16 Aug 26

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

11.0°C > 15.0°C: Mostly cloudy at several levels clearing from the north-west after 08:45 with sun after 09:00. Light north-westerly breeze fell away for a while. Very good visibility.

Sunrise: 05:51 BST

* = a species photographed today
! = a first sighting of the species this year
$ = a new species for me in this area

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 04:45– 06:30 // 07:35 – 09:25

(182nd visit of the year)

A very quiet morning with, in particular, many fewer large gulls.

Bird notes:
- no Tufted Duck: perhaps gone to The Flash?
- at least 160 Black-headed Gulls arrived with all of them settling on the water before any of them moved off East.
- a very slow early arrival of Lesser Black-backed Gulls included a trio of Herring Gulls.
- two juvenile Common Buzzards were making begging calls from the Ricoh copse c.06:15.
- two Swifts were briefly over the North wood at 05:50. A lone bird was there briefly c.06:05: a different individual?
- a party of four Barn Swallows flew through c.08:10, likely departing birds.
- House Martin(s) were heard high overhead or distantly (or both) at 06:00. Nothing seen.
- another bumper count of calling Chiffchaffs. No Reed Warblers heard today.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 14 Canada Geese: 11 flew East as two duos and a septet; a trio flew West later
- no Greylag Geese
- 28 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 35 Wood Pigeons
- 16 Jackdaws
- 29 Rooks

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 Mute Swans
- 36 (?♂) *Mallard
- no Tufted Duck
- 5 Moorhens
- 45 Coots
- ? Great Crested Grebes: I forgot to log them!
- c.160 Black-headed Gulls
- 3 Herring Gulls
- 34 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Grey Heron

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 2 (3?) Swifts: see notes
- 4 Barn Swallows
- ? House Martins: see notes

Warblers noted (no song):
- 16 Chiffchaffs
- no Reed Warblers
- 5 Blackcaps

Also noted:
Very few insects had woken up with the late appearance of the sun:

Butterflies:
- 1 Green-veined White Pieris napi

Moths:
none

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

Hoverflies:
- *Marmalade Hoverfly Episyrphus balteatus
- Tapered Dronefly Eristalis pertinax
- *Common Dronefly Eristalis tenax
just singles of each species

Damsel / Dragon-flies:
none

True flies:
- greenbottle Lucilia sp.
- $ *Tachinid fly Voria ruralis
a few other unidentified flies

Bugs:
none

Beetles:
none

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- ! *Furrow Orbweaver Larinioides cornutus [Furrow Spider]
- White Crab Spider Misumena vatia [Flower Spider]: same place as yesterday

Plants:
- $ probable *Trifid Bur-marigold Bidens tripartita

On the West end street lamp poles around dawn:

Moths:
- 11 *Common Grass-moth Agriphila tristella [was Common Grass-veneer]
a welcome sight: some variety would be nice but then a photo revealed...
- 1 !*Square-spot Rustic Xestia xanthographa (moth species #64 for me here this year)

Flies:
- 1 !*Tephritid or Fruit fly Anomoia purmunda
- 1 *Root-maggot fly

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- 1 *Bridge Orb-web Spider Larinioides sclopetarius [Bridge Orbweaver]
- 2 *harvestmen from the species pair Dicranopalpus ramosus / D. caudatus
- 1 *harvestman Paroligolophus agrestis

Pre-sunrise there was a delicate shade of salmon-pink to the sky.

Later there were shafts of sunlight during the actual sunrise. The white dots between the street lamps in the centre are all Black-headed Gulls.

Not good: rather the (immature?) Mallard than me swimming in the algae-infested water. I warned one of the dog-owners. Too late he said – his dog-walker had let his spaniel in the water last week and he had the large vet's bill to prove it.

It's off to Spec Savers for me (other opticians...). I photographed the Common Grass-moth Agriphila tristella on the right. Only when I was editing the photo did I notice part of another moth in the view. Luckily there is enough to identify it as my first Square-spot Rustic moth Xestia xanthographa of the year. A very common species I see most years.

The only bee I saw today was this Common Carder Bee Bombus pascuorum climbing out of a convolvulus flower.

