26 Jul 17

Priorslee Lake and The Flash

13.5°C > 14.5°C: Clear start to E with cloud rapidly approaching from the W, rain from 06:15, heavy after 06:45. Calm start with light / moderate ESE breeze later. Very good visibility reduced somewhat in rain

Sunrise: 05:18 BST

Highlights from today
- Common Sandpiper at the lake again
- 2 adult Common Terns at the lake again
and
- a Swallow Prominent moth on a lamp at The Flash – my first for 4 years at this once annual spot

Priorslee Lake: 04:30 – 06:00 // 06:45 – 07:20

(83rd visit of the year)

The council’s contractors were mowing the area around the running field / cricket pitch / open area next to the Holy Trinity Academy and enthusiastically cutting all the wildflowers on the banks to reduce it all to a neatly mown state – why? At least they seemed to be leaving the scrub

Other notes from today:
- an additional pair of adult Great Crested Grebes present
- a party of at least 14 House Martins overhead at the W end was a good count by recent standards
- a male House Sparrow had again ventured from the estate in to my recording area
and
- no moths on the lamps again: several spiders suggests that at least some insects are attracted to the new lamps
- a few Pearl Veneer (Agriphila straminella) grass moths again
- a Pipistrelle-type bat sp. at the W end (but no larger bats which I would have expected in the conditions)

On with the bird totals

Birds noted flying over the lake:
- 26 Greylag Geese (4 groups) all outbound
- 20 Canada Geese (6 groups) all outbound
- 1 Cormorant again
- 30 Wood Pigeons
- 2 Pied Wagtails

Hirundine etc. counts:
- >14 House Martins

Warblers counts: number in brackets = singing birds
- 2 (2) Chiffchaffs
- 2 (1) Blackcaps
- 1 (0) Common Whitethroat
- 4 (2) Reed Warblers

The counts from the lake area
- 2 + 3 Mute Swans
- 4 Canada Geese
- 25 (?♂) Mallard
- 5 (2♂) Tufted Ducks
- 1 Grey Heron again
- 6 + 6 (2 broods) Great Crested Grebes
- 5 Moorhens
- [Coots not counted]
- 1 Common Sandpiper again
- 2 Common Terms again
- 39 (2 juvenile) Black-headed Gulls
- 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull

Clear to the E with cloud approaching from the W with ...

“Red sky in the morning, shepherds’ warning”

Really Red.

Six Canada Geese head out against the sunrise.

There may be no moths on the lamps but there are plenty of spiders: this is a male Tetragnatha web spider, probably T. montana but specific ID requires examination under a microscope

A different specimen of the same species.

Here we see a male with the female (I hope you are viewing this after the watershed ...)

Between the lake and The Flash alongside the path
- 1 adult Moorhen at the upper pool

(Ed Wilson)

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The Flash: 06:10 – 06:40

(64th visit of the year)

Other notes from here
- I was wrong about the number of cygnets yesterday – just 4 remain (a photo from yesterday showed only 4 but as I had counted 5 I assumed one was lurking around the corner – not so)
- 2 Grey Herons were unexpected after many mainly blank visits

*** all counts affected by rain

Birds noted flying over
- 2 Wood Pigeons

Hirundine etc. noted
None

Warblers noted
None

The counts from the water
- 2 + 4 Mute Swans
- 18 Greylag Geese again
- 84 Canada Geese
- 1 white feral goose
- 15 (12♂) + 5 (1 brood) Mallard
- 6 (1♂?) Tufted Duck
- 1 + 3 (1 brood) Great Crested Grebes
- 2 Grey Herons
- 3 + 1 (1 brood) Moorhens
- 9 + 4 (2 broods) Coots only
- 3 (no juveniles) Black-headed Gulls

A Swallow Prominent moth at The Flash – after three blank years it was a welcome sight, all the more so because the street lamps have been replaced with new LED designs with moth-unfriendly colour spectrum.
A more ‘side-on’ view shows the ‘prominent’. The closely-related Lesser Swallow Prominent has two ‘humps’ with a few other more subtle differences.

(Ed Wilson)

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On this day..........
2013
Priorslee Lake
Willow Tit
(Ed Wilson)

2006
Priorslee Lake
Common Sandpiper
(Ed Wilson)