The Naturalists' Notebook

It’s getting autumnal now, but it was a beautiful day with hardly a cloud in the sky. It’s turning out to be a wonderful season for fruit and seeds, and the Hawthorn is putting on huge displays of red berries.

The trail in this section is a dark shady tunnel almost all the way along. Wayside flowers included Ragwort, one of the Knapweeds, Herb Robert, Woody and Black Nightshades, Michaelmas Daisies, seed-heads of Wood Avens, Bindweed and a crucifer with four-petalled yellow flowers and bulgy seeds with longish beaks, which I think might have been Black Mustard. Another one that foxed us was something in the Bistort family. The flowers were branched and very pale pink, almost white, and the stems were green. Despite this I think it was most likely to be the common Redleg, Persicaria maculosa, which is supposed to have red flowers and stems, but it was probably less coloured in deep shade.

Sycamore Tar Spot Fungus is said to be a sign of clean air, occurring in the country but not usually in towns. However, we spotted it all along the trail, even right next to the underpass below the Motorway and Bowring Park Road.

We lunched at a picnic table in a rare sunny spot with a splendid view over playing fields to Childwall All Saints church.

A small detour took us around the small park called Alderman John Village Garden, where I picked a Lime leaf and a seed head hanging from its yellowing bract.

Back on the trail I was hoping to collect leaves and seeds of Field Maple, Sycamore and Norway Maple, to compare them, but could I find a Norway Maple? Nope. This picture has just the Sycamore leaf and seed-pair and the much smaller Field Maple leaf lying on it, with its seeds sticking almost straight out.

Our last wildlife note was a Grey Squirrel in Belle Vale Park.  On this tenth section of the Trans-Pennine Trail we walked a further 3 miles of it, taking us to 23½ miles from Southport.

Public transport details: Bus 10A from Queen Square at 10.00, arriving East Prescot Road opposite Sainsbury’s at 10.25. Returned on 14A bus at Childwall Valley Road outside Belle Vale shopping centre at 2.10, arriving Liverpool 2.35.

The first yellowing leaves were falling from the Lime trees in Crosby this morning, so autumn is in the air. As we climbed up St George’s Way to Bidston Hill the low shrubs and grass glistened with the flat, dewy webs of a sheetweb spider from the genus Linyphia, and Linyphia triangularis is the commonest. The spider itself is supposed to lurk beneath the web, but we didn’t spot any.

Heather and Gorse were still out, and we spotted some flowers of Yellow Balsam.  We lunched at the top, admiring the views to Liverpool City Centre one way, and to Point of Air lighthouse and the Great Orme in the other direction.

Bidston Lighthouse is behind the Observatory, and I had never been aware of its existence before. Bidston is further from the shore than any other lighthouse in Britain. The current building dates to 1873, and it replaced a previous one from 1771. Together with Leasowe Lighthouse below it on the shore, it was a navigational aid to help mariners through the treacherous sandbanks into Liverpool. By lining up the lights of Leasowe and Bidston, ships could follow the safe channel.

On the way back to the windmill we spotted a large cluster of Fly Agaric Amanita muscaria under the Birch and Gorse. There were a dozen or more of them, with small ones still coming up. The largest was 7 or 8 inches across.

Further under the same undergrowth were some pale brown ones. Were they just poorly-pigmented ones of the same species, or were they the rarer Royal Fly Agaric Amanita regalis?

Inside a barn at Tam o’ Shanter urban farm a pair of Swallow parents were busily feeding three chicks, which were out of the nest and perching on a rafter. One of the staff said it was that pair’s fourth brood of the summer and that the farm has had its best-ever year for Swallows.

Then we went into Flaybrick Cemetery. The leaves on one of the big old Lime trees were curling up and the fruits were hanging in clusters from yellowing bracts.

One late bloom of the orange flower Fox and Cubs had a Hoverfly on it, perhaps from the genus Eupeodes.

Other trees noted were a False Acacia or Locust Tree, Robinia pseudoacacia, and this Hornbeam with small leaves and no seed clusters that I could see, which may be of the variety “Fastigiata”.

