The Naturalists' Notebook

The annual Knowsley Flower Show is held in Court Hey Park, which was once a landed estate developed since 1836 by Robertson Gladstone, local businessman, property developer, politician, and brother of Prime Minister-to-be William Ewart Gladstone. Robertson Gladstone was also a Director of the world’s first regular passenger railway, the Liverpool to Manchester Railway which opened in 1830. It is believed that the stones lining the driveway in the park were the original stone sleepers over which the famous steam engine “Rocket” once travelled. That’s one for the railway enthusiasts!

The park is edged on the eastern side by Court Hey Brook, which used to flood occasionally, so in 2021 they created a wetland by digging out pools and rivulets beside the brook. Now there is much-improved water quality downstream and a huge benefit for wildlife. They have a sign up listing Frogs, Herons, Dragonflies and Damselflies, water invertebrates and sightings of the protected Great Crested Newt. There is no way we could explore it, it is guarded by an impenetrable stand of Purple Loosestrife, Sorrel, Reeds and Wild Carrot.

Although there were occasional spots of rain we wandered through the stalls and displays of local charities and businesses. There were also commercial offerings from local plant nurseries. We were happy to see S & R Birds, a rescue sanctuary for birds of prey, who bring their raptors to events like this to solicit donations. We have seen them before, and know their Barn Owl and Eagle Owl well, but today they had a new bird, a Gyrfalcon, a magnificent male. I have never seen one of those before.

We saw two local mayors walking about, the Mayor of Knowsley, who had come to open the show, and the Mayor of Whiston browsing around the floral marquee, looking at the winning vegetables and craft items. Here are some which caught my eye.

Public transport details: Bus 61 rom Queen Square at 10.25, arriving Roby Road opp. Grangewood at 10.48. Returned on the 61 from Roby Road / Court Hey Road at 1.50, arriving city centre at 2.20.

On a very hot and sunny day we visited Rimrose Valley Country Park, where the main attraction was to be “Liverpool’s Most Wuthering Heights Day … Ever!”  More on that below. But first we had wander around the wildflower meadows and through the great expanse of rough grass interspersed with some wildflowers. We spotted and named Goat’s Beard, Red Clover, Common or Black Knapweed and Common or Ribbed Melilot.

There was also a lot of Wild Carrot.  Most flower heads have a central floret that sticks up above the others and is said in the books to be red or pink. I haven’t noticed any pink ones, all the ones I have looked at around here have a dark purple central flower, almost black.

There weren’t many birds. I think it was too hot for them in the open areas. There were just Wood Pigeon, Magpies, and some overflying gulls. But it was quite a good day for butterflies. Not many of them, but we saw three different species, an improvement on recent Sundays. There were several distant Large Whites, two or three fast-moving Gatekeepers (I had a pair of Gatekeepers in my garden in the week) and just one Peacock on the picnic bench. It is only showing its dark underwings here, but we got a glimpse of the eye-spots as it flew.

We returned to the running track area for the big event, which was about 200 people in red dresses doing Kate Bush’s dance routine to “Wuthering Heights”. There were some men in red dresses in there too, and there was even a dog in a red coat. This event is competitive, like a Santa Dash, each area around the country trying to attract a greater number of participants than the previous one.  It was arranged here in aid of the Save Rimrose Valley group, which campaigns to prevent a road to the docks being built through the park. The massed Kates were all filmed, from the ground and by drone, so videos should emerge soon!

Public transport details: Bus 47 from Queen Square at 10.15, arriving 10.45 at Crosby Road North / Sycamore Road. The others returned to Liverpool on bus 47 from Crosby Road North / Winstanley Road at 1.25, due Liverpool about 2pm.

Today we went to the Wildlife Recording day run by the Friends of Victoria Park and Merseyside Biobank. They armed us with clipboards, recording sheets and pens, and offered a variety of ID guides. We thought we were OK with birds, trees, bumble bees and butterflies, but borrowed a copy of  Blamey and Fitter’s wildflower book. And then we just wandered about writing down everything we recognised.

Most things we were able to name but some of our insects were simply written as “spider” or “wasp”. Many insects were on Ragwort, clearly an important plant for them, including the first black and yellow striped Cinnabar moth caterpillar I have seen for a number of years.

We lunched in an ornamental part of the park with plenty of “garden” flowers, which we didn’t list.  The Friends have put out hand-made signs warning of dire consequences for anyone caught vandalising their precious plantings.

