The Naturalists' Notebook

Before we got to Sudley, we crossed the grassy central reservation between Templemore and Rathmore Avenues, which merge southwards into Brodie Avenue. A group of trees called the Liverpool Thorn Collection grow there, various rare relatives of the Hawthorn (Crataegus sp.) and  Medlar (Mespilus sp.). There is nothing to see at this time of year, we need to be there for the flowers or berries, but we noted some new planting along the central path. One was a Field Maple Acer campestre variety ‘Elegant’. There were a also a couple of Turkish Hazels Corylus colerna, which grow into symmetrical trees with brown catkins and very florid spiky bracts around the nuts.

It wasn’t too cold, but we still needed our hats and gloves. It was overcast, with drizzle promised but it held off.  It was what the weather forecasters call anticyclonic gloom. We climbed the field of Mossley Hill Athletic Club to the sound of bells from Mossley Hill Church. Sudley House is a Victorian merchant’s house and grounds in south Liverpool, built in 1821 by people with connections to the slave trade, but bought in 1882 by ship-owner George Holt, who was also an art collector. When his surviving unmarried daughter Emma (a pioneer of women’s education) died in 1944 she left the house to Liverpool Council on condition that the grounds were to be used as a public park, and that her father’s art collection was not dispersed.  It is now part of National Museums, Liverpool.
In the grounds we heard a Blackbird, Great Tit, and some Parakeets. Magpies and Wood Pigeons lurked around. Daffodils were still shooting up, but not quite open yet, but there was a good display of snowdrops.

On the lawn east of the house is a big old Tulip Tree, which had one branch broken off a few years ago. There didn’t seem to be many cones on it, so didn’t it flower last summer? Is it sick?

There was a signboard which mentioned the Eight Oaks of Mossley Hill. They were planted to mark Liverpool’s 800th birthday in 2007, counting from King John’s charter in 1207. There was indeed a cluster of young Oaks south of the house, but they should be nearly 20 years old by now, and these don’t look old enough. The signboard is quite vague about their position.

There is also supposed to be a Crab Apple Collection, but that was even harder to locate. But we were happy to find Hazel catkins out.

A Great Spotted Woodpecker was drumming quite close to us but we didn’t see it until it flew off. We also spotted six or seven Ring-necked Parakeets in a cluster, all looking down as us, but they took fright at the sight of a camera!  On the edge of the field behind the walled garden is a Larch I have noted before. They aren’t common this far south. Now I look closely at the little cones, about an inch across, I wonder if it isn’t the European Larch Larix decidua at all. Is it a Japanese Larch Larix kaempferi ?  The cone scales on a Japanese Larch are “recurved” meaning they turn out, so that the cones look like tiny opening roses. That’s what these look like.

As we left via Mossley Hill church, we looked to see if there were any signs of Peregrine Falcons, which sometimes nest here. No, nothing doing.

Public transport details: Bus 80A from Liverpool ONE bus station at 10.10, arriving Rose Lane / Templemore Avenue at 10.35. Returned on bus 61B from Elmswood Road / North Mossley Hill Road at 2.20, changing at 2.25 to other buses at Mather Avenue / Rose Lane. I got an 86A to town at 2.29. 
Next week we plan to go to West Kirby, where there are some uncommon birds lingering (Scaup, Merganser), and we hope they don’t move off this week. Meet Central Station at 10.00 sharp.

Anyone is welcome to come out with the Sunday Group. It is not strictly part of the MNA, although it has several overlapping members. We go out by public transport to local parks, woods and nature reserves all over Merseyside, and occasionally further afield. We are mostly pensioners, so the day is free on our bus passes, and we enjoy fresh air, a laugh and a joke, a slow amble in pleasant surroundings and sometimes we even look at the wildlife!
If you want to join a Sunday Group walk, pack lunch, a flask, waterproofs, binoculars if you have them, a waterproof pad to sit on if we have to have lunch on the grass or a wet bench (A garden kneeler? A newspaper in a plastic bag?), and wear stout shoes or walking boots. We are usually back in Liverpool City Centre by 3pm at the latest.
If you are interested in the wildlife of the north-west of England and would like to join the walks and coach trips run by the Merseyside Naturalists’ Association, see the main MNA website www.mnapage.info for details of our programme and how to join us.

