The Naturalists' Notebook

For this fifth section of the Trans-Pennine Trail we had a clear and sunny day, bright and warm without being too hot.

At Lydiate Hall Farm the Peacocks appeared to be moulting their tail feathers, but there was a stern sign warning visitors that the feathers were the property of the farm, not to be taken away, but could be purchased for charity in the farm shop.

The cabbage field behind the farm was being visited by many Large White butterflies, which we used to call “cabbage whites” when I was little. As we walked south along the old Cheshire Lines path we also saw Specked Woods, several Small Tortoiseshells and this Red Admiral on Elderberries. It was opening and closing its wings, and I never could get a shot when they were fully open, but I like this one with the sun shining through.

We had lunch where the path crosses Carr Lane and Lydiate Station Road. There is no trace of the old station itself, although a passing cyclist said he remembered it being on the north side of the junction. But one of the houses in Carr Lane  is called “Railway Cottage” and the old level crossing barrier is still raised and waiting, even though it hasn’t seen a train since 1952.

We didn’t see many birds, because cyclists and walkers were passing every minute or two, and the hedges were too high for many long views. But there were Crows in the stubble and Starlings on the telegraph poles. We heard a Buzzard calling, and then it flew low over our heads. Later there were four high overhead, possibly young ones. Through one gap we saw a procession of about 20 or 30 Mallards, both ducks and drakes, apparently walking out of a farm gate into a field, making no attempt to fly off. Were they pinioned birds being kept for their eggs, or were they just moulting and mooching about?

The berries are all ripening now. Some people were still out blackberrying, and the hedges were red with Hawthorn, Guelder Rose berries and Rose Hips.

Near the border between West Lancs and Sefton we came across this shrub bearing clusters of white berries. I think it was some kind of Dogwood, perhaps White or Siberian Dogwood Cornus alba, which is native to Siberia and unlikely to be wild.

Late flowers included Ragwort, Tormentil, a white umbellifer which I think was Common Hogweed and Rose Bay Willow Herb, some still in flower but most going spectacularly to seed.

Along the southernmost part of the path there were patches of a low lilac Cranesbill and clumps of the raggedy Perennial Sow Thistle. Large trumpet flowers of Bindweed were everywhere, but whether it was Hedge Bindweed, Large Bindweed or a hybrid of the two, I couldn’t say.

Today we walked just over two miles of TPT, taking us to 12 miles from Southport.

Public transport details: 300 bus from Queen Square at 10.18, arriving Our Lady’s Church, Lydiate, at 11.06. Returned from Liverpool Road South / Avondale Avenue on the 250 bus at 1.55, arriving Liverpool 2.35.

Two out of the last three times we have been to Taylor Park were on very wet days, but happily the rain kept off today.

There were lines of molehills on the wet lawn, and under a Common Lime tree were several erupting clusters of fungi. Was it Honey Fungus?

Nearby was a nice Hornbeam tree with ripening seeds.

Magpies were chattering in the trees as we made our way to the lake, and there was a Pied Wagtail on the bank. On the lake itself were Mallards, Coots, Canada Geese, a limping Greylag and a few Lesser Black-backed gulls. Some Moorhens were skulking near the edges. There were lots of Black-headed Gulls, which have now nearly all moulted out their black heads, with just a few still having a faint shadowy cap. The Swallows flying over the lake were all young ones without tail streamers, so perhaps their parents have already left for Africa. A few House Martins flew amongst them.

There was lots of weed in the lake, and there was a sign on the fence saying the Rangers believe it is starving the water of oxygen. They plan to dredge it out and leave it on the jetty by the boathouse so that all the invertebrates can get back into the water. After a few days they will send it off for recycling. Another sign advised that feeding bread to ducks is bad for them, and the message was reinforced by a child’s drawing of happy, healthy ducks and ducklings.