Public transport details: Bus 437 towards West Kirby from Sir Thomas Street at 10.05, arriving Upton Road / Boundary Road at 10.28. Returned from Upton Road / Boundary Road on the 437 bus at 3.39, arriving Liverpool 3.55.

We had a later start today because of a Heritage Open Day appointment at noon at Princes Road Synagogue. In Upper Parliament Street there was a large orange and black ladybird on a shrub-sized Italian Alder. It was as big or bigger than the common British Seven-spot Ladybird, so doubtless one of those invasive and variable Harlequins.

The Synagogue tour and talk was most interesting.

Afterwards we set off along Princes Avenue towards Princes Park for our belated lunch. Princes Park, like Botanic Park, is Grade II* listed. It was designed by Joseph Paxton and opened in 1842, one of the first parks in England to have public access.

We spent the next hour or so looking for trees. According to the Tree Register‘s database,  there are supposed to be two Indian Bean Trees in the park, one the County Champion for height and the other the County Champion for girth, located on the north west edge. We took that to be somewhere along the Croxteth Road edge, but they were nowhere to be seen. There was a splendid Hornbeam, though, with four or five trunks and a lovely spreading shape.

There were no birds of interest on the lake and lawns, just Mallard, Canada Geese, Magpie and Black-headed Gulls. We found another tree we were hunting for, just north of the lake. It was a Willow-leafed Pear, Pyrus salicifolia, the County Champion for girth, at 154cm (about 5 feet) and a height of 20 ft. Sadly, some of the branches have broken off at the shoulder-height graft, making it lopsided. The little pear fruits are said to be inedible, hard and astringent.

On the subject of trees, I was at Chester Zoo last week and went to look at the trees on the Oakfield lawn. The two big Cedars that I remembered being there weren’t Cedars of Lebanon at all, but Himalayan Cedars or Deodars, Cedrus deodara, which are thought to be over 100 years old. They have the same upright cones as Cedrus libani, but the form of the tree doesn’t have the flat “plates”, and the foliage is subtly different. I wonder if the trees we recently identified as “Cedars of Lebanon” (in Botanic Gardens and St Chad’s Kirkby) were really Himalayan Cedars?

Public transport details: 86 bus from Liverpool ONE bus station at 11.15, arriving Upper Parliament Street / Sandon Street at 11.35. Returned on 82 bus from Park Road / Gredington Street on 82 bus at 3.05, arriving Liverpool ONE bus station at 3.15.

Botanic Gardens is the oldest Liverpool park. It was originally a private walled botanic garden, opened in 1836, making it 30 or 40 years older than any of Liverpool’s other city parks.  It has recently been Grade II* listed by Historic England.

Our happiest find was several specimens of the uncommon Tree of Heaven Ailanthus altissima.  After not finding one on the Tree Trail at Reynolds Park last year (it was a mis-labelled Black Walnut) we were delighted to be able to have a good look at the leaves with multiple leaflets, each with a couple of big teeth at the stalk end and uneven at the base. One tree had some clusters of ash-like seeds, confirming that this definitely wasn’t a Black Walnut.

Birds are still quite thin on the ground. The shrubberies had Blackbird, Robin and Wood Pigeon, while Swallows swept low over the lawns and a few Magpies loitered about. Speckled Woods danced in glades, and the few flowers still in bloom attracted a Large White butterfly. One of the prettiest flowering shrubs was this pink and blue Lacecap Hydrangea.

Several other trees puzzled us. The one with the red berries was probably some variety of Cotoneaster. One with oak-like leaves might have been Swedish Whitebeam while one big tree had thick leaves that surely belonged to some kind of Fig, although we couldn’t see any fruit on it.

One very handsome conifer had drooping, ferny foliage similar to Cypresses. I think it was a “Western Red Cedar” Thuja plicata, which isn’t a Cedar at all, it’s part of the Juniper/Thuja group.

The main lawn is bordered by an avenue of London Planes. This area used to have two seated statues, said to be of Tam O’Shanter and Souter Johnny, but they were so badly damaged that they were removed in 2013. There are pictures of them on the Liverpool Monuments website.

At the northern edge of the same lawn, just above the steps, there is a derelict fountain. Right next to it is a Cedar of Lebanon, which would make a splendid focal point for a sight line, except that it is partially obscured by a tall spindly Gingko!