The massed Daffodils were pushing up on the southern banks of Sefton Park lake, but none were yet in bloom. There are said to be some out in the park somewhere, but we didn’t see any.

Although it was a cool day, it was at least dry, and we were blessed with sunshine around midday. The lake was busy with birds, Mallards, Coots, honking Canada Geese, about a dozen Tufted Ducks (“Tufties”), shy Moorhen, Black-headed Gulls and a pair of Mute Swans. We could hear Parakeets, and in the island area there was a Heron perching on a log.

There were Magpies on the trees, also Crows and Wood Pigeons. A few Hazel catkins were opening and the Alders were thick with last year’s cones.

The Witch Hazel near the café was blooming nicely.

It was very busy in the park. A group of about 50 people, all with big dogs on leads, were walking in a line, then gathered in a circle on a grassy hill. Was it an obedience class?  We passed several parties of studenty-looking young women. A college walking group? And there were runners, as well as the ordinary visitors. The fine weather had brought them out.  Around the corner from the café, we spotted a fleeting Nuthatch and some Ring-necked Parakeets high in a tree were basking in the sunshine.

There was a possible Common Gull on the big field. Hard to be sure at distance, but It had a dark eye and was characteristically standing alone.

By the stepping stones in the Dell, the sunny bank had both Snowdrops and yellow Crocuses just coming in to bloom.

Further towards the base of the bridge, in the area called the Fairy Glen, there were several Robins and a Dunnock. We were looking for the Kingfisher which often lives here in the winter, but there was no sign of one. However, as we were heading out someone said they had just seen one flying in towards the bridge.  You can’t win them all!
Along the path leading up to the Palm House there is a shrubbery of Spotted Laurel Aucuba japonica with its pointy berries, and another shrub with plain unspotted leaves but the same berries. I think they are both the same species, perhaps the plain one is the “basic” shrub, of which all the spotted ones are varieties.

As we returned along the eastern lakeside, we spotted a Little Grebe, just one on its own, diving for food.

There is a pretty little tree alongside the path exiting the park, a Winter-flowering Cherry Prunus x subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’. It had just a few wind-blown pink flowers out.

Public transport details: Bus 82 from Elliot Street at 10.01, arriving Aigburth Rd opp Ashbourne Rd at 10.20.  Returned on the 82 bus from Aigburth Road / Jericho Lane at 1.35, arriving at the city centre at 1.50.   Next week we are going to Sudley House. Meet Liverpool ONE bus station at 10 am.

Our first Sunday walk of the year was yet another flippin’ wet day, with continuous light rain. We walked through the dell, admiring the winter trees. Not many birds about, just Wood Pigeons hunkered down in thicker parts of the trees, Crows, Jackdaws and Magpies calling, a Blackbird scuttling across the path and some Blue Tits in a shrub. We also spotted one, or maybe two, Wrens, in the darkest corners of the dell bank. Grey Squirrels were racing around tree trunks and pursuing each other energetically: it’s that time of year. The only wildflowers were some Daisies in the grass, but there were some neat clumps of Snowdrops. Further on we spotted some buds of yellow Crocus showing through the wet grass.

In June last year we saw a shrub near the church gate, and one of the possibilities was that it was a Witch Hazel. If it was, it would have been blooming characteristically today, but it wasn’t. Scratch that idea. One early Forsythia flower was out, far too early, but we weren’t sure it was the same shrub. But there were a couple of winter-flowering shrubs to brighten the day, Viburnum x bodnantense (no common name) and Laurustinus.

We went into the garden centre to use their restrooms, and in the absence of any other dry seats, went to eat our lunches in a shelter on the station platform.  On the way we admired a couple of Foxgloves growing on the outside of a garden wall. After lunch, dispirited by the rain, we headed home.

Public transport details: Train from Liverpool Central at 10.15, arriving Port Sunlight station at 10.32. Returned from same station at 12.39, arriving Central at 13.00
Next week we plan to go to Sefton Park, meeting Elliot Street at 10.00.

We are having a disproportionate number of wet Sundays this autumn, and this was yet another soaker. It was our last Sunday walk of the year, and we were in Kirkby, planning to visit a friend later. We started at St Chad’s church, which has a little park in front of it, and then we walked all around the church to check the belfry, where Peregrines nest most years. Nothing to see today.  Then we set off northwards through a green space called Millbrook Millennium Green.

