The Naturalists' Notebook

On a dry, sunny and unseasonably warm day we visited Calderstones Park, arriving at the Menlove Avenue side. For a change, we wandered to the right, through the shrubbery to the open southern field. There were at least half a dozen Ring-necked Parakeets squawking overhead and some lovely toadstools below, probably the Parasol Mushroom, Macrolepiota procera.

We stopped to look at three dead trees in the open field, which had quite upright shapes, all looking like they had been the same species. One was sprouting from the base, and the leaves were shiny green, arranged alternately, coarsely toothed and very uneven at the base. Definitely some kind of Elm. I think they were the rare Huntingdon Elm Ulmus vegeta. They may have been planted as an experiment to see if they were resistant to Dutch Elm disease. Clearly they aren’t. A very big one at Flaybrick died a few years ago, too, after hanging on longer than most Elms.

We spotted a Nuthatch on ground and two Goldcrests in a Red Horse Chestnut. A Red Admiral and a distant white butterfly went past. It’s very late for them to still be on the wing.  One dead tree stump had another interesting fungus, but I have no idea what this one was.

On the lake were Mallards, Canada Geese, Coots, Moorhen, and a Robin in the shrubbery.

Next to the island, a Red-eared Terrapin was basking on a log, below a preening Moorhen.

The magnificent avenue of American Limes (or Basswoods) passes here. There are over a hundred of them lining the main drive through the park, sweeping south east to north west. One of them is the County Champion of its species, but they are all so perfectly alike it’s almost impossible to pick out the tallest or fattest.

The autumn fruits are very abundant this year. The Sweet Chestnut trees are full, although not many of the nuts are of edible size. The Deodar Cedar had more baby cones than I have ever seen, and this golden-edged Holly was full of berries.

The Chinese Dogwood in the ornamental garden was also full of red fruits, and in the Japanese garden, the rather garish oddity, Harlequin Glorybower Clerodendrum trichotomum, was doing its weird thing.

They have a couple of Mimosa or Silver Wattle trees, which bear copious yellow flowers as early as February. They are in bud now outside the Japanese garden.

To celebrate autumn, there was a lovely display of sewn or knitted pumpkins on the mantelpiece in the Manor House.

Public transport details: Bus 86A from Elliot Street at 10.10, arriving Mather Avenue / Ballantrae Road at 10.40. Returned on bus 86 from Menlove Avenue / Storrsdale Road at 2.08, arriving city centre 2.40.

Childwall Woods and Fields is a Local Nature Reserve, originally the woodland garden of local  lawyer Isaac Green, now one of the best semi-natural woodlands in Liverpool. Isaac planted young Beeches and Sweet Chestnuts about 300 years ago, and now some have survived to become recognised “veterans”. They also have a very rare tree, a Variegated Oak, described below.

We spent the morning walking the paths in the fine drizzle and heavier, drippy showers, trying to avoid the muddiest areas. Not many birds around, but we spotted Nuthatch and Robin and heard a Buzzard. The Sweet Chestnuts have had a good year, and the fallen seeds and spiky husks were thick on the ground.

After lunch two of us stayed for a guided walk led by the Friends of Childwall Woods and Fields.   We covered much of the same ground, but learned more. The sun came out, too. Childwall woods aren’t old enough to qualify as ancient, but they have been largely undisturbed for centuries. The 300-year-old Beeches and Sweet Chestnuts are reaching the ends of their lives, but there are many younger trees growing amongst them, including Sycamore, Ash, Lime, Horse Chestnut, Holly Yew, Rowan and Hawthorn.

