The Naturalists' Notebook

We haven’t been to Eastham Village since late September 2013. It’s a pretty little village just off the busy New Chester Road, and another bit of old England that time seems to have left behind. There are old cottages dated 1699, a local library in an old telephone box and one bus a day in each direction.

We were there to see the church and in particular its Ancient Yew Tree. Britain is particularly rich in ancient yews, with far more than in any other European country. (The Ancient Yew Group has identified 978 ancient or veteran yews more than 500 years old in England and 407 in Wales. France has 77 while Germany and have Spain just four each.) The information board by the tree says ‘When in 1152, the Abbot and Monks of St Werburgh received the Manor of Eastham at the hand of Earl Randall of Chester, the villagers of Eastham entreated the new owners “to have a care of ye olde yew”. In 1898, members of the Royal Archaeological Society, when visiting the village, expressed the opinion that the yew may have been planted originally against the east end of the timber framed wattle and daub chapel which was in being before the Norman Conquest. They said that the tree’s exact age was not known but was possibly 1,500 years’.” More recently, in 1988,  an expert group suggested it was 1600 years old, making it a seedling before the Romans left Britain.

Elsewhere in the village we heard loud calling from above and spotted a pair of Jackdaws on an old chimney stack, peering into the left-hand chimney. We think there was a nest in there, the chicks were calling for food and the adults were hoping they would emerge.

We walked northwards around Ferry Road towards Eastham Ferry and the woods. There was a House Sparrow colony in a thick garden hedge, a Swift overhead, and in Torr Park we saw some butterflies – Speckled Woods and a Large White.

We lingered by the Eastham Ferry Pier overlooking the River Mersey. There was an Oystercatcher on the rocky beach and Cormorants on the oil tanker stanchions by Eastham Lock. We were also looking for Purple Hairstreak butterflies in the oak scrub that falls away from the road edge. We spotted some here in late June 2018, but today we were a couple of weeks too early. They will all still be pupae. Then we walked back through the woods.

Blackbirds and Robins were singing and a family of Wrens crossed the path, about five of them. A pair of Jays were foraging on an old dead tree trunk, perhaps looking for grubs. The path was scattered with early tree seeds and fruits, including these wild cherries.

Public transport details: Bus number 1 from Sir Thomas Street at 10.10, arriving 10.52 at New Chester Road / opp Bridle Road. Returned from New Chester Road / Allport Road on the number 1 bus at 2.15, arriving city centre at 2.50.
No walk next week. On 22nd June we plan to go to Port Sunlight, meeting at Central Station at 10 am.

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.

Churchtown north of Southport is a pretty little village with white-walled houses and some thatched cottages. It is almost as far north as we can go within the Merseytravel area and is a long bus ride from Liverpool.

We were lured there by reports of an Otter. On 9th May this year a Southport website called “On the Spot News” said “An otter that has set up home in Botanic Gardens has become the subject of a much heated debate in recent days. Park rangers at the Churchtown park say they have warned people not to try and catch the otter, which is a protected species. It comes after people on local social media pages debated if the offer needed to be caught after claims it was attacking other wildlife in the park’s watercourse. Despite this being a natural predator, some people have suggested the otter needs to be caught and removed from the park to protect the existing wildlife. However following a number of complaints and concerns made to park ranger, a warning to leave the otter alone has now had to be issued.”
That warning was made by Sefton Council on social media on the same day. “People spending time in Botanic Gardens, Southport, may have heard or even spotted for themselves, there’s a new visitor to the park! An Otter has been spending time at the wonderful park lately. We are so lucky to have this rare, fascinating, and protected animal visiting us, and we want to assure people that the Otter does NOT need any help, and absolutely does NOT need to be caught”

Although we didn’t expect to see the Otter itself (they are active at dawn and dusk, and definitely not when the park is full of visitors) we walked as far north-west as we could, following the little stream, and hoping to see spraint (droppings left as territory markers) or even paw prints in the muddy edges. There WAS one muddy bit, where there might have been a print, but even if it was, it is probably more likely to have been made by a dog.

In a secluded area around a pool in the middle of the park, a path was closed, with a sign that breeding Swans were not to be disturbed. We saw the adult pair later, snoozing at the south end, but there were no cygnets with them. Had their little ones been predated by the Otter? Is that why the local people were so upset? People are often quite protective of “their” cygnets.

