The Naturalists' Notebook

Snow had been promised for the whole country, but Merseyside escaped. Nonetheless it was a very much reduced group of only four that met on a cold and frosty morning at Queen Square. We were thinking of going to to Hesketh Park in Southport, but the X2 bus failed to stop at its assigned temporary stop in Victoria Street, and we watched it sail away. So we went to look at the new landing stage at the Pier Head, then took the ferry to Woodside.

The female Peregrine Falcon was sitting right at the top of Hamilton Square tower, staring out over the Mersey. We took ourselves to Birkenhead Priory and had a tour of the Scriptorium, with a display about Ian Fraser VC, a much-decorated diving pioneer who died on the Wirral in 2008.

There were very few other birds about today, just the usual gulls and pigeons, but we did see a party of Long-tailed Tits in the trees around the Priory.

Our first Sunday walk of 2012 was on a cold, still day with the temperature just above freezing.

At the south end of Sefton Park lake the usual crowd of Mute Swans, Canada Geese, Mallards, pigeons and Black-headed Gulls were hanging about for bread. Of the dozen or so Mute Swans, seven had blue Darvic leg rings, identifying them as local birds. Two sets of three were juveniles with almost-consecutive numbers, suggesting they were groups of siblings ringed together. Their ring numbers have been reported to the North West Swan Study.

On the path we spotted a Pied Wagtail, there were Magpies and Carrion Crows on the grass, while the water around the island had Moorhens, quarrelsome Coots and five Little Grebes, possibly a pair with three of last year’s chicks. Rats were common at the water’s edge. The former Mute Swan nest site on the island was bare, so I wonder where they are nesting now?

At the café there was a display of dead birds and mammals in small cases. A closer look revealed that they weren’t real animals, but made by “Replicated Taxidermy”. There was a poster advertising classes in this new craft skill. They looked pretty good, though.

There is a small bird feeder area near the Palm House, overwhelmed by pigeons and squirrels, but we chased them off, added some dried mealworms and were rewarded with Blue Tits, Great Tits, a Robin and a Nuthatch.

Since feeding bread to birds is now disapproved of, for my New Year resolution I bought some “Duck and Swan Treat” pellets. They are brown, granular discs, about the size of shirt buttons and the manufacturer (Gardman) says they are specially designed to float, preventing deterioration of the water quality. However, the blurb doesn’t say the intended consumers LIKE it!  The swans and Canada geese looked at it, but weren’t keen. One Swan took a pellet then spat it out. Mallards liked it and so did Coots. Black-headed Gulls dived among the Coots for it and Pigeons tried to hover and take it out of our hands. They pecked at it enthusiastically on the ground.  I also tried some on a Grey Squirrel in the Dell. One little chap approached cautiously, put a paw on my hand and leaned forward to sniff, then turned away in disappointment, finding it wasn’t a peanut.

The afternoon concert in the Palm House was given by the excellent Saxadaisical Quartet, a foursome of saxophonists, who played pieces ranging from Penny Lane to Handel’s Concerto Grosso.

It was a seriously wet day, bucketing down almost the whole time we were out. We got to West Derby Village at about 10.30, met Margaret and Howard, then trudged up the long drive to Croxteth Hall.

Near the small resident herd of Highland Cattle, one sick Birch tree had eight bracket fungi growing from it, and there may have been more around the other side.

We saw quite a variety of the usual woodland birds – Chaffinch, Blue Tit, Blackbird, Wood Pigeon, Long-tailed Tits, Robins, and some Great Tits on the ground below a Beech tree, apparently feeding on beech mast. Not seen that before. There was a Grey Squirrel and a Jay flying through the trees. On the wet fields were Black-headed Gulls, Herring Gulls, one Lesser Black-backed Gull, several Carrion Crows, Jackdaws and Magpies. The lake held only Mallards and Moorhen.

There was a dead mouse in a shallow puddle on the edge of a tarmacked path. We fished it out and measured it. Head and body length 7cm, tail length 8-9cm, fur looked grey – so it  must have been a House Mouse Mus musculus.  What was it doing dying out in the rain? No obvious injuries, so had it been dropped by a bird of prey?

On the lawn opposite the Hall we spied a tree that looked like an Oak, but which still had all its leaves.  Was it a Holm Oak? But the leaves weren’t right. It had corky bark and bristly acorn cups.

On the following day Margaret found it in a Croxteth “tree trail” leaflet. It’s a Lucombe Oak, Quercus x hispanica ‘Lucombeana’, a hybrid between Holm Oak and Turkey Oak, which occurs naturally in the Mediterranean but ornamental ones in the UK are mostly clones of the one first cultivated in Exeter by William Lucombe in about 1762.

Our usual pre-Christmas trip to Chester was on a cold and windy day, with occasional squally showers, but at least it wasn’t snowy and icy like last year.

We walked along the canal, seeing just Moorhens and Mallards, then spotted a pair of Mute Swans on the bank at the canal junction, near the Telford Warehouse. The male hissed at us as we read his green Darvic ring – C502, which means he was ringed in Cheshire in 1999 and is twelve years old.  (Added later: No it was a female, ringed 29 July 1999 at Cholmondeston Locks near Nantwich.  Seen September 1999 at Barbridge, Nantwich and in November and December 1999 at Westport Lake, Stoke. Last sighted in April and November 2000 at Barlaston, Stoke. I wonder where she had been in the eleven years since then.)

We went into Water Tower Gardens for our sandwiches and a hazy sun tried to come out, but there was still a sharp wind.  Just Pigeons, Black-headed Gulls and a Magpie. Interesting maze, though.