We stopped to examine a young tree in a cage by the boathouse bank. Its bark was mottled like Holly (which is “smooth pinkish-grey, freckled and striated” according to Mitchell). The dark glossy leaves weren’t spiny, though. Was it a Holm Oak? We spotted some rudimentary seeds which might have been undeveloped acorns, but the bark of a Holm Oak is supposed to be “brownish- black or black, shallowly cracked into small, square, thin, dry and often curling plates.” It didn’t look like that. We’d have liked to ask a Ranger but the Ranger’s office was closed.

There was Purple Loosestrife growing on the water’s edge and ripe Elderberries in the hedges. On the far side was a Great Crested Grebe carrying quite a big fish. He or she went to a single humbug-headed juvenile, who grabbed it and swallowed it down in a single gulp. A Heron was hunting under trees and there was a pair of adult Mute Swans with five cygnets, but we saw no leg rings on them.  Two small fluffy ducks perched on a rock in the north corner of the lake, and we thought at first that they were Mallard ducklings, but they were probably Tufted duck, either juveniles, or adults in eclipse.

Near the Ranger station were two young trees with unusual scaly bark. Leaves were alternate, with a rough surface, and looked like Elms – uneven at the base of midrib, called “shouldered”. We though they might be Wych Elms, but Wych Elm bark is said to be smooth and silvery-grey in young trees, becoming finely cracked in black as they mature. The best match I can find is the hybrid Dutch Elm, whose bark is “distinctively cracked into shallow small flakes” and whose leaves are said to be “variable in size on the same tree and often buckled or puckered”.

The Quarry Garden was damp, shady and ferny. The only birds were Robin, Wood Pigeon, Blackbird and  Blue Tit.  Amongst the shrubs like Heuchera and Mahonia was a young Chilean Pine (Monkey Puzzle) looking a bit sick and twisted, so perhaps it is in too wet and shadowy a spot for it to grow well, but I suppose the idea was for it to look “prehistoric”. On the collection of petrified wood were scatterings of small orange globules, perhaps a fungus or a lichen.

The cultivated form of Red Dead-nettle was attracting several small hovering insects and at least one Carder Bee, which foraged right into the flowers.

We climbed up to the viewpoint over to Billinge Hill, with Winter Hill further away to north east. Small parties of Canada Geese were flying eastwards and honking. All the trees in view were still green, there are no autumn colours starting yet, although the berries are mostly all ripe. We wandered back thorough the damper, wilder woody paths, looking for flowers, There is still quite a lot of Ragwort in flower, and Ivy-leaved Toadflax on the old walls. Elsewhere were Buttercups and Daisies in the lawns, some late Bramble flowers, Self-heal, Great Willow Herb straggling in the shrubbery and Bittersweet.

Public transport details: 10 bus from Queen Square at 10.17, arriving Prescot Road / Toll Bar (outside the park) at 11.05.  Returned on the 10A bus from Prescot Road / Toll Bar at 2.10, arriving Liverpool 3.00.

The forecast was for cool and overcast weather but they got it wrong – it turned out to be sunny and warm, a bit too warm for us to be walking as far as we did. We started this fourth section of the Trans-Pennine Trail where we left off last time, at the north end of the Formby by-pass, where it joins Moor Lane. The old Cheshire Lines Railway, which closed in 1952, runs south from here across the fields of the Lancashire plain, with comparatively few easy access points to make the walk shorter.

There were Swallows on the wire in Plex Moss Lane, and horses in many of the paddocks. We had a close encounter with a horse and rider on a narrow section of the trail.

We lunched by the wayside at the junction with North Moss Lane. It was a surprisingly busy spot, with lots of bikes and walkers passing by. In this sunny corner there were lots of Speckled Woods, and one of the White butterflies. There was even a big dragonfly zooming about. It didn’t sit still at all, but we think it was an Emperor. The field behind us was streaked with red caused by large drifts of the plant called Redshank.

