The Naturalists' Notebook

A grand total of 22 members of the MNA and Liverpool RSPB group joined our joint walk at Eastham Country Park led by Howard Mills. We had a quick look around the small visitor centre and watched the bird feeders that were doing brisk business with plenty of Blue, Great and Coal Tits, Chaffinches, Robins and a lone Great Spotted Woodpecker and Nuthatch. The small pond was home to a pair of mating Common Frogs Rana temporaria and masses of frogspawn. A Goldfinch was calling from the top of a tree outside the visitor centre as we started the main walk. A few Stock Doves posed in a tree in addition to the usual Woodpigeons. Blackbirds, Robins and Wrens were in song along with Nuthatch and Great Tit already noted.  There were plenty of Magpies around with one bird missing its tail feathers possibly after an attack by a Sparrowhawk. A Jay flew across the path.

Although conditions in the wood were very dry I found a few Fungi species with Honey Fungus Armillaria mellea rhizomorphs, Purple Jellydisc  Ascocoryne sarcoides, Jelly Ear Auricularia auricula-judae – a few dessicated specimens, Glistening Inkcap Coprinus micaceus, Artist’s Bracket Ganoderma applanatum – widespread in Eastham C.P. and included this nice trio.

Artist’s Bracket

Beech Woodwart Hypoxylon fragiforme – mature specimens with a black finely warted surface, Stump Puffball Lycoperdon pyriforme – a few spent fruiting bodies.

Beech Woodwart

Stump Puffball

Lumpy Bracket Trametes gibbosa – even a few of the none mycologists commented on this common fungi seen mostly on fallen Beech trees Fagus sylvatica this semi-circular chunky white bracket has elongated pores on the underside and often has a greenish coating on its upper-side in older specimens due to algal growth, Turkeytail Trametes versicolor.        

Half a dozen Buff-tailed Bumblebee Bombus terrestris queens were on the wing. These are one of the first bumblebees to be seen in spring with only the queen hibernating through the winter. After re-fuelling with nectar she starts looking for a suitable site to build her nest – often using abandoned mouse burrows. We noted that the majority of the Holly bushes Ilex aquifolium were infected by the Holly Leaf Miner Phytomyza ilicis, a fly whose larvae burrow into leaves leaving characteristic pale trails or leaf mines. Sid Duff pointed out a very decayed tree stump that on closer inspection was riddled with wood boring insect holes.

Wood Boring Holes

Plenty of Daffodils Narcissus sp. cultivars in bloom and also flowering Gorse Ulex europaeus.

Daffodil

We ate lunch overlooking the River Mersey whilst waiting for the tide to recede. There was a lovely Dolphin memorial seat and some cute ceramic tiles of various marine creatures such as Starfish, Seahorses, Octopus and Fish behind the small Cafe.

A few Redshank and a Curlew probed about the seaweed shoreline. We walked south along the front viewing an exposed sandbank in the distance. A dredger sailed back and forth along our line of sight as Alexander scoped the waders – Redshank, Godwits – too distant to decide whether they were Black-tailed or Bar-tailed, a few Cormorants, Mallard and Teal in the water plus a scattering of Black-headed and Herring Gulls.

We popped into view the feeders again adding Greenfinch to the list and noting how the hungry hordes had munched through half a feeder’s worth of seeds. We then continued around the north part of the C.P. seeing a friendly tree-rat or two – Grey Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis as well as plenty of Squirrelly evidence in the form of pine cones stripped of the scales starting at the base in order to reach the oily seeds at the base of each scale and droppings on a mossy tree branch.

Squirrel nibbled Pine cones

Squirrel Droppings 

Ron Crossley spotted a Lacquered Bracket Ganoderma lucidum and later I added Common Tarcrust Diatrype stigma and Rusty Porecrust Phellinus ferruginosus. 

Rusty Porecrust   

If you are interested in the wildlife of the north-west of England and would like to join the walks and coach trips run by the Merseyside Naturalists’ Association, see the main MNA website for details of our programme and how to join us.

A wide photographic selection of birds, marine life, insects, mammals, orchids & wildflowers, fungi, tribal people, travel, ethnography, fossils, rocks & minerals etc. is available on my Alamy webpage

During the mid-week MNA walk around Sefton Park last week – see Barbara’s blog post below – Dave Bryant and Chris Felton noted some unusual galls on young Turkey Oaks Quercus cerris that they didn’t recognise. Turkey Oaks are known hosts to the Knopper Gall Wasp Andricus quercuscalicis, which in spring forms small galls within the catkins of the Turkey Oak. However, they weren’t these…

On returning home DaveB consulted “Britain’s Plant Galls: A Photographic Guide by Michael Chinery” and found the culprit – the Cynipid Gall Wasp Aphelonyx cerricola which was first noted in Berkshire, UK, on 30 September 1996. Since then they have been slowly spreading through-out South-east England. Chris F said that he would appreciate a photographic record. Despite non-ideal photographic conditions – being overcast, windy and raining I met up with DaveB at the cafe and we went out to find the Turkey Oaks. These galls are green and velvety in the summer, later becoming brown and woody as they were now. One particular tree was covered with the irregular shaped galls wrapped around the twigs and neighbouring galls appearing to fuse together.

Turkey Oak galls

I’ve since found out that Steve McWilliam noted these galls in Calderstones Park 25th October 2013.

http://www.record-lrc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1161

The Turkey Oak acorn cups were also rather impressive looking quite hairy in appearance.

Turkey Oak Acorn Cups

There were plenty of other interesting things of note around Sefton Park. Investigating an artificial cave we saw the lace-like diffuse webs around the entrance to holes and crevices inhabited by Lace Weaver Spiders Amaurobius similis. Lace Weaver Spiders produce a special kind of silk from its cribellum, which is a pair of sieve-like plates just in front of the spinerets. The silk is very characteristic, with a blueish colour when fresh and is teased out by a double-row of curved bristles on the metatarsus of the fourth (hind) leg called a calamistrum.

Lacy Weaver Spider Web

A scattering of Fungi with Jelly Ear Auricularia auricula-judae, Black Bulgar Bulgaria inquinans, Exidia plana, Southern Bracket Ganoderma australe, Lacquered Bracket Ganoderma lucidum, Root Rot Heterobasidion annosum, Peniophora quercina, Hairy Curtain Crust Stereum hirsutum, Bleeding Broadleaf Crust Stereum rugosum and Tukeytail Trametes versicolor.

Black Bulgar

Root Rot

On the lake were nine Mute Swans in total – 4adults including blue darvic ringed XA6 and XZ6 along with five cygnets including 4ABB, 4ADX and 4ADZ. Adult male XZ6 was displaying with much heart-shaped posing with one of the un-ringed cygnets!

Thirty bird species were noted: Little Grebe 14 birds squealing away, Great Crested Grebe a lone individual, Grey Heron one preening in the rain on an island and another flying, Mute Swan 9, Greater Canada Goose 75+, Mallard, Common Moorhen including 2 birds sitting on nests, Coot 12+, Black-headed Gull 85+, Common Gull 1, Feral Rock Pigeon 8+, Common Wood Pigeon 10+, Rose-ringed Parakeet at least three birds flying around squawking, Great Spotted Woodpecker two drumming, Pied Wagtail 2 feeding on the lake edge, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Song Thrush 2 singing, Mistle Thrush 2 rattling away, Long-tailed Tit feeding party, Great Tit 6+ calling, Nuthatch 2 calling, Eurasian Jay squawking, Magpie 10+ scattered around the grassed areas, Carrion Crow, Starling flock 9 overhead, Chaffinch, Greenfinch wheezing it’s call. Also a few cheeky Grey Squirrels taking advantage of the scattered monkey nuts left by visitors.     

If you are interested in the wildlife of the north-west of England and would like to join the walks and coach trips run by the Merseyside Naturalists’ Association, see the main MNA website for details of our programme and how to join us.

A wide photographic selection of birds, marine life, insects, mammals, orchids & wildflowers, fungi, tribal people, travel, ethnography, fossils, rocks & minerals etc. is available on my Alamy webpage

This series of short walks is an experiment this year, in response to some comments in the 2012/13 questionnaire that members would like half-day walks in parks. In the event, there were nine of us on the walk, seven regular members, one who hasn’t been out with us for a while, and a lady who isn’t a member but had heard about us from the man doing her gutters! (She was delighted to have found us and will be joining.)

It was a dry overcast day, and surprisingly warm – about 10°C, 50°F. Was there a touch of spring in the air? We met at the Lakeside café at the south end of the lake at 11 am. There was the usual scrum of birds coming to the children “feeding the ducks”. Canada Geese were parallel swimming and honking, so they think it’s spring.

The Coots were fighting and splashing, so they are in the same mood. The Mallards were in their best plumage, and about 1 in 100 of the Black-headed Gulls were showing the first signs of their black heads. There were also Moorhens, Feral Pigeons, one Common Gull on the lake and Wood Pigeons on the banks. Seven Mute Swans were in attendance, four adults and three juveniles. John C recorded some Darvic rings. Juvenile, blue, right, 4ABB; juvenile, blue, right, 4ADZ; adult, blue, right, XZ6.  These have been reported to the North West Swan Study.
(Added 22nd February after hearing back from the study. They all seem to be young Sefton Park natives:
4ABB  was ringed as a cygnet at the park 2/9/2013  [now nearly a year old]
4ADZ – “details haven’t been sent to me yet, so must have been recently ringed, and probably at the park”
XZ6  was hatched 2012 and ringed 23/1/2013 at the park! [now two years old])

As we walked northwards we spotted the expected Little Grebes under the overhanging Rhododendrons near the north end of the main lake. Jim saw the most, claiming 14. They are doing well here. On the verges near the bandstand were Crows, Robins, Magpies, Long-tailed Tits, a Song Thrush,  a Grey Squirrel and a Buzzard circling overhead. Clusters of dark purple crocuses were out under the trees.

We stopped to admire a magnificent big bare tree on the Bandstand island. Is it a Beech? We’ll have to look at it again when the leaves come out.

Skulking in a quiet corner north of the bandstand was a Great Crested Grebe.

Near the Eros statue we noticed a lot of gulls circling high overhead. It’s a bit early for swarms of insects, so perhaps they had found a thermal. It was certainly getting quite warm, and the sun came out.  A flowering shrub on the corner was identified as Viburnum x bodnantense. It flowers through the winter, with fragrant blossom.

There was an old Goldfinch nest in it, and I noticed another of the same shrubs later on, and that had an old Goldfinch nest in it too. Obvously birds with good taste in homes!  Just as we were discussing the possible emergence of butterflies on such a warm day, we saw a Bumble Bee flying, although it was against the light and impossible to identify.  Nearby were more crocuses, yellow ones this time, and some Snowdrops.

Some handsome trees dotted about the park fascinate me and I privately call them “explosion” trees. There is no main trunk, they just get to four or five feet then explode!

We looked at the twigs and buds, and they look like Beech, so it this a different variety, or is it the result of some sort of pollarding?

On the big field beyond the Palm House there was a flock of about 50 Black-headed Gulls, and three had almost fully black heads, much more developed than I’ve noticed anywhere else. There were Jackdaws with them and another Common Gull. Someone said they’d seen a Herring Gull, too, but there weren’t many about.  In the Dell, John produced some birdseed and scattered it on the ground. A Dunnock came, a Great Tit, some Wood Pigeons, Crows and Blackbirds.

Around the corner, surrounding an old tree  stump, was a low plant with white tube or trumpet flowers, looking like Comfrey but white and low. Anyone know what it is?

John then produced mealworms and balanced some on a fence near the park bird feeders. Long-tailed Tits came, Blue Tits and a Great Tit. There was a Goldcrest flitting about in a tree above our heads and we also spotted a Nuthatch. There was a  Brown Rat on the ground, feeding off the scattered seed and nuts. A Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over. Then we heard the squawks of a Ring-necked Parakeet and traced it to some apples put out for them on the other side of the path. I’ve never seen one before so that’s a “lifer” for me!

We wandered back to the Lakeside café for 1 pm and went our separate ways. I make that 27 birds and two mammals. Not bad for a walk in the park.  The only other “animal” of note was this one in the Palm House.

If you are interested in the wildlife of the north-west of England and would like to join the walks and coach trips run by the Merseyside Naturalists’ Association, see the main MNA website for details of our programme and how to join us.

Just to add to Sabena’s post below, here are the snowdrops she mentioned.

And here is a Witch’s broom on a tree in the woods.

It’s a disease or deformity of a tree, where a dense mass of shoots grows from a single point. The causes are varied – infection, injury, parasites.  See this Wikipedia article.   Wikipedia adds that Witchs’ Brooms are of wide ecological importance. They generally tend to be inhabited by a wide variety of organisms apart from the causative organisms. Some of the invading organisms, such as some species of moths, are specific to particular types of witches’ brooms, relying on them for food and shelter for their larvae. Various larger animals may also nest in them.

 Seventeen MNA members joined our first coach trip of the year to the Lancashire Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve at Brockholes just off the M6. Given the recent prolonged heavy rains exceptional foresight was shown by Adam Khan architects design of the visitor centre named ‘A Floating World’ comprising of a cluster of buildings based on an ancient marshland village that floats amongst the reedbeds on one of the site’s lakes.

After looking around the visitor centre and a couple of members talking to BBC Lancashire Local Radio about our visit we braved the blustery winds and drizzle and headed off. I became side-tracked looking at fungi on the twig fence leading down to the visitor centre from the car-park finding Exidia plana – a shiny black gelatinous fungi with individual fruit-bodies blending into one another like the folds of a brain; Waxy Crust Vuilleminia comedens – a grey resupinate fungi with purple tinges growing beneath the bark on dead branches causing the bark to characteristically roll-back and Tukeytail Trametes versicolor. On looking up the group had disappeared! However upon catching up with everyone at the end of the day we seemed to have seen most of the same species.

Exidia plana

Waxy Crust

The lakes held resident and winter wildfowl with Canada Geese, a few Mute Swans, Grey Heron, Mallard, Teal, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebe, a couple of male Shovelers, a pair of Goldeneye and a motley collection of Cormorants stood in line on the edge of one of the islands. The feeding table had a male Pheasant and Woodpigeon perched on top, Mallards hovering up any spilt feed, along with Chaffinch and Great Tits. The woodland was productive with singing Wrens, Dunnocks, Robins and Blackbirds; Great and Blue Tits, Goldcrest, Nuthatch and Treecreeper. John Clegg’s group noted flowering Snowdrops in the woodland.

I spent most of the day scrambling about the fallen and felled trees in the ancient woodland of Red Scar Wood where I found a scattering of Fungi. Jelly Ear Auricularia auricula-judae – large numbers of this common pinkish brown ear-shaped gelatinous fungi growing on Elder, Common Inkcap Coprinus atramentarius, Glistening Inkcap Coprinus micaceus – dense clusters of this tawny-coloured bell-shaped Fungi growing on a fallen log.

Jelly Ear

Glistening Inkcap

King Alfred’s Cakes Daldinia concentrica the common ball-shaped Fungus usually found on dead wood of ash trees, Velvet Shank Flammulina velutipes this common bright orange winter Fungi was growing in clusters on a few deciduous tree stumps, Crystal Brain Exidia nucleata, Beech Woodwart Hypoxylon fragiforme – with small warty brown growths swarming over dead branches of Beech.

King Alfred’s Cakes a.k.a. Cramp Balls

Beech Woodwart

Rosy Crust Peniophora incarnata and also Peniophora quercina a pinkish resupinate fungus growing on Oak branches, Honey Fungus Armillaria mellea one fallen tree was covered in the black bootlace like flattened rhizomorphs of Honey Fungus that develop beneath the bark and Jelly Rot Phlebia tremellosa.

Peniophora incarnata

Peniophora quercina

Honey Fungus rhizomorphs

Find of the day was Scarlet Elfcup Sarcoscypha austriaca – a friend had noted seeing lots of these recently at nearby Leighton Moss RSPB reserve so I was hopeful I’d see some today. I spotted my first group of these bright red cup-shaped beauties close to the path – Dave Bryant’s group also saw these particular ones. The inside of the cup is smooth whereas the outside has whitish hairs that are curly or corkscrew shaped. With more searching I found four cups in pristine condition 🙂

Scarlet Elfcup

Also noted was Bleeding Oak Crust Stereum gausapatum, Bleeding Broadleaf Crust Stereum rugosum, Hairy Curtain Crust Stereum hirsutum, Lumpy Bracket Trametes gibbosa, Yellow Brain Tremella mesenterica – a yellow gelatinous mass of lobes and folds sometimes called Yellow Witches Butter and Candlesnuff Fungus Xylaria hypoxylon.

Lichen covered a number of the smooth-barked trees these included Lecidella elaeochroma f. elaeochroma – an early colonist with an grey thallus and small black spot-like apothecia and Lecanora chlarotera – with crustose grey thallus and apothecia with thick margins and buff brown discs.

Tree Lichens

If you are interested in the wildlife of the north-west of England and would like to join the walks and coach trips run by the Merseyside Naturalists’ Association, see the main MNA website for details of our programme and how to join us.

A wide photographic selection of birds, marine life, insects, mammals, orchids & wildflowers, fungi, tribal people, travel, ethnography, fossils, rocks & minerals etc. is available on my Alamy webpage