Despite the day starting in a fine drizzly rain, we visited several different places today. The first was the new wildlife mural off Knowsley Road in Bootle, running along a railway line on a footpath leading to All Saints Primary and Thomas Gray Primary Schools. The mural is 160 meters long, and is believed to be the longest hand-painted mural in the UK. It has been painted by Liverpool artist Paul Curtis and shows British flora and fauna commonly found along railway lines. The schoolchildren collaborated on the design, and it was funded by Sefton Council.
As we left we spotted a very big Rowan tree with white or yellow berries. It’s on the corner of Chestnut Road and Balfour Road, and think it is variety ‘Joseph Rock’.
Then we went back to the bus route and continued to Potter’s Barn Park. It’s only a tiny park and we walked straight through it to Crosby Marine Lake. Around the Lake House restaurant there were hedges of Rosa rugosa, Japanese or Beach rose, with its large and abundant fruit. It’s lovely in gardens and hedges but is invasive on coastal dunes and has to be removed.
Around the lake there were Swallows and House Martins overhead. One Oystercatcher flew off from the grass. There were five Mute Swans on the Boating Lake, also Coots, Black-headed Gulls, a few adult and juvenile Herring Gulls, and flocks of Starlings on the banks. Three Little Egrets were on the far side of the Marine Lake, and one took to flight southwards.
Wild flowers on the verges included Chicory, Evening Primrose, Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Red and White Clovers. After lunch it turned warm and sunny and we strolled through the Seafront gardens. In the houses along here there are two Titanic-related blue plaques. One is for John Smith, the captain, and the other is the Ismay family home, who were founders and owners of the White Star Line. There weren’t many birds in the gardens, just Magpies and Wood Pigeons, but we did spot a Long-tailed Tit in hedge. We noted Spanish Broom, some Fairy Ring toadstools and three Painted Lady butterflies on a late-blooming Buddleia.
We lingered at the wildlife pond in Beach Lawn Garden. There were several bright red male Common Darter dragonflies resting on the warm stone edges.
A Common Pond Skater was sitting quietly, with some legs on the water surface and some on a blade of grass.
This one is a mystery. It was under the water, crawling purposefully along the concrete pond floor. It was about the size of a dragonfly body, but it had no apparent legs so it wasn’t one of their nymphs. It may have had many little legs underneath, or it may have been some kind of worm or leech. Anyone know it?
Public transport details: Bus 47 from Queen Square at 10.15, arriving Knowsley Road / Hornby Road at 10.38 where we stopped for the mural. Then the next 47 bus from Knowsley Road / Percy Street at 11.06, arriving Crosby Road South / opp Durham Road (for Potter’s Barn) at 11.10. Returned on 53 bus from Oxford Road / Courtney Road at 2.10.
Next week we are going to Southport. Meet at Central Station a little before 10 am, in time to catch the 10.02 train.
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.