The Naturalists' Notebook

It was a sunny, breezy day, and the recent snow was starting to thaw. John wasn’t well, but we headed off  without him to Newsham Park. On Orphan Drive near the Police Station there was a dead pigeon on the pavement, possibly a Sparrowhawk kill. Under the trees the daffodil shoots were pushing up, and the fishing lake was still half frozen.

There were Canada Geese, Mallard, Tufted Ducks, Coots, Black-headed Gulls, one Lesser Black-backed Gull, a few Muscovy Ducks and a young Heron, less than a year old.

One of the Mallards had a white pom-pom on the back of its head, the result of cross breeding with a fancy variant called a Crested Duck.

The boating lake was almost completely frozen over, too, with a large flock of Black-headed Gulls standing about waiting for bread. Just one Common Gull amongst them.

There is a new pavilion at the junction of Orphan Drive and Gardner’s Drive, with a café and loos and a row of new exercise machines.

Rain was threatening, so we lunched under cover on the bandstand near Prescot Road, where we had a call from John about Waxwings in Norris Green, at the junction of Parthenon Drive and Townsend Avenue. Off we went, and there they were. About 30 of them in one of the few remaining berry trees on the central reservation. A large flock of them had been there most of the week and had stripped nearly all the trees along that stretch of the avenue, with just one tree left near Broadway.

John said he had been there on the previous Thursday and watched two Mistle Thrushes furiously attacking and chasing about 80 Waxwings, tyring to drive them away from “their” berries. On Sunday we saw just one Mistle Thrush at the top of a denuded berry tree, who appeared to have lost the battle.

A couple of inches of snow fell in Crosby on Friday but although I still found the side streets to be treacherous by Sunday morning, the main roads were clear. The temperature was hovering about freezing and the sky was grey and overcast. There was very little snow remaining in Liverpool City Centre, but it started falling again as we arrived at Sefton Park.

The main lake was half frozen. The usual Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Mallards, Coots, Moohens and Canada Geese were there, with eight adult Mute Swans and three cygnets at the café end and more near the island. There was also a Common Gull on the ice, a Pied Wagtail on the water’s edge, and a Tufted Duck and some Little Grebes by the island. Two Mallard drakes were having a real fight near the island, standing up in the water and battering at each other with their wings. The winner drove the other one off.

What was that all about? It was most likely to be a territorial dispute, but there were plenty of other drakes on the same patch of water. What was so offensive about the losing drake? Was he from a different clan which usually live on the frozen part of the lake?

We looked for tracks in the snow, but all we saw were boots, dog paws and these, which are probably just feral pigeons.

John had brought some dried mealworms and he tried enticing birds to eat from his hand. He succeeded with a Robin and a Great Tit, but the Nuthatch was more wary.

The pigeons liked the mealworms we dropped, but a grey squirrel came up to my hand, and appeared neither to see nor smell the dried mealworm I was holding out. Two Jays were looking hopefully at the bird feeders in the woods, Wood Pigeons were flying about and some Redwings and Fieldfares were rootling about in the leaf litter in the Dell. Two Mistle Thrushes and a Blackbird were on the lawn near the Palm House, and someone had made a cheerful snowman.

There is a Persian Ironwood tree in the dell (Parrotia persica), and it was flowering already.

The Liverpool RSPB group had a display inside the Palm House, which they usually do the week before the Big Garden Birdwatch (BGB), to get passers-by in the mood.

I was interested in the display they had of the 2012 BGB national results compared with Merseyside alone. We have more of the adaptable town birds Magpie and Feral Pigeon, but also above-national numbers of Goldfinch and Collared Dove. Merseyside has fewer Chaffinches and Great Tits than the national average.

It was cold and overcast, but not frosty, like it had been the last two mornings. On the way through town to Central Station I spotted a recently-dead pigeon in Basnett Street. It had its wings half spread, and its head up, but its breast was all bloody and damaged. It looked as if it had flown into the ground and died as it made a crash landing. Had it been chased by a Peregrine?