There were very few birds venturing out in the wet weather. One Moorhen on the banks of the Kirkby Brook, a Carrion Crow and a Blackbird on the ground and two small birds making a dipping, weaving flight overhead and which may have been Goldfinches. There were fresh Molehills across the grass, a young Oak had marble and artichoke galls and the Green’s edges had a restrained beauty in Birch and young Beech.

Near the pond there were several small patches of a yellow flower, which was clearly some kind of Brassica, and was most probably escaped Oilseed Rape (Canola) from the farm fields around about.

At the northern end of the park a Buzzard floated over the railway embankment. We emerged at the junction of Mill Lane and Boyes Brow, and although we were heading for Headbolt Lane station, we took a detour into Mill Dam Park, a new one for us. It is really just a lake with an island, surrounded by grassy banks. We saw the usual Mallards, Coots and Moorhen, with one Canada Goose, a Cormorant up a tree and a few Black-headed Gulls.

As we approached the lake we spotted one of the Black-headed Gulls splashing and struggling. Was it caught in some abandoned fishing line? Yes it was.

We were able to pull it in to the bank by the line, and while Margaret held its beak and covered its eyes, John held it up by a wing and unwound the line from its mouth and around its body. It had no apparent cuts or damage, so it had probably only been caught for a few minutes. In this photo you can see the weights attached to the line, and one heavy one near the ground. The whole collection had been tethered to some ironware stuck into the grass, perhaps a rod rest.

We released it, and it immediately flew as far away as it could and vanished. Two lads who had been fishing a bit further around the lake (not the culprits) had come to help in case we needed to cut the line, and they took the old line and weights away for safe disposal. That was our (and their) good deed for the day.

The path to the station seemed to be flanked by a gone-over wildflower meadow, although some things were still blooming. White Dead-nettle, a large half-gone Daisy that might have been an Ox-eye, Yarrow (above) and Shepherd’s Purse below, with its heart-shaped seed cases.

Headbolt Lane station, now just over two years old, is very smart, with a huge car park. We lunched there in a platform shelter, although that was the only time all day that the rain stopped. Then off to see our friend Brenda, who used to walk with us.

Public transport details: Bus 21 from Queen Square at 10.05, arriving at Kirkby Row / Old Hall Lane at 10.50. Returned from Headbolt Lane station at 3.11.
That was our last walk of 2025. We start again on 18th January, and if there is no snow or ice underfoot, we plan to go to Port Sunlight. Meet Central Station at 10.00.

We seem to have had a lot of wet Sundays recently, and here’s another one. It was dry when I arrived in town, and all the costumed runners were making their way through the city to join the 5 Km “Santa dash” from the Pier Head to the Town Hall. A record 11,000 took part this year, making it the largest in the UK.

At Ormskirk we turned left out of the station, past the car park and into 7 acres of mixed woodland called Station Approach. It used to be sidings and a branch line to Skelmersdale, but it was closed in 1974, reclaimed by nature and now tidied up as a small woodland park.

It was very damp and drippy under the trees. Some moss on a tree caught my eye, growing not as a carpet, but as small “blobs” about 1 – 2 cm (half an inch) across. Never seen that before. It might be Wood Bristle-Moss, described on the website of the British Bryological Society as “by far the commonest species of its genus, Lewinskya affinis characteristically grows epiphytically as small, loose tufts 1-2cm tall on the bark of a wide range of trees and shrubs.” It’s common and widespread and an indicator of clean air.

High up in the bare trees parties of mixed tits, Blue, Great and Long-tailed, were passing through. We saw a Blackbird on path, a Wood Pigeon in flight overhead, two Jays and a fleeting glance of a Great Spotted Woodpecker.  We walked a little way up the “Smith Way”, originally a horse track.  In WWI Ormskirk Station was a gathering place for thousands of requisitioned and purchased horses, which were walked along this path to the remount depot at Lathom Park. Against the dark background of wet hedges, there were occasional splashes of gold, like this Norway Maple, still holding on to its autumn leaves.

At Victoria Park on the corner of Ruff Lane, where we ate lunch in a fine rain, we watched a pair of  Blackbirds and a Song Thrush dodging about on the lawn.  Then we walked via Morrisons supermarket to the much bigger Coronation Park. By their Duck Pond they have a sign claiming to be visited by a Heron, Swans, Canadas, and Swallows in the summer, but today there were only Pigeons, Mallards, Coot and Moorhen, all hungry for bread.

