The Naturalists' Notebook

We turned right out of Aughton Park Station and headed up Long Lane. At the corner of one of the gardens there’s a Red Oak Quercus rubra, with its enormous leaves. Here are a few with some Beech leaves for scale.

We turned left at the junction of Holborn Hill, crossed at the pedestrian lights and then headed up the footpath to the Communications Station. A Kestrel hovered above the field on the left. This year John led us the long way around, going right from the gates, then left on a shaded footpath around a cultivated field. Several Robins tutted gently at us as we passed. We had an early lunch by the pond, and saw a “V” of Pink-footed Geese passing overhead, about 20 or 30 of them.

The second weekend in October is when Gorse Hill NR have their Apple festival, and they sell their harvest of traditional varieties of apple, their freshly-pressed apple juice and some pretty lethal cider. They also demonstrate their apple press and give tours of the orchard.  They have about 100 trees: half are cooking apples, in 12 varieties, and the other half are dessert or eating apples, of 16 varieties. They also have four kinds of pears and a plum tree. All around the orchard are crab apples for pollination, variety Golden Hornet, which are now bunches of little golden globes, each about an inch across. There was a ladybird on one of them, which I hoped would be something exciting, but it was just another colour variation of the Harlequin.

After the tour we shopped for apples and cider. I now have one each of Ribston Pippin, Worcester Permain, Sunset, Wheeler’s Russet, Ellison’s Orange and King of Pippins.

We patronised their café before we left, and I strongly recommend their lemon and lime drizzle cake!  In the hedgerows the Hazel catkins are showing, although the leaves haven’t fallen yet. I also took note of these Hawthorn berries, which were a rather dark red.

Nobody takes any notice of Hawthorns, but there are many species. The Common Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna has deeply indented leaves and only one seed in the Haw. The other commonish one is the Midland Hawthorn Crataegus laevigata, with less-indented leaves and two or three stones in the fruit. Confusingly, there are many hybrid forms. This one appeared to have a trifoliate leaf, and I regret I didn’t investigate the number of pips. I will start opening them next week!

The house on Holly Lane near the reserve entrance has an enormous wooden sculpture of a giraffe in the garden!

From the Communications Centre there is an extraordinary view over Ormskirk, which seems to be in a bowl. Way over to the left of its “tower-and-spire” church, and maybe 50 miles away north eastwards, is a big lump of high ground. Could it be Longridge Fell? Or perhaps even the Forest of Bowland?

On the way back to the station we spotted a Snake-bark Maple tree in a garden in Long Lane. Once you get interested in them, they turn up everywhere! Going by the scarlet leaf-stalks and long strings of small seeds, I think it could be a Red Snake-bark Maple Acer capillipes. It’s said to be a favourite in small gardens for its very red autumn leaves. Nice bit of stripy bark showing in the top right of the picture, too.

Public transport details: Ormskirk train from Central at 10.10, alighting Aughton Park at 10.37. Returned from Aughton Park at 2.53, arriving Central 3.20.

It was a glorious sunny day with a clear blue sky, and it was quite warm for early October.  As we approached Flaybrick we looked up at the overhanging Holly branches. The bottoms of the leaves were full of the white egg masses of Cottony Camellia Scale Pulviaria floccifera. We’ve seen a lot of that about this year. The Grade II listed chapels are now surrounded by scaffolding and hoardings, and are undergoing a process of “controlled ruination” because the damage by vandals has made them unsafe. The Friends still have hopes of creative re-use.

Section CE12 with (L-R) Deodar, Swamp Cypress and Tibetan Cherry

Flaybrick is full of marvellous trees. As well as the plan by Bob Hughes we followed last year, we now have Flaybrick’s own “tree walk” route, with 44 trees marked. Not all are rarities, but most are interesting. One of the first notable trees is this big old Monkey Puzzle in section NC 3A, looking like a freely fruiting female tree.

There were Magpies and Grey Squirrels on the grass, but John had his eye on the sky as usual, and called out a sighting of a Sparrowhawk, cruising leisurely overhead. A young Red Oak in section NC 6A was planted in memory of the first Ranger. There was an orange ladybird on it, but it was only the ubiquitous Harlequin. I was looking forward to seeing the Bhutan Pine in section NC 3A, which I had become familiar with in Scotland, but the one in Flaybrick is very tall and hemmed in by other tall trees, so it wasn’t possible to examine the beautiful long needles. They are unusual in being grouped in fives, not the usual pairs. We picked some dead ones from the litter below it, though.