After lunch we returned to the garden entrance, where we spotted a Grey Wagtail in the derelict ground where the old greenhouses used to be. Then we set off through the houses to Newsham Park, past the boarded-up church of St John the Divine C of E, Fairfield. Although it’s a lovely-looking small church, it was authorised for demolition in Aug 2008 because the spire was said to be in danger of collapse. There has been a local campaign to save it and, so far, it still stands.

Photo originally from Geograph, and may be reused subject to this creative commons usage licence

Model boats were being put through their paces on Newsham Park Boating lake, ignored by the Canada Geese and Mallards. On the main lake we added Moorhen and Coots, while grassy areas held Black-headed Gulls, Carrion Crows and a Grey Squirrel.  There was a small patch of late wildflower meadow on the edge of the big field, and in the former Rose Garden we came across a group of volunteer Friends, tidying up a flower bed. They told us the wildflowers were theirs, planted from seeds donated by Kew to Community Groups.

Public transport details: Bus number 7 from Queen Square at 10.23 towards Huyton, arriving Edge lane / Deane Road at 10.40. Returned from West Derby Road, Tuebrook, some by the 15 bus at 14.15 towards Liverpool, arriving  14.30.

It was a still, dry and sunny day, but not so warm as it has been recently, so very pleasant for walking. We turned south from the station along Mossgiel Avenue and followed the path alongside the railway. On the verges we noted Tansy, Harebell, Ragwort, Rosebay Willow Herb and masses of a pink flower which we thought was escaped garden Stock. There were a couple of Rabbits on the edge of the school playing fields. One popped swiftly down its burrow, but the other was hunched up with sore-looking eyes. It looked like it had Myxomatosis.

There are never many birds around at this time of year, and we saw only two Great Tits and a Wood Pigeon in this area. We saw a good butterfly, though. It was on some bare sand and it took off before we could look at it properly. It was some kind of Fritillary, probably the Dark Green Fritillary, which the reserve is proud of.
I stopped to look at a tree which looked like Sycamore but didn’t appear to be quite right. The leaf stalks (petioles) were yellow not red, the two lower lobes of the leaf were underdeveloped and the winged seeds looked paler and less vigorous. However, it had tar-spot fungus, which is specific to Sycamore. Mitchell’s Field Guide says it was a Sycamore, but bearing the signs of an old tree.

Further harbingers of autumn were four Mistle Thrushes which flew up to the top of one of the tall pines, the ripening blackberries, the Hawthorn berries and Rose hips turning red and these acorns on a Sessile Oak.

The path was strewn with the cones of Corsican Pine, some of which had been chewed by squirrels, probably Reds because the greys here are controlled.

A brown dragonfly flitted along the edge of the path, then vanished. It wasn’t reddish at all, so was it a Brown Hawker? Further flowers were Wild Carrot, Mullein, Evening Primrose, Weld and masses of Rosebay Willow Herb going to seed.

There was pink Centaury in flower in the short grass. According to the reserve signs, it is the rare Seaside Centaury here, not the Common. We also saw one plant with white flowers. However, in Blamey, Fitter and Fitter’s flower book, all the species of Centaury have a white variant shown except Seaside Centaury. It also says that Common and Seaside can hybridise. The best way to tell the difference is the oval leaves on Common and the long strap-shaped leaves on Seaside. The ones we saw had elongated oval leaves, so they must indeed be hybrids.

There were Swallows over the greens on Formby golf course and we heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker. Magpies were cackling in the woods. Short bursts of sweet birdsong came from one bush, but it wasn’t a Robin, although we spotted a young Robin on the path a few moments later, just getting his its red breast. A Speckled Wood posed obligingly on a fern.

On the other side of the railway the Heather was in bloom, as was Honeysuckle, and escaped Montbretia. There were both Knopper Galls and Oak Apple galls. On Montague Road we noted Yarrow, White Dead-nettle and Honesty. A Red Squirrel scampered across from a garden to the railway and the Rowan trees had masses of red berries.