The woods are rich in fungi, with many puffballs underfoot, bracket fungi all over the dead and fallen wood, and this pretty pink one which might be very small young growth of Purple Jellydisc Ascocoryne sarcoides

The area has long been on my wish list because they have a pair of very rare trees. Variegated Oak Quercus robur ‘Variegata’. There are said to be only 68 of them in England. The Friends think they were planted about 100 years ago as prestigious garden features, bought as grafted trees. Sadly, one was blown over in Storm Arwen in  November 2021. It had been the Lancashire County Champion, but now the other one, still standing next to a path, has taken over that honour. Happily, the fallen tree has started to re-sprout, so isn’t quite dead. See the special page on the Friends website

This is the oldest veteran Beech, now hollow and shedding branches.

And this is their largest veteran tree, a 300-year-old Sweet Chestnut, 4.6m in diameter.

Public transport details: Bus 75 from Gt. Charlotte Street at 10.02, arriving Woolton Road / Childwall Park Avenue at 10.27. I returned on bus 81 from Childwall Abbey Road / Taggart Avenue at 3.55, then another bus north from Bootle. Long day.

We have passed the autumn equinox, and as we walked up Long Lane, Aughton, ripe conkers were falling around us. The Rowan and Guelder Roses are full of bright red berries. We thought we glimpsed either a Swallow or a House Martin over the houses, quite a late stayer. Then we crossed the A59 Liverpool Road and headed up Gaw Hill Lane and Holly Lane to Gorse Hill nature reserve for their annual Apple Festival.

They used to have their apple weekend in mid-October but now the apples are ripening two or three weeks earlier, another sign of climate change. The orchard wasn’t looking its best. A group of Roe Deer visited last winter and barked a lot of the trees. The affected trees have survived but are now protected with tree guards around the trunks. They have borne smaller apples this year. Then they had a shortage of volunteers in the spring to thin the apple buds, so even on the undamaged trees, they have more and smaller apples than they would have liked.

But there were still plenty of apples on display in the sales barn, of dozens of varieties.

We mad a quick visit into the woods to look at the rare (for Lancashire) Wayfaring Tree, which was starting to fruit. We also admired a Pedunculate Oak with its acorns forming well. It had fewer knopper galls than we see in Liverpool parks (possibly because the wasp’s co-host, Turkey Oak, hasn’t been planted here.) The little red structures in the middle are next spring’s buds.

We returned over the fields, passing the ponies from the nearby riding school, who were posing prettily as if for a family portrait.

Public transport details: Ormskirk train from Central at 10.17, arriving Aughton Park 10.45.  Returned from Aughton Park at 2.40, arriving Central 3.10.

Heritage Open Days gave us a treat: not only was Croxteth Hall open, but also the old walled garden, which used to provide flowers, fruit and vegetables for the Great House. An old photo on display showed a posed group of 28 gardeners about 100 years ago. Now there are only the students from Myerscough College to keep it under minimal control. Some areas had been tidied up for the occasion, but most are very overgrown.

One old bed had been planted some years ago by the Henry Doubleday Research Association to save traditional vegetables. This patch was also badly overgrown but there may still be some gems hidden under the wildness.

The dilapidated greenhouses hold a remnant of the Liverpool Botanical Collection, which was founded by William Roscoe in 1802 and long kept in Calderstones Park. It was one of the oldest botanical collections in the world. The radical local government of Derek Hatton had the Calderstones greenhouses demolished, and the botanical collection was broken up. Some of the remnants are now here but not on display.

There were a couple of well-tended beds of bright pink Dahlias, variety ‘Fascination’. They were hugely attractive to insects, and most of the open flowers had two bees competing for the pollen.  We also spotted a new-looking Red Admiral butterfly and a day-flying moth, too quick to catch on camera, which was grey-white, broader than deep, and possibly one of the carpet or wave moths in the geometrid group.

After lunch we toured the house, from the wine cellar and the old kitchens, to the drawing room and the Earl and Countess’s bedrooms. The volunteer in charge of the huge pedigree scroll of the Earls of Sefton, which was laid out on a table, was diverted to talk about the estate’s wildlife. He said there were now lots of Ring-necked Parakeets, which he had seen competing with Jackdaws for tree holes. As we made our way out along the main drive we saw some of the interlopers in the trees, being mobbed by Crows.   