There were also 7 Black-headed Gulls. On previous visits John had noticed a couple of ringed ones but had never been able to get their numbers. He lured them out of the water with food and I looked for the numbers. They were later reported via the website of the Waterbird Colour-marking group

Bird 283K, the bolder one, was ringed at Ormskirk Coronation Park in November 2023 as adult. There have been 8 reports since then, all at the same pond, all in autumn or winter, but no indication of where it goes in the spring and summer.  The shyer bird, much harder to lure out of the water, was 269E.  It turned out to be a Russian spy!  It was ringed as an adult at Coronation Park in December 2022. Of the 19 reports since then, three were from a place called Ostashkov, Russia, probably its place of hatching, about half way between Moscow and St Petersburg. It was recorded there in April 2023 and in May, June and July 2025. All the other autumn and winter sightings were at Coronation Park, Ormskirk.

Public transport details: Train from Central at 9.55, arriving Ormskirk 10.25. Returned from Ormskirk on the train at 13.06, due to arrive Liverpool at 1.40.
Next week will be the last Sunday group walk until 2026. We plan to go to Kirby. Meet Queen Square at 10.00.

What a beautiful day for a change! It was mild and still, with a low sun catching the late autumn trees in a golden light. The park’s Grey Squirrels were very bold and numerous. Were they especially hungry after a week of bad weather and no visitors to feed them?  The parkland birds like Robins and Great Tits seemed tamer as well, approaching us hopefully.  Otherwise we saw the usual Magpie, Crows and just one Wood Pigeon. A Great Spotted Woodpecker was calling from a distance, but we didn’t see it. On the Lower Lake were Mallards, Canadas, Coots, Moorhens, a few Herring Gulls, three Tufties and two Cormorants in a secluded bay.

One of the park’s rarer trees, the Cucumber tree Magnolia accuminata, at the top of the lower lake near the rockery, has been comprehensively pollarded. What a shock! It used to lean out over the path, so perhaps the overhanging branches have been deemed unsafe.

There has also been an outbreak of vandalism. The Swiss Bridge was closed, although we couldn’t see any damage. We spoke to a passer-by who said kids had kicked out something. The supports? They looked OK side on. Some windows had been broken on the visitors’ centre and “The Footbridge” (not the “Swiss” or the “Rustic” bridge) had been damaged by fire.

We had a look at their small Persian Ironwood Parrotia persica, wondering if its winter flowers were developing. We usually see the shocking pink blooms in January on the tree in Sefton Park. Do they start in late November?  Yes, one flower was just breaking out.

We lunched near the visitors’ centre, where we caught the only rain shower of the day, and made a discovery in one of the flower beds on the left (west) side. A Wollemi Pine! It is one of the world’s oldest and rarest plants, dating back to the time of the dinosaurs. It was discovered in Australia in 1994 hanging on in a stand of fewer than 100 adult trees. The Wollemi Pine Wollemia nobilis is now the focus of extensive propagation to safeguard its survival, with young trees planted all over the world. This one brings the number on Merseyside that I know of up to four. The others are in Princes Park, Ness Gardens and Speke Hall. The sign said it was also known as the Lazarus tree (back from the dead?), but that’s the first time I have heard that nickname.

A Norway Maple was catching the bright sunshine, and its yellow leaves were golden in the bright light. A Weeping Willow in the Upper Park was doing the same trick.

There was a very odd bird or bat box on a tree by the upper lake. There was no hole at front for small birds, nor an opening at the bottom for bats, just a little triangular hole at the side. Does anyone know what creature it’s for?

The third golden tree was this Beech, whose leaves were much lighter than the usual copper colour. I see there’s a variety called ‘Dawyck Gold’ with yellow leaves in the autumn, but that is said to be fastigiate (growing very upward-pointing) and this tree wasn’t shaped like that. Perhaps it’s just natural variation.

On the way out we went to look at the clump of Hybrid Strawberry trees Arbutus x andrachnoides at the junction of Park Road North and Ashville Road. We were surprised to see that the middle three (of five) had been felled, although the stumps were sprouting vigorously. They are rare trees, and prized by the park, but despite their rarity they must have failed a safety inspection and been deemed top-heavy and likely to fall or shed a branch, to the danger of the public. Like the Cucumber tree, at least they haven’t been removed, but carefully cut back to grow another day.

