It was a morning of fine rain, lending everywhere a misty look. Greenbank Park was quiet and we spotted a Jackdaw on the grass and a Robin on a fence. There were only a few common waterbirds on the lake: Coots, Mallards, Canada Geese, Black-headed Gulls and Herring Gulls.
The walled garden was particularly pretty in the damp haze. The flowers on the Wisteria arch had gone over, but there are still some seed pods hanging under the pergola if anyone wants to try growing from seed. The small trees on the lawns are all rather lovely. There’s a young Gingko and something with variegated leaves, and flower buds that look like Privet. Possibly a Ligustrum ovalifolium ‘Argentum’, said to be late-flowering and bigger than a hedge plant.
They have a Tamarisk tree. There are two species, early-flowering and summer-flowering, and this must be the latter, Tamarix pentandra.
We found a tree known as a Box Elder, but it’s really one of the Maple family, Acer trifolium. The leaves don’t look maple-like, but have three leaflets (as in the Latin name), and the seeds are obviously Acer-type wings. This will be a female tree of course, and there must be a male tree nearby, but they are hard to find.
One new planting was labelled Sorbus x thuringiaca ‘Fastigiatum’ I thought the name rang a bell, but it wasn’t until I looked it up at home that I found it was a Bastard Service tree, a hybrid between Whitebeam and Rowan, and a lifer for me. It has interesting leaves, partly broken up into leaflets as if it can’t decide how they should be. Sadly I didn’t take a picture of them because I didn’t realise they were so interesting.
Then we headed down Greenbank Lane for a brief visit to Sefton Park for lunch and loo. The rain had almost stopped, and we noted Carrion Crows, Wood Pigeons and the noisy Ring-necked Parakeets flying overhead. Then up Greenbank Drive to Sefton Park Allotments Open Day. The produce table was well-patronised. Not much on it at any one time, but the plot holders kept on bringing more bags of stuff.
We met two other MNA members there. Chen B, who is a plot holder and was volunteering on the produce table, and Mike T, just visiting, who had found a clump of little fungi. Possibly in the Boletus genus. Were they Penny Bun Boletus edulis? But I think these were too small for that.
There was a Scarecrow competition
There were a few butterflies on the wing when the weak sun came out, mostly Whites, but this Meadow Brown was resting on some netting.
The man on the allotment dedicated to the SSFA (service veterans organisation) got talking about wildlife and said that on good sunny days there are clouds of butterflies over the vegetable plots. He also told us of a huge caterpillar he had found that morning. Jet black, maybe short hair, no spikes or horns. He had it across his palm and it overlapped on both sides (So 4 inches? 10 cm?). John got out his FSC caterpillar ID card, and the man said the one he found was bigger than all of the ones pictured. He had no specimen to show. He had been slightly horrified by it, and threw it into the woody hedge surrounding the allotments. From his description it might have been either a Goat Moth or an Elephant Hawk Moth, although neither is jet black all over. Any suggestions?
He also had my favourite scarecrow, “Just checkin’ my spuds”.
And here are some of the interesting things that were growing. Grapes, Globe artichokes, Tomatoes, large round Courgettes.
Public transport details: Bus 86 from Elliot Street at 10.02, arriving Smithdown Road / Borrowdale Road (the Brookhouse) at 10.20. Returned on bus 86A from Smithdown Road / Nicander Road at 1.35, arriving city centre at 1.55.
No Sunday walk next week. On 17th August meet Queen Square at 10 am and we will decide on the day.