We also spotted a Heron near that same quiet pool, and it was perched up a tree, not on the pond banks. Was it wary of attack?

Elsewhere in the park we noted the usual suburban birds. A ragged looking Robin with a beak full of grubs and caterpillars perched briefly on the fence near the entrance then flew off across the road towards Meols Hall. A Pied Wagtail was hunting on the lawns next to the bare beds awaiting  summer planting.

There is a rare tree in the Fernery – a tall Wollemi Pine in a big pot.

I also noticed that the Horse Chestnuts seemed to have more conkers forming than usual. Most years only two or three form from each flower spike, but this year I am seeing clusters of 10 or 12. A good year, perhaps brought on by the warm spring.

On the lake we noted Mallards, Black-headed Gulls, Coots and Moorhens and a few Tufted Ducks. Several Mallard mothers had broods of half-grown chicks. We counted five in one cluster and three in another, so the Otter hadn’t taken all of them.

The moulting Mallards on the bank were very tame and came in very close, within an inch or two of our boots, looking for crumbs. It’s good to see them so trusting of people. They aren’t subject to sticks, stones and attempts to grab them, as some city centre park Mallards seem to be.

One Black-headed Gull had a blue ring on its leg, 241L. I reported it and the result that came back said it had been ringed as adult in Botanic Gardens in December 2023. Subsequently seen at Botanic in October and December 2024, at Marshside in May 2025 and is now back at Botanic Gardens. This one seems not to be an adventurer!

Public transport details: Bus 47 from Queen Square at 10.15, arriving Preston New Road / Marshside Road at 11.42. Returned on bus 49 from Botanic Road / Botanic Gardens at 2.36, arriving Southport Lord Street at 2.45, just in time to catch the 2.51 train back to Liverpool.
Next week we plan to go to Eastham, meeting Sir Thomas Street at 10 am.

After our long dry sunny spell, it was a weekend of high winds and showers. It was very blowy at West Kirby. As we walked down Dee Lane towards the beach the onshore wind sometimes stopped us in our tracks, and there was gritty sand in it, too. There were white caps on the sea out towards Hilbre, and some sailboarders and kite surfers were battling the stiff breeze.

It was high tide, and there were no birds inshore or on the water, just a few gulls hanging off the wind. We headed up Victoria Drive towards Ashton Park and the Wirral Way, seeking calmer conditions. There was nothing exciting on Ashton Park lake, just Mallards, Canada Geese, Coots, Herring Gulls and Feral Pigeons.

So we turned southwards on the calm and sheltered Wirral Way, a stretch we rarely visit. Some birds were singing – Blackbird, Robin, Wren, Chaffinch, but most were deep in the tall hedges, keeping a low profile. The main interest was the wildflowers along the way. Bramble, White Campion, Elderflower, Honeysuckle, Dog Rose and Valerian.

There was a big bundle of developing Ash seeds, called “keys”, overhanging the path. Ash keys are said to be particularly abundant this year.

We stopped for lunch at little park called Cubbon’s Green, where there are views out to the estuary and across the Dee to Wales on the opposite bank. The land was donated to Wirral Council in 1964 by two sisters called Cubbon, on condition it was never built on and kept open. It’s a good spot for viewing waders and raptors in autumn and winter and is said to be a haven for butterflies, but there were none in today’s windy conditions. It is now part of the King Charles III England Coastal Path, which will eventually be a 2,700 mile national trail. When completed it will be the longest managed coastal footpath in the world.

We dropped in to Sandlea Park and Gardens on our way back to the station. The little Almond tree there is doing well, with more than 50 young fruits developing, each about an inch (2.5 cm) long.

There was an extraordinary plant in the south-west corner, against the Dee Lane wall, opposite Morrison’s supermarket.  It was one single stem, 10 or 12 feet tall, and bore copious blue and pink flowers covering the stalk.  It reminded me of Viper’s Bugloss, so is it some giant relative?

Public transport details: Train from Central at 10.05, arriving West Kirby 10.35. Returned from West Kirby station at 2.01, arriving Central 2.35.
Next week we plan to go to Southport Botanic Gardens, meeting at Queen Square at 10 am.