After lunch we had an opportunity to visit the Waterloo Community Forest Garden on the other side of Somerville Road, squeezed into a small strip of land next to the railway line. They cater for school groups wanting nature encounters and were rated “outstanding” in the 2022 Britain in Bloom competition.

It’s mostly wild, but they have planted some small apple trees, a patio Mulberry and a rare native fruit tree, a Medlar, with developing fruit, about an inch (2.5 cm) wide.

Some of the Biobank staff were in there rootling around and had spotted some rarities, a Puss Moth caterpillar and a member of the orchid family that they thought was a Broad-leaved Helleborine, growing through Ivy beside a narrow shady path.

At the end of the day we handed in our lists. We had recorded 83 species as follows: 1 mammal (a Grey Squirrel); 9 birds (Robin, Blackbird, Wren, Collared Dove, Wood Pigeon, Carrion Crow and Magpie, a Herring Gull and Swifts overhead); 10 insects, including Large and Small White butterflies and a Meadow Brown; 27 species of tree and shrub and 36 kinds of wild flowers. After I had dropped off the others I re-crossed the park on the way home and found a second, smaller mulberry tree, groaning with fruit, with a sign inviting all comers to help themselves. I didn’t need asking twice!

Public transport details: Bus 47 from Queen Square at 10.15. arriving 10.43 at Crosby Road North / Sycamore Road. The others returned to Liverpool on the train from Waterloo Station at about 2.15.

Victoria Park opened in 1900 for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. It’s a large park, with everything from the “municipal park” checklist : a lake, a bandstand with a live brass band playing, a war memorial with manicured flower beds, a fountain, tennis courts, and also more modern things like a skate park, a climbing boulder, a basketball court and a woodland walk. One interesting relic given pride of place is an old turnpike milestone from the 18th century which was bomb-damaged in the First World War from a Zeppelin airship that thought it was over Sheffield!  The distances on the milestone are given in Roman numerals, V (five) miles to Prescot and XII (twelve) miles to Liverpool.

Today’s big attraction was the walk-through Butterfly house, which we visited in 2017, before it closed. Happily it has now re-opened after years of disuse and decline, and is run by volunteers. They buy in pupae of exotic species and provide a warm, tropical environment for them. Often the pupae that arrive are a mixed lot, and they cannot predict what will emerge, so the signage doesn’t identify everything. In the pictures below, the one on the fruit is the Clipper Parthenos sylvia while the black, red and white ones are all different and are probably from the “Postman” group,  Heliconius sp.)

Outside they have a garden planted up for native butterflies. The flowers were pretty but the day was too cool and gloomy for anything to be on the wing.

We took a stroll around the lake, noting moulting Mallards, Canada Geese, Coots, Moorhens, and a glimpse of a female Tufted Duck. There was a family of Mute Swans, with Dad on patrol and Mum near four big cygnets, moulting out their grey feathers and looking itchy.

On the bank was a crowd of Black-headed Gulls and Jackdaws. Otherwise the birds on view were just the usual corvids, Magpies and Crows. Ring-necked Parakeets don’t seem to have colonised this park yet. We went in the Woodland Walk along the western edge of the park.

There were Robins on the path, a few Wood Pigeons, and something odd near where some grain had been scattered. I think this is a Stock Dove and it’s only the second time I have knowingly seen one.

It’s overlooked by many birders, as it is too like Wood Pigeons and Feral Pigeons, and birders’ eyes seem to slide over them. There used to be some in Sefton Park, but I heard that they have been out-competed there by Parakeets, who muscle them out of their favoured nest holes in trees. 

Public transport details: Bus 79C from Queen Square at 9.59, arriving Leigh Avenue / Appleton Village at 10.55. Returned from the opposite bus stop on the 82A at 1.45. arriving Liverpool ONE bus station at 3.00.

Off for a day at the seaside at New Brighton. The early rain cleared up and the sun shone. The tide was close to the top, so shipping was on the move, and we watched the Isle of Man catamaran “Manannan” heading out.

Herring Gulls and Black-headed Gulls were flying and calling, small flocks of Starlings perched on high points, Pigeons checked out opportunities for crumbs, and we had a couple of fleeting glimpses of two birds which might have been Rock Pipits. The best birds were a flock of about 50 Turnstones, which were prevented by the high water from foraging on the rocks and shore, so they were mooching on the pontoons on the Marine Lake.  They have returned from their breeding grounds in Canada or Greenland very early: we don’t usually expect them until late August. The chestnut colour of some of their feathers suggests they are still in breeding plumage, but perhaps these are the ones whose nests have failed.

