Another warm and sunny day with a clear blue sky. New Brighton was having its first Scarecrow Festival, arranged by the residents of the Magazine Lane Conservation area. It’s a little lost village amongst the urban sprawl. (Magazine, by the way, does not refer in this case to brightly-coloured reading matter, but to its earlier meaning of a place to store explosives and ammunition. The original building here kept the shot and gunpowder for the Napoleonic Fort Perch Rock.) One of the gatehouses remains opposite Fort Road.
We spent the morning looking at the Scarecrows in people’s front gardens. They were numbered in situ, but the separate name list was a puzzle intended for the kids, to decide which was which.
We sat in Vale Park for lunch and on the way out we inspected their Mulberry tree. It’s fruiting well, with squished ones on the ground beneath, but no ripe black ones to pick. Either the local foragers are arriving early in the morning or the birds are eating them before they are fully ripe.
It became very hot in the afternoon. The tide was out, leaving a much larger expanse of beach than we usually see. There were the usual three types of Gull in amongst the pools, HG, LBB and BHG, several Oystercatchers, and also a dainty Little Egret.
From a distance we could see lots of birds on the pontoons, more than we expected at low tide. Birds usually gather there when the feeding grounds are covered at HIGH tide.
As we got nearer we could see they were about 200 Turnstones, still in summer plumage, and many were preening energetically. Had they just arrived from their breeding season in eastern Canada and Greenland?
Public transport details: Bus 432 from Sir Thomas Street at 10.02, arriving Magazine Lane / Stanford Avenue at 10.29. Returned on bus 432 from King’s Parade / Morrison’s at 2.30, arriving Liverpool 3.05.
Next week we plan to go to Festival Gardens. Meet 10 am at Central Station.