It was a Bank Holiday heatwave, with bright sun and a cloudless sky. Luckily for us, most paths in Birkenhead Park are under trees, cool and shady for strolling around. Near the Ashville Road gateway into the lower park a pair of Blue Tits were flying back and forth, but we couldn’t see where they were nesting. A Nuthatch usually calls around this spot, too. There is one unusual tree here, a Yellow Buckeye Aesculus flava, a relative of the Horse Chestnut from the Appalachian mountains of the Eastern US.
Another interesting tree noted today was a Beech with very well-advanced seeds, well-formed and hard to the touch.
Most of the Sycamores still have their green flower spikes hanging down, but this one had its seeds set, startlingly red. I see these occasionally – there is a row of them in Ormskirk between the Cricketer’s pub and Morrison’s – and I suspect it is a cultivated variety.
On the open fields or lurking in the trees were Jackdaws, Starlings, Magpies, Crows and Wood Pigeons. The rare Cucumber tree, which was severely pollarded this winter, is now re-sprouting.
On the lake were Canada Geese, Coots, a Moorhen, some Mallards, an occasional Herring Gull, but nothing unusual. More noteworthy were the millions of swarming insects over the water. They were like little white butterflies, and have been appearing all over the country. Newspaper reports are calling them whiteflies, but they aren’t the greenhouse pest. It looks like mass hatching and mating behaviour, although they weren’t dancing up and down, just flying in horizontal swirls. The ducks and geese were showing no sign of jumping up to eat them. I wonder what they are?
Near the Jackson Memorial is lovely shrub called Chinese Dogwood Cornus kousa. On it we found a very tiny ladybird, about 4mm across. The FSC identification chart suggests it is a 14-spot ladybird (the black on yellow variation) Propylea 14-punctata.
From the Boathouse balcony we had a vantage point over a bay of warm shallow water. The Carp, introduced to the lake for the anglers, were spawning. They are big beasts, 2 foot long or more, looking like sharks circling. They were mostly black ones, with a few white-and-orange ones. They cruised about slowly, then there was an occasional flurry and splash as two or three got together and mated.
We saw lots of Holly Blue butterflies, a Speckled Wood and what was probably a Large White. They were all too fast or too far to take a picture of. Around the lake in the Upper Park we had glimpses of a Wren and some Long-tailed Tits, which didn’t pose for the camera either. But we had more luck with several families of Canada Geese, broods of 5, 7 and 6, each at different ages.
There are still Terrapins there. We saw this group of three on a log, including one huge individual on the top.
In the Holt’s Garden, near the entrance off Cavendish Road, there is a rare small thorn tree. I have no idea what it is, and there are many dozens of species in the Crataegus genus, but I like to look at it every time we pass, hoping one day to be enlightened.
Public transport details: The West Kirby train from Central at 10.05, arriving Birkenhead Park station at 10.16. Returned on bus 437 from Park Road North / Asquith Avenue at 2.22, arriving Liverpool at 2.35.
Next week we are joining the MNA for a visit to Dibbinsdale. Meet Central at 10am for the 10.15 train to Ellesmere Port. We meet the MNA at Bromborough Rake station at 11am.