Public transport details: Bus 13 from Queen Square at 10.03, arriving Mill Lane / West Derby Village at 10.25.  Returned on bus 13 from Mill Lane / Town Row at 2.58, arriving City Centre at 3.22.

Meols pronounced “Mells” is a village on the north Wirral coast, once a Viking settlement. From the  station we walked along Dovepoint Road, Park Road (past a house claiming to have been built in 1649), and down Bennetts Lane to the shore. Interesting garden trees on the way included some heavily-fruiting Crab Apples and an amazing pair of Beech trees, clipped almost to unrecognisability. How much effort must THAT take?

From the start of Meols Parade it is a two-mile walk south westwards to Hoylake. It overlooks an expanse of sand on the north coast of Wirral and out to the wind turbines in Liverpool Bay. The Mersey estuary was behind us and the Dee Estuary in front. High tide was due at 1.15 and it was very warm and sunny. The sand was scattered with birds. Very many Herring Gulls and Black-headed Gulls, two Greater Black-backed Gulls, many Redshank, large flocks of Oystercatchers and some Curlews. A Raven flew overhead towards Liverpool. Two Black-tailed Godwits circled then headed off. Some Carrion Crows were keeping watch from high vantage points. Two Little Egrets hunted by the pools, this one showing off its yellow feet.

TheHoylake Lifeboat hovercraft came out and patrolled the sand, perhaps making sure no walkers or fishermen were in danger at the water’s edge, because the tide flows in very fast over these shallow sands.

We lunched in Meols Parade Gardens, which was sheltered and very warm in the sun. Several very active butterflies were flitting over the Valerian and other flowers – Red Admirals, Small Tortoiseshells and Small Whites. There were also lots of bumble bees, some looking like quite big ones.

Even around high tide, the water didn’t come right up to the promenade, but large flocks of Oystercatchers had to walk quite fast to keep ahead of the advancing tongue of water.

Signs along the sea wall put up by the Dee Estuary Volunteer Wardens described some of the  “Wonderful Waders” and included a polite request to keep control of dogs near to high tide when the birds come near.

But there are always some who don’t heed. Several dogs were running out to the flocks of birds, or frolicking in the shallows. To our horror, one loose dog near the lifeboat station plunged into a small group of Oystercatchers and after much flapping and splashing caught one. The young man who was the dog’s owner was calling “Arthur!  Arthur!” to no effect. The dog eventually dropped the bird and came to heel, but the bird was a goner.

As we neared Hoylake we could see that Hilbre Island and Middle Eye were surrounded with water.

The Spartina grass that has been spreading along the sand has made a dry grassy area there, and people were picnicking and sunbathing. Other local residents are furious that the council isn’t sending machines to dig it all out, Canute-like, and they have banners up outside their houses. It isn’t all bad, because the new land is providing habitat for non-waders like Pied Wagtails and Rock Pipits. But I was surprised at how fast it has spread. The grassy area goes as far as King’s Gap, and it feels like only a year or two ago there was sand right up to the sea wall there.

In Hoylake Village the municipal flower holders along the road were golf bags, in homage to the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, where The Open took place in July.

Public transport details: West Kirby train from Central at 10.05, arriving Meols 10.30. Returned on the train from Hoylake at 2.34, arriving Central 3.08.

The Southern Grasslands is a new park in Liverpool, south of the Festival Gardens on the Mersey riverfront. The press release says “Over the last two years, over 400,000 cubic metres of soil and waste have been removed from the Festival Gardens development zone, which had previously served as a public waste deposit facility for over 30 years. Over 95% of this material has been recycled, including 100,000 cubic metres of earth that will become an eco-haven for wildlife. The radically redesigned 24-acre green space, which now rises more than 30 feet to provide views of the city centre and the River Mersey, also includes more than 5,700 new trees and shrubs, as well as 2 kilometres of walking paths near the shoreline.”