Strawberry Fields is the site of an old Salvation Army orphanage, near the childhood home of John Lennon and remembered in the famous song. He used to climb over the walls and play with the other kids. For many years the old building was a gothic ruin, and Beatles tourists came to stare and write on the ornate gates, which was as near as they could reach. Then the Salvation Army demolished the old orphanage, built a new exhibition space, café and gift shop, landscaped the grounds and opened up to tourists in September 2019. The revenue they generate supports a program to help young people with leaning difficulties get into work.

Their woodland garden and lawns had the usual Wood pigeons, Magpies and Crows, while we spotted Blue Tits and Great Tits in the trees and John had a brief glimpse of a Treecreeper. Despite the small parties of tourists, the garden had an air of serenity and mindfulness. Bits of the old masonry have been saved and used like seats along the path edges and most bear fragments of either Beatles lyrics or Bible verses.

After lunch we crossed Menlove Avenue to Calderstones Park. Although we aren’t good at evergreens we stopped to look at this Scots Pine. These are clearly flowers, but are they male or female? I looked them up at home later. These are all male, found on lower and weaker branches. The female flowers, which become cones, are on higher branches and we didn’t see any of those at all.

On the lake we were charmed by Mallard ducklings, Canada goslings and a young Coot being fed by a parent.

Around the lake we looked at some large clumps of Three-cornered Leek. They are very pretty, but are they spreading? Yes, it forms large mats and is now considered to be invasive in the UK. It is illegal to plant or dispose of it in the wild.

North of the text garden a labelled young tree was a Yellow Buckeye Aesculus flava, native to North America.

On the western edge of the text garden the Handkerchief tree Davidia involucrata was just starting to put out its large white dangling bracts.

It had turned out to be a very hot afternoon, so we made our way out of the park via the very colourful Rhododendron and Azalea walk. The yellow Azalea, Rhododendron luteum, has a very strong sweet scent but is poisonous in all parts, including the nectar and the “mad honey” made from it.

Public transport details: Bus 76 from Queen Square at 10.02, arriving Menlove Avenue / Beaconsfield Road at 10.30. Returned from Mather Avenue / Storrsdale Road at 2.20 on bus 86, arriving Liverpool city centre at 2.50.
No Sunday walk next week. On 25th May we plan to go to West Kirby, meeting at Central Station at 10 am sharp.

We walked from Longmoor Lane, south down Higher Lane, over the railway bridge, past cul-de-sacs of smart new houses and into the Bluebell Woods, tucked away between Aintree University Hospital and Altcourse Prison. It is where two little waterways run close together, the Tue Brook and the Fazakerley Brook.

It seems to be far more open than when we were last here. Did it lose trees to storms, or is it just being cleared for new paths and forest schools? There were also fewer Bluebells than we remembered. Most patches near the northern edge seem to be the non-native Spanish Bluebell, or thoroughly hybridised from gardens. They have tall upright stems, flowers growing all around, and the petals are not very curled back.

I only found one patch with what looked like a native English bluebell (although there may be more deeper in the woods). This one had a stem nodding to one side, flowers only on that side, and very curled-back petals.

The woods were very quiet, apart from the penetrating birdsong. We recognised Blackbird, Robin, Greenfinch, Wood Pigeon, Chiffchaff and Crow. I turned on the Merlin birdsong identifying app. Two of the other loud ones were Nuthatch and Wren (the latter is one we hardly ever see) and it also picked up Blackcap from all over the woods. Whenever I use the Merlin app it always seems to find Blackcaps, but we never see one. We did spot a Song Thrush and a Great Tit and also what may have been a Blue Tit using one of these tree holes.

That patch of land is possibly too wet and uneven to build on, which is why it is preserved as a wood, although it doesn’t seem to be an ancient woodland. We kept seeing Victorian ornamental trees and shrubs like Monkey Puzzle, Rhododendron, a Red Horse-Chestnut tree.  Has it ever been a landscaped park?  The flowers seem wild enough – Cow Parsley, Hogweed, Wild Garlic. All white ones except Red Campion.

After lunch we went through the hospital, crossed Lower Lane and went into Fazakerley Hall Recreation Ground, which is just a long path leading through to Bridgehouse Lane, and with a large meadow in the middle. Here there were more white flowers like Dogwood, Rowan and Hawthorn. There were carpets of buttercups in the meadow.

It’s quite a good spot for butterflies, although we only saw Speckled Woods and some Whites. Here’s a Small White, basking.

Some of the white butterflies might have been Orange-Tips, because there are large patches of its food plant, Cuckoo Flower also known as Lady’s Smock.