A late-flowering Buddleia had both a Peacock and a Painted Lady, the latter high up and hard to see. I haven’t seen a Painted Lady this year until now, and maybe only one other Peacock. Then we saw a Holly Blue a little further along. A good day for butterflies!

Public transport details: Train from Central Station towards Southport at 10.08, arriving Ainsdale 10.43. Returned from Freshfield Station on the 14.11 train, due in Liverpool at 14.45.

It was a hot and sunny day, so a good one to walk another couple of miles of the Trail with its lush and shady greenery.

There aren’t many birds about in August, so interest was mainly in the plants and the butterflies. There was plenty of Ragwort and Rose Bay Willowherb, plus Yarrow, Tufted Vetch, Buttercups, Red Clover, Mugwort, Herb Robert, the garden escape Montbretia, Great Willowherb, and a smaller one that might be Marsh Willowherb. There was a big patch of Black Nightshade in one place and the leaves of Coltsfoot in another. Under the trees there were many seedlings of White Poplar coming up. We also noted several kinds of the yellow dandelion-like “Hawkish” plants, one of which might have been the Autumn Hawkbit. A new flower for me was Red Bartsia, growing in large patches.

Several Grey Squirrels scampered across the path, dodging the people out on bikes. Signs of advancing summer included Rose hips turning red and the Sycamore leaves showing Tar Spot fungus. According to the First Nature website, the trees only get it when the air is relatively clean, which is good to know.  There were plenty of ripening Blackberries, but they aren’t very sweet yet.

There were several big Buddleias but none had any butterflies on them. My Buddleia at home has been a disappointment this year, too. Ones we did see were a couple of Speckled Woods, a  Gatekeeper flitting around the Ragwort and this Blue one which sat for a while on the bare path, apparently tasting moisture or salt from a damp depression. There were scattered spots on its underwing, so I think it was a Holly Blue, despite them rarely being seen that low down.

We heard Goldfinches twittering, and saw Collared Dove and Greenfinch. In a stand of Nettles we noticed a Bumble Bee climbing rather clumsily and sluggishly about the tip of the plant. It was a queen Buff-tailed, I think. Was it trying to climb higher and looking for a place to nest? Lay eggs? Hibernate?

One patch of Ragwort had a few small Cinnabar moth caterpillars, but there are still very few of them about. Another stand of Ragwort had loads of smallish wasps or bees, probably after the nectar. There were areas of the verge where something had been cleared, perhaps Japanese Knotweed, but at the back of some houses just one surviving plant was growing like a small tree.

Near the former West Derby Station the walls of the cutting had Royal Fern growing.

On this second picture the Royal Fern was adjacent to the commoner Male Fern so the difference is clear. Male Fern on the left, Royal Fern on the right.

We lunched at the old station area, accompanied by a Robin, which was hopping about in the Ivy on the wall, clearly interested in us eating our sandwiches but not quite brave enough to come down, even when we scattered some mealworms.

Further southwards is a deep cutting, very damp and shady. There is Liverwort growing up the walls and the almost-permanent puddles on either side had a wet-loving member of the Speedwell family called Brooklime, with the improbable Latin name of Veronica beccabunga. In the section from Alder Road to East Prescot Road we added Enchanter’s Nightshade to today’s flower list.

Near Alder Road we took time out to visit Margaret’s garden. Her yellow Mexican Orange had a big spider on it, probably a Garden Cross Spider, but it wouldn’t show me its dorsal side to see the cross marking. On Golden Rod there were over 100 blue-green iridescent flies. Flies (Diptera) are very numerous and hard to identify, but they looked to me like one of the family Calliphoridae, perhaps Greenbottle flies. If so, they may have been a single brood which had emerged from some dead creature in a garden nearby.

As we made our way along the last bit of the Trail to East Prescot Road the sky was darkening, looking like the promised rain was imminent. Just as we got on the bus the heavens opened, but it had stopped by the time we reached the City Centre. How very convenient!

On this eighth section of the Trans-Pennine Trail we walked a further 2 miles of it, taking us to 20½ miles from Southport.

