From Grove Road station we walked past St Nicholas’s church and the golf club to the southern end of King’s Parade. It was a warm, humid day, with a refreshing sea breeze. At the station, we noted the first red Holly berries of the year, and along the golf course hedge there were some small ripe Rose hips, Marble galls on a small oak and ripening Honeysuckle berries. On the corner of Coastal Drive, near the Pitch and Put area, there seems to be a very low spot, probably still marshy, with reeds and bulrushes growing green and resisting the drought. We thought we saw a small flight of Linnets dive into it.
The tide was out, and there wasn’t much bird life on the beach, just a few Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. The intelligent local Carrion Crows were doing their clever trick with Cockles, collecting live, tightly-closed ones from the sand, then dropping them onto the hard pavement of the prom to break them open. Then they could get at the contents, tackling them either on the top of the sea wall, or on the prom itself, risking disturbance by the passers-by.
We lunched by the model boat club’s pool, watching the model yachts, tugs and destroyers whizzing around. A Pied Wagtail flew overhead towards the beach. As we carried on towards New Brighton, we saw both the Irish and Isle of Man ferries going out. There were a few Oystercatchers on the beach, and several Cormorants on a navigation tower.
The pontoons on the Marine Lake had no waders at all, just two juvenile Herring Gulls and an adult. In the dusty, sandy gutters opposite the Floral Pavilion theatre we spotted a couple of tough plants hanging on, despite the drought and the footfall. I thought one was Scentless Mayweed (definitely no scent in its crushed leaves), but it might have been the rarer Sea Mayweed, just because of its location. Even scruffier was a small clump of Gallant Soldier.
My Buddleia at home has been attracting more butterflies than the usual one or two. I think I have had 6 or 7 Painted Ladies at once some afternoons, at the same time as a Red Admiral and several Small Whites. Here are some Painted Ladies.
Public transport details: New Brighton train from Central at 10.20, arriving Wallasey Grove Road at 10.40. Returned on bus 432 at 1.28 from King’s Parade / Morrison’s, arriving Liverpool at 2.00.
Next week we plan to go to Sefton Park, meeting Elliot Street at 10 am or at the Boathouse café around 10.20 to 10.30.
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.