Public transport details: Bus 21 from Queen Square at 10.05. arriving Longmoor Lane / Seeds Lane at 10.32. We all went home different ways from outside the hospital.
Next week we plan to go to Strawberry Fields and Calderstones Park. Meet Elliot Street 10 am.

It was the only dry and sunny day of the Easter weekend. Flaybrick was once the principal cemetery of the well-to-do merchants of Birkenhead, but it is now closed to new burials and is managed as a historical garden and arboretum. It has several champion trees. At this time of year bluebells are coming out in the dappled light, and we also spotted Primroses and one large patch of Wood Anemones. The Garlic Mustard was also out, my first this year.

A few butterflies were moving in the distance, including a Small White (or was it an Orange Tip?) and our first Holly Blue of the year. We stopped to look at the memorial tree to Stephen Titley, the  first ranger of Flaybrick, who died in 2002. His tree is a Red Oak, now about 20 years old. I think I remember being shown it when if was quite small, and now it’s way over our heads, putting out its catkins and dainty little leaves. Over the summer the leaves will become much, much bigger, ending up as huge oak leaves, half as long again as your hand.

A Jay appeared to be eating the pink blossom of a ‘Kanzan’ cherry, but it flew off before we could see what was going on. Near the Tollemache Road entrance was another Cherry tree, with dainty pale pink, semi-double blossom on long dangling stalks. It must be in the last flowering group, and I think it is the variety ‘Pink Perfection’, a cross between ‘Longipes’ and ‘Kanzan’. A very lovely one.

In the cemetery we saw the usual city birds, Magpies, Wood Pigeons and a Blackbird. Chaffinches were singing and a possible Thrush flew by. We lunched on the picnic tables at Tam O’ Shanter urban farm where we also heard Robins and Great Tits. There were lots of little kids running around, excited by the Easter activities, but we watched a bee-keeper tending the hives on the edge of the Alpaca field. He (or she) was kitted out in the full bee suit with a smoke can.

We had been talking about our earliest walks, led by Bob (“the Birdman”) Hughes and vaguely remembering mysterious Wirral destinations such as Noctorum and the path called “Thermopylae Pass”. Where had he taken us? After lunch Margaret (who had recce’d earlier) led us eastward along Upton Road, into Noctorum Lane, past some cul-de-sacs of lovely-looking modern houses and into a park we had never been to, called Bidston Court Gardens. It is built on a west-facing slope, with terraces stepping down by winding brick paths. It was once the setting for a house called Bidston Court, built in 1891 by a soap manufacturer called Robert William Hudson. Then It was owned by John Laird of the Cammel Laird shipbuilders, and then by Sir Ernest Royden. In the late 1920s Royden had the house dismantled, moved and rebuilt in Royden Park, where it is now known as Hillbark. Only the grounds remain as Bidston Court Gardens.

We made our way down the sloping paths to the lowest level, where an avenue of trees led us to the junction with Windermere Road and a bus stop to take us back to Liverpool.

Later, at home, I realised we had been on the “Thermopylae Pass” footpath for part of our wanderings in Bidston Court Gardens. It starts at the gate we entered by and ends at the avenue we left by, although it appears to pass through the gardens in a straighter (and possibly steeper) line. It’s purpose seems to have been to cut across the great northward loop of Upton Road and it was probably named by one of the classically-educated previous owners of the old house.

Public transport details: Bus 437 from Sir Thomas Street at 10.04, arriving Upton Road / Bidston Road at 10.30.  Returned on the 433 bus from Upton Road / Warren Drive at 1.56, arriving Liverpool 2.25. 
No walk next week. On 4th May we plan to go Fazakerley Bluebell woods. Meet Queen Square 10 am.

We visited this park for the first time last September, on a wet and miserable day, and agreed how much better it would be in spring. We were right, it’s a lovely spot. Flanking the main path are two flat-topped cherry trees in a prominent position. Unfortunately we had missed the best of their flowering and they had almost gone over. The remaining flowers were white, about 4cm (two fingers) wide, semi-double and hanging down on longish stems. Possibly the variety ‘Shirotae’ (Mount Fuji).