There are ten different Rowans and Whitebeams planted in the “Sorbus Avenue” between sections CE13 and CE17. Eight of them have red berries, so we didn’t attempt to distinguish them; one has been vandalised and is just a stump sprouting new foliage, but no berries; but the tenth one had cream berries and so must be Sorbus ‘Joseph Rock’, a variety with no Latin species name.

We admired the young trees in CE 17, a blue Atlantic Cedar, a Deodar and a Dawn Redwood. A small skein of Canada Geese flew over, heading towards New Brighton. We lunched in Tam o’ Shanter urban farm, then set off up the hill to Bidston windmill. I had to stop as my sore foot isn’t up to all those uneven steps and surfaces, and went back to Flaybrick to look at the more-secluded northern RC section, which we rarely spend any time in. Their best tree is a rarity called an Exeter Elm Ulmus glabra ‘Exoniensis’. It’s one of the tallest in Britain, at 46 feet (14m) when last measured, and is a tree of national significance.

It’s a variety of Wych Elm, but with smaller leaves, in upright bunches in Spring, and which are more coarsely serrated. Since the loss of the English Elms to disease in the 1980s, Wych Elms and their rarer forms are the only remaining food plant for the White Letter Hairstreak butterfly. I met Bob Hughes later, and he said even these Elms seem to be dying locally. He saw the butterfly on his allotment in 2010, 2013 and 2014, but not since. The Exeter Elm in Flaybrick was looking a bit sick too, with brown bits on the leaves that probably aren’t autumn colours.

At the junction of sections RC3 and RC4 there is a huge triple-trunked Cedar of Lebanon. Nearby, in section RC4 is a lovely grove of six or seven Hornbeams, looking like one broad tree.

On a bank at the east end of section RC6 is a Common Pear tree, not notable in itself, but this one had produced masses of fruit, which were falling with audible thumps. I had to stand clear!  I tried one, and it was sweet and edible, so there is free food for anyone who wants to forage. Don’t forget to bring a hard hat!

In section CE16 is possibly the most unusual tree in the garden. It’s listed as an Orange-berried Service Tree, which had me foxed.  It was neither the True, the Wild nor the Bastard Service Tree, but it might be the beautifully-named Service Tree of Fontainbleau, Sorbus x latifolia (which some unromantic souls call the Broad-leaved Whitebeam). That’s unusual enough, but the orange berries with white lenticels make this an atypical member of an already-rare species.

It was too early for much autumn colour on the Tulip Tree or the Sweet Gum (Liquidambar), but the top of the Red Maple was just starting to turn.

Public transport details: Bus 437 from Sir Thomas Street at 10.04, arriving Upton Road / Boundary Road at 10.30. Returned from the opposite stop on Upton Road on the 437 bus at 3.10, arriving Liverpool city centre at 3.30.

The plan was to walk from Chester Zoo to Ellesmere Port along the Shropshire Union Canal, but I had to pass on the five mile walk because I seem to have pulled a muscle in my foot. Limping but getting better! I had a short stroll around the Zoo instead. There were the usual attractions – elephants, giraffes, two Greater One-horned Rhinos and a new baby Tapir, but I headed for the Tropical House to see the birds. Here’s a pretty little Pekin Robin Leiothrix lutea.

Near the bridge by the Tropical House was a huge Ivy in flower, attracting many insects. Most were wasps, but there were also two Commas.

There was also a large orangey insect of some kind. A hornet? I couldn’t get a picture of it side on, it kept its back to me, but it looks like the Hornet Mimic Hoverfly Volucella zonaria. It was a rare visitor in the 1940s, but is now said to be found as far north as the Midlands. This one’s further north than that!

In the butterfly house the Blue Morphos Morpho peleides were feeding on oranges.

The Mallards are pairing up. Most drakes were in their smart new winter plumage and following the females closely. All of the trees were still green except this Norway Maple, which was putting on an autumn show.

John tells me the rest of the group made it to Ellesmere Port successfully, and their best sighting was a Peregrine Falcon pursuing a Wood Pigeon.

Public transport details: Bus X8 from Sir Thomas Street at 10.20, arriving Chester Zoo at 11.15.

Not a lot of wildlife to report this week, because our plan was to visit some of the normally-closed buildings which were hosting exhibits for the Liverpool Biennial art festival. Yet again we were frustrated in one of our choices, as the long-closed ABC Cinema, billed to be open at 10 am, was still closed, and a couple of young artists were busy on their phones outside, saying there was “a key problem”.  So we moved on.

Two young trees outside Sainsbury’s on St Luke’s Place surprised us: they were Medlars. One looked a bit sick, but had produced several fruit, while the other was in far better leaf, but fruitless. They had interesting cracked and flaky bark, too.

