On our last walk of the year we had planned to go to Eastham Woods, but high winds of 50-60 mph meant it wasn’t safe. So we went to Port Sunlight instead. As well as the strong winds, there were bouts of squally rain. There wasn’t even a civic Christmas tree to brighten the day, just this slightly wonky “Post Box Topper” of the Nativity opposite the war memorial.
This was no fun at all so we headed for the Lady Lever Art Gallery and sat in their nice warm café, sipping tea. The only “wildlife” we noticed was on the way back to Port Sunlight station, where some roses were still flowering in the Rose Garden.
A couple of weeks ago a MNA member called Janet found a very unusual pine or fir cone in Calderstones Park and posted a picture of it on the MNA WhatsApp group. She identified it as the cone of a Santa Lucia Fir Abies bracteata, but couldn’t find the tree itself. This is quite a rare tree. My Mitchell’s tree book says of it “Infrequent, in large gardens mainly in SW England. Cones seen rarely in the biggest trees only, extraordinary for long bristly protruding bracts”.
The tree in Calderstones is known to the Tree Register of Great Britain and Ireland, which lists it as the height and girth Champion of Lancashire – 17 m (56 ft) tall, 86 cm (34 in) girth. It also gives a grid reference and pictures of the tree itself. Last Thursday I went to Calderstones and found it.
For anyone else wanting to look at it, walk south from the Compton’s Lane car park. On the left, immediately after the end of the car park, is a group of conifers. The Santa Lucia Fir is the tree with three narrow whitish trunks springing from the ground, next to the hedge, and I have marked what I think are its three tall pointy crowns on this map.
There are still plenty of cones on the tree, growing right at the top. They don’t look fresh, so maybe they emerged some time in early 2024.
Janet was in touch with someone from Hergest Croft Gardens in Kington, Herefordshire, who were amazed when their Santa Lucia Fir “coned” (produced cones) for the first time in early 2024. It featured in several Welsh newspapers and magazines. The last recorded time that one of their older specimens of this tree had produced a cone was in the early 1960s. So it looks like our tree in Calderstones coned at around the same time as theirs. Something about the climate?
Public transport details: Bus 1 from Sir Thomas Street at 10.14, arriving New Chester Road / Shore Drive at 10.40. Returned on the train from Port Sunlight Station at 12.24, arriving Liverpool Central at 12.50.
No Sunday walks now until 26th January 2025, meeting Queen Square, and we will decide on the day where to go.
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.