Thornton and Crosby Cemetery Gardens, 22nd August 2010

We took the X2 from Queen Square at 9.57, arriving at Aldi in Thornton at about 10.30. We walked via Edge Lane, Water Street and Lydiate Lane to Thornton Garden of Rest. It was a really warm sunny day, which was a good job because there would not have been much shelter if it had rained. It’s a big cemetery but a bit too tidy for much wildlife, apart from magpies and wood pidgeons, although we found some wild bits beyond the hedges, overgrown with nettles and ragwort. There are rabbits living there, we heard a pheasant calling and we saw a buzzard, goldfinches and sparrows.  There were plenty of white butterflies about, one Peacock and about half a dozen seven-spot ladybirds. Rowan berries are all red now and there were a lot of ripe blackberries along Lydiate Lane. After lunch we went to Crosby and visited St Luke’s Community garden. The parishioners have made some lovely wildlife-friendly small gardens around the edges of their graveyard.  Lots of white butterflies here too, and another Peacock. There were a pair of shield bugs mating on the arm of a bench – dark ones with a lighter spot in the middle of the back, probably the red-legged shieldbug. We also spotted a red mossy growth on a branch of a dog rose – a Robin’s pincushion gall caused by a gall wasp laying its eggs in a bud.  We got the bus outside the church before 3pm, due back in Liverpool at 3.30.