Our next stop was the Oratory next to Anglican Cathedral. The art didn’t detain us at all (the litter on the floor was Art ??), but we had a good look at the wonderful old funerary monuments on the walls. Outside is Tracy Emin’s “Bird on a Pole”. Is it meant to be some sort of Wagtail? Hard to tell. Far more satisfactory were two real Peregrine Falcons, sitting high up on the west front of the Anglican Cathedral.

A Jay flew over and a Grey Squirrel scampered across the car park. They were both unexpected so close to the city centre. In the house gardens below the cathedral we spotted a Marrow plant in flower, being pollinated by a Honey Bee. Then we looked at some Art in the warehouse of Cain’s Brewery (still not impressed) and lunched overlooking the Marina, where they teach wakeboarding.

Our Corpse of the Day was a rather small and dried-up Cod lying on the pavement outside the old HMRC building (now The Keel residential development). It was much too far from the railings for it to have jumped out of the river on its own, and why would a fisherman discard it? Which led to the old music-hall question, “Why did the Codling cross the road?”

On the way out to the bus this morning I found this lovely back-lit spider’s web on a Rowan tree.

In St John’s Gardens the Indian Bean trees are now full of their long grey seed pods, and the Trees of Heaven are in copious fruit, which is starting to turn red.

Our plan was to go to Deane Road Cemetery, St John the Evangelist church in Thomas Lane and the rarely-open Bright Park. In the event, two of the three didn’t open as billed, which was disappointing. Deane Road Jewish Cemetery bore a hand-altered sign saying it was to be open next week, but not this week after all. Some last-minute crisis, no doubt. So we caught the bus further on to Springfield Park.

There is an interesting tree with big divided leaves on the central reservation of East Prescot Road opposite Warmington Road. A Fig? A Sweet Gum / Liquidambar? It had alternate leaves and spiky seed balls. A crushed leaf was sticky but not aromatic. We concluded that it was an Oriental Plane Platanus orientalis.

Mitchell says it is “rare north of the Midlands”, and it is very unusual to find a rarity like that in the middle of a busy road. Margaret tells me there is a young Tulip Tree along there too, nearer Queen’s Drive. Someone obviously had some money left over in that year’s budget to spend on interesting tree plantings.

In Springfield Park there is an obelisk to Lord Nelson commissioned in 1806 by Mr Downward, a local sugar refiner, and sited for many years in the garden of his residence, Springfield House. The house is long gone and the garden, latterly Springfield Park, was partly built on by the new Alder Hey Hospital, but now the park has been restored, and the monument has been re-erected by the Friends group. It is known locally as the “Half-Nelson”.

There were four House Martins overhead. Are they nesting on the old hospital building nearby? Where will they go when it is demolished? The new Alder Hey Hospital has green roofs and a smart new garden area at the back entrance, with kid-friendly climbing equipment and spongy path surfaces. There are interesting tree plantings there, too, including two or three young Locust trees Robinia pseudoacacia, turning a lovely yellow. The adjacent flower bed has a surprising stone sculpture, shaped like a shark’s fin. The writing on the other side says “Ever see a shark / picnic in the park? If he offers you a bun …. RUN!”

There were also a few Ginkgos and some young Apple and Pear trees, some already bearing fruit. One reminded me of “I had a little nut tree / and nothing would it bear / but a silver nutmeg / and a golden pear”.

We looked at the row of six old cottages called Little Bongs, then walked along Thomas Lane. Ken Dodd’s house is on the corner. Then into churchyard of St John the Evangelist C of E for lunch. We saw a Speckled Wood there, and noted a Weeping Ash next to the church.

The church makes much of their “Titanic” gravestone. A local couple called Harrison put up a stone in memory of two of their sons, Swainston Harrison Jr who died in Africa aged 22 in 1892 and “Norman Harrison, Second engineer SS Titanic, foundered off the coast of Newfoundland  April 15th 1912, aged 38.” Neither of their sons can be buried there, but the parents are.

We took a tour of the crypts. When we peeked through a grating we could see the very long lead coffin belonging to Marcus Hill Bland who died in 1856, said to have been 7’ 6” tall. Then to Bright Park, but there was no sign of it being open. The Heritage Open Day information said “Bright Park, (formerly Thingwall House), was the residence of Henry Arthur Bright, a Victorian shipping magnate who left his house and gardens in his will to the furtherment of the education of the people of Liverpool. Come and explore the park and its 4.9 acres of woods, orchards and trails. Come and see this secret wilderness for yourself and enjoy privileged access to a park that had only been open a handful of times in the last 30 years”. There were  lots of disgruntled people turning up (including us!) but there wasn’t even a loose railing to get through. One young couple bunked over the wall with the aid of a handy telephone switching box. When we saw them later they said they’d seen a Fox, which stood and stared at them in surprise at having its patch invaded.

