The Naturalists' Notebook

To get to Churchtown, take the train to Southport then the 49 Crossens bus from Lord Street to Churchtown village, in the parish of North Meols. This Meols is pronounced “Meals”, whereas the one on the Wirral is “Mells”. It was a bright and sunny day, but just a little cooler than yesterday’s scorcher at Freshfield Dune Heath.

Many of the thatched cottages have amusing straw birds on their rooflines.

In North Meols Civic Garden there were about half a dozen Small Tortoiseshells on the Valerian by the church wall, and in the Botanic Gardens there were yet more of them on the Verbena in the ornamental beds. No Peacocks or Red Admirals, though.

The bicycle stands in the Botanic Park are shaped like penny-farthing bikes, and we saw the best wood sculpture we’ve seen for a long while – a dragon curled around a log.

There were Mallards and Black-headed Gulls on the lake, and a Mute Swan pair with five big grey cygnets. A passer-by told us the pair had been just as successful with last year’s brood, and that the RSPCA (she thought) come in the autumn and take the young ones away. No sign of leg rings on any of them.

In the Aviary were several ornamental pheasants: a Golden Pheasant sulking in a corner, a Lady Amherst Pheasant, and a Silver Pheasant. They also had Peacocks, a Cockatoo and a Grey Parrot.

As it was Heritage Open Day, St Cuthbert’s church was open. Near the path was a wonderful old gravestone bearing a skull and crossbones and the words “Death, how terrible thy approach.” No dates on it, but it’s probably from the eighteenth century.

Of particular interest to us inside the church was the memorial on the wall next to the pulpit, to Thomas Fleetwood, the man who drained Martin Mere.

The memorial  inscription is in Latin, but there is a helpful translation on a sign below it.
“Thomas Fleetwood of Bank, Esquire, born of Staffordshire stock and of excellent lineage, a man truly honourable, refined and pleasant, and a favourite in this district, wished to have his bones laid here to rest. Having carried a drain to the sea hard by, he converted the immense Martin Mere into firm, dry land, a task which his forebears dared not attempt and posterity will scarcely believe. At no small expense and thinking of the public well-being rather than his own, he also erected a handsome bridge not far hence over an estuary. At length these labours done, he lay down and fell asleep, all too soon, on April 22nd 1717, at the age of 56. In sorrow, Letitia Fleetwood placed this memorial to her beloved husband.

We had planned to go to Burscough, but the 12A bus we were expecting at Ormskirk failed to appear, so we went to the park instead.

The weather started out overcast and sultry, drizzled a little as we arrived at the park, but brightened up later.  While we ate our lunches in Coronation Park we were joined by a cheeky Black-headed Gull, who squawked and begged. It wasn’t a juvenile from this year, but John spotted that it had pink legs, not bright red ones, so it was probably a year-old bird.

There were very few birds in the park – a few Wood Pigeons, some young Swallows over the field and lots of twittering Starlings, but nothing else apart from the ducks on the lake. They have a sign up about not throwing them unsuitable food, and it seems to have worked. When Bill dug out his final stash of duck pellets, they all loved it.

There were the usual Mallards. Two were completely white. Some of the drakes have finished their moult and have come into their full winter / breeding plumage. There was one young Moorhen, couple of young Coots and one Canada Goose. Not a great park for birdlife.

After we had tried out the exercise equipment and noticed that the Brambles had ripening berries and a second crop of flower buds, we went to the church, which famously has both a tower and spire.

On the way back to the bus we noticed that the street benches have a tower and a spire as well!  Full marks to that designer.

It was an overcast, muggy day, with a few spots of rain. We took the 80A bus to Banks Road / Garston Park and made our way through the Speke and Garston Coastal Reserve down to the shore path. On the mud were lots of Knot, some Redshanks, Oystercatchers, Lesser Black-backed Gulls, a few Curlews, Lapwings, a small horde of Ringed Plovers (perhaps 50-100) and one Greater Black-backed Gull. A small party of young Swallows flew south and some Goldfinches passed through. One Cormorant was sitting on a tall pole, silhouetted against the grey river. (Tracey Emin was paid megabucks for a sculpture just like this!)

We walked southwards along the shore path between wild edges of Bracken, Reeds, Bindweed, Nettle and Rose Bay Willowherb. There are very few Cinnabar Moth caterpillars on the Ragwort this year, so it’s blooming beautifully. Spear Thistle, Wild Mint, Common Bistort, Teasels, and Yarrow with some pinkish flowers caused (according to my book) by cross-pollination from garden cultivars.

Spear Thistle

Wild Mint

Common Bistort

(Pinkish) Yarrow

The only butterflies we saw were one each of Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown.

