The Naturalists' Notebook

This was the first of our series of Wirral Circular walks, intended eventually to cover the whole distance from Hooton to Seacombe.

It was Grand National Day and at Moorfields I noticed groups of men in suits, and young women wearing extraordinary hats, all off to Aintree and all clearly unfamiliar with public transport. It was a clear sunny day with light wind, just starting to warm up after the long freeze. Eighteen members and visitors met at Hooton station and set off along the Wirral Way.

Our first flowers were Coltsfoot by the wayside, and our best birds of the day were amongst the first we saw – two female Redpolls feeding on the dead seed heads of Rose Bay Willow Herb by the side of the path. A Chiffchaff was calling high in a tree and darting out from its perch to catch flies. Expert opinion was that it was probably a newly-arrived bird because it was so vocal and active, showing off and establishing a territory.

 
Chiffchaff by Chris Derri

House sparrows chirruped in the hedge and we spotted a two-apartment nest box high up on the gable end of a warehouse.

Chaffinch bathing – Chris Derri

Rook – Chris Derri

Robin – Chris Derri

Chris Derri found the track of a Holly leaf miner. I was most impressed when he looked it up on his smartphone and told me it was made by the grub of a fly called Phytomyza ilicis. It is “common across northern parts of the world, and can be found in woodlands, hedgerows, parks and gardens, wherever holly grows.”

We lunched at Hadlow Road Station. There were lots of people out – cyclists, family parties, a group of young people clutching laminated maps and a party of air cadets. It had turned into such a nice day that some people were wearing short-sleeved T-shirts.

So warm, in fact, that we saw our first butterfly of the year – a Small Tortoiseshell flying high in a Pussy Willow, accompanied by an unidentified hoverfly. It’s about time. The extended cold weather has made some things about a month late.  Chris Derri also spotted a Comma sunning itself.

 
Comma by Chris Derri

High in the sky a Sparrowhawk was mobbing a Buzzard. On a patch of Lesser Celandine flowers there were what looked like some foraging bees or wasps, but which were said to be of the genus Colletes. Wikipedia says “The genus Colletes (or plasterer bees) is a very large group of ground-nesting bees within the family Colletidae, with over 450 species worldwide.  They build cells in underground nests that are lined with a polyester secretion, earning them the nickname polyester bees.”

I looked them up on the website of the UK Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society (BWARS) and I think they might have been Colletes cunicularius. They say it is the only British Colletes to fly in the spring (early April to the end of May, rarely mid-June), it is known to forage for pollen on Ranunculaceae, the family to which Lesser Celandine belongs and it is known to be present on the Wirral. It has an unusual distribution, “being confined to a number of extensive coastal sand dune systems in north-west England and north-west and south Wales.”

We delighted in the sight of a tiny Goldcrest scurrying about in a bare tree.

Goldcrest – Chris Derri

Then Chris Butterworth found a minute ladybird, only about 4mm long. He took it home to ID and confirmed that it was a 24-spot ladybird Subcoccinella 24-punctata, said to be found “in grassland and marshy places where it feeds on plants. It is common in southern England, becoming less so northwards.”

Ichneumon wasp – Chris Derri

Carder bee – Chris Derri

We passed a tree covered in small dark-red flowers, not as showy as cherry or apple blossom. At first we though they might be the female flowers of Alder, but they can’t have been, because Alder has its male catkins on the same tree, and this tree didn’t. These flowers seem bigger than the female flowers of Alder, too. Anyone know what they are? (Added 24th April – identified by Pat Lockwood as the Wych Elm, Ulmus glabra. Thanks, Pat.)

In the cutting the sandstone walls showed a text-book example of “convoluted folding” of the sandstone and a formation that John tried to persuade me was a fossil dinosaur. (It isn’t really! But imagine a side view with an upward curling tail at the right and the head at the left).

We emerged from the Wirral Way at Neston at about a quarter to three and caught the 487 bus back to Liverpool at 1512.  Some of us had even caught the sun!

Bird species list (32). Blackbird, Jackdaw, Heron, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Chiffchaff, Redpoll, Wood Pigeon, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Carrion Crow, Magpie, Kestrel, Song Thrush, Wren, Robin, Dunnock, House Sparrow, Long-tailed Tit, Greenfinch, Buzzard, Coot, Redwing, Mallard, Moorhen, Starling, Rook, Pied Wagtail, Sparrowhawk, Jay, Goldcrest, Stock Dove.

Edited 15th April 2013 to add pictures by Chris Derri

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.

This weekend Chris Derri gave me some more of his recent pictures to post.  First off, a splendid Kestrel photographed at Carsington Water on 17th February.

Here are some Waxwings taken in Prescot on 23rd February.

On 24th February he spotted a Heron at Glasson Dock on the Lune estuary.

At Sizergh Castle on 13th March he photographed a Dipper, a Grey Wagtail, a pair of Goosanders, a Redwing and a Red Kite. Here’s the Dipper.

And here’s the Grey Wagtail.

The male Goosander has a dark green head while the female has a red one.

Here’s the Redwing with its very pronounced white eye-stripe.

And lastly, here’s the Red Kite. It’s the one described in Sabena’s post of the visit, with wing tags – left wing orange and right wing red. Its tail is looking quite raggedy.

Chris Derri has sent me these pictures from the Chestnut Centre Conservation and Wildlife Park at Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, which specialises in rare British species, and in otters and owls from elsewhere in the world.

Grey squirrel

Sika deer

Sika deer

European otter

European otter

Pine marten

Pine marten

Wild cat

Burrowing owl

Great Grey owl

American river otter

American river otter

American river otter

Asian short-clawed otter

Asian short-clawed otter

Asian short-clawed otter

Asian short-clawed otter

Asian short-clawed otter

Asian short-clawed otter

South American giant otter

South American giant otter

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.

Ken Lewis has sent me some pictures of Mountain Hares he took in the Peak District in February.

Ken runs a photography business at KELimages from where he sells photo prints for framing, calendars, greeting cards, mugs and fridge magnets, and he also offers  photography tours and lectures.

An early start on this cold, bright and sunny morning with Mike Barrow at the wheel, Chris Derri, the two Daves and I headed up the M6 to Cumbria and our first destination Sizergh Castle. Our target bird was Hawfinch which favour the car park area and feed on the Hornbeam tree casts and sprinkled bird seed. They are best seen in winter when the leaves are not fully out on the trees but they can be unpredictable. Today was one of those days. Along with a small contingent of other birders we scanned the trees – plenty of Chaffinches, a pair of Bullfinches, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Blue and Great Tits, Nuthatch, Robin, Wren, Dunnock and Tree Sparrow all put in an appearance but no Hawfinches.

We walked up the track towards Holeslack Farm passing through a field of pregnant ewes looking round bellied enough to drop their lambs at any minute then alongside a barn of young calves munching their way through mountains of hay. The track passed a sunny wooded slope where we noticed our first Snowdrops Galanthus nivalis, Dog’s Mercury Mecurialis perennis, Lesser Celandine Ranunculus ficaria, Wild Daffodil Narcissus pseudonarcissus and leaves of Ramsons Allium ursinum. To the rear of Holeslack Cottage we watched a Marsh Tit which gave its sneezy ‘pitchoo’ call. Climbing up the farm track a Curlew uttered its plaintive ‘cur-lee’ call and Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush and Fieldfares were seen feeding in a field close to the Parish Church of Saint John Helsington.

Snowdrops This grade II listed building afforded views of Whitbarrow Scar across the valley and Morecambe Bay to the south. We turned right beside the church and walked through the odd patch of fresh snow, one of which had deer tracks. Our ‘Corpse Of The Day’ was a pair of Corvid wings minus the body.

We dropped down the hill with fantastic views of the snow-covered Howgill Fells and Kendal. After dicing with death crossing the A591 dual carriageway we reached the River Kent which is a designated Special Area of Conservation, primarily as an important habitat for the endangered White-clawed Crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes. We peered over a bridge, icicles hanging down from the rocks on the river edge to watch a distant Dipper standing on a rock and a Grey Wagtail flitting around. The path continued beside the River and here we had top views of a pair of Dippers in typical pose bobbing about on rocks in the fast-flowing areas of the river before one would launch itself on whirring wings and drop down headfirst into the gentler flowing water. We could see its progress from ripples on the water’s surface as it picked underneath stones hunting for small invertebrates. The river flowed through Low Wood where a Jay uttered a scalding call at our presence. A few Mallards were floating around and a male Goosander flew upstream. We crossed the River on an old wooden bridge and sighted a pair of Goosander amongst rocks the male with iridescent bottle green head and salmon-pink tinge to the white front feathers, the female with a chestnut-brown head and greyish back. Back along Nannypie Lane we soon returned to Sizergh Castle car-park.

From Sizergh we headed to Hay Bridge Reserve, sitting on the terrace of the stone barn study centre for a late lunch and ‘armchair’ birding. The wardens scope was fixed on a tagged Red Kite sat in a tree left wing orange, right wing white and another tagged Kite wheeled over our heads with left wing orange and right wing red. The Forestry Commission have released 90 red kites as part of a three-year reintroduction programme. The birds carry numbered tags – orange tag on their left wings to show they are from Grizedale, and one on the right to indicate the year of release – blue for 2010, white for 2011 and red for 2012. Three Buzzards were chasing each other around ‘mewing’. A Redpoll, Siskins, Coal Tit, Blue Tit were feeding from the peanut feeders, a Pheasant called and a Great Spotted Woodpecker flew over.

Otter Paw

Owl Pellets

We had a wander along the boardwalk onto the Rusland Mosses fungi including Hoof Fungus Fomes fomentarius, Birch Polypore Piptoporus betulinus, Turkeytail Trametes versicolor and Lumpy Bracket Trametes gibbosa with some fine Dog Lichen Peltigera sp. growing on a couple of tree trunks – pale grey when fresh darkening on desiccation.

Hoof Fungus

Peltigera sp.

A few Long-tailed Tits flitted around, I heard a rather early rising Tawny Owl and the yelps of a Red Fox. All too soon it was time to leave for the return journey to Liverpool.  

It was a dismal misty, drizzly and cold day for the joint MNA / Liverpool RSPB visit to Lake Vyrnwy.  A good turnout nonetheless with twenty people arriving in shared cars and a minibus driven by Chris Tynan. Our destination was a valley where today’s leader Terry Williams often visits at this time of year to watch displaying Goshawks, with Buzzards, Ravens, Red Kite and Hen Harrier often putting in an appearance as well. 

We walked along a forest track which climbed steadily upwards via a couple of switchbacks to a spot overlooking the valley. The abundance of lichens growing on the tree branches showed the clear air quality found here. There must have been recent storms with trees blown over and lichen-laden branches scattered around. This allowed identification of a few of the lichen species with Usnea florida – the apothecium show branched eyelash cilia, Usnea fragilescens – a fruticose, pendulous lichen resembling fine hair, Evernia prunastri – a foliose strap lichen with veining present on the top surface of the lobes, Hypogymnia physodes -with foliose thallus, smooth grey lobes above black beneath.

Evernia prunastri and an Usnea sp.

Usnea florida 

The walk up the forest trail was eerily quiet, the usual bird song and defining of breeding territories that is heard at this time of year was extremely noticeable by its absence. A Mistle Thrush, Wren and Robin gave occasional song with calling Goldcrest, Blue Tit and Coal Tit heard by some. On the top we peered through the mist for any sign of life. Two Ravens flew over one bird being chased from the other bird’s territory. Another pair of Ravens then from the neighbouring territory flew up from the forest across the valley just to make sure that the intruder was completely evicted from their patch.I had a mooch around photographing a few of the rust coloured rock encrusting lichen Rhizocarpon oderi, the lichen Cladonia bellidiflora with tall unbranched non-fruiting podetia whose surface is clothed in densely layered squamules, various mosses including Star Moss Polytrichum commune and Common Tamarisk Moss Thuidium tamariscinum and Bracken spores.

Rhizocarpon oderi

Star Moss and Common Tamarisk Moss

Bracken Spores

Three clumps of Common Frog Rana temporaria spawn in a large but shallow puddle – doomed to desiccate and a dead Pygmy Shrew Sorex minutus.

Frogspawn

Dead Pygmy Shrew 🙁

Earlier I had become separated from Mike Barrow, Chris Derri and the two Daves they eventually found the group having seen a Goshawk from near a farmhouse on another forest track. Richard Surman also had Goshawk views from here. While the others remained at the look-out point for a while, the five of us decided to walk back down the track and along to the main RSPB reserve. We walked along a forest track beside the lake for a while noting Common Jellyspot Dacrymyces stillatus the leaves of Wood-sorrel Oxalis acetosella and Oak Artichoke Galls caused by the Gall Wasp Andricus fecundator before continuing along the road, the only birdlife seen on the lake being Mallard and a lone Cormorant. The minibus shot by us as we approached the Victorian pumphouse with its green copper roof the only colour in the misty monochrome landscape.

After crossing the dam noting the green coloured Map Lichen Rhizocarpon geographicum on the dam wall we met up again with the others in the hide overlooking the feeders. Three Crossbills had been seen by some as they descended the forest track. Plenty of activity on the feeders with twenty odd Chaffinches some suffering from clubfoot, a couple of Bramblings skulking underneath some branches occasionally popping out to allow comparison to the Chaffs, a Blue Tit, a few Coal Tits, a lone Marsh Tit, half a dozen Siskin and Pheasants on the ground below hovering up any spilt seed.