Public transport details: Train from Central at 10.05, arriving Birkenhead Park station at 10.15. Returned from Birkenhead Park Station at 13.36, arriving Central 13.55.
Next week we are going to Ormskirk. Meet 10.00 at Central Station.

It was a really horrible, cold, wet and windy day. We had planned to go to Leasowe today, where there had been some rare winter visitors last week (Lapland Bunting, Snow Bunting), but they were long gone. We decided that West Kirby at least had some shelter. We were lashed with rain on the way from the station to the Dee Lane slipway, but despite the weather the row of five Stone Pines next to Morrison’s car park were still impressive.

The open water towards Hilbre Island was very rough, and high tide was approaching, due at 12.30. There had been a report of 17 Goosanders on the Marine Lake, but the windsurfers might have frightened them off and all we saw were one or two Redshanks, a Carrion Crow, a Pied Wagtail on the pavement and a few Black-headed Gulls hanging on the wind. We fought our way through the gusty rain to the little shelters in Victoria Gardens, and when the rain went off we headed up to Ashton Park, where the sun came out.

On the lake there were Mallards, Coots, Moorhens and Black-headed Gulls, but no Canada Geese, which are usually resident. One surprises was a single Cormorant, which appeared to be taking a bath. It flapped vigorously, churning up the water, then waggled its back end forcefully. After a second or two swimming around, it did it again, and then again …  I have never seen that before.

We headed back to the shelters in Victoria Gardens for lunch, narrowly missing a short hailstorm followed by clearing skies and a rainbow. Afterwards, we returned to Dee Lane.  From the railings by the beach we could see a row of birds taking refuge from the high tide on a spit of grassy sand. The black-and-white ones were Oystercatchers, while the grey-and-white ones were probably Knot.

On the way back to the station we looked for flowering plants on the pavement and in front gardens. The winter-flowering shrubs Laurustinus and Jasmine were starting to bloom. In Sandlea Park there were no nuts left on the Almond tree, but there were Rowan berries and yellow Crab Apples remaining on the thinnest branches for birds agile enough to reach them.

On the edge of the path was a clump of Stinking Iris, whose seed pods had just broken open to reveal the bright orange fruit inside. All parts of this plant are poisonous.

From the train home we spotted several Little Egrets in the cow pastures between Meols and Moreton.

Public transport details: Train from Central at 10.05, arriving West Kirby at 10.35. Returned on the train from West Kirby at 1.30, arriving Liverpool Central 2.05.
Next week we plan to go to Birkenhead Park. Meet Central at 10 am.

It’s a long time since we’ve been to Carr Mill Dam, March 2019 in fact, before the pandemic. Over time the bus and train routes become unsuitable, but we have now found a new way to get there. It was bright and sunny, but the first chilly day this autumn. There had been very heavy rain yesterday as we were brushed by Storm Claudia, and we feared that the paths would be deeply muddy, but they were OK, just a bit soft in a few places. At the southern end, near the Waterside Toby restaurant, was the largest bird gathering – Canada Geese, Coots and Moorhens, Mallards and a few Black-headed Gulls.

We went around the lake anti-clockwise for a change, and on the path near the old railway we spotted a Grey Wagtail, a Blue Tit and a Siskin feeding high up in the Alder trees on the embankment.

Yesterday’s rain had almost filled the Goyt valley.

Near the bridge we found some shyer water birds. There were two Mute Swans (both female?) and the one-and-only Great Crested Grebe of the day, still in its winter plumage.

There appeared to be more little birds about in the woodland near the bridge, I think someone puts out food.  By the side of the path were a Blackbird and a Dunnock and in the trees at the eastern end of the bridge we saw Coal Tits, a Robin and several Nuthatches, perhaps a family of four. Sorry about this picture, which is terribly out-of-focus, but it shows how near the Nuthatches were.

We scanned the bay on the far side of the bridge, but there were no more Grebes and no Kingfisher, a bird we sometimes see in this sheltered place. Instead we made our way to the fishing lake near Otterswift farm, where a single Heron brooded at the far end.

The winter berries seem to be all eaten already, and the only flowers we saw were Gorse, and this Dandelion on the verge of Carr Mill Road.