As we crossed the open plain we noticed that most of the grain crops seem to be in, and there were Crows and Wood Pigeons in the stubble. Lots of Starlings perched on telegraph wires, a big flock of Lapwings came up, and 20-odd Mallards flew over, heading north west towards Ainsdale. At the old railway bridge over Downholland Brook a Greenfinch came to a puddle to drink and the birds catching insects overhead were House Martins. Had they been nesting in the buildings of the Pumping Station? Right in the middle of the bridge was an old concrete pyramid, a left-over anti-tank defence from WWII.

There weren’t very many wildflowers by the wayside, perhaps because the path is so dry and open. The best display was of Yellow Toadflax. Margaret said she thought it was a common railway plant, so is it a relic from those days?

Near the Sewage Treatment plant there was a shadier, damper corner, full of Himalayan Balsam, Ragwort, Purple Loosestrife and Hemp Agrimony.

Hemp Agrimonly

Himalayan Balsam

We came off the trail at New Carr Lane, walked a few hundred yards south along the tarmac of Acres Lane then turned into the field path which runs up to the back of Lydiate Hall farm. We flushed a Grey Partridge there, which exploded out of the undergrowth right in front of us. The Hayloft café was a welcome sight and we had time to sit down with a pot of tea before getting our bus home. We walked five and a quarter miles today, of which about four and a half was the Trans-Pennine Trail. We are now nine and three quarter miles from the start at Southport.

Public transport details: X2 bus at 10.15 from Queen Square, arriving Woodvale 11.05. Returned on the 300 bus at 3.21 from Our Lady’s RC church, Lydiate, arriving Liverpool 4.13.

It was a day of sunshine and light showers, but the sun was shining when we arrived at Ellesmere Port Station and we stopped to admire their small wildlife plot, with pictures of butterflies placed amongst the flowers.

We walked down Meadow Lane to the canal and turned south. It seems that autumn has arrived quite early this year. The berries on the Rowan trees are all red, as are the ones on the Guelder Rose. Hawthorn berries are still half way between green and red. Sloes are ripe, and Damsons are falling. Many of the blackberries are quite big and sweet. But although there were plenty of Hazel shrubs in the hedge, there were no Hazel nuts. I don’t think I have even seen or taken a picture of a Hazel nut in the local area. Why not?

Rowan

Guelder Rose

Wood Pigeons flew from side to side, and the water had Mallards; a family of Coots, made up of both adults and three well-grown chicks; Moorhens, including one quite small chick, less than a week old. After we passed under the M53 we came to the regular spot of a Heron, who had a bulging crop after a big meal.

There was a red Damselfly on the path, but it moved off too fast for us to to identify it. However, when we stopped for lunch at Mason’s Bridge there was a Common Darter basking in the sun on the south-facing coping stones, almost invisible against the sandstone.

Some interesting flowers along the canalside. Arrowhead was all the way along after lunch, and also Gipsywort and Figwort. One plant that always had its feet in the water looked a bit like Himalayan Balsam but the flowers were orange. My book tells me there is such a thing as Orange Balsam, which flowers July and August and lives on canal and river banks. That must be it.

Gipsywort

Orange Balsam

We noticed that the tops were cut off much of the Arrowhead and suspected water voles but later concluded that it must have been the verge cutter when it came along a week or two before.

Near the sewage treatment plant a male Banded Demoiselle flew past. We left the canal at Stoke Bridge, and sat for a while in the tiny Stoake Nature Reserve, which was just one tiny field. There were Molehills, a Speckled Wood, a green/blue dragonfly which wouldn’t sit still to be identified and the spotty leaves of Common Lungwort. In the pretty little village of Stoake we passed a house gate saying “Beware of the Dog”, but the first time we passed it there was a horse in the garden, and the second time there was a goose. We never did see the dog.

There are some fine old Irish Yews next to the Church of St Lawrence.

