Woolton Woods and Fields, 13th June 2010

It was dry but overcast when we met at Liverpool One Bus Station and took the 75E bus at 10.25 to the junction of Woolton Road and Aldbourne Avenue. We went into the Black Wood first and watched grey squirrels scampering about the small caches of peanuts in shells that somebody was regularly leaving for them at the foot of a tree. Then back across the road to Childwall Woods. We ate our lunch on some logs in the woods, watched a treecreeper, then went out into Childwall Fields. The meadow was full of Buttercups, Ragged Robin and what might have been Common Sorrel (the book said it “turns meadows crimson”). There were orchids, hogweed and blooming elder. Goldfinches were eating the Sorrel heads and Whitethroats and Chiffchaffs were singing. We hoped the sun would come out and bring butterflies, but it remained cloudy and still. Back in the woods we passed the back of the TV studios where they make Hollyoaks and Grange Hill, but the burnt-out helicopter from an old episode of Brookside had gone. It was starting to rain so we left the woods by Quickswood Close at about 2.30 for the bus back to Liverpool.