25 Sep 26

Priorslee Balancing Lake and The Flash

12.0°C > 14.0°C > 12.0°C: Early fog lifting to give a few bright intervals. Then after 09:20 drizzle, often heavy. Once again there were light winds early with a moderate north-westerly breeze developing. Very good visibility until drizzle when moderate at best.

Sunrise: 07:00 BST

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

Priorslee Balancing Lake: 05:50 – 09:20

(219th visit of the year)

Highlight today was the arrival of two *Great (White) Egrets at 07:45. They stayed about 15 minutes before heading off West

Other bird notes:
- the pair(?) of Mute Swans throughout.
- much flying about by the Mallard. Possible (many?) more that I have logged.
- no Little Grebe seen or heard but with fog early that may not mean much.
- gull counts badly affected by the fog:
- about 200 Black-headed Gulls were still present early when the fog temporarily thinned around 07:00. After 08:30 only 28 seen. I did not bother with the football field.
- I counted 62 Lesser Black-backed Gulls leaving to the East after c.06:45 with at least 75 still on the water. No Herring Gulls identified at that time but with many on the water being first year birds it was difficult to be sure. There was no big arrival / return later with just 29 Lesser Black-backs and a single Herring Gull noted
- just seven Chiffchaffs were noted with two of these heard singing.
- most of the Jackdaws and all of the Rooks on roost dispersal overhead were lost in the mist.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:
- 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 1 Stock Dove
- 19 Wood Pigeons
- 38 Jackdaws
- no Rooks

Counts from the lake area:
- 2 Mute Swans
- 19 (?♂) Mallard
- 3 (0♂) Tufted Duck
- 5 Moorhens again
- 46 Coot
- no Little Grebe
- 10 *Great Crested Grebes only
- >200 Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Herring Gull
- >150 Lesser Black-backed Gulls
- 4 *Cormorants: arrived separately
- 2 *Grey Herons
- 2 *Great (White) Egrets: arrived and departed

Warblers noted:
- 7 Chiffchaffs: of these two in song

Also noted:
Very little.

Bees, wasps etc.:
- Common Wasp Vespula vulgaris

True flies:
- cranefly Tipula confusa

Beetles:
- *(dead?) ground-beetle from the Pterostichus genus

Fungus:
- *Brown Rollrim Paxillus involutus

On the West end street lamp poles before dawn:

Moths / Butterflies:
- 1 *unidentified caterpillar

True flies:
- 1 female Spotted-winged Drosophila Drosophila suzukii
- 1 small midge

Beetles:
- 1 probable Cabbage-stem Flea Beetle Psylliodes chrysocephala

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- 1 *Garden Spider Araneus diadematus [Garden Cross Spider]

Is the juvenile Great Crested Grebe feeding or drowning?

Don't snatch!

Juvenile makes off at high speed.

One minute before I took this photo of a Cormorant there was a Grey Heron on the buoy.

 It is a good trick if you can do it - balance on one leg on a buoy. A Grey Heron shows how...

Image to come

 It needs a bit of wing-flapping to get stability. 

Is this really more stable?

Two Great (White) Egrets arrive.

One touching down at the edge of the water.

The two checking this-way-and-that. A juvenile Great Crested Grebe in the foreground.

What has caught their attention?

Two sparring Grey Herons perhaps.

Time to move on.

Obviously a caterpillar (or larva) but of what? Obsidentify was no help at all. Google Lens suggested Goat Moth Cossus cossus and the accompanying photos looked promising. However reference to the West Midlands Moths web site told me that this species was in serious decline and is probably extinct in the region, the last record being from Staffordshire in 1983. I'll see what the Shropshire recorder makes of it.

A more-or-less side-elevation view reveals hairs that the plan view did not show.

This is, or perhaps was, a ground-beetle from the Pterostichus genus. Further identification would have required clear view of the antennae and all the legs. Google Lens thought P. melanarius. The gallery in NatureSpot shows too many very similar species, all with identification difficulty flagged "red", for me to be confident. It was lying in the gutter along Teece Drive.

Alongside one of the street lamp poles pre-dawn I noted this Garden Spider Araneus diadematus sitting in its web awaiting a client.

A well-chewed fungus!

And from the side. I realise these are not good photos. Normally I would use my phone camera which takes much better close-ups as it acts more like a pin-hole camera and has a much greater depth of focus. I left the phone at home – doh! However I am sure this the very common Brown Rollrim Paxillus involutus.

(Ed Wilson)

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In the Priorslee Avenue tunnel:

Moths:
none

True flies:
- 16 midges of at least three species
- 2 moth fly Psychodidae sp. [Drain Fly or Owl Fly]
- 1 winter cranefly Trichocera sp.

Arthropods:
- 2 White-legged Snake Millipede Tachypodoiulus niger
- 8 Common Rough Woodlouse Porcellio scaber

Spiders, harvestmen etc.:
- 12 Missing Sector Orb-web Spider Zygiella x-notata [Silver-sided Sector Spider]

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 09:25 – 10:15

(216th visit of the year)

We were all affected by the soaking drizzle

Bird notes:
- just the four Canada Geese that never seem to fly anywhere.
- six Mute Swans again.
- a single duck/immature Tufted Duck noted: four of them certainly drakes.
- 37 brownhead Goosander.
- one full adult Great Crested Grebe was sometimes with the four dependent juveniles one of which is declaring UDI much of the time. No other full adult seen but an immature was at the top end.
- an adult and three immature Lesser Black-backed Gulls arrived.
- two Cormorants were arriving as I was departing. None had been sitting in the trees previously.

Bird(s) noted flying over here:

None

Noted on / around the water:
- 4 Canada Geese
- 6 Mute Swans
- 33 (19♂) Mallard
- 1 (0♂) Tufted Duck
- 37 (0♂) Goosander
- 6 Moorhens
- 18 Coot
- 2 + 4 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebe: see notes
- 21 Black-headed Gulls
- 4 Lesser Black-backed Gulls: arrived together
- 2 Cormorants: arrived
- 2 Grey Herons
- 2 Little Egrets remain

Warblers noted:
- 1 Chiffchaff in song

Noted around the area:
Almost nothing in the drizzle apart from....

Bees, wasps etc.:
- >10 Common Wasp Vespula vulgaris

(Ed Wilson)