14 Sep 26

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

14.0°C > 19.0°C: A clear start with mist over the lake, this turning in to extensive low cloud. Initially calm with a light south-westerly breeze developing. Good visibility.

Sunrise: 06:41 BST

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

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:15 – 09:00

(208th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- no geese again.
- still the single Mute Swan. It went for a short flight around the water.
- *a pair of Gadwall new in.
- four Tufted Duck also arrivals since my visit yesterday.
- hard to know how many Black-headed Gulls visited. Once they settled on the water many were "lost in the mist". There seemed to be groups flying out and back to the football field where I counted (sad but true) 173 at 06:45.
- the mist also played havoc with my count of Lesser Black-backed Gulls first thing. I think no more than c.30. A single immature visited later. A small number flew over. Once again I failed to note any Herring Gulls among them.
- no hirundines seen.
- 18 Chiffchaffs with six heard singing.
- as yesterday three Blackcaps with one singing quietly. Today they were in three separate location where as yesterday they were all together.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 31 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 13 Wood Pigeons only
- 224 Jackdaws
- 144 Rooks

Counts from the lake area:
- 1 *Mute Swan
- 2 (1) *Gadwall
- 24 (>8♂) *Mallard
- 4 (2♂?) *Tufted Duck
- 4 Moorhens
- 43 *Coot
- 18 *Great Crested Grebes
- >175 Black-headed Gulls
- c.30 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Cormorant: arrived
- 2 Grey Heron

Hirundines etc. noted:

None

Warblers noted:
- 18 Chiffchaffs: of these six in song
- 3 Blackcaps: of these one in song

Also noted:
Almost nothing in the cloudy conditions:

Butterflies:
none

Moths:
none

Bees, wasps etc.:
- Common Wasp Vespula vulgaris

Hoverflies:
none

Other true flies:
- 1 *fly Dryomyza anilis
no other flies noted.

Bugs:
none

Beetles:
none

Slugs, snails etc.
- 1 *probable Large Red Slug Arion rufus

On the West end street lamp poles around dawn:

Moths:
none

Bees, wasps etc.:
- 2 Common Wasp Vespula vulgaris

True flies:
none

Springtails:
- 1 springtail Pogonognathellus longicornis-type

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- 1 *Stout Sac Spider Clubiona sp.
- 1 *unidentified spider
- 2 harvestman Paroligolophus agrestis
- 1 male harvestman Leiobunum blackwalli / rotundum [ran away before I could check the eye detail]

Mammals:
- 1 Noctule-type bat

The sunrise looked promising with mist over the water. The colour did not last long and those black clouds soon formed in to a low overcast.

NEVER look with you naked eye. The sun trying to break through the low cloud and showing three sun-spots.

Our now lone Mute Swan. Is it a cob or a pen? The books say you can tell by the size of the swelling at the base of the bill. That is easy when there is a pair. Tricky for a lone bird and outside the breeding season the swelling is smaller anyway. I could not see whether it is ringed: the pen that was here had a blue Darvic ring on her left leg.

While still gloomy and misty the drake Gadwall. Identify by the black rear-end and the white in the wing.

Better light but now further away! The pair here with the duck on the left with the orange side to her bill and the drake on the right.

This very pale drake Mallard has been around the area for a number of year. His all-pale bill is just about visible. In front of him is a preening immature / duck Tufted Duck.

 Here book-ending a Coot are two drake Tufted Duck.

One of the family of four juvenile Great Crested Grebe. Now growing fast but yet to lose the strange-looking pale bare skin between the bill and the eye.

It, or another from the brood, beside one of the parents as it flaps its wings showing that it is in wing-moult.

This fly Dryomyza anilis is very distinctive.

As soon as it rans out come the slugs. They are a nightmare to identify as Black Slug Arion ater can be reddish and Large Red Slug Arion rufus can be very pale which is what I think this probably is.

A Stout Sac Spider Clubiona sp. covered in dew. The abdomen shape identifies it to the genus.