Public transport details: Bus 14A from Queen Square at 10.08, arriving Broadway at 10.32.  Returned on bus 10B at 2.45 from East Prescot Road / Rudyard Road, arriving Liverpool City Centre at 3.15

Our goal was the Thurstaston Seaside Fun Day, but since Thurstaston is poorly served by public transport, we had to walk there and back from West Kirby along the Wirral Way, which was five and a half miles altogether, longer than we would have chosen on a hot August day. In the sun it was hot and humid but much of the path was in very welcome shade.

There are still plenty of flowers out, including Green Alkanet, Burdock, a second flush of Bramble flowers, Common Mallow, Purple Loosestrife, Great Willowherb, Herb Robert, Honeysuckle (with flowers and berries), Hogweed, White Campion, Red Campion, Toadflax. St John’s Wort, Wild Strawberry, Black Briony, Meadowsweet, Himalayan Balsam, Hemp Agrimony and Mugwort. Near the Cubbins Green junction about twenty yards of the landward verge was covered with Scarlet Pimpernel.

The Ragwort was in magnificent bloom, untroubled by the black and yellow Cinnabar moth caterpillars which chew it to shreds in most years. We have remarked on this all summer, throughout Merseyside, that it’s been a very poor year for them. Our friend Dorothy C, who encourages various caterpillar food plants on her farm, said she noticed loads of Cinnabar moth eggs on her Ragwort earlier in the year, but there was a great thunderstorm and the next day they had all been washed off.

There were several kinds of Bindweed in the verges. The smaller one with some pink on the flowers must have been Field Bindweed. The big white one was either Large or Hedge Bindweed, and I think this pink one with the white stripes must be the rarer Sea Bindweed.

We don’t see many birds this time of year, just Robin, Dunnock and Blackbird on the path, the sound of a Greenfinch wheezing somewhere, and Magpies cackling in the trees. But the butterflies were all on the wing, Speckled Wood, Large White, Small White and Green-veined White, Holly Blue, Gatekeeper and one splendid Comma.

An overhanging branch of wild rose had this Robin’s Pincushion growing. The Wildlife Trusts say it’s a gall caused by the larvae of a tiny gall wasp, Dipoloepis rosae. It is widespread and common, and can be found developing on the stems of wild roses during late summer, acquiring its reddish colour as it matures in autumn. The grubs inside the gall feed on the host plant throughout the winter and emerge in spring as adults. The adults reproduce asexually and only a tiny number are male.

We lunched at the Visitors’ Centre then made our way down to the beach for the Seaside Fun Day. We weren’t terribly impressed. The posters said “Learn about amazing coastal wildlife, help create a Giant Beach Art picture, mud dipping, clay beach art, dolphin activities, scavenger hunts, seashore searches and meet Blue Planet’s Charlie the Clownfish”.  In reality there were perhaps a dozen kids dipping in plastic trays. They can’t investigate rock pools, because there aren’t any here. A couple of Rangers were answering questions, but there was nothing to detain us. Nice views over to Wales, though.

The tide was out so there were very few birds, just some distant gulls and a flock of several hundred Oystercatchers near the waterline. We walked north along the highest tide line, noting lots of whelk egg cases and cast gull feathers. There was Mayweed growing in the soft, unstable old dune faces, Sea Holly amongst the Marram grass and this very large Broad-leaved Dock, nearly six feet tall.

Near the Dee Sailing Club there was Wild Carrot and Yellow-wort, and finally some Ragwort with Cinnabar moth caterpillars on it. They were big and fat and occasionally they twitched their back ends back and forth, as if they were starting to spin their cocoons. A young family from Mold were also looking at them, and said there were lots of them on the Ragwort where they lived.

On the way back to the Wirral Way we thought we heard a young Whitethroat, but we couldn’t see it. We saw the Swallows, though. Autumn is approaching, and the fruits are ripening. Many of the blackberries are going red, there are a few ripe black ones, and masses are still green and developing. Going to be a good blackberrying year by the looks of it. The trees are coming into generous fruit, too. The Rowan berries are already red, Sloes are starting to go black, the Hawthorn berries are just on the turn, small apples are falling by the wayside and great bunches of Ash keys are forming.

Public transport details: Train from Central Station at 10.05 to West Kirby, arriving 10.35. Returned from West Kirby on the 3.31 train, arriving Liverpool city centre at 4.05.