Crosby, 2nd February 2025

Crosby Marine Lake doesn’t quite count towards World Wetland Day, but we bagged a pretty good bird list of 21 species, not bad for us. We got off the bus outside Potter’s Barn, a run-down small park just off the main road, Crosby Road South. Our first birds were sitting on a rooftop railing there, a Wood Pigeon and a Collared Dove.

There is a House Sparrow colony in the bushes by the big warehouse mural, and Carrion Crows and Magpies loitered around the car park. We didn’t go into the little nature reserve there because the wooden boardwalks were very slippery, so we went around the side to look at the bay next to the sailing club. Last year we saw some exciting birds here, but today there were only Black-headed Gulls sitting on the mooring posts. A Pied Wagtail pottered on the muddy edge but we looked in vain for the rare Smew which had visited here last week, and there weren’t even any Little Grebes.  Our luck turned as we headed northwards along the path next to the children’s playground. A Little Egret appeared to be skulking in the boulders which edge the lake and I thought it was ill, but it had just found a spot sheltered from the wind, with its feet in the water.

Then it roused itself and started moving amongst the boulders. It was right by the path, within a few feet of passers-by and apparently not wary of people at all.  What a lovely bird it is, with its gorgeous white plumes, black beak, yellow feet and black claws. It was finding food, too, right there at the lake edge.

On the smaller Boating Lake there was the usual crowd of birds. The local people come here with their toddlers to “feed the birds”, so it is a good place for juvenile Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls to spend their first winter.

Young Swans come here, too and there are lots of Canada Geese, Mallards and Coots. But there must be plenty of shellfish in the bottom, because diving ducks do well here, even rarities sometimes. There was a small flotilla of Tufted Ducks.

On the far bank a single Oystercatcher was resting up and there were several Turnstones on the edge. (They are the little brown and white birds, dwarfed by the Gulls). I haven’t seen those here before. Are their numbers increasing?

We lunched in Marine Gardens. Someone had just scattered bird food in a regular spot, and lots of little birds came to it, just a few feet from us. A Wood Pigeon was trying to monopolise it, and seeing off an interloper, so the little birds took their chances to sneak in. We had Robin, Dunnock, a female Blackbird, several House Sparrows, and a Blue Tit in a tree nearby.

Then we walked northwards through all four seafront gardens, with more Oystercatchers flying and  peeping overhead. The Snowdrops were out, but the Daffodils were just starting to show buds.

The winter-flowering evergreen shrub Laurustinus was blooming, and the Flowering Currant buds were breaking. Daisies were open on the path edges and the deep red flowers of Japanese Quince were popping out.

A few years ago The Friends of Waterloo Seafront Gardens replaced a Toposcope, which local residents fondly remembered from their childhoods.  It looks like a sundial, but it shows the directions and distances to points of interest. Blackpool 22 miles, Snowdon 52 miles and so on. Perhaps before the dunes and treees grew so high these points were visible, but not now. The plate also indicates distances to other places called Waterloo, in Belgium, Sierra Leone and Australia!

Public transport details: Bus 47 from Queen Square at 10.17, arriving Crosby Road South opp. Durham Road at 10.45. I could walk home from there but the others got the 53 bus back to Liverpool at 2.00 from Oxford Road / Courtenay Road.
Next week we will meet at Queen Square at 10 am and, depending on the weather, might go to the Cathedral to see the “Threads through the Bible” tapestries, or to Southport for a Bear Hunt.

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.

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