A well-posed Marmalade Hoverfly Episyrphus balteatus giving an idea of scale perched on a grass stem.

The sun eventually came out and so too did this male Common Dronefly Eristalis tenax.

Another splendidly ugly and hairy fly. It is the Tachinid fly Voria ruralis. A species I have not identified previously.

Not a good photo with the camera flash reflecting off the shiny street lamp pole well before sunrise. The shape indicates a Tephritid or Fruit fly and the distinctive marking on the wing identifies it as Anomoia purmunda. I have only one previous record of this species in the area.

A better photo but no positive ID. One of many similar-looking Root-maggot flies.

I think this spider is a Furrow Orbweaver Larinioides cornutus. It has just caught a small fly and that was probably my fault for flushing the fly.

Another winner for the camera. I was photographing the spider – a Bridge Orb-web Spider Larinioides sclopetarius – and I now see another Common Grass-moth lurking.

A harvestman from the very distinctive but inseparable species pair Dicranopalpus ramosus / D. caudatus. They are characterised by very long legs usually held bunched at right angles to the body and with very long and forked pedipalps.

My first harvestman Paroligolophus agrestis of the, er, second-winter period. Identify by the noticeable thickening of the legs in the half nearer the body.

I have not noted this plant previously. Obsidentify is 100% sure it is Trifid Bur-marigold Bidens tripartita. NatureSpot cautions that there are other Bidens species (garden escapes?) that are very difficult to separate. I suspect the low water-level has either allowed this plant to flourish in the mud or provided me with easier access to its site.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Moths:
- 1 *Double-striped Pug Gymnoscelis rufifasciata
- 1 *Yellow Shell Camptogramma bilineata

Flies:
- 1 midge
- 1 female Banded Mosquito Culiseta annulata
- 2 cranefly Tipula sp.
- 13 moth fly Psychodidae sp. [Drain Fly or Owl Fly]

Arthropods:
- none

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- 2 Missing Sector Orb-web Spider Zygiella x-notata [Silver-sided Sector Spider]
- 1 harvestman Opilio canestrinii

The fifth Double-striped Pug moth Gymnoscelis rufifasciata I have found here over an eight-week period.

Another Yellow Shell moth Camptogramma bilineata on the ceiling in he tunnel.

Today's puzzle. Animal? vegetable? mineral?

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:35 – 07:30

(179th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- now 12 Mute Swans.
- five Tufted Duck were new arrivals. Perhaps from the Balancing Lake though there were only four there yesterday morning.
- photos confirmed three Great Crested Grebes: one still sitting; another full adult with the bird near the top end not fully adult.
- only one Cormorant perched in trees on the island; enough "beach" beside the island for three others to dry their wings.
- two Grey Herons with one chased away.
- the Little Egret still here.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:

None

Noted on / around the water:
- 5 Canada Geese
- 12 *Mute Swans
- 27 (?♂) Mallard again
- 5 (1♂?) Tufted Duck
- 5 Moorhens
- 34 Coot
- 3 *Great Crested Grebes
- 29 Black-headed Gulls
- 4 *Cormorants
- 1 *Grey Heron
- 1 *Little Egret

Hirundines etc. noted:
- 2 House Martins: should there not be family parties overhead by now?

Warblers noted (no song):
- 2 Chiffchaffs
- no Blackcaps

Noted around the area:

Moths:
- 4 Common Grass-moth Agriphila tristella [was Common Grass-veneer]

Bugs:
- 1 Red-legged Shieldbug Pentatoma rufipes: third day, trapped in a web

Billy-no-mates was at the other end of the water. Meanwhile the eleven other Mute Swans were having a get-together.

Identification photos: the Great Crested Grebe at the top end has no black-face stripes of a juvenile but is clearly different from...

...this adult near the island where a third bird is sitting on a nest.

Three Cormorants, all immatures, on the beach now the tide has gone out. They have not brought their bucket and spade to make sand-castles.

No wonder the bridge is collapsing with the Grey Heron perching on the hand-rail.

The Little Egret looking mean after I accidentally flushed it from a favourite fishing spot.

(Ed Wilson)