gull
Redpoll
(Ed Wilson)

2009
Priorslee Lake
54 Mute Swans
3 Wigeon
6 Pochard
12 Tufted Ducks
15+ Lapwings
203 Coots
Meadow Pipit
3 Skylarks
1 Siskin
6 Redwing
Willow Tits
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
2 Cormorant
Water Rail
Lapwings
37 Robins
21 Blackbirds
1 Fieldfare
6 Song Thrushes
48 Redwings
Siskin
300 Starlings
(Ed Wilson)

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14 Oct 25