We finished the day with a quick visit to the Church Hall, where they had some old school attendance registers and a punishment books. One young lad was caned for “mistreating a frog”.  There was also a school project from 1933 about the trees of Calderstones Park. It wasn’t about rarities, but about trees in general, and ended with a series of observations through autumn and spring 1932/33 on when the leaves of various common species’ leaves fell, and buds broke.

On the way home I spotted another orange-berried Rowan on Prescot Road near the old abattoir (now the Meat and Fish market). Still not spotted any of the rarer white-berried ones, though. Anyone know of any?

Public transport details: Bus 10A from Queen Square at 10.30, arriving Kensington / Finlay Street at 10.45. Then on the 10B from the same stop at 11.03, arriving East Prescot Road / Chatterton Road at 11.10. Returned from E Prescot Road / Thomas Lane on the 10A at 2.17, arriving Queen Square at 2.45.

Just into September and the trees are starting to display their fruits and seeds, but the only autumnal leaf colour was on those Horse Chestnuts which have been badly affected by the leaf miner. We found our first conker today, just a tiny one about ½ an inch across. The Beech mast is coming down in the wind, but the seeds are all empty. John said that last week at the church he gardens for, he swept up enough beech mast to fill a whole wheelie bin.

Outside the Visitors’ Centre, most of the wild flowers have gone over, but there were still blooms of blue Chicory, orange Fox and Cubs and purple Marjoram.

Fox and cubs

Marjoram

A hop vine was scrambling over the fence, producing hops near the top. They had a Scarecrow festival here in July, and some of their best examples were still on display. This one is “A Sporty Day Out” by Huyton Childminders and Children.|

The way through to the park was blocked so we went around to the west by the Merseyside BioBank building. Tutsan had its dark red berries out, and a Lauristinus bush was flowering. It’s supposed to flower from October to June, so was this one early or late? There used to be an old pond there, but now it’s just a damp depression. On an Iris we found a black ladybird with two red spots which we hoped was a Kidney Spot, but it wasn’t. The white “eyes” on the front end (the pronotum) mean it’s a Harlequin.

There were plenty of trees along the southward path. Holm Oak with acorns, Turkey Oak with its furry acorn cups, Swedish Whitebeam with berries still green but turning, a solitary Whitebeam on the lawn surrounded by a neat circle of fallen leaves, with its berries still green. Cotoneaster and Rowan were in bright red berry. This is a good time to look for unusual Rowans. I’ve spotted an orange-berried one near Blundellsands and Crosby  station, but there were none in Court Hey Park today, and definitely no interesting white-berried ones. But the Hawthorns are now very red, and there were several copiously fruiting Crab Apple trees.

Turkey Oak acorns

Hawthorn

Crab Apple

These Ash keys caught my eye. Are they really Ash? They are rather sparse and show interesting colours, but perhaps they are just not yet fully ripe.

We turned back up the other path and found a hollow Ash with fungi growing inside. One was definitely an Artist’s Bracket Gannoderma applanatum, with its rich chestnut brown top and white underside, but the other was so high up we could only see the plain white underside. Further on  there was a cluster of grey-fawn fungus on a dead Cherry tree.  Is it Honey fungus? They are usually a browner colour.

One tree was doing a very good impression of a Small- leafed Lime at first sight, just because it had small leaves, but we got the book out, and the seeds were spherical and furry, so it’s just an ordinary Lime Tilia x europaea. The Small-leafed Lime has tiny bare (glabrous) fruit, and the pictures show that it often has a bit sticking out at the tip. I don’t think I have ever seen a definite Small-leafed Lime. Anyone know one?

When the sun came out after lunch we spotted several Speckled Woods and a fast-moving Peacock. One Horse Chestnut appeared to have non-spiky fruits. It must be a Red Horse Chestnut Aesculus x carnea. It has been much attacked by the leaf miner, and its trunk had a spiral crack. It wasn’t looking healthy at all. In fact, several of the trees we saw today looked like they were about to peg out – hollow or fungus-ridden.

Back in the Visitors’ Centre we noticed posters for a free Moth night on Friday 9th September, 7 to 9.30pm, if anyone’s interested. They were selling some interesting home-grown veg and I came home with a Cucumber, a Scallopini Squash and some “Rainbow” Swiss Chard.

Public transport details: Bus 61 from Queen Square at 10.20, arriving Roby Road opposite Court Hey Road at 10.45. Returned on 61 from Roby Road / Court Hey Road at 2.34, arriving city centre at 2.58.