Everton Park, 26th June 2016

24 Everton St George

Everton Park has been planted up with wild flower meadows, and it is spectacular. We wandered for an hour or more, admiring Poppies, Corncockle, Corn Marigold, Corn Chamomile, Buttercup, Red Campion, Viper’s Bugloss, Hedge Bedstraw, White Clover, Field Scabious, Knapweed, Teasel, Wild Carrot, Birds-foot Trefoil, Musk Mallow, Common Mallow, Self-heal and many more.

24 Everton massed poppies
Massed Poppies

24 Everton scabious
Field Scabious

The Creeping Thistle had loads of 5-spot Burnet Moths, some mating.

24 Everton Burnet moth

There were 7-spot Ladybirds on the Creeping Thistle, too, and we saw Large White butterflies and a Small Tortoiseshell. There were just a few Ragwort plants, and we saw no Cinnabar moth caterpillars on them. One Cherry tree had some curled-up leaves, and inside were broods of some kind of Blackfly, apparently tended by ants. One curled leaf also had froth and froghoppers, perhaps unconnected to the Ant / Blackfly communities, just there opportunistically.

24 Everton cherry leaf community

We lunched under the Pergola with wonderful views over the city. We were so high up, a Swift flew below us.

24 Everton city view

Then we walked along Shaw Street, noting flowering Privet and a small shrub that looked like Robinia, with yellow pea flowers. Along Islington Square there is a border of Musk Mallow, Poppies and Viper’s Bugloss, which look very lovely together. On the corner of Gildart Street we noted a large stand of Japanese Knotweed, and there were clumps of Gallant Soldier on the edge of the pavement by the empty Norton Street bus station.

24 Everton Vipers Bugloss
Viper’s Bugloss

24 Everton Musk Mallow
Musk Mallow

It was threatening rain, so we were heading for the Museum. The Wildflower Meadow outside had some spikes of a pink pea flower, which was probably Lucerne, and a tall yellow one which was later identified as Dark Mullein.

24 Everton Dark Mullein

We met former MNA Secretary Steve Cross, who works in the Natural History Unit, and he said they had surveyed that patch and identified 120 plant species. He also said there was another plant along nearby pavements, not Gallant Soldier, but the similar Shaggy Soldier, more obviously hairy. We will look more carefully at the next lot!  They got out their model of a Great Auk egg for us, which is like a Guillemot’s, but much bigger.

24 Everton Gt Auk model egg

It was National Insect Week. Inside the Bughouse a lady was enthralling children with close encounters with various live invertebrates. They couldn’t touch, but peered inside the open containers at various large Millipedes and Cockroaches, and also Emperor Scorpions and Red-kneed Tarantulas.

24 Everton Emperor Scorpion
Emperor Scorpion

24 Everton Tarantula
Red-kneed Tarantula

I was surprised to learn that the Bughouse is officially a Zoo, the smallest in the UK, set up for educational purposes. They have a few endangered species there including Fire Salamanders, Yellow-bellied Terrapin and a few baby Seahorses. In small glassed enclosures they also keep  Fruit Beetles Pachnoda marginata from Africa, and Indian Domino Cockroaches Therea petiveriana, which mimic Indian Ground Beetles Anthia sexguttata. The Bughouse was the first to breed Indian Ground Beetles in captivity.

24 Everton Fruit Beetles
Fruit Beetles

24 Everton Indian Domino Cockroach
Indian Domino Cockroaches

24 Everton Indian Ground Beetle
Indian Ground Beetle

Public transport details: Bus 17 from Queen Square at 10.13, arriving St Domingo Road / Northumberland Terrace at 10.22

This entry was posted in Sunday Group. Bookmark the permalink.