There is a new Riverside Promenade walking and cycling path along the Dee, but the only extra birds were some Teal. Mindful of our sighting of a Mink two years ago, we spotted some tracks the silty riverbank, but whether they were Mink, Fox, cat or small dog we couldn’t say.

The middle of the Racecourse had several hundred BHGs interspersed with crows, and we were intrigued to see a cage and net by the fence. Soon an RSPCA man appeared. He had received a report of a fox with a broken leg near the 5½ furlong marker, and had been searching, but the injured fox was not found.

In town, heading for the Christmas Market, we came across the Greyhound Rescue street collection team, and they are as suitable a Christmas picture as any. Happy Christmas to all!

On a bright, sunny, but very windy day we took the train to Southport and the 44 bus to Elswick Road, near Marshside. It was a very high tide, and the sea was up over the marsh, blown in no doubt by the onshore winds. Several Black-headed Gulls were trying to fly out to sea, beating their wings strongly but making no headway at all.

From the Sandgrounders hide were Wigeon, Pink-footed Geese, Jackdaws and Black-headed Gulls, with some Lesser Black-backed Gulls amongst them. Also Moorhens, Mallards, Pintail, Shoveller, two Curlew, a Cormorant that had just caught a fish, a Ruff, and a Snipe in the sedge near the hide. I tried a photo of the Snipe through the telescope, which is a bit strange, but recognisable.

Two Herons and a Little Egret flew over. There were tales of a Great White Egret in the area, and the warden said it had been seen at Crossens that morning. Some of the birdwatchers with telescopes were claiming some White-fronted Geese in amongst the Pinkies on the far side, but they were too far to pick out with binoculars. I left some MNA leaflets in the rack.

Nel’s hide was very busy, but we added Redshank, Starlings and Lapwings to our list. On the way back to the bus we saw Ragwort still in flower. Near the Fernley Observatory the usual House Sparrows were flitting about, and from the train we saw a Buzzard on a fencepost.

We started at Hamilton Square and after checking the station tower for Peregrine Falcons (none there today) went up to the Cenotaph for the Remembrance Day service. First year for a while that we didn’t need our umbrellas !

We lunched in bright sunshine outside Birkenhead Park Visitors’ Centre then checked the lakes for birds.

Mallards, Black-headed Gulls, Canada Geese, Moorhens and Coots. No surprises there. Two Muscovy Ducks were dozing beneath a weeping willow and there was a group of six ducks, one a white domestic variety and five completely black. The security guard / litter collector / ranger said he thought part of their ancestry was Indian Runner, a domestic variety that occasionally flocks with Canada Geese.

On the ground we saw Pigeons, Carrion Crows, Magpies, numerous Grey Squirrels and a Jay. It didn’t really feel like November, far too warm. A group of Quince bushes were in flower, so they are confused too.

In the Upper Park, we spotted a clump of enormous fungi on a bank near holly bushes. There were three groups of four or five each, close together on the eastern side of Park Meadow (area 12 on the park maps). They were about 10 inches across, concave, with wavy edges, white to brown, cream straight gills which were decurrent (attached to the stem) and there was no ring on the stem. They smelled delicious, just like eating mushrooms. Margaret Parry looked them up on Monday and thinks they may have been Clitocybe gigantea, also known as Leucopaxillus giganteum, the Giant Clitocybe. Not as edible as they smelled, apparently, even if not positively poisonous.

A very good day for birds today! Even from the train we saw Pink-footed Geese and Curlew between Hall Road and Hightown. It was a gorgeous clear day, not a cloud in the sky. On the way down to the Alt Estuary there were Collared Doves, Crows and Starlings, and a Heron flew overhead. A Sparrowhawk was sitting in the pines near the gate to the firing range and a female Kestrel was quartering the reeds. The tide was very low, and there weren’t many birds near the river mouth, just Black-headed Gulls, although a Buzzard was flying about. Later, over the dunes, we saw a pair of Kestrels flying together, perhaps thinking it was spring.

After lunch we followed the roadway made through the dunes by the lorries carrying sand and rocks up from Crosby to bolster the coastal defences.

On the estuary there were plenty of Shelduck, Mallards, Curlew, Redshank  and could it be …? Yes! A Spoonbill ! It was standing on one leg with its head tucked in but we occasionally got a look at its distinctive bill.

Abour 100 Lapwings flew overhead while we were on our way down to the Coastguard Station, where we stopped to admire the cheeky Starlings in the car park.

Despite the change of clocks, we all turned up at Liverpool ONE for the 82A to Riverside Drive. We had hoped the Festival Park would be open, but still no news of it. All we could do was look through the gate!

We strolled southwards on the prom in the warm sunshine, talking to the fishermen. One said they hoped for small Whiting or Codling, or perhaps a Ray. Two had made decent catches, both of Cod. “You get some nice fish coming out now”, said another.

Not many birds today. Black-headed Gulls, Cormorants, a Magpieand some Crows. We thought we saw a butterfly, perhaps a Peacock, during our lunch stop. At the Sitting Bull we turned north again.

There is a new Otters Café, which will be splendid when its lake and grounds are complete. Next to it they appear to be building a maze, a play fort and an adventure ropes course.

Through the woodland path up to Aigburth Vale we saw Chaffinch, Wood Pigeon, a Robin and a Grey Squirrel. Some of the ornamental trees were in autumn colours and the three wonderful Cut-leaved Beeches covered the path with bronze leaves.