
On our first walk of 2025 we planned to join the Friends of Princes Park for a Big Garden Birdwatch event, but that wasn’t on until after lunch, so we went to Sefton Park first, walking from the Dingle corner via Ullet Road and Linnet Lane. There was a bitingly cold wind, with rain forecast for later. In the park there were branches and twigs down everywhere, the after-effects of last week’s storm Éowyn. Near the old bowling greens, high in a bare tree, we noted a cluster of leaves and branches. Was this a Squirrel drey? We thought it was about 1 to 2 feet (30-60cm) across, and it was the wrong shape for a Magpie nest. Squirrel dreys are said to be leafy, and very high up, so it probably was.

There was a party of Long-tailed Tits high up by café, and the usual Crows and Magpies. We thought we heard Ring-necked Parakeets and spotted one high in a tree. I was hoping for some signs of spring, perhaps snowdrops or hazel catkins, but neither of those were on display. However, the Witch Hazel near the Eros statue was in bloom.


We lunched by the old aviary, sheltered from the wind. We scattered bird food on the edge of the shrubbery and were rewarded by a Robin and a couple of Magpies. As a light rain started we headed back northwards by the obelisk path. Later in the year this path is lined with a magnificent display of Crocuses, and we were surprised to see some very early ones peeking out.


Into Princes Park via Windermere Terrace. In the backwaters of the lake were Mallards and Coots, and on the grassy opposite bank was a great crowd of Pigeons and Gulls, mostly Black-headed. One of us spotted a Cormorant sidling away around a bend in the lake bank. As we rounded a quiet corner we came upon about eight Moorhens grazing. As soon as they saw us they headed back into the reeds. We knew they often came out of the water to graze grassy banks, but had never seen so many all together like that.

We went along by the tennis courts to look at their group of six Great White Cherries. They are still only small young trees but I hope they will bloom this year. I’d like to learn what they look like so I can identify others.

Across the fields is a modern sculpture, The Henge, made of wood and put up about ten years ago. It has a platform in the middle (currently under repair) which faces the sunrise at the summer solstice. It is a focal point for large and small celebrations and meetings, including Eid, weddings, solstices, yoga groups and simply for picnics.

We eventually found the Friends group who had been doing some gardening. They had decided it was too cold to go ahead with the Birdwatch. We were relieved, to be honest. As we headed out we saw a Jay crossing from treetop to treetop above our path.
Opposite our bus stop at the southern end of Park Road is a very old building, The Ancient Chapel of Toxteth, Grade I listed. It was built in about 1615 and continues to be used as a Unitarian Chapel to this day. Of interest to my American friends is that one of its first preachers was a young man called Richard Mather. At that time he and the chapel were nominally Anglican (Episcopalian), but Richard Mather was a Puritan, as were most of his parishioners, and so he was suspended from his ministry in 1633 and 1634. The following year he emigrated to Massachusetts Bay Colony. He became father to Increase Mather and grandfather to Cotton Mather, celebrated Boston theologians, who played a central role in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-3. The chapel stands incongruously on a busy corner in the south of the city and is much visited by American tourists.

Public transport details: Bus 82 from Elliot Street at 10.10, arriving Aigburth Road / Ullet Road at 10.25. Returned on bus 82 from Park Road / Gredington Street at 1.25, arriving Liverpool ONE at 1.40.
Next week we will meet 10 am Queen Square and might go to Crosby to look for the Smew, if it is still being reported.