The Naturalists' Notebook

Our plan today was to have an orgy of trees, aided by a hand-drawn tree plan of the cemetery made by Bob Hughes about ten years ago, which has recently been improved by John Moffat of the Friends of Flaybrick.  The plot plan of the cemetery is here, with the section numbers shown. Note that north is to the right, not straight up.

It was a very damp and misty morning. “A fine soft day” as the Irish say. Around the entrance off Boundary Road, on either side of the old chapels, is a large collection of Lime trees. Many are Silver Pendent Limes Tilia petiolaris, two of which are County Champions for girth. In the same area there are said to be both Large-leafed and Small-leafed Limes, which we were keen to identify and distinguish.  Large-leafed is supposed to have 5-ridged seeds but none of the candidate trees had any seeds at all, and all we saw were trees with little pumpkins, which I’d call 5-lobed, not 5-ridged, and which I think belonged to the Silver Pendent Limes. We did, however, identify a Small-leafed Lime Tilia cordata by the tiny orange tufts in the vein axils on the underside of the leaves.

Next to Boundary Road, south of the chapels and probably in section NC6A, was a very dark purple-leafed young tree, with a sign saying it had been planted in May 2003 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Wirral Society. Sadly, it wasn’t identified, but it looks it could be a Copper Beech, variety ‘Rivers Purple’. (No, it wasn’t a Beech, it was a Purple-leaved Plum Prunus pissardi  ‘Nigra’. Thanks to John Moffat for putting me right.)

On either side of the main east-west path, at the east ends of sections NC2 and CE2 is the  magnificent pair of Cut-leaved Beeches Fagus sylvatica ‘Heterophylla’. One is the County Champion for girth.

They are chimeras, with inner tissues of ordinary Beech overlaid by tissues of the Cut-leaved form. If a branch is damaged, ordinary leaves will appear. Bob Hughes told me once that someone had set fire to an abandoned car under one of the trees some years ago, and now that side has reverted. Both pictures below show foliage from the same tree, the cut-leaved and the reverted forms.

One Sweet Chestnut had a very good crop of fallen nuts, but none were really big enough to be edible. But while we were looking underfoot, we noted some bright yellow Waxcaps in the damp mossy turf.  Many of the tree stumps were covered in fungi, too.

There weren’t many birds in the cemetery, just Blackbirds and Wood Pigeons. They were all at the bird feeders in Tam O’Shanter. We spotted Blue Tits, a Coal Tit, a Chaffinch doing its best to reach the food, although it’s usually a ground feeder, and a Nuthatch.

We put mealworms on a stump, and attracted Magpies and a Grey Squirrel, which is thwarted at the bird feeders by the serious baffles they have put up. It seemed happy to get an easy meal.

There was a display of rescued Birds of Prey, probably by the same people we saw at Southport last year. Some of the birds were the same – the Barn Owl and the European Eagle Owl looked familiar, but they also had a Harris Hawk, a Snowy Owl and a cute White-faced Scops Owl.

Back in Flaybrick, we finally found a Large-leaf Lime. Still no seeds on it, but the leaves were definitely large and “cabbagey”.

They have planted a “Sorbus avenue” on either side of the path between sections CE17 and CE13, with ten different rare Rowans and Whitebeams. I had hoped to see the white-berried Hupeh and Vilmorin’s Rowans, but there were only red-berried trees, although some had no berries at all. Perhaps they are still too young. In section CE17 there is a young Blue Atlas Cedar next to an Irish Yew, looking very smart indeed (see the picture at the head of this report). The supposed Black Walnut Juglans nigra marked on the plan in section CE14 looked much more like a Common Walnut Juglans regia with pale grey bark and leaves with seven leaflets.

At the west end of section CE14 was a young tree that looked like a Maple at first sight, but the fallen leaves were aromatic when they were crushed. It was a Sweet Gum Liquidambar styraciflua.

There was a genuine Red Maple Acer rubrum further on, which had lost most of its leaves, but they were a magnificent wine-dark red.

Opposite the Red Maple, on the south side of the path in section CE12 was a little glade with two lovely young trees. One remains a mystery and it isn’t marked on Bob’s plan. The foliage was like a Redwood or a pale Yew, but it had a broad shape with drooping branches. It was a lovely thing. (Added later, it’s a Swamp Cypress Taxodium distichum.)