It’s easy enough to get to. Take the train to St Michael’s, turn right through Priory Woods, left along Riverside Drive and right at the Bempton Road roundabout.  The park is still quite young and raw, and full of tiny new trees in protective tubes, plus some older ones which must be remnants from the Garden Festival. The new trees were almost exclusively natives –  Hawthorn, various Willows, various Oaks, Birch, Scots Pine, Rowan, Alder, Holly – and shrubs Dogwood, Guelder Rose, Broom, Gorse, Buddleia, Dog Rose. Sea Buckthorn was an unusual one, and we did see the small red leaves of Purple Cherry Plum, Prunus cerasifera.

There were very few birds using those tiny trees, although we did spot a Magpie and a Carrion Crow. To our surprise a bird clinging to the top of a slightly larger sapling, then coming down to bare earth, turned out to be a Wheatear. Best bird for several weeks!

There was a huge variety of flowers along the path edges. Mostly the early colonisers (which some call weeds) – Red and White Clover, Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Yarrow, Evening Primrose, Wild Carrot, Hop Trefoil, Ribwort Plantain, Mugwort, Black Nightshade, Woody Nightshade, Scentless Mayweed, one of the Sow-Thistles, one of the Melilots, Michaelmas Daisies, Ragwort, Rosebay Willowherb, Purple Loosestrife. So far, so ordinary.

But there were some more unusual ones scattered about, like one that looked like a yellow Mugwort. I have had a good rummage, but I can’t see a wild yellow variety, unless it’s some “garden” type.

There was lots of Redleg, Perrsicaria maculosa, identified on iNature as “Lady’s Thumb”, which is an alternate name, but not from around here! Some of it was looking a lighter pink, with green stems and some were clearly the related white species called Pale Persicaria, Persicaria lapathifolia. Perhaps the seed was from a mixed hybridised source.

Then, on the berms around the car park, many of the plants were looking very garden-ish. Were the banks built up from garden compost? There were Wild Strawberries, an unusual Dark Mullein and a couple of Tomato plants, which are very definitely not wild natives.  

There were interesting views of the river and the Wirral from the top, but they will disappear as the tree grow.

When we thought about lunch a cold drizzly squall blew in, and we retreated.

So we headed back to the Festival gardens and found a dry spot for lunch after the rain had stopped. Then back up through Priory Woods, a quick look at St Michael’s-in-the-Hamlet church, then home.

Public transport details: Train from Central at 10.13, arriving St Michael’s at 10.20. Returned from St Michaels at 13.46, which took me all the way home.

The park doesn’t open until 12, so we wandered around Port Sunlight village and had lunch in the sunny rose garden. New Ferry Butterfly Park occupies the site of the former goods yard of New Ferry and Bebington railway station. The poor-quality coal- and lime-rich soil is ideal for growing wildflowers and other butterfly food plants, and was leased from British Rail in 1993. Now it is a thriving wildlife area.

Our first sight was the pond, half-empty because of damage to the pond liner. They had put out a donations bucket. Although the remaining half-pond was edged with old carpet tiles it still supported much of its wildlife, including this Common Darter dragonfly.

Small white and blue butterflies were fluttering about, hard to identify while on the wing, and also a little brown one which might have been some kind of Skipper. The only larger butterfly which sat for its picture was a Speckled Wood.

I think we have seen more butterflies there in previous years, but going by the signs asking us not to walk off the paths, there are butterflies breeding everywhere in the tangled meadows.

The wild flowers were rampant and included Rosebay Wiillowherb, Hemp Agrimony, Wild Carrot, Ragwort, Teasel, Honeysuckle, Toadflax, Scarlet Pimpernel, Hop Trefoil and many more. We were also interested in these Rose Hips, which were an unusual shape and strangely hairy.

One corner had a colourful bed of culinary herbs, including lemon balm and purple sage.