Not many plants about. On the edge of the promenade were a few clumps of White Clover and Ragwort, while on the rocks by the lighthouse, which never get wet, was a small patch of dune specialists Marram Grass, Sea Holly and Sea Beet.

We did a bit of beachcombing on the remaining bit of sand under the lighthouse. All the patches of seaweed seemed to be Bladder Wrack, mixed up with black gull feathers, whelk egg cases and  Cockleshells.

There was one oval shell, about 5 cm (2 inches) across, which I hoped was a Piddock, but it was too even on each side to be that, so it was possibly a Carpet Shell. There was only one “Mermaid’s purse”, the empty egg-case of a Skate or Ray.

We lunched in one of the shelters on the prom, noticing the cheerfully-decorated skip belonging to the local volunteer litter-pickers, who call themselves the New Brighteners. Clever name!

People with kids were catching crabs off the wall of the Marine Lake. “Crabbing” is such an established pastime here that the local shops sell crabbing kits – a bucket, a line, a dipping net and little fabric bags like teabags for putting the bait in. Most people use bacon, although I’m not sure if the same shops sell that!  Most crabbers were successful, nearly all having one or two Shore Crabs in their buckets.

Public transport details:  Train from Central at 10.20, then a rail replacement bus from Birkenhead North at 10.40, arriving New Brighton at 11.00. Returned on bus 432 from King’s Parade / Morrison’s at 1.55, arriving Liverpool 2.30.

Toxteth Park Cemetery was opened in 1856, and although it is now in the built-up area a couple of miles south of the city centre, it was then just outside the boundary. It is full of ornate Victorian Gothic memorials to the great and good of Liverpool in those days, and is Grade II listed. Many years ago I was on a walking tour of the historical graves and remember seeing the final resting place of James Dunwoody Bulloch, the Confederate spy. We didn’t see it today, because none of us could remember where it was.  
The lovely sunny weather we had in early June has turned, and it was overcast, with a cold wind and blustery showers. A bright spot was this lovely pink-flowered shrub by the entrance gates, which seems to be a member of the pea family.

The gate lodge seems to be occupied, with a pretty container garden by the front door.

There was very little wildlife about. The derelict old chapel was overgrown with Buddleia, where we might have hoped to see butterflies, but it was too cold and windy today.

Not many birds, either. A flock of Herring Gulls were wheeling and calling over the distant graves, as if they had found something edible. There were Carrion Crows, Magpies, Wood Pigeons and the occasional Blackbird. Someone had scattered grain which attracted feral Pigeons, and also a Grey Squirrel and a timid Rat.

There were a fair few trees, but even they didn’t seem to harbour much wildlife. They were a mixed selection, mostly natives, including Turkey Oak, Sycamore, Norway Maple, a few ornamental Cherries and Hawthorns. Also some Weeping Ash, which are very appropriate for a cemetery but now looking rather leggy. Has Ash Dieback got to them? The best were the Lime trees, mostly Common Lime and others which might have been Silver Pendent Lime. They seem to have flowered very well this year.

There were hardly any proper seats to be had so we lunched on some fallen gravestones in the shelter of a big spreading Turley Oak. On the way out, we admired the disused pub on the other side of Smithdown Road, the Royal Hotel, with wonderful tiles on the front and a fantastic lantern over the door at the right-hand corner.

Public transport details: Bus 86 from Elliot Street, supposed to be 10.16 but was actually 10.25, arriving Smithdown Road / Salisbury Road at 10.45. We all returned at different times after visiting the Asda supermarket.

Today started misty, overcast and damp, but the sun came out about 11 am. Waterloo seafront gardens sit between the large houses that used to be right on the beach, and the Marine Lake. It is a conservation area, not far from the city centre, and close to the world-famous Antony Gormley ‘Another Place’ statues which stand in the sand. There are four separate gardens in a row and today we visited Crescent Garden, Adelaide Garden and Beach Lawn Garden, built between 1932 and 1939. Here’s an old postcard of Adelaide Garden when it was opened in 1935 and a look along the same path today after 90 years growth of shrubs.

Some of the shrubs in flower were Jerusalem sage, Broom, Buddleia, Yellow Bush Lupin, Privet, Mock Orange, Japanese Snowbell and New Zealand Daisy Bush. We saw no butterflies, not even on the Buddleia.