Next to it was our Tree of the Day, the wonderful Tibetan or Birch-bark Cherry Prunus serrula, with shining mahogany-red bark, peeling off in strips. It was planted in 1996 and is already the Cheshire county champion for height.

And the Tulip Tree Liriodendron tulipfera in section CE16A, was in very fine autumn colour indeed.

The north west RC section is wilder and darker, with mostly Holm Oak and Holly. There are two big Chilean Pines (Monkey Puzzles) Araucaria araucana. In France, it is known as désespoir des singes or ‘monkeys’ despair’.

Public transport details: Bus 437 towards West Kirby from Sir Thomas Street at 10.03, arriving Upton Road / Boundary Road at 10.28. Returned on the same bus from the same place at 3.05, arriving Liverpool 3.30.

Before we started on this last (for us) section of the TPT, we looked at the sign on the north side of Belle Vale Road at the end Childwall Valley Road, which says “In commemoration of the sixtieth year of the reign (the Diamond Jubilee) of her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, this promenade was presented to the Township of Little Woolton by William Hall Walker 1897.”

Which promenade does the sign refer to? I think it means the row of Horse Chestnuts along the sidewalk, planted quite close together. Are there 60 of them, to match the 60 years of Victoria’s reign? No, I could only find 18, with possibly 8 gaps. But if they are related to the sign, they are 118 years old, which doesn’t look unreasonable because they have very thick, twisty trunks.

In the Recreation Ground opposite we noted a Turkey Oak, our Tree of the Day. The leaves are hard to distinguish from Sessile Oak, but the “hairy” acorn cups are distinctive.

There were a few late flowers along the trail – Hogweed, Buttercup, Red Campion and some Bramble. The leaves of one of the Bramble plants were yellowing between the veins in an unusually detailedpattern. Did the plant have a virus?

There wasn’t much birdlife about. We heard Jackdaws calling, and south of Lydiate Lane we heard lots of harsh squawking. It wasn’t Magpies. Was it a Buzzard or a  Peregrine?  We had a brief view of what might have been a stooping Peregrine overhead (with that wings-pulled-in look), but it was probably just a Wood Pigeon. Another possibility was that it was a group of Ring-necked Parakeets. We peered into the undergrowth on that side of the path, but all we could see were the red berries on a vine of Black Briony.

One section has some wood sculptures. There was a Fox stalking an out-of-scale Hedgehog, a pert frog and this huge upright fish, with a woodpecker hole behind its gills.

On the open meadow, there were Magpies and Wood Pigeons, but on the “Ducky Pond” there were just Moorhens and no Mallards at all.

Today we did another 2 miles of the trail taking us to 25½ miles from Southport, the furthest we are going to go. The next bit is along main roads and through Speke, an unattractive prospect for a nature walk.

Public transport details: Bus 79 from Queen Square bay 1 at 10.06, arriving Belle Vale Shopping centre at 10.35. Returned from Higher Road / St Andrew the Apostle on the 75 bus at 1.55, arriving Liverpool, after much traffic congestion and a diversion, at 2.45.

There was a late-blooming wild Rose in the hedgerow near Whiston Station, and five Mute Swans passed high overhead. Ivy was coming into bloom, already attracting Hoverflies, and one fence had a mass of flowering Russian Vine spilling over it. It is said to be invasive, but it also provides flowers quite late in the year. A tall aerial had a flock of about fifty Starlings, some making strange fluting calls, as if they were imitating something.

Other late flowers included the inevitable Ragwort, Bindweed, some late Bramble flowers, Himalayan Balsam, White Dead-nettle, an unidentified yellow Crucifer, what might have been Scentless Mayweed and masses and masses of Michaelmas Daisies. At the top of a hill in the park there was a huge spread of nearly-white ones, probably a single clone, showing starkly against a backdrop of Pines.

I collected sprigs of three colour variations, the usual lilac one on the left, a paler one in the middle and the almost-white one on the right.

Near the Visitor’s Centre one tree in a group of young Oaks had died and was being consumed by fungus, perhaps some kind of Honey Fungus.