Near our bus stop a flock of Jackdaws were foraging in an uncut meadow.

Public transport details: Train from Lime Street at 10.12 (the Glasgow train!), to its first stop at St Helens Central at 10.30. Then a 10 minute walk to the new bus station at Chalon Way West, then bus 17 at 10.54, arriving Woodlands Road / Derwent Road at 11.01.  Returned from Martindale Road / Broad Lane on bus 352 at 2.06 (really 2.15) arriving bus station at 2.28, then bus 10A to Liverpool at 2.40, arriving 3.57. 
Next week we plan to go to Leasowe. Meet at Central Station at 10am (prompt).

After a week or two of dry weather, today’s forecast was for occasional heavy rain. Right on cue, it started as we crossed the hospital’s car park, heading for the woods near Arrowe Hall. Under the trees, the falling leaves of Beech made a golden carpet on the path.

Along a narrow woodland track we spotted a Wych Elm, Ulmus glabra, with huge leaves, about the size of my hand.

To my surprise it was quite a tall tree, perhaps 30 to 40 feet, growing next to an Ash tree. Older Wych Elms are now rare trees in the UK as a result of Dutch elm disease, a fungal disease which has devastated populations of elms since it arrived in the UK in the 1960s. Although I often see short Wych Elms in hedges, I had thought they all became infected and died off when they grew to be over about 6 feet tall.  However, various sources say they typically survive until they are around 5 to 10 meters (16 to 33 feet) tall before dying. This is because the elm bark beetles that carry the disease are attracted to trees that have reached a certain size and are old enough to flower, at which point they infest the tree, and it succumbs to the fungus. However, the root system is often unaffected, allowing new sprouts to emerge, though these will likely be killed by the disease once they grow to a similar height.  So maybe this tree isn’t a rare survivor after all, but one that is just about to become infected.

We walked along the edge of the big field towards the lake. Some low-growing flowers were still blooming in the grass: Daisy, Buttercup and some sort of Hawkbit. Crows cawed from the treetops. A Hazel was forming its catkins. It’s not quite a sign of spring but perhaps a promise.

On the lake were Mallards and a Little Egret.

Then we walked southwards along the path through trees. At the bridge over the Arrowe Brook, someone puts out food for birds every morning. We caught glimpses of Blue Tits, Great Tits and Coal Tits, but they were very skittish with too many people and dogs passing by. On an old fallen log were these black shiny fungi, about an inch (2.5 cm) across. First thought was Jelly Ear, but they are more amber-coloured, not jet black. Google images suggests Black Bulgar Bulgaria inquinans which are actually not jelly fungi at all, but Ascomycetes. It’s a terrible picture, I’m afraid, but that’s the best I could get in the gloomy rain.

It was a long walk back through the woods and skirting the golf club. We crossed the road to Landican Cemetery, and had a rather late lunch at 12.30 in the shelter of the chapels’ loggia. Afterwards we mooched about the cemetery a bit, looking at trees. There were half a dozen dark red trees we hadn’t noticed before. I think they are Red Maples Acer rubrum. Perhaps they are only obvious in the short window in the autumn when they have changed colour, but before the leaves fall.

There is also a group of four Indian Bean trees. We have only seen them as singletons before. They will be lovely when they are all in flower together in mid-July.

And lastly, there is a small and dainty Willow-leaved Pear on a corner. In this very good year for fruit and seeds it had managed to produce a few tiny pears

Public transport details: Bus 472 from Sir Thomas Street at 10.15, arriving Arrowe Park Hospital at 10.40.  Returned on bus 471 from Arrowe Park Road / opp Landican Cemetery at 2.28, arriving Liverpool at 3.02.
Next week we are going to Flaybrick Memorial Gardens in a joint walk with the MNA. Meet Sir Thomas Street at 10 am for the 437 bus.
No Sunday walks on 2nd or 9th of November.

On a mild, still, misty morning we joined the Leeds – Liverpool canal at Waddicar and headed northwards. It’s a long time since we’ve walked the towpath of the canal, because there is nowhere to sit for lunch and there are no convenient loos. But the plan today was to get to Maghull Station at around noon, which provides those amenities.

For much of the day we had the towpath to ourselves, occasionally moving aside for dog walkers, runners and cyclists. The canal was lined with Hawthorn bushes, all heavily berried, and a few Ash trees with huge bunches of seed. Agricultural land dominated on the left (west) side, and flocks of gulls were following the plough.