We were also looking at some of the trees with black and red berries, which were probably some of the hard-to-identify natives. Many years ago the ranger said there were definitely no Wayfaring Trees in the park, so we could cross that off our list. But they do have both Alder Buckthorn and Common or Purging Buckthorn.  Here are my best guesses, but not with much confidence, I have to say.

Public transport details: Train from Central at 10.15, arriving Port Sunlight at 10.35.  Returned on the train from Bebington at 2.55, arriving Central 3.15.

The terminus of the bus to New Ferry is on the edge of an open field facing a view over the river from some of the Mersey’s last natural shoreline. The tide was well out and the mud flats were dotted with gulls and a few Redshank on the shoreline. It was too early for Curlews, but we see them here in winter. On the edge of a grassy island was a single Little Egret.

We walked south through the woods and onto the paths around Port Sunlight River Park. There were lots of white butterflies, one probable Holly Blue and this single Comma on a Buddleia bush, perched high up.

The wildflowers were all out along the path edges: Ragwort, Yarrow, Wild Carrot, the yellow Hawkbit or Hawkweed, Mugwort, Fennel, Common Knapweed, Tansy, Teasel, Great Willowherb, Rosebay Willowherb, Red Campion, St John’s Wort, Musk Mallow, Viper’s Bugloss, Tufted Vetch, Fleabane, Bird’s foot Trefoil, Hop Trefoil, red and white Clover and our first Michaelmas Daisies of the year.

Autumn is coming on apace. The Blackberries are ripening. I ate one, and it was sweet but bland. Hawthorn berries and Rose hips were reddening and some Elder berries were fully ripe.

The small lake had just a family of Coots, but a Blackbird and a Dunnock flew in and out of the shrubbery and a Swallow cruised along the path. A Buzzard was soaring overhead. The café is closed at weekends, but around the back we spotted a pair of artificial nest cups for House Martins. They look used, but perhaps not this year.

We climbed to the top of the hill, where it is surprisingly wet underfoot. A sign says they have ground-nesting birds up there in the damp rough grassland. It’s also a great perspective on the city centre.

We returned the way we came. An oak tree on the edge of Shorefields cliffs bore knopper galls, artichoke galls and also marble galls, all on the same tree. The oak wasps have done well this year, but on this tree, at least, a few acorns have survived.

Public transport details: Bus 464 from Sir Thomas Street at 10.14, arriving Shorefields Nature Park / Pollitt Square at 10.50. Returned on 464 from Shorefields / Pollitt Square at 2.02, arriving Liverpool 2.35.

At the southern end of the park, the shrubberies have been cut back hard, which allowed the inner shrubs to show off. There were masses of ripening blackberries, just a few hazel nuts forming (although one appeared to have been gnawed by something), sloes and a lavish display of luminous red Guelder Rose berries.

Wildflower patches were scattered around, at this season showing mostly white Wild Carrot and yellow Ragwort. It’s been many years since we saw Ragwort infested with the yellow and black caterpillars of the Cinnabar Moth. But there were plenty of bees and other insects on it, and during the day we saw several butterflies, mostly as single individuals – Common Blue, Speckled Wood, one of the Whites and a Gatekeeper. A couple of weeks ago we saw an oak tree at Waterloo heavily infested with Knopper Galls, and there was one here too, with hardly an acorn untouched. The tree also had a few artichoke galls, caused by a different parasitic wasp which attacks a different part – the buds in the leaf axils, not the developing acorns.

Near the west end of the lake a young woman was communing with nature by feeding the pigeons. A gull was hovering nearby, wondering if he could join in without being noticed.

We were met by our friend Katy an MNA member also now the Chair of the Friends of Princes Park. Many of their recent tree plantings have posts with QR codes which link to the tree’s name and description on their website.  We looked for the young Foxglove tree, but it had died after developing a severe list. However, a couple of feet away from the cut stump sprouts are coming from the roots, and the namepost and cage have been moved to protect it.