There were no exciting birds, just a Robin singing in the shrubbery, Magpies on the paths, and at Tushingham’s Pond the usual Canada Geese, Mallards, Black-headed Gulls, Moorhens, Coots and a pair of Mute Swans.

Tree of the Day was a Red Oak near the children’s playground, with its leaves turning yellow. Further on there was another that had turned completely, but they don’t go very red, despite their name, just tobacco-coloured.

Before I started out I had a look in St John’s Gardens at the Indian Bean trees by the memorial to the French prisoners, and was surprised to realise that the three trees next to them, which I had previously thought were Ash, were in fact more Trees of Heaven. Here’s the Indian Bean Tree with its dark grey hanging pods.

On Monday I saw some more unusual trees. North of Bootle Strand, on the west side of Stanley Road between Marsh Lane and Knowsley Road, there are two lovely trees flanking the entrance to a C-shaped OneVision housing development. They turned out to be Narrow-leaved Ash, with lovely feathery willow-like leaves, now turning a mix of gold and purple. (Added later: this is the variety ‘Raywood”, sometimes known as the Claret Ash.)

Further north on the same stretch of Stanley Road, at the southernmost corner of North Park, there’s a tree with huge roundish leaves, which are still green. It looks like another Indian Bean tree to me, but there were no seeds to confirm the identification. I will have to keep a look-out next year to see if it is characteristically late to come into leaf.

Public transport details: 10.15 Wigan train from Lime Street Station to Whiston, arriving 10.33. Right on Pennywood Drive, right onto the footpath by the school, left onto Dragon Lane, continue down Greenes Road, past the Post Office, then left into Paradise Lane where there is a park entrance. Exited at the Visitors’ Centre and got bus 248 at 1.35 at Pottery Lane / Dales Row, arriving Huyton bus station at 1.45, then the 15 bus at 1.50, arriving Liverpool City centre at 2.35.

Gorse Hill Nature Reserve has an orchard, growing traditional old varieties of apple (and a few pears), and celebrates them in the autumn with an Apple Festival. The Sunday Group would have gone on 11th, but the MNA coach to Tatton Park took priority, so I went independently on the Saturday, meeting several other MNA members there: John C, Dorothy C, Brian W. There was apple tasting and sales, a juicing demonstration, juice tasting and sales, cider sales and guided tours of their orchards.

They grow over thirty varieties, including ones with lovely old names like Bramley Seedling, Irish Peach, Katy, Ellison’s Orange, Forty Shilling, Lady Sudeley, Lord Lambourne, Sunset, Worcester Permain, Ribston Pippin, Rosemary Russet, Egremont Russet, Galloway Pippin, King of the Pippins, Wheeler’s Russet, Carlisle Codlin, Manx Codlin, Grenadier, Keswick Codlin, Yorkshire Aromatic, Golden Spire, Lady of Wemyss, Lord Derby, Monarch, Mére de Ménage, Isaac Newton and Howgate Wonder.

The variety Isaac Newton is said to be from a tree discovered in Newton’s childhood garden, and to be the one that fell on his head, sparking his theories of gravity.

In the orchard hedges are Crab Apple bushes, which provide pollination services in the spring, but in the autumn are covered with tiny yellow apples, less than an inch across.

On the way back I noticed that from the top of the hill outside the Communications Centre, there is a lovely view of Ormskirk church, which famously has both a tower and spire.

On the corner of Rose Place, a yellow Buddleia was still in bloom, probably Buddleia x weyeriana “Sungold”. It was being visited by a Buff-tailed Bumble Bee and a Common Carder Bee.

Another garden had a Garden Spider Araneus diadematus sitting in its web.

Tree of the Day was a Red Oak Quercus rubra with its very large leaves, in the garden of a house called Brosely on Long Lane. I chatted to the owner about it, who had planted it many years before, and he said it had been rather disappointing, not providing the bright autumn colour he had hoped for.

Public transport details: Ormskirk train to Aughton Park. Turn right up Long Lane, cross over Liverpool Road (the A59) at Christ Church Aughton and take the path up through the fields to the Communications Centre. Take the footpath left though the horse fields which brings you out, by four or five stone steps, onto Holly Road, next to the Gorse Hill entrance.

