The Naturalists' Notebook

It was a brilliantly bright and sunny day, but an overnight frost had made the pavements very slippery. We went to Landican hoping to see Hares, which we have seen there before, but not today.

We did rather well for trees, though. Cemeteries always have elegant and architectural evergreens. The first one we looked at made an avenue of tall, neatly-conical trees, which were clearly some kind of Cypress, with droopy, feathery leaves and small cones. I’m pretty sure they were Lawson Cypress, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana. See top picture for a couple of examples of them. There was also a dense hedge of Leyland Cypress and a Common Yew by the bus stop. Our third Cypress was the one I think of as “the sticky-out one”. The trunk looks like several thick ropes twisted together, and the cones are over an inch long. It’s a Monterey Cypress, Cupressus macrocarpa.

Most of the birds were tucked away, keeping warm. Greenfinches were calling from deep in the  evergreens. Blue Tits, Great Tits and Chaffinches made occasional appearances in deep hedgerows, but there were lots of curious Robins flitting about. We never saw more than one Magpie or Wood Pigeon at a time, and there was a lone Black-headed Gull poking about on the grass, showing its dark head feathers coming in.

Although the deciduous trees have no leaves at this time of year, many were easily identifiable by bark, fruits and catkins. The Hazel was a no-brainer, with its delicate yellow catkins.

There were Silver Birches with their distinctive bark and thin pendulous branches. The skyline held several rows of classic tall Lombardy Poplars. Both types of Alder were frequently planted. The ordinary Common Alders Alnus glutinosa have small cones and purplish catkins next to them.

The Italian Alders Alnus cordata have far bigger cones, about an inch long, which seem to fall more easily.

Plenty of Golden Irish Yew stood at the crossroads. They have yellow-edged leaves and are all male, with well-developed pollen sacs.

And the London Plane tree is easy to spot by its patchy patterned bark and hanging “bobble” fruit.

After lunch we headed down to the south end, where there were still no Hares, but long lines of molehills everywhere. (We allow ourselves to count them as a mammal sighting!) There was also a Grey Squirrel scampering along a horizontal branch. That area is the newest part of the cemetery  and we were interested to see they are planting many unusual young trees there. Some still had their labels on – Cut-leaved Alder Alnus glutinosa ‘Imperialis’; Golden Alder Alnus incana ‘Aurea’, (a cultivar of Grey Alder); and two varieties of Crab Apple, Malus hupehensis (white blossom) and Malus ‘Mokum’ (dark pink blossom). I suspect it’s cheating to identify trees by the nursery label, not by their features, but I intend to count them on our year list anyway!

A pair of Buzzards soared against the blue sky, calling to each other. They were being harassed  by a Carrion Crow. At the eastern edge is a woodland area, provided for scattering ashes. Snowdrops and yellow Crocuses were blooming delicately under the trees.

Huge numbers of bird boxes were attached to the trees, all with nameplates for loved ones. Some trees had as many as four boxes crowded together, while in a quieter corner was a three-room Sparrow hotel.

As we left we spotted this striking young orange-twigged tree. I think it’s a White Willow Salix alba. The twigs are the same colour as Weeping Willow, which is the weeping variety of the same species, and much commoner.

Public transport details: Bus 472 from Sir Thomas Street at 10.14, arriving at Arrowe Park Road / Landican Cemetery at 10.45. Returned from Arrowe Park Road / opp. Landican Cemetery on the 471 bus at 2.27, arriving Liverpool City Centre at 3.00.

Another bird hunt today, for a Snow Bunting reported near Crosby beach “in the field at the bottom of Harbord Road, with Skylarks”. So off we went to Waterloo. We searched the specified field, but no Snow Bunting. There were lots of Black-headed Gulls on that field, with two Lesser Black-backed Gulls which might have been of the dark “Baltic” variety. Also a single Common Gull standing alone, as they so often do. A flock of Oystercatchers flew in, peeping as they landed. We headed up past the Boating Lake to Crosby Prom, delighting in the first Skylarks singing overhead, which occasionally landed.