Flowers included Poppies, Valerian, Bramble, Meadow Cranesbill, Dog Rose, Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Daisies and Buttercups in the lawns and also the tall yellow Hawkbeard (probably Smooth Hawkbeard).

Bramble was popping out of the shrubberies everywhere. The council don’t garden much any more, apart from cutting the grass occasionally, and the volunteer Friends do their best, but sometimes the neglect of “tidying” makes patches of loveliness.

There is a thriving colony of House Sparrows, cheeping loudly in the dense bushes, but rarely seen. Goldfinches were coming to the pond to drink. Swallows were swooping low over the grassy mounds. Although we saw hardly any insects of any kind, just a few Bumble Bees visiting flowers, the Swallows must have been finding something. Elsewhere there were Wood Pigeons, Magpies, Carrion Crows, and Gulls calling overhead.

The pond in Beach Lawn garden has been cleared of choking vegetation by the Friends during the last couple of winters. All the weed they removed was carefully left on the banks to allow any creatures to get back into the water. But despite that precaution, we saw no dragonflies, no damselflies, and not even the tiny rare one, the Small Red-eyed Damselfly, that sits on mats of algae. But one beneficiary of that clear-out has been a small colony of orchids that have popped up out of nowhere. They are probably Southern Marsh orchids.

There are two islands in the pond, and the orchids are on the inner ends of each island, not far from each other but separated by several feet of pond water. Are they somehow connected under the pond liner? (But that’s probably concrete). Is it an effect of seed dispersal? Who knows why they have suddenly appeared just there.

Public transport details: Bus 53 from Queen Square at 10.02, arriving Waterloo Interchange / South Road at 10.39. I was able to walk home but the others headed for Waterloo station and the train back to Liverpool.

Leading southward from the Speke Road roundabout (by Dobbies garden centre) is Speke Hall Avenue, a busy dual carriageway with a wide central reservation. For the last few years the local authority has allowed this to grow into a wildflower meadow, with spectacular results.  This year there are over 100 Bee Orchids scattered through it, especially opposite the Travelodge hotel. Several MNA members have been to see them, and none have ever seen so many before. It’s a good year for them apparently, and there are reports of lots on the Sefton coast too.

Famously, they are showing Reproductive Mimicry, where the flower looks (and smells) like a female bee, inducing a male to attempt to mate, and after he fails, carries pollen to the next flower. But there didn’t seem to be any bees approaching these. Which bee have they evolved to fool? The books say that most UK Bee Orchids self-pollinate as the right bee (and most of the orchids) live further south in Europe. However, the Long-horned Bee Eucera longicornis is occasionally found here. There is a blog by a south Devon naturalist about a small colony near him and I found a picture of a female on Flickr, photographed at Pevensey Levels in 2011.  She does indeed look like a Bee Orchid.

The same wildflower verge had Buttercups, Ox-eye daisies, Knapweed, Red and White Clover, Ribwort Plantain, Ragwort, Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Self-heal, lots of lovely grasses, but we didn’t see any Yellow Rattle.

One butterfly was, appropriately, a Meadow Brown and we also spotted this small beetle, bronze with a dark green head, probably a Garden Chafer.

Further south on the verge were more orchids, one each of a purple one, which might have been a Southern Marsh orchid, and a tall white one which might have been a Common Spotted orchid.

There were two dead animals on that busy road, a gory Grey Squirrel and a bundle of fluff and feathers which was probably a young Lesser Black-backed gull.

We lunched on a bench in the business park, by the side of the road called Estuary Banks, then caught a bus to Calderstones Park, where the Nature Reserve was having an Open Day. The site is a former Council brownfield site, partly concreted over and used as a dump. The park Friends started work in 2021. Despite their magnificent success so far, it has not yet become part of the wider park. It is usually locked up and is only open on special days.

Part of it is a huge Bramble and Nettle patch. They have left it as it is, not wanting to use harsh chemicals to remove it. It towers above head-height and is a fantastic bird habitat. We could hear a Song Thrush singing deep inside it, and the Merlin phone app also detected the otherwise invisible Chiffchaff, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Blackbird and Blackcap.

The Friends had lists on display of everything seen in the last two years. They noted 30 bird species, about 25 invertebrates plus 12 butterflies and moths, six mammals (fox, hedgehog, grey squirrel, rat, field mouse and an unspecified vole) and over 60 species of wild flowers.