A male spider that neither of my apps gave a suggestion that seems applicable. Obsidentify suggested "money spider"! Google Lens one of the six-eyed spider species - but none of those show the elongated abdomen of this spider. It is reminiscent of a Long-jawed Orb-web Spider Tetragnatha sp. but I have never seen one so brown-toned previously.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Moths:
- 1 *White-shouldered House Moth Endrosis sarcitrella

True flies:
- 12 midges
- 1 *unidentified cranefly
- 1 *unidentified fly!
- no moth fly Psychodidae sp. [Drain Fly or Owl Fly]

Arthropods:
- 1 Common Shiny Woodlouse Oniscus asellus
- 1 White-legged Snake Millipede Tachypodoiulus niger

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- 1 Stout Sac Spider Clubiona sp.
- 1 *crab spider Xysticus cristatus
- 12 Missing Sector Orb-web Spider Zygiella x-notata [Silver-sided Sector Spider]

A White-shouldered House Moth Endrosis sarcitrella. As is usual with both this species and the Brown House-moth Hofmannophila pseudospretella as soon as I shone my torch nearby it fluttered away at speed. Moth species #44 for me found in the tunnel this year.

Not at all sure about this. The antennae look long for most fly species; the middle legs have at least one spur and the hind legs look distinctly hairy. None of my apps suggested anything that matched these features.

An unidentified cranefly which is, unusually, holding its antennae out at right-angles.

This is probably the crab spider Xysticus cristatus. There are similar spiders of course.

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:05 – 10:10

(205th visit of the year)

Bird notes:
- six Mute Swans remain and unusually all together most of the time.
- yesterday's Tufted Duck gone again.
- 23 brownhead Goosander I think: tucked up against and on the island.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:

None

Noted on / around the water:
- 5 Canada Geese
- 6 Mute Swans
- 29 (17?♂) Mallard
- 23 (0♂) *Goosander
- 7 Moorhens again
- 19 *Coot
- 3 + 4 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebe
- 13 *Black-headed Gulls
- 2 Cormorants
- 2 Grey Herons

Warblers noted:
- 3 Chiffchaff: no song

Noted around the area:

Butterflies:
none

Moths:
- 1 ! *Small Blood-vein Scopula imitaria

Bees, wasps etc.:
- 6 Honey Bees Apis mellifera
- 1 Common Wasp Vespula vulgaris

True flies:
none

Bugs:
none

Beetles:
none

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- 1 harvestman Paroligolophus agrestis

Fungus:
- *two species of fungus, neither identified.

Two of the Goosanders present. Some field guides suggest that individuals that show white between the bill and the eye as well as on the throat are immatures (born this year).

I saw only six Goosanders on the open water. Later these had joined others on and around the island. Here there are 23 visible if you enlarge the photo and look carefully. There are also three Canada Geese, one Coot, four Black-headed Gulls and a clutch of three large eggs!

An unexpected find sitting in full sun on an Ivy leaf: it is a Small Blood-vein moth Scopula imitaria. Moth species #49 in the area of The Flash for me this year.

Another species of fungus that I see every year in the wooded area beside the water at the top end. Every year my apps give me a different suggestion. I will pass.

This is what I thought yesterday might be a Field Mushroom Agaricus campestris. It has grown since yesterday and the stem and underside are easier to access. The stem does not look to have a collar and the cap is now concave whereas it should be convex. So I will pass this one too.

Well now... what is this? I've looked at earthworms (unlikely on a leaf several feet off the ground and alongside a footpath) and leeches and drawn a blank. After long deliberation Google Lens' AI came up with a "discarded child's sweet" as the best option. I cannot provide a better suggestion.

(Ed Wilson)

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Priorslee Lake
Water Rail
Hobby
(Ed Wilson)

The Flash
Snipe
(Ed Wilson)

2010
Priorslee Lake
Sandwich Tern
(Ed Wilson)

2007
Priorslee Lake
Green Sandpiper
(Ed Wilson)