Another lovely day, sunny and bright. The terminus of the 464 bus is next to an open field with a river view, which is part of Shorefields Nature Park. It overlooks the mud flats where the Great Eastern was broken up. The tide was out and there were lots of birds on all that lovely mud. Black-headed gulls, Lesser Black-backs and Herring Gulls of course, and a small group of Mallards or Teal. Several Curlews were stalking about, and we heard their calls almost constantly. Two Shelduck were skimming the wet algal layer on the top of the mud. Later in the day two Herons appeared. In the field were Crows and  Magpies, and a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew from one tree to another. Further along there were 50-60 Redshank with a Great Black-backed Gull keeping watch.

We spotted an interesting tree right away. To the north of the open field there’s a road called Shore Bank with a row of Lombardy Poplars, and at the river end there’s an unusual and handsome dark-leaved tree that we didn’t recognise. The leaves were like Ash, but smaller, and the top surface of the leaflets was dark and glossy. The twigs were also Ash-like, but the buds were dark purple, not black as in the common Ash. There were no seeds to give us a clue. I broke off a twig to bring home and I think it’s the infrequent Narrow-leaved Ash Fraxinus angustifolia, which Mitchell (the tree expert) says is usually only found in parks in southern England.

Bright red berries were everywhere. Rowan and Hawthorn, of course, and the hedgerows had Black Briony, Honeysuckle and Rose Hips. The Elder bushes were weighed down with large bunches of their black berries.

At the southern end there are steps down to the shore, then another flight up into Port Sunlight River Park. The Ragwort is still in fine flower, and we also noted Red Campion, Hogweed with hoverflies, and Hedgerow Cranesbill with its dainty paired flowers. There were masses of Michaelmas Daisies.

An unidentified blue dragonfly was active over the pool, and birds included Mute Swan, Moorhen, Coot, Teal, various gulls, Black-tailed Godwits, a Little Grebe and two Snipe.

While we lunched near the Ranger’s office there was a Buzzard circling overhead and a hovering Kestrel. There’s a white-barked Himalayan Birch there, and in the shrubbery some gone-over roses bore unusual black hips. Then we climbed the hill, getting better views of the Buzzard. There is a sign up saying they are strimming different sections of the top each year “to maintain the meadow for wild flowers and as a nesting area for Lapwings and Skylarks”. There was at least one Skylark in residence, which we heard before we saw. Another surprising bird was a female Wheatear on the path, perhaps a bird from further north, already on migration. From the summit there are great views of Liverpool.

At the very top there’s a lovely sinuous bench and an amusing wooden birdwatcher. The bench  is by the sculptor Mike Owens, and perhaps the birdwatcher is, too. The base of the bench has drawings of local birds.

It became so warm that we had to take off some layers. Not bad for October! A Large White butterfly was still on the wing, and there was a Speckled Wood in the lower hedgerows. A Teasel head was covered with the fluff from Rosebay Willow Herb seeds.  The commoner trees were also heavy with seeds. Great bunches of Ash keys are still on the trees, and this Sycamore bore seeds with the wings at quite a wide angle, more than the “regulation” 90 degrees and almost as wide as those of Norway Maple, but it was definitely a Sycamore.

Many of the trees we saw from the bus today were taking on their autumn colours, but turning unevenly on the same tree. One branch might still have green leaves, while another has turned a glorious colour. I don’t remember seeing that to such a degree in previous years. Here’s a Maple from near the houses on Shorefields.

Twice on the bus journey home I was startled to catch glimpses of trees with wholly yellow foliage, but I couldn’t stop to check what they were. They were probably Golden Ash Fraxinus excelsior ‘Jaspidea’. One tree nursery’s blurb describes it as “An eye-catching tree, with glorious, long lasting, butter yellow autumn colours in mid to late October.” Here’s a picture of one in Nantes Arboretum, courtesy of the French GardenBreizh website.

By the way, remember that grafted and broken Willow-leaved Pear in Princes Park a few weeks ago? There’s a pair of far better-looking ones in St John’s Gardens in Liverpool, one on the Central Library side and one opposite the Marriott Hotel.

Public transport details: Bus 464 towards New Ferry from Sir Thomas Street at 10.15, arriving at the terminus at Shorefields / Pollitt Square at 10.55. Returned from same stop on the 464 at 2.32. arriving Liverpool City Centre at 3.05