There is a warning sign put up by the council about chunks of decaying Palm Oil that have been washing up on the beach, supposedly from a shipwreck far out to sea.

The gusty wind blew sand into our faces, so we didn’t linger near the beach for very long. Just inland we spotted a pretty little white horse, about the size of a Great Dane, which was out for a walk on a lead. The Boating Lake had the usual Coot, Mallard and Canada Geese, with a few Tufties further out.

We retreated from the wind into Crescent Gardens. There were Daisies in flower, and the odd Shepherd’s Purse hanging on from the autumn. The shrub Laurustinus was also flowering, as was the Rosemary in the central herb garden. The undergrowth had been cleared around the bases of the decorative Holly trees, and we could see how vigorously they throw out suckers. We lunched there, with a threatening sky over the seafront houses.

In the southernmost Marine Garden the Silk Tassel Tree was blooming, throwing out its long catkins. There were surprisingly few tassels, though, in comparison to other years, when the tree itself had been almost obscured. The red flower of Quince were coming out, and the unripe Figs were about as fat as they will ever get in this climate. There is a wonderfully-shaped Holm Oak there, one of the best on Merseyside. Apparently the people who live opposite say it spoils their view and they want it trimmed. Perish the thought!

Sefton Council have put up another sign on the garden gate, warning that Rats are increasing in the gardens, possibly caused by residents putting out food for the birds, although they also say that litter and rubbish partly contribute. Baiting stations have been put out, and the Council are appealing for people not to provide them with “bird” food. Along a sunny wall the leaves of Daffodils were pushing up, with a few buds. The Daffs are already out in Greenbank Park, apparently.  One tree with copious thick leaf buds caught our eye, but we weren’t able to identify it. Tamarisk? I’ll have to keep an eye on it. Above the rockery the Crack Willows were stretching their orange twigs up to the sky.

We headed back northwards through all four gardens. In Adelaide Garden there were crimson berries of some kind of Berberis and our first Snowdrops.

The Friends of the gardens have recently replaced the old Toposcope, with a compass rose and lines indicating the direction and distance of various landmarks. There are the expected Blackpool 22 miles, Great Orme 35 miles, Snowdon 52 miles, but also the surprising Waterloo Belgium 369 miles, Waterloo Sierra Leone 3161 miles and Australia 9490 miles!

We checked the recently-cleaned pond in the northernmost Beach Lawn garden, hoping for frogspawn, but no luck. Our last scan for the Snow Bunting was fruitless, too. But not a bad day by any means – this time of the year it’s easy to add new things to our lists, so we had five new birds and seven new trees.

Public transport details: Bus 53 from Queen Square at 10.20, arriving Oxford Road / Blucher Street 10.55. Returned on the 53 bus from Oxford Road / Manley Road at 2.25.

More bird spotting today, with a convenient high tide at Hoylake just after lunch, bringing the waders close inshore. Although the forecast was for heavy rain all day, in the event it wasn’t too bad, just very cold and blowy.

Only one tree tick today: in a pot outside a house in Manor Road was a pensioned-off but flourishing Christmas tree, a Norway Spruce, so that’s been added to the 2018 tree list. Then we walked down Hoyle Road and cut through Parade Gardens to North Parade, just north of the Lifeboat Station. The muddy sand was sprouting scattered tufts of Spartina grass and a solitary Redshank was pottering through the pools. Its old name is “Watchdog of the Marsh” because it calls and flies off at the least disturbance.

There is another kid’s pirate ship there, sister to the Black Pearl at New Brighton. Appropriately it’s called the Grace Darling.

A flight of Knot went southwards as the tide came in from the right. Sanderlings ran along the waterline and some Shelduck sauntered past.

There were also two Curlews, and a Greater Black-backed Gull which hunkered down by a patch of Spartina. A large flock of Oystercatchers stood by a reflecting pool and Cormorants lined up on a sandbank in front of the wind turbines.