On the way from Waterloo Station to the beach there was a fine Magpie’s nest in bare tree on South Road.

On the Boating Lake there were numerous Canada Geese, Mallards and Black-headed Gulls. One of the BHGs was wearing a Darvic ring, but we couldn’t get its number. There were a few Coots charging each other aggressively and about five Tufted Ducks.

A small flock of Starlings were roaming about. As we headed for the promenade, the sun came out rather weakly, shining on the sea captain’s houses. One Ragwort was still flowering on the dunes.

The tide was coming in fast, and the gulls were high up on the beach. Most were Herring Gulls but there were a few Common Gulls amongst them. A small flock of Sanderlings arrived and scuttled busily around the feet of one of the Iron Men. We looked through the railings to Seaforth Nature Reserve, but there was nothing interesting to see, just a few Cormorants and a Heron. There was a large flock of something further back. Grey Plovers?  We ate our lunch overlooking the Marine Lake, watching the exertions of a rowing team.

Just over the fence into the Freeport is a mural of old Crosby on the side of a big warehouse, showing the Titanic, the Overhead Railway, Five Lamps, the sand dunes, an old bathing machine and a rather splendid Cormorant! 

Then we headed up to St Faith’s Church at the junction of Crosby Road North and Kingsway. They were having a Christmas Tree Festival, with over 40 trees lining the nave, each decorated by a different charitable group. In true C of E style the ladies of the church were offering refreshments and an assortment of home-made jams and pickles. The church has a memorial to a former parishioner, Joseph Bell, the Chief Engineer of the Titanic, who was lost with the ship. They also have a stained glass window to another of their “old boys”, Robert Runcie, the former Archbishop of Canterbury.
If it isn’t too early, Happy Christmas to all!

No further walks until 20th January 2013.  Walks in January and February 2013 will meet 10am Queen Square, and destination will depend on the weather.

Anyone is welcome to come out with the Sunday Group. It is not part of the MNA, although it has several overlapping members. We go out by public transport to local parks, woods and nature reserves all over Merseyside, and occasionally further afield.  We are mostly pensioners, so the day is free on our bus passes, and we enjoy fresh air, a laugh and a joke, a slow amble in pleasant surroundings and sometimes we even look at the wildlife!
If you want to join a Sunday Group walk, pack lunch, a flask, waterproofs, binoculars if you have them, a waterproof pad to sit on if we have to have lunch on the grass, and wear stout shoes or walking boots. We are usually back in Liverpool City Centre by 4pm at the latest.

On a bright sunny morning, after an overnight frost, we took the 10.15 train to Chester and set off on our usual walk along the canal.

There were only a few Mallards, one Moorhen, and the usual town tykes, the pigeons and the Black-headed Gulls. A Pied Wagtail flew off from the bank and some Himalayan Balsam was still in  raggedly flower. At the Telford warehouse the sky was full of pigeons, which congregate on the roof there.

Below it there were the resident pair of Mute Swans. There are usually more of them, but either the cygnets have already dispersed or their brood failed this year.

We lunched in Water Tower Gardens, glad of the warm sunshine. We seem to be wading ankle deep through carpets of golden or bronze leaves more than usual this autumn. Is it a bumper year, or is it simply that park staff have been reduced because of the recession, and there is nobody to sweep them up? Then past the strange but colourful sculpture, based on jockey’s silks, and onto the Riverside Promenade.

Between the Roodee racecourse and the river the verge was full of the dead stalks of Giant Hogweed and Teasel. There was also an umbellifer in very late flower. Was it Common Hogweed?

We left Chester earlier than usual because another Waxwing hunt was proposed. They had been reported from the Stanley Road / Lambeth Road corner, but by the time we got there, they had gone. However, a flock of about 200 were back in Fountains Road on Wednesday 21st. They were very skittish, flocking around and trying to land on just two or three trees with golden berries. They never seemed to settle for more than a second or two, then they were off again. The trees were mostly stripped, anyway, with just a few berries left on the lower branches. But it’s a year-tick for me, anyway. Here’s a couple of “pocket camera pictures”, which I know won’t win any awards!

