
Although Taylor Park was once a gentleman’s estate, there are no fancy trees here. The main attraction is the lake. There are very many birds living here, including Mallards, Coots, Moorhens, Canada Geese, a few Herring Gulls, a pair of Mute Swans, and some distant Tufted Duck. Pigeons are all over the pathways. And, of course, large numbers of Black-headed Gulls. We were pleased to find four of them with blue leg rings, which we noted and reported later.

278F was ringed as an adult at Taylor Park on 2nd December 2022. There have been 11 sightings of it since then, all at Taylor Park, but only in late summer, autumn and winter. It must go elsewhere to breed in spring, but nobody has reported it yet.
221L and 222L were ringed as adults at Taylor Park on 30th November 2023. Sighted 5 times and 11 times respectively at Taylor Park, but only in autumn or winter. These two must also go elsewhere to breed, but nobody knows where.
The star bird was 210E, ringed as an adult at Taylor Park on 27th January 2022. It has been sighted 26 times since then, 19 times at Taylor Park in the off-season, but the other seven sightings were in Norway, reported in summer 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Every year it flies back to one of several places in the fjord south of Oslo, presumably to breed.

A path just before the quarry garden leads to the right, up shallow steps to the viewpoint. Half way up is an open area with several garden benches, just right for our lunch. When it was quiet the small grassy lawn was a haunt of Grey Squirrels, Magpies and Wood Pigeons. There was also a puddle on the path that the birds knew well, so we scattered some birdseed and sat quietly as a Song Thrush came to drink and bathe, and then another one. The second was a bit fluffy and might have been a grown-up chick.


The Birch trees all around had two Goldcrests, a Long-tailed Tit and a Blue Tit, and then a Robin and a Blackbird came at the same time for some seed and a drink.

Then we walked around the lake. At the far end a family of rats had made their home. An adult and at least two little ones were scampering about on some broken rock and concrete at the edge. They may be reviled rats, but it doesn’t stop the little ones being cute.

Near some houses at the north end Jackdaws were flying about. It turned out to be a bumper day for ringed birds. One Moorhen bore an orange ring on its left leg which we read as D34, but the code wasn’t recognised on the Waterbird Colour-marking Group’s website. Perhaps we read it wrong. But there was more success with a Coot marked BFF on a white ring. It had been first ringed at Taylor Park on 2nd December 2022. It had been sighted 11 times since then, but it didn’t lead a very exciting life. Six reports were from Taylor Park while the other five were from a place noted as “nr Ashton’s Green St Helens”, which seems to be a little wetland called The Duckeries on the other side of St Helens.
The usual notices were up on the lake railings about not feeding bread to the birds, and that birdseed is better. Some families had got the message, but others hadn’t. One young Mum with three or four kids in tow was encouraging a little girl to get to the bottom of a bag of sliced white, and she had three other complete loaves in waiting, all presumably to be thrown to the birds around the lake. Old habits die hard. At least one of the Canada Geese was showing signs of the deformity called “angel wing”, thought to be caused by too much bread.

On the way out we heard Nuthatch calls, probably two of them calling over each other, but we couldn’t see them overhead.
Public transport details: Bus 10A from Queen Square at 10.07, arriving Prescot Road / Toll Bar at 11.05. Returned on bus 10 from Prescot Road / Toll Bar at 2.28, arriving Liverpool at 3.20. Next week we plan to go to Speke Hall. Meet at Elliot Street at 10 am.
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.