The weather began to close in, and as Hilbre Island was cut off by the tide it dimmed in the hazy drizzle. At the top of the slipway by the Lifeboat Station we rummaged in the line of Bladder Wrack, dumped there by the last high tide, turning up various bits of biology. At the bottom right of the picture of our finds is a Razor shell (not further identified), and an egg case of the Common Whelk, also known as a Sea Wash Ball, looking like a blob of bubble wrap. Above them are two kinds of “Mermaid’s purses”. The small light ones on the left with curly tendrils look like the egg-cases of the  Lesser Spotted Dogfish while the bigger, darker ones on the right could be from the Spotted Ray. See this ID key from the Shark Trust.

Margaret also found one small section of a different sort of seaweed, with bigger bladders. I think it’s Knotted Wrack or Egg Wrack Ascophyllum nodocum which has large individual bladders spaced along a flat frond. This short bit had just two bladders, each a couple of inches long. (Thanks to John for the loan of the 50p piece for scale). It’s common all around the North Atlantic coasts.

There were two Pied Wagtails on the pavement as we made our way northward to Kings Gap. The spits and spots of rain settled into a downpour so we were soaked and cold by the time we got to Hoylake Station. Today’s new sightings were one new tree and seven new birds for our year lists.

Public transport details: West Kirby train from Central at 10.35, arriving Manor Road at 11.00. Returned on the train from Hoylake at 2.04, arriving Liverpool Central at 2.35.

At this time of the year we often do a bit of mild twitching – going specially to see an unusual bird that has been reported locally. Three or four Cattle Egrets had been reported in Kew on Saturday, which were probably the same ones as we saw last year at Marshside. But a new year and a new tick!

Before we set out we looked at the trees in Williamson Square, to start our 2018 tree list. There are six Ginkgoes outside what used to be Stoniers, and three Holm Oaks outside the football shop. But what are the other two there, and the one in Queen Square in the corner by New Look? They appear to be of the same species, but we puzzled over them all last year when they were in leaf. They have yellow-green pinnate leaves, but they definitely aren’t Ash. Could they be False Acacia (Robinia) or Honey Locust (Gleditsia)?  One of my Christmas books was “London’s Street Trees” where I read that the Japanese Pagoda Tree Styphnolobium japonica is newly in fashion as a street tree and is often mistaken for the two I named above. So it that what they are? The way to tell is if the new shoots are a dark bottle green, but we peered at the bare twigs from all angles and couldn’t see any green. Maybe the new spring growth will be green.

We enjoyed the long bus ride up through Lydiate and Halsall, spotting crops of cabbage and sprouts still in the fields. It was cold, but bright and sunny. In Kew we headed down Bentham’s Way, past Dobbie’s garden centre, detouring briefly to look in Fine Janes Brook. There was a  Moorhen and a Mallard, with a Kestrel hovering over the rough grass.  We were able to identify some winter trees – Alder with its dark purplish catkins and cones, Ash with last year’s keys and black buds, Horse Chestnut with their sticky buds and horseshoe-shaped leaf scars. The young pines were Scots, not Corsican, identified by their narrow pointed cones, which point downwards in their second year. There was also a Larch, with small cones scattered along the twigs.

We arrived at the target field on Bentham’s Way, opposite Christ the King school playing fields, and there was a single Cattle Egret at distance, right against the sun, and looking like a hunched over Little Egret, but that’s our tick!

In the playing field were the usual Herring Gulls, Black-headed Gulls, Carrion Crows and Starlings, and also a single Common Gull and a few Oystercatchers and Curlews with their heads down, probing the short grass. On the way back to Kew woods, we admired the orangey twigs of the bare Willows and the coppery dried leaves of the Beech hedge outside Dobbies (see top picture). After lunch we walked around the “woods”, which are still mostly low scrub. A Robin flitted around the hedges and we admired the bright bark of the red-stemmed Dogwood.

One young tree of the Cherry type had a most unusual trunk. Half way up it the bark changed, as if it had been grafted, but there was no lumpy graft scar. What happened there?