On the water were Moorhens, Coots and Mallards, looking very smart in their new plumage and starting to pair up. There were House Sparrows on the roofs of the new houses on the right (east)  side, together with Robins, a Dunnock and Goldfinches in the bushes. A Buzzard drifted overhead, then was chased off by smaller birds. A handful of Jackdaws flew southwards, Rooks flew off the horse fields and Crows called from all directions. A Collared Dove perched high in a tree, two Pheasants moved about in a field and a hundred or so Starlings flocked up to perch on electricity wires.

On the far side of the canal were great mounds of some water plant. I think it was Floating Pennywort, Hydrocotyle ranunculoides. It is an invasive species, introduced to the UK in the 1980s by the aquatic nursery trade, which forms large floating mats of dense foliage, grows at up to 20cm in a day and smothers our waterways. It’s a perennial, native to North America, and nothing in the UK will eat it. Floating Pennywort is so damaging to native flora and fauna that it is listed under Schedule 9 to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, meaning it is illegal to cause it to grow in the wild and it is now also banned from sale in the UK. The Canal and River Trust is running an eradication programme, so best of luck with that.

Several plants were still flowering at the edge of the path, including Cow Parsley, Hogweed, Michaelmas Daisies, Bindweed, White Dead-nettle, and another flush of Bramble flowers. Prominent “gone-to-seed” plants included Old Mans Beard and Rose Bay Willowherb. In or close to the water were some more unusual species, like Gipsywort, what might have been the very poisonous Hemlock Water Dropwort, and Arrowhead springing straight from the water.

Corpse of the Day was a drowned Wood Pigeon.

Between the canal and Maghull station is the house of Frank Hornby (1863-1936), the visionary toy developer and manufacturer, responsible for Hornby model railways, Meccano and Dinky toys. It’s the further house, with the blue heritage plaque above the door.

Maghull Station is the winner of many awards, both for its landscaping and for the enthusiasm of its volunteers. There is a glass cabinet in the ticket office holding dozens of framed certificates. It was National Rail’s “Small Station of the Year” in 2013, and has many awards from the Royal Horticultural Society and Britain in Bloom for its flowers. In 2024 it won the “World Cup of Stations” for having the best local business, their coffee shop. Margaret had been here on a Heritage Open Day and drew our attention to a small tree or shrub in a flower bed near the car park. It is labelled “Caragana Pea Tree” and has legume-type pods containing black seeds, but the pods are very puffed up, not like peas at all. One of the volunteers came over, keen to discuss it. He said it was also known as the Siberian Pea Tree and the seeds were edible. He said that there was another tree or shrub of the same kind in one of the Waterloo Seafront Gardens.

We know that very same shrub!  We think it is a Bladder Senna, source of the famed “senna pods” to treat constipation, so not what you would recommend as edible! The real Siberian Pea Tree Caragana arborescens has seeds in slim, hanging red-brown pods, similar in size and shape to ordinary green beans, and not a bit like the puffy pods we saw. I think the one at Maghull station must be the Bladder Senna Colutea arborescens.

Another volunteer, seeing our binoculars, came over to talk to us about the birds on the canal, mentioning Pink-footed Geese which often fly over (we didn’t see any today) and advising us to be on the look-out for a Kingfisher. Back on the canal, and there was indeed a Kingfisher, darting away ahead of us and seen only by John, who was in the front. We walked quietly then, looking at all the low branches it might have perched in, but we didn’t see it again.

This stretch of the canal, northwards to Maghull town centre, had huge ivy bushes, and some large swathes overhanging from tall trees, and all were coming into flower. We could smell the perfume of them as we passed. But since the sun still wasn’t out there were hardly any flying insects around them. On sunny warmer days in autumn you often see Ivy bushes all abuzz with bees, wasps, hoverflies and smaller flying creatures, all getting a last good feed in before the winter.

Public transport details: Bus 345 from Queen Square at 10.15, arriving Waddicar Lane / Birchtree Drive at 10.49. Returned from Liverpool Road North / Stafford Moreton Way on bus 300 at 2.35, due to arrive Liverpool at about 3.25.
Next week we plan to go to Arrowe Park and Landican Cemetery. Meet Sir Thomas Street at 10am.