To one side a little path leads to Hartley’s Stone, named after Jesse Hartley, the Victorian engineer who designed the Albert Dock. He called for samples of granite from several suppliers, and this was the one from the winning bidder. His daughter Fanny gave it to the city.

I always look at trees, and noticed that the Sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus seems to be producing very copious seeds this year. They have typical “helicopter” seed pairs, but note that the wings usually point straight down. By contrast, a small Field Maple Acer campestre, also in the Acer genus, had seeds with the wings pointing straight out.

Public transport details: 82 bus (towards Speke, not the ones to Hunt’s Cross) from Elliot Street at 10.17, arriving Speke Road / Speke Hall Road at 10.45. Then bus 86A from Estuary Bank / opp Leeward Drive at 1.08, arriving Mather Avenue / Rose Lane at 1.26. Returned from Mather Avenue / Rose Lane on the 86A at 3.11, arriving city centre at 3.25.

It was a day of dark skies, blustery winds and sharp showers, just a typical June day!  We saw two notable trees today. The first was in a Long Lane garden, a Red Snake-bark Maple Acer capillipes. It has a distinctive leaf, dark green, with those small lobes on either side. The pale green stripy bark is equally distinctive and the long strings of small “helicopter” seeds clinch the ID.

The main area of Gorse Hill reserve was closed until 1pm so we took a public path northwards, through the painted gate off Holly Lane. There are tall hedges on either side, casting shade good for Foxgloves and Hogweed.

We could hear lots of birds – Blackbirds, Robin, Song Thrush, Chiffchaff, but we didn’t see any of them. This area of shrubby farmland is known for the now-uncommon Yellowhammer. The Merlin app on my phone heard one a couple of times, and also a Whitethroat, but all were invisible.
After lunch we looked at the main reserve’s new 5 acre wildflower meadow. They use it as a crop, cutting it in July or August to sell the sweet meadow hay in the local area. To stop it being trampled, they have cut paths in it to discourage off-piste wanderings.

It isn’t the showy “poppy and cornflower” municipal planting, but a quieter and more natural assemblage of Buttercup, Yarrow, Knapweed, Yellow Rattle, Common Sorrel, Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Restharrow, Common Vetch, Scabious, mixed grasses, and many more.

Just inside the gate shown on the photo above, on the edge of the woodland, was our second Tree of the Day, a Wayfaring Tree Viburnum lantana. It is a British native, found most often in the south of England on chalky soils, and quite rare in Lancashire and Cheshire. There are two or three clumps of it on both sides of the woodland path.  It isn’t particularly pretty, but in autumn the berries ripen at different times, showing both red and black fruit in the same cluster.

We supported their café by having tea, and bought some freshly-harvested veg from their kitchen garden, then headed back to the train.

Public transport details: Ormskirk train from Central at 10.17, arriving Aughton Park at 10.45. Returned from Aughton Park at 3.10, arriving Sandhills 3.32.

We had planned to go to Gorse Hill, but a yellow weather warning of thunderstorms sent us to Birkenhead Park instead, a much shorter journey, and plenty of shelter if necessary.

We had a look at the detached triangular bit of the park along Park Road North called the Holts Garden. There were lots of Foxgloves planted in flowerbeds, magnets for bumble bees.

We also considered a huge White Willow with three trunks, looking as if three saplings were deliberately “bundle-planted” a long time ago. The Park opened 1847, so was this tight tree group planned by the designer Edward Kemp and is it now 177 years old?

There were Magpies on the grass, a Blackbird singing and a Mallard walking purposefully towards a flower bed, a long way from any lake. We also saw Robins and a Nuthatch later in the day and heard a Song Thrush.  We looked at the Stone Pines and the sick-looking Gingko and then our attention was drawn to three small trees covered with small white flowers like Hawthorn, but there were no obvious thorns, the leaves were different and they were flowering later than Hawthorn.  Clearly one of the rarer thorns. I think they were Hybrid Cockspur-Thorns Crataegus lavallei, because of the glossy leaves and absence of thorns, although the book says the flowers are supposed to have a red disc in the centre. However, the flowers were fading, possibly losing that spot.

Lots of lovely wild flowers in the lawns and verges. Ribwort Plantain, Bramble, Red Campion, Yellow Flag Iris on the lake verges, Daisies, Buttercups, Cow Parsley. On the