In a small park near the B & M warehouse there is a path leading back to the old airport building. When they landscaped it the men with the diggers had fun making rows of mounds on either side of the path, and now it looks like a processional way lined with the burial mounds of ancient kings. Some flowers prefer the drier conditions on top, so some of the mounds are capped with gold. At the back end there is an area like an amphitheatre with four mounds arranged like a star.

We tried to get into Speke Hall by the back way but the gates were welded shut. Someone has decided that all visitors will come in through the turnstiles!  It was drizzling then, so we headed back to town. On the way back we admired the rows of mature trees along Brodie Avenue which were just starting to turn red with autumn. Were they planted after City Engineer Brodie died in 1934 or are they younger than that? There were once tram tracks down the middle of Brodie Avenue so perhaps the trees weren’t planted until the tram tracks were taken up (in the 1950s?).

From Hall Road station we walked along Hall Road East, admiring the houses and gardens. The Rowan berries are red now and the blackberries are ripening. At the junction of Manor Road a narrow path leads through nettles and brambles into the fields around Little Crosby.  It was cooler, overcast and breezy, but we expected it to be sunny later.

We took the left-hand path towards Sniggery Wood, crossed the footbridge over the ditch and entered the wood. It’s quite narrow, with light coming in on either side, but silent and without much wildlife. There were some bird boxes up, and I saw a Robin earlier in the week, but nothing today. The wood is apparently the haunt of groups of anti-social lads who camp and drink. We emerged onto the path to return to Dibb Lane, and spoke to a dog walker who said there is a regular Barn Owl over the fields and that he had seen Weasels playing on Ackers Lane.

On the south-west side of the path was a meadow with sparse wheat and wildflowers, including a lovely blue one which may have been Perennial Flax. The field of Oil-seed Rape had recently been harvested, while the potato field to the south was in flower. The only birds were two Lapwings and a Wood Pigeon. The rain started then, and just as we got to Little Crosby Village there was a heavy downpour, so we dived into the Wellbarn and through an open door into the office of a small aromatherapy business called Carribean Essentials.

We had a damp lunch in the churchyard then walked up Delph Road where there are two big buddleias. Earlier in the week I’d seen a Peacock and a Comma, but there was only a Green-veined white today. On the lawn at the back of The Courtyard restaurant  we saw a Blackbird and a Robin.

Then the sun came out as we made our way back along Dibb Lane. The long hedge was full of Wild Roses and ripening Rose Hips. About a dozen white butterflies and a Meadow Brown emerged into the sunshine. The young Swallows were out too. Along the path leading to Sniggery Wood a Magpie was stalking slowly, hunting for something. Then a Moorhen passed us in heavy flight, long legs dangling, heading for splashdown in the ditch.

At home, the first Peacock of the year was feeding on my own Buddleia.

It was a very hot and sunny day, with the threat of thundery showers, but we missed one downpour whilst we were on the bus. The park lake had only pigeons at the south end, but there were lots of Black-headed Gulls and Coots at the top. I counted five Coot nests, some of them still with youngsters, since Coots nest all through the summer. One Mallard had four very late ducklings. There was a Mute Swan and a well-grown cygnet on the island, some Canada Geese, a Moorhen and just one Little Grebe. I got rid of the last of the duck and swan food to the BHGs, who dived for it enthusiastically, and the very last crumbs went onto the bird table by the Palm House.  Near the bandstand in the upper lake, a very young Heron posed picturesquely on the bank.

The terrapins were probably all removed when the lake was drained a few years ago, but the rats are still flourishing. One was creeping out of a crevice under a rock to snaffle turnip peelings left by someone. Did they think the birds would eat it?

The gardeners are allowing much of the grass to grow long and the lake banks are full of natural wild flowers. This may be why we saw more insects than usual. There were two species of butterfly, a Green-veined White and a Ringlet, plus a Brown Hawker dragonfly and a damsel fly, possibly a Blue-tail. Clouds of midges or gnats were circling over the water. On the railing I spotted a splendid brown Shield Bug with an orange and brown edging. I think it was Pentatoma rufipes, a common and widespread species which usually lives in trees. It was hopefully climbing up each semi-circular rail top, only to find itself guided down again.

At the Eros statue we were reminded of the flights of fancy of the former Park Ranger, Ritchie Baker, who always asserted that it was “Eros’s younger brother”

The wildflower bank by the Palm House was looking past its best, and the only creatures were the little animals on the Peter Pan statue – mice, frogs, and a lizard. But we nodded to the statues of the secular saints of natural history, Darwin and Linnaeus.

A brief thunderstorm overtook us in the Dell, and as we sheltered under the trees we spotted the Moorhens and Squirrels doing the same under the Rhododendrons.