Another misty morning, still and mild. Landican Cemetery has many small blossom trees, like cherries and crab apples, on which nothing much is happening at the moment, except that the Cherries have dropped their yellow and orange leaves in neat circles below themselves, and in these still conditions, they haven’t scattered.
Birds were almost absent, or hiding. Wood Pigeons and Magpies flew about, with the occasional Jay. Robins, Blackbirds, and possibly a Thrush dodged about behind the hedges. Several little birds appeared to be ducking and diving within dense stately evergreens, feeding on seeds and cones. I think this one is a Monterrey Cypress.
In a sheltered hedge corner a blue flower caught our attention. I think it’s a Perennial Cornflower, Centaurea montana. It is thought to be originally a garden escape, but is widely naturalised. It’s clump-forming, and flowers May-to October, so it isn’t far out of its time.
After lunch we headed over to Arrowe Park for more autumn colour.
We wandered about, reading the new labels on common trees, distinguishing Sycamore from Norway Maple, English Oaks from Turkey Oaks, Himalayan Cedars from Atlas Cedars. A Pin Oak Quercus palustris was magnificently bronze.
Along one of the main paths several old trunks of dead trees have been left to decay, and the bracket fungi are working away at rotting them down.
A digression about Gingko trees. Here are the magnificent five in their autumn yellow in Williamson Square in Liverpool City Centre.
Gingko trees are dioecious – they come as separate male and female trees. When the fruit of a female tree falls to the pavement, it squishes to a slippery mess and is foul-smelling to boot. No local authority wants complaints from the public about the hazardous mess, so they plant exclusively male trees, which are better-behaved. Consequently, I have never seen a female Gingko tree. Last week I had a tip-off that one of the five Gingkoes at Springwood was a female, and it was fruiting. Here is the tree, the tall pale green one, located just behind the crematorium and chapels.
There were some fruits on the branches higher up, but I had to hunt around to find any on the ground beneath. I think the gardeners have tidied them up, and there has been no wind in the last few days to bring any more down.
Here are the only three fruits I found, with a 50p piece for scale. They are long-stalked, about the size of cherries.
At home, I cut the largest one open to reveal a single seed inside the pulp, about the size and shape of a pumpkin seed. I sniffed at the open fruit gingerly, expecting something horrible, but smelt nothing at all. I have just had a cold, so maybe my sense of smell is off.
Public transport details: Bus 471 from Sir Thomas Street at 10.04, arriving Arrowe Park Road / Landican Cemetery at 10.35. Returned from the bus stop at Arrowe Park Hospital on the 471 bus at 1.55, arriving Liverpool city centre at 2.25. No Sunday walk next week, as most of us are going on an MNA coach trip to RSPB Leighton Moss. Details of the walk on the following Sunday, 22nd November, to be advised.
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.