And more catkins, this time probably of Hazel, because there were no Alder cones, and the catkins were yellowy-brown.

Then we headed into Dobbies for loos, tea and cake. S & R Raptors were displaying their American Kestrel, Barn Owl and this fierce Little Owl.

As we were waiting outside Dobbies for the bus into Southport, a Buzzard flew in and sat on the fence on the other side of the road, completely unfazed by all the traffic going past.

Public transport details: Bus 300 from Queen Square at 10.25, arriving Town Lane / Town Lane Kew at 11.35. Returned on the 44 bus from Town Lane Kew / Bentham’s Way at 2.32, arriving Southport Eastbank Street at 2.48, and we just made the 2.58 train from Southport Station back towards Liverpool.

There was a “snow bomb” over Wales and the Midlands, but Liverpool was just off the northern edge of it, so we escaped. There was a slow fall of very light snow all day, but nothing stuck. We took the mile-long walk from West Derby Village to Croxteth Hall. The ground on either side of the path is very wet and marshy, with deep icy ditches. Many of the trees lining the path have died because it is too boggy for them. There used to be a big pond in the woods, apparently, which has now silted up, so maybe that’s where the excess water is coming from. About 100 Pink-footed Geese flew over in a double V, heading north, perhaps escaping the snowstorm.

Where it is drier someone has put up new bird boxes on the trees. There were Black-headed Gulls and a Lesser Black-backed Gull on the fields, and a Dunnock under a tree. This tree, twiggy at the base so probably a Lime, had flaking bark and what looked like the furrows of boring insect larvae  below.

The Long Pond was so green with weed and algae that we couldn’t see if it was frozen or not, but the ducks were all swimming in one clear patch. Two of the Mallards were mostly black and noticeably smaller, about the size of Teals. I wonder what happened there!  There is a Sweet Gum /  Liquidambar tree on the bank, which the old books say rarely fruits in Britain, but once again it was covered with spiky balls. That’s a sign of climate change, I think. The Yew trees in the shrubberies around the Hall, all appear to be male: none showed any red berries at all.  There are half a dozen old Limes in a line along the east side of the walled garden, which appear to have been planted on little hillocks, or perhaps the ground has sunk away. They have very knobbly graft or pollard lines at about head height. How odd they are!

One of them has gone explosively twiggy where the trunk forks, making a thicket like the drey of a giant squirrel.

There’s a Swamp Cypress around there too, still hanging on to its wonderful dark red needles.

The snow seemed to be gearing up, so we thought we’d better head for home. A few more common birds were about – Blackbird, Great Tit, two Greenfinches high in a tree. Jackdaws were calling from the stable block and a Song Thrush was foraging in a field.

We went around by the farm, and inadvertently raised the expectations of the Highland cattle. Their food must come that way, and they thought we were bringing it! They mooed happily and gave us expectant stares.

Here’s our tree species count for the year. We got 69 from the I-Spy book and another 56 which were not listed there. That’s a total of 125 tree species seen, including the rarest, a Wollemi Pine at a secret location that we have been asked not to publicise.

Public transport details: Bus 12 from Queen Square at 10.17, arriving West Derby Village at 10.32.  Returned on the 12 bus from West Derby Village at 1.45, arriving Queen Square at 2.10.

I wanted a Norway Spruce, and now they are everywhere as Christmas trees! There’s hardly a town square or greengrocer’s shop without several of them on display. What I really want, though, is one with its roots still in the ground. There’s a tall, narrow conifer in Grosvenor Park, Chester which might be one. Although there were no papery Spruce cones hanging below its branches to confirm it, and no woody fir or pine cones on the ground beneath to tell us it wasn’t a Spruce, I will count it (or the Christmas trees) as our last I-Spy tree of the year, taking us to 1280 points.

The little pond in the park had only Mallards, Moorhens, and some Black-headed Gulls. Fearless Grey Squirrels were underfoot everywhere, and someone had thrown down monkey nuts for them (peanuts still in their fawn papery shells). One was left, and some pigeons were squabbling over it. Finally a Wood Pigeon made off with the bulky prize, swallowing it whole, shell and all, down into its crop. A bit further on we saw a squirrel displaying some semi-natural behaviour, burying one of the monkey nuts after carefully looking about to see that none of its rivals was watching.

