Last modified: 2013-01-11 00:37:09 UTC
The chevron ('^') should point at the red badge, so you can tell they are related.
Right now we don't have a chevron because the flyout isn't tied to the link, it's flush to the right of the page. In some cases the Notifications link isn't even directly above the flyout, but off to the left. I'm open to changing this, but it's a bigger change than just adding the chevron.
Fixed in https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/43143/