Tree 315 is Toona sinensis, the Chinese Mahogany, Tree 316 is Cercis canadensis, an Eastern Redbud. It is called a Judas tree on their website, but it isn’t. All three of these trees are near to  the magnificent tall hedge of Chinese Privet, up on the western bank of the lake, just coming into bloom.

A interesting new planting is a Chinese Tulip Tree Liriodendron chinense. It was planted last November by the Duke of Devonshire as a link to Princes Park’s designer Joseph Paxton, who was head gardener at the Duke’s seat at Chatsworth. Paxton designed both Princes Park and Birkenhead Park, which had their 180th and 175th anniversaries in 2022.  Matching Chinese Tulip Trees have been planted in both parks, and also at Chatsworth, with special railings and commemorative stone ground markers.

Katy was keen to show us a pair of special newish trees. They are numbers  206 and 209 Eucryphia x nymansensis. The park calls them Leatherwood trees, but that is the name of one parent of this hybrid. They should be called Nyman’s Eucryphia, after the National Trust house and garden in Sussex, which was the source of the hybrid. When they were first planted, they seemed ordinary enough, but they have just burst out into white flowers all over, like Roses or Hellebores.

As we walked back to look at the lake, we peeked into all the tree cages as we passed them, and were rewarded by finding this one, number 215. It’s a young Golden Rain tree, the one we searched for so assiduously in Calderstones a few years ago. Good to know there is another one. The park’s website uses its alternate name, Pride of India, but it is actually a Chinese tree, so is mis-named.

We ended the walk with a stroll along the open side of the lake. Mute Swans had three cygnets. There were about a dozen Canada Geese and nesting Moorhens. A Little Grebe was followed by a single cute chick, paddling furiously to catch up with her, and a family of Coots had three noisy chicks.

Public transport details: Bus 82 from Elliot Street at 10.12, arriving Aigburth Road / Ullet Road at 10.25. Returned from Park Road / Gredington Street on the 82A and 1.42, arriving Liverpool ONE bus station 1.55.

There are several pithy Scottish words for today’s weather, but the one that sums it up is dreich. Damp, drizzly and dismal. It made the ice cream and candy floss shops look particularly forlorn. The boat operators had tied up the swan and flamingo boats, not expecting any takers.

They were trying a new venture, aquacycles, two-seaters, at  £10 for 30 mins.

The southern arm of the Marine Lake had about 50 Mute Swans, all apparently adults or sub-adults, but only two cygnets, each with different parents. A poor breeding year for them. There were very few gulls, mostly juveniles, not the hordes we see in winter, a few Canada Geese and a small group of moulting Mallards. Someone was feeding them.

A Little Egret huddled on the far island in the misty rain.

At the southernmost end were the long-resident Black Swans, which are Australian birds, and which probably escaped from some collection. They have never bred here, as far as I know, and perhaps they aren’t a male and female. A pair of Greylag Geese had a small flotilla of four (or is that six) youngsters, so they have done better.

After lunch in one of the King’s Gardens shelters and a visit to Morrisons, we walked down Rotten Row, a long herbaceous border, now maintained by a group of volunteers. It ought to be at its best now, but some tall flowers like Hollyhocks had been blown over by recent high winds. And the fine drizzle made it too wet for any bees, butterflies, or insects of any kind

The border is dotted with Horse Chestnut trees every few yards. One had a plaque saying it had been planted by some local worthy in 1908. I wonder if that means they are all that age?

Towards the southern end, a path leads into the caravan park. We explored further, and it seems to cross three internal roads by kissing gates, as if it is an old right of way. It came out on the road called Esplanade, opposite a patch of sand dunes called the Queen’s Jubilee Nature Trail which leads back into Southport. The road was part-flooded, so we didn’t attempt the crossing, but it might be worth a look one summer’s day.

Public transport details: Train from Central at 10.23, arriving Southport at 11.10. Returned on bus 47 from Lulworth Road / Weld Road at 1.56, due in Liverpool at 3.08, but we all got off earlier than that.