Our first Sunday walk of the year was yet another flippin’ wet day, with continuous light rain. We walked through the dell, admiring the winter trees. Not many birds about, just Wood Pigeons hunkered down in thicker parts of the trees, Crows, Jackdaws and Magpies calling, a Blackbird scuttling across the path and some Blue Tits in a shrub. We also spotted one, or maybe two, Wrens, in the darkest corners of the dell bank. Grey Squirrels were racing around tree trunks and pursuing each other energetically: it’s that time of year. The only wildflowers were some Daisies in the grass, but there were some neat clumps of Snowdrops. Further on we spotted some buds of yellow Crocus showing through the wet grass.
In June last year we saw a shrub near the church gate, and one of the possibilities was that it was a Witch Hazel. If it was, it would have been blooming characteristically today, but it wasn’t. Scratch that idea. One early Forsythia flower was out, far too early, but we weren’t sure it was the same shrub. But there were a couple of winter-flowering shrubs to brighten the day, Viburnum x bodnantense (no common name) and Laurustinus.
We went into the garden centre to use their restrooms, and in the absence of any other dry seats, went to eat our lunches in a shelter on the station platform. On the way we admired a couple of Foxgloves growing on the outside of a garden wall. After lunch, dispirited by the rain, we headed home.
Public transport details: Train from Liverpool Central at 10.15, arriving Port Sunlight station at 10.32. Returned from same station at 12.39, arriving Central at 13.00
Next week we plan to go to Sefton Park, meeting Elliot Street at 10.00.
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.