On one of the lawns there were two tiny little Ragwort plants in flower, only four or five inches tall. They are tough little plants to be flowering so late in the year.

Near the rose garden is a Tulip Tree bearing lots of cones. We never see the flowers in such profusion. Do they flower just a few at a time, I wonder?  Some of the cones had Ladybirds on them, all appearing to be Harlequins. I think they instinctively climb at this time of year, looking for a crevice to overwinter in.

More Harlequin ladybirds were at the tops of the bollards along the riverside at the Groves. They couldn’t get any higher and were circling the tops, probably stranded but unable to choose to go down again.

Garden-variety Campanulas were sprouting and flowering all over the old wall up Souter’s Lane.

There is a very strange droopy tree on the lawn by the Cathedral. Our first reaction was to call it the famously pendulous Brewer’s Spruce, but the foliage was definitely cypressy.  I didn’t inspect it very closely, but after looking it up I suspect it might be the pendulous variety of Nootka Cypress Xanthocyparis nootkatensis ‘Pendula’, sometimes nicknamed the Afghan Hound Tree, and you can see why. I will have to look at it again in the summer, when it is said to have conspicuous bright navy cones, 2cm across.

The Christmas market was busy, and then we headed back to the station through Abbey Square and the Kaleyards. Oddly, they have a large pigeon loft there, and a sign asking people not to feed pigeons anywhere else. I wonder if that has worked? I can’t remember seeing flocks of pigeons anywhere else in the city, so maybe it has.

Public transport details: Train from Central at 10.15, arriving Chester 11.00. Returned on the train from Chester at 2.55, arriving Central 3.40.

There was a brief hail shower as we left Lea Green Station, but by the time we had made the short walk to Sherdley Park it had passed over. By the Sustrans cycle path is a set of “portrait bench” metal sculptures featuring the endurance athlete and fundraiser Steve Prescott, the comedian Johnny Vegas and an anonymous glass blower.

We headed for the small lake, but there were only Mallards and a supermarket trolley in it. However, we did see a Treecreeper nearby. A tall tree caught our eye, and the remaining dark red foliage on it clearly marked it as a conifer. It didn’t have the figured trunk of a Dawn Redwood, so we think it was a Swamp Cypress (which their website claims they have, but no location given.)

There used to be a Pet’s Corner in the park, with Wallabies, Rheas, and other birds and small mammals, but it was closed in February 2017.

Some Goldfinches were twittering on Alder cones, joined by some Long-tailed Tits, while three Crows cawed at us from an overhanging branch. Despite the sun coming out, the open parkland was quite cold and bleak. We found an old metal shelter for our lunch and thought about leaving early.

We decided to have a look at a woodland path heading northwards, and it was much more to our liking. Delph Wood, made up mostly of Beech, was sheltered from the wind and felt much more natural. It’s known as a good bluebell wood in spring, so we may return then. A mixed flock of Tits passed through, with a couple of Chaffinches, and John spotted a Buzzard flying off through the trees. The floor was carpeted with bronze Beech leaves, while the woods had occasional splashes of yellow from the Norway Maples and darker red from the Oaks.  One tree had striking vertically-cracked bark and yellow fallen leaves with long points. I have looked them up at home, and it WAS a Hornbeam, although the leaves we have seen recently have been much smaller. Many books say the bark cracks like this, too.

A stream runs through the wood, with little bridges over it, and some of the paths were very muddy, not all provided with causeways!

Another squall threatened, and the low sun provided a wonderful rainbow. It also lit up a young tree, perhaps a Rowan or Whitebeam, with white tips to its branches.

Public transport details: Manchester Airport Train from Lime Street at 10.15 arriving Lea Green station at 10.45. Returned from Lea Green at 2.35, arriving Lime Street 3.00.