On the gravestones the village was variously spelled Stoke, Stoake or Stoak. The oldest one we found was of a man called Samuel Yoxon who died in 1775 aged 47. There was also the grave of a boy of 9 called Nelson Burt, “drowned in the River Mersey during the hurricane of the 5th and 6th of December 1822”. He may have been named by his father after the great Lord Nelson who had died eight years before young Nelson Burt’s birth.

There was a strange ghostly horse in a stable.

We walked about a mile up Little Stanney Lane to get the bus in Cheshire Oaks, spotting the fresh corpse of a Rat on the way and a Spindle tree in the ornamental hedge. We just made it to the bus back to Ellesmere Port station.

Public transport details: 10.30 train from Liverpool central to Ellesmere Port, arriving 11.05. Returned on a little green number 36 bus from Cheshire Oaks at 3.00, arriving Ellesmere Port Station at 3.07. Train to Liverpool at 3.19, arriving Liverpool 3.55.

We were promised the tail end of Hurricane Bertha today, but although it rained lightly during the morning, it cleared up in the early afternoon. Not such a wash-out as we had feared. We concentrated on trees today, and kicked off by identifying a Judas Tree against the wall of the Walled Garden. Then we followed an old leaflet, the “Reynolds Park Tree Trail”, which shows ten specimen trees, each marked with a post bearing a number and a nameplate. We didn’t do them in the right order and we found one that was definitely wrong!

Number 8 is an Indian Bean Tree, but it has been cut down since the trail leaflet was printed. Now it’s sending up new shoots in the centre of a flower bed.

Number 9 is a Tulip Tree in the corner of the walled garden. Number 6 is a Weeping Willow and number 7 is a Wych Elm behind the hedge of the (closed) sunken garden, and which overhangs the path. Number 5 is an Italian Alder with its much larger leaves and cones as compared to the normal Alder. The picture below shows a ripe 2013 cone and an immature green 2014 cone.

Number 4 is a Common Walnut.

We took a diversion to their wildflower meadow, planted from plugs over the last few years and still a work in progress. We should come back earlier next year and see it in it’s full glory.

Tree number 3 is said on the leaflet to be an English Oak Quercus robur, but the marker at the tree itself says it is a Turkey Oak Quercus cerris. We couldn’t see any acorns or cups on the tree or on the ground below, to see if they were stalked (English Oak) or unstalked and spiky (Turkey Oak). The leaves were oak-leaf-shaped, and perhaps a bit longer and slimmer than English Oak leaves, so Turkey Oak was a definite possibility. We sheltered under the big trees at this corner of the park for lunch. The light rain had nearly stopped, although we got a bit dripped on.

Number 2 is a Yew and number 1 is a Hornbeam. Number 10 was listed as a Tree of Heaven, but not in my book it isn’t ! It had big green single fruits on it.

My book says the fruits of the Tree of Heaven are in “big panicles, each seed in a membranous wing”. See the Natural History Museum page for what they are supposed to look like.  I think it was really an Eastern Black Walnut, Juglans nigra. See this blog Exploring the World of Trees which explains how easily young trees can be confused.

The foliage of the supposed Tree of Heaven

That area of lawn by the site of the old manor house (now new flats) has several nice young specimen trees. On the picture below the supposed Tree of Heaven is front centre, with a small blue tree behind it (behind the flagpole) and a yellow one beyond that.

The blue one can’t be a spruce because the cones aren’t pendulous, so I think it’s a young Blue Atlas Cedar.

The yellow one is some sort of golden-foliaged Cypress.

Another one looked like some kind of Maple/Acer but a crushed leaf had a strong aromatic smell. Was it an American Sweetgum also known as a Liquidamber? It is said to be “often mistaken for a Maple but leaves alternate”. I regret I didn’t note the placement of the leaves.

The topiary garden contains an arrangement of twelve hemispherical golden yews emerging from a circle of green hedges. (The centre left one is a new one, still growing). It is supposed to represent a crown and commemorates Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897.

By the walled garden we stopped to examine a very damaged Horse Chestnut. The leaves were brown and patchy, caused by an infestation of the leaf miner Cameraria ohridella. At least 50% of the effective leaf area was damaged, although it was worse lower down. The Forestry Commission  says “The damage is primarily an aesthetic problem, and there is no evidence that infestation, on its own, causes dieback or a decline in tree health, or tree death. Consequently, there is no reason to fell and remove trees just because they are attacked by C. ohridella. Even severely infested trees will re-flush as normal in the following spring.” The offending leaf miner was first observed in Macedonia in the late 1970s and was in London by 2002. It is still spreading northwards.

We didn’t pay a lot of attention to birds today, but we definitely saw Blackbird, Robin, Magpie, Wood Pigeon, and also some Grey Squirrels. We left the park at Church Road and had strawberry scones at Olive’s house in Woolton. Thanks Olive!

Public transport details: Bus 75 from Great Charlotte Street at 10.13 ariving Rose Brow/Gateacre Brow at 10.25. Returned on 81 bus from Woolton Village at 3.10.

After yesterday’s torrential rain, it was an overcast morning with a strong gusty wind, but it brightened up later. We took the path along the Speke-Garston Coastal Reserve, during a very low tide – the river looked as if it was all sandbanks.

Many of the wildflowers had gone over but there was still Ragwort, Yarrow, Mugwort, Rose Bay Willowherb, Knapweed, Sea Bindweed, Fleabane, Wild Carrot, Perennial Sow Thistle with the raggedy petals, Scarlet Pimpernel, and one with yellow flower spikes that still confuses us. Not Weld, not Mignonette, but since it’s a legume it must be one of the Melilots.

Fleabane

The sloes were ripening on the Blackthorn, and the Blackberries were doing well.

Birds included Black-headed Gulls, a lone Curlew on the beach, a Goldfinch near the sailing club slipway, Cormorants flying past and Swifts overhead. When the sun came out no less than three Gatekeepers came out to bask, there was a large White on some Ragwort and one Comma.

We got into Speke Hall grounds by the back entrance and had lunch on their picnic tables. There were Swallows overhead, a Robin on the edge of the lawn and Magpies and Wood Pigeons in the trees. Then we strolled around the recently-restored Kitchen Garden.

They are aiming for a combination of organic methods and Victorian varieties. They had planted Marigolds next to the Tomatoes, which are said to keep the whitefly away.

Their runner beans were an old variety called Painted Lady.

Amongst the potato ridges was a small wild flower called Gallant Soldier, said to look like “a daisy that lost a fight.”

They have active beehives, five or six apple trees, ripening figs and a herb garden which included this fine clump of Feverfew.

They have a woodland trail, where there were masses of Bluebell stalks – it will be magnificent here in April or early May. One of the Oak trees had a crop of knopper galls on the developing acorns.

On the front of the Hall, under the points of the eaves there are old carved wooden faces, and Crows or Jackdaws have been nesting under some of them.

Near the way out there was the stump of a huge old tree. In the picture below all four people are sitting on the same stump, with room for more. Had it been a Beech?

On the pond were two Mallards and a Moorhen. On the far side a pair of dragonflies were chasing each other. One was noticeably blue and the other brown. They didn’t come close enough to identify with certainty, but they were big, so we guessed they were Emperors. Fish were jumping, and a young man was angling for them, throwing small handfuls of tinned sweetcorn as bait. He said he’d only caught two, and they were small Rudd about 6″ long. There were lots of Molehills beside the driveway on the way out.

Public transport details: 80A bus from Liverpool ONE bus station at 10.10 to Blackburne Street / Banks Road, arriving 10.45. Returned on the 86A bus from Speke Hall Avenue / Speke Hall at 2.40, arriving Liverpol 3.10.