We also spotted a newly-planted avenue of cherry trees, all upward-trained, three on each side of a short path. Happily, they all still had their nursery labels. For my future reference they were: 1R ‘Sunset Boulevard’; 2R Prunus schmittii; 3R ‘Tai-haku’ (Great White)
1L ‘Tai-haku’(Great White); 2L ‘Sunset Boulevard’; 3L Prunus schmittii.
The customary town birds were scattered over the lawns: Wood Pigeons, Magpies, Feral Pigeons and Carrion Crows. One Crow had a big chunk of bread in its beak, but when it saw some gulls closing in with an eye to steal it, it flew off to a quiet spot on a nearby roof. A pair of Mallards were perched on an old sandstone wall surveying the passers-by.

There are a couple of small duckponds adjacent to Silverbeech Road, holding a few pairs of Mallards, one Moorhen and also a Rat sneaking around the edge.

Many of the trees were in flower, hence the warnings about tree pollen on the weather reports. There was Norway Maple (both green and red varieties), Oak, Ash, Wych Elm, Laburnum, Hawthorn and various fruit trees.

We ate our sandwiches in their lovely walled garden, watched by an opportunist Blackbird and entertained by singing Robins. Some Long-tailed Tits were flitting about in a large curtain of Ivy. As well as the manicured flower beds they have a small orchard there, planted as a memorial to A. Graham Harrison, former Town Clerk of Wallasey and Chairman of the Wirral group of the Cheshire Wildlife Trust. It contains a variety of fruit trees, plum, apple and others we couldn’t name, well-attended by pollinating insects.

Then it was off to walk around the lake, dodging the fishermen as we went. More birds here,  including the usual Mallards, Coots and a Moorhen, but also a dozen or more Canada Geese and a few Herring Gulls. There were beautiful Willow trees on the island, and an area of water ringed by posts with what look like old Xmas trees in it. One of the fishermen said it was a place for the Coots to nest, and it looked like one may have already started.

Two lads had caught a big fish, a Common Carp, over 5 pounds they said. They let me take a picture just before they released it. The lake is stocked with carp for the entertainment of the local fishers, and the poor fish are intended just for catching and putting back. What a life for them!

While we were on the bus this morning we looked at the small park off Poulton Road, which we passed quite a distance before our main destination, and we wondered if it was a different part of the same Wallasey Central Park. Later, as we were at the south end of the fishing lake, we saw a path leading in that direction, so we investigated. Yes, it does come out by the lower park along Poulton Road.  Some of it is laid out as playing fields behind Park Primary School, but a smaller section has been left as rough grassland with a brambly Hawthorn hedge between it and the allotments. The Hawthorn’s May flowers were budding and just starting to come out.

Sparrows were cheeping in the hedge and some Privet berries were hanging on from last autumn.

We also saw more butterflies than we’ve seen recently – several pairs of Small Whites and many  Speckled Woods. It was the best wildlife area of the whole day.

Public transport details: Bus 433 from Sir Thomas Street at 10.17, arriving Liscard Road opp. Chatsworth Avenue at 10.40.  Returned from Liscard Road opp. Martins Lane on the 433 bus at 2.20, arriving Liverpool city centre at 2.42.
Next week we’ll be going to Flaybrick and Tam O’ Shanter. Meet Sir Thomas Street at 10 am.

Princes Park is beautiful, especially at this time of year. We found it at its peak of Cherry blossom, making it a very good place for me to continue learning to distinguish the tree varieties, partly by colour and form (with the aid of Mitchell’s Field Guide, 1976) and also by the timing, as they bloom in five waves. In Stanley Park two weeks ago we were in second group “Early”, which included the Yoshino Cherry, and now we are in the third, called “Early-mid”. A particular star of this third group is the Great White Cherry, ‘Tai-haku’.  I have never knowingly seen one, but according to the tree map from the Friends of Princes Park, there is a group of young ones near the children’s playground. An exciting prospect.

Near the Princes Road entrance is their showpiece Cherry Walk. The white ones along the path appear to be Mount Fuji cherries, ‘Shirotae’, while the pink ones just starting to come out are of the next, fourth wave, ‘Kanzan.

Above the lake is a meadow of Cowslips.

Birds were calling everywhere, some seen, some not – Nuthatch, Greenfinch, Long-tailed Tit, Robin, Chiffchaff, Ring-necked Parakeets, and the ubiquitous Wood Pigeons, Crows and Magpies. A Moorhen was on a branch over the lake, silhouetted against the golden light on the reeds.

Many broadleaf trees were starting to leaf, including this brightly-coloured Indian Horse Chestnut, tree number 227.

As we came past the reeds on the east side we found a motionless Heron, standing so unnaturally still that after a minute or so we began to think it might be a sculpture. Then it blinked.

There weren’t many other lake birds, just small numbers of Coot, Moorhen, Mallard and Canada Geese. By the Belvidere road entrance a lady arrived intent on feeding the gulls. A flock came to her immediately, so she must be a regular. Her clients included Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed gulls, with some juveniles.

Nearby, next to the railing, were three small white-blossomed Cherry trees. Numbers 509/10/11. They had very big white flowers, all white. My four fingers are 7 cm across and these blossoms stretched right across them. Were they the fabled Great White Cherry? They are said to have the  largest flowers of any cherry, 6-8 cm across. These weren’t the trees listed on the Friends’ map, so I thought I had stumbled across some unlisted ones.

We later looked at the tree list on the signboard and it said those trees were variety ‘Ukon’. But ‘Ukon’ is in the next time group, the fourth, so it shouldn’t be fully out yet. ‘Ukon’ is also supposed to be semi-double, petals coloured greenish-yellow at first, and have yellow-brown young leaves. That’s not what I saw. The Great Whites, however, are in the current flowering group, described as pure white and single, having deep red young leaves. I think the ones called ‘Ukon’ might really be Great Whites ‘Tai-haku’. Just to add that the flowers of ‘Ukon’ are merely described as “large”, with no measurements, but the implication is that they aren’t as large as the Great White, because THEY are definitely listed as the largest.

After lunch we went to see the acknowledged Great Whites by the children’s playground, numbers 614-618. They looked the same as the others to me, the ones said to be “Ukon”.

One last Cherry tree I wanted to see was their tree 309, listed as “Mount Fuji, Longipes.” That’s odd because Mitchell’s tree book, the Collins tree guide and Wikipedia all suggest that the Mount Fuji cherry is ‘Shirotae’, the white one in the Cherry walk. ‘Longipes’ is quite different, pink-budded and late. At the spot on the map where 309 ought to have been was a tree which fitted the description of ‘Longipes’, but had no tree number post. The QR code seemed to be saying it was number 29, which isn’t part of the current numbering system.  But it’s on the old map of 2017 as 29, listed (again wrongly, I think) as Mount Fuji Cherry ‘Longipes’ Prunus shimidsu. The nomenclature clearly isn’t fully fixed. Here are the buds of ‘Longipes’, pink bells hanging on very long stalks. It is one of the last cherries to flower and will blossom white.

The Magnolias were out, too. Here’s one that looks like it has been prepared for a botanical illustration.

Public transport details: Bus 75 from Elliot Street at 10.01, arriving Princes Avenue / Kingsley Road at 10.16.  Returned from Princes Road / Princes Gate West on 75 at 2.20, arriving City Centre at 2.30.
Next week we plan to go to Wallasey Central Park, meeting Sir Thomas Street at 10.00.

The Wirral Way is a walking and cycling path which runs for 12 miles along the route of the old Birkenhead Railway line from Hooton to West Kirby. We oldies don’t walk for 12 miles of course, just the first couple of miles and back again. The Wirral Way opened in 1975, so it is now 50 years old. Last summer we spotted stockpiled materials and a sign saying the pathway was to be re-surfaced and widened during the winter. And so it has been. What a transformation! Probably the first time it’s been “tidied up” in those 50 years. I have walked it occasionally for about 20 years and John thinks he might have been doing so for over 40, and we have never seen it cleared like this.

I’m sure it needed doing, but words like “depleted” and “denuded” sprang to mind, with the low bushes and undergrowth all thrashed back severely, sometimes just to woodchip and Bramble.

Although it was a sunny afternoon, we saw no Butterflies or Bumble Bees at all. But the birds were unaffected, Great Tits and Blackbirds were singing from the tall trees on either side. We spotted a Goldcrest low down, pecking at everything, and a Wren disappearing into the edge. Chiffchaffs were calling all along the way. Between Hooton and Hadlow Road (1.7 miles) there were eight of them, giving an average territory length of about 375 yards. This is exactly the same as when I did the same exercise three years ago, on 3rd April 2022. We only spotted one Chiffchaff briefly, but here’s a quizzical Robin, watching us closely.

Plenty of people were out, some with the kids, some on bikes, lots with dogs and some riding horses. The trees were starting to leaf out and flower. Hawthorn, Goat Willow, possible Oak, Bird Cherry and Horse Chestnut.

In one spot at the back of the hedge were bushes with masses of little white flowers coming out. Was it Blackthorn? The date was right and the flowers were right, but the twigs weren’t black and there were no thorns.  But it has to be Blackthorn, I think.

Some early flowers were showing on the verges. Coltsfoot (going over), Green Alkanet, Wild Strawberry, Yellow Archangel (the garden escapee with the silver streaky leaves) and some big patches of Lesser Celandine.

The only insect I saw was this one on a large Dandelion flower. It was about 10-12mm long and probably one the flies – the Diptera.

We were also looking out for Hares today, peering into the neighbouring fields whenever there was gap to see through. No success, sadly. But an unlooked-for pleasure was a flock of about 20-30 Pink-footed Geese, flying over near Hadlow Road. They were in a V formation, calling as they flew, and appeared to be heading slightly south of west. That’s an odd direction for birds starting their migration back to Iceland, or were they heading for the Dee Estuary to fuel up on their way north?

Public transport details: Train from Central at 10.15, arriving Hooton Station at 10.42. Returned from Hooton at 2.45, arriving Central at 3.18.
Next week we plan to go to Princes Park, meeting 10am at Elliot Street

The Cherry trees are starting to come out everywhere, and we saw both white and pink early blossom trees from the bus. Despite the low cloud and occasional showers, Stanley Park’s “Field of Hope” (a mass planting of Daffodils in aid of the Marie Curie cancer charity) brightened the day.

Our first call was to look at the pair of Great Crested Grebes, which John had seen doing their famous mating dance a couple of weeks ago. The same pair were still hanging around at the same distant south-western spot, and they were doing their “alternately head-shaking” routine, but it didn’t progress to full-on dancing.

There were no exciting birds on the northern edge of the lake. Mallards, Coots and Moorhens; Canada Geese honking and behaving aggressively, and just one Little Grebe being chased by a Coot. Another Coot was sitting on a nest adorned with fresh Daffodils. Had it collected them itself (unlikely) or had someone thrown some flowers into the water and the Coot followed its nature and added these odd “sticks” to its nest?

There were, of course, very many Pigeons, Crows, Wood Pigeons and Magpies, but also a Robin and a brief glimpse of a Treecreeper. All the early shrubs were coming out: Forsythia, Darwin’s Barberry, Mahonia and a shrub with yellow “bobble” flowers that one of us guessed might be Jew’s Mallow but it appears to have been the Japanese Marigold Bush, Kerria japonica. Willow trees of both sexes were in flower, the males with “Pussy Willow” catkins and the females with spikier flowers.

On the Priory Road side was a single wonderful white Cherry tree.

Different varieties of Cherry bloom at different times, and Mitchell’s tree book lists five sequential groups. The first are the Cherry Plums, which were out two or three weeks ago. I think we are now in the second time zone called “Early” and if so this magnificent tree must be the Yoshino Cherry Prunus X yedoensis which bears white flowers before the leaves.

I am hoping to learn more Cherry varieties this year, and especially hoping to find and identify a Great White Cherry ‘Tai-haku’, which is said to flower in the next time group “Early-Mid”. It has huge white flowers, 6-8 cm, almost twice the size of the ones on this tree, which are 3.5-4 cm.

We came around to the Great Crested Grebes again, and one was apparently checking out a Coot nest, with the Coot still on it. I thought it was going to be seen off aggressively, but the Coot just gave it a hard stare.

We had seen Great Crested Grebes in other spots on our circuit of the lake and thought it was the same pair moving about, but we eventually concluded that there must be TWO pairs in Stanley Park at the moment, which is hopeful. One came quite near the bridge and I got a good shot of it.

And I leave you with a back view of a pair of Mallards. They are such common birds, it’s easy to forget how beautiful they are. And we don’t often get a good look at the complex feather patterns on their rear ends.

Public transport details: Bus 19 from Queen Square at 10.15, arriving Walton Lane / Bullens Road at 10.35 (outside Everton’s Goodison Park football stadium). Returned on the 19 bus from Walton Lane opp Newby Street at 2.00, arriving Liverpool at 2.15.
Next week we plan to walk some of the Wirral Way from Hooton to Hadlow Road and back. Meet at Central Station at 10am.