We go to a different Remembrance Service every year, and this year it was Southport’s turn. We enjoyed the playing of the brass band, but the laying of wreaths was a rather long drawn-out process, especially on such a cold day.  But at least it was dry and bright. One poppy posy was for “Women and children victims of conflict and war”.

We found a spot in the sunshine by the Marine Lake for lunch and watched four male Mute Swans displaying at each other.

One swan had a leg ring which JC noted for passing on to Sabena. There were lots of Black-headed Gulls and Herring Gulls around, mostly juveniles.

They gathered around hoping for crumbs from our sandwiches, and we noticed that one BHG appeared to be wearing a BTO leg ring. Just as we were getting the binoculars on it, a dog walker came along and scattered them, and we couldn’t locate it again. There were also some Mallards and Coots, and one Cormorant on the island.

We were bemused by a set of fingerposts, promising cycling, swans and lobsters!

On our way back through the town we were happy to see a good display of seaside paraphernalia fluttering bravely in the cold.

There are Waxwings about, so we set off to see if the 40-odd reported on Thursday and Friday at Blundell Drive were still there. Regrettably, they weren’t. There were about half a dozen ornamental berry trees along the street, which had been stripped bare, and although we waited around  for a while and watched the skies, there was no clue to where they had flown off to when their berries ran out.

We walked back to Hillside station through the suburban streets, spotting Goldfinches, Jackdaws and a Jay. There were plenty of other red berries around, also Privet and Ivy berries and a spectacular glowing beech hedge.

Pickerings Pasture is always a lovely place to visit, especially on a sunny autumn day.

Our first birds were Starlings, Chaffinches and a Mistle Thrush in the hedge along Mersey View Road. The tide was out, exposing the huge sandbanks, which had lots of Lapwings and Black-headed Gulls, with a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Carrion Crows. As we were enjoying the sparkling view, the Lapwings all went up and we searched the sky for a raptor, but there weren’t any about. Sometimes Lapwings must just fly around for no reason at all.

The sunshine caught some very handsome tall trees with just a few white leaves left at the top, strikingly catching the light. The fallen leaves were dark brown on one side and downy white on the other, so they were probably White Poplars.

There was a Kestrel overhead as we ate our lunches, and some very late blue Cranesbill flowers were out. As the tide started to come in we watched the “tidal bore” rippling over the sandbanks – a continuously-moving wavefront with white water at the leading edge.

We spotted the MNA’s sign at the hide and bird feeding area.

There were Canada Geese feeding on the grass, with some Magpies amongst them. A few Cormorants on the bank, and a single Redshank. A Raven cronked overhead. In the shrubbery a Blackbird was eating Holly berries and a Robin poked about under the feeders. Blue Tits, Great Tits and Greenfinches were at the nut and seed holders. The Greenfiches dominate the Great Tits, as these two lucky shots show. The first shows the Great Tit feeding, but being watched by the Greenfinch over on the right.  A moment later the Greenfinch has muscled in and the Great Tit is in retreat.

Then we spotted a Kingfisher, which is always a treat. It flew over the pool, then sat on a green fencepost, fidgeted a bit, flew to a branch near the hide, then made off.

On the way back to the entrance, we looked at the Ash trees but most looked OK, with fat black buds ready for next spring. At the edge of a copse was a madly quivering tree, which must have been an Aspen, surely. (“Willows whiten, aspens quiver, little breezes dusk and shiver … ” from The Lady of Shalott.)  Next to a huge bramble patch about 30 Redwings were on red berries, a Buzzard cruised overhead and in the distance near the Visitor’s Centre, about 200 Fieldfares were flying between an Oak and a couple of Lombardy Poplars.

There were a lot of delicate flying insects on the path beyond the hedge next to the wildflower meadow. Light-coloured, about the size of midges. I wonder what they were? It seems very late for them. A mixed flock of Starlings and Redwings flew past. In the hedges we spotted a Long-tailed Tit, the wonderful golden leaves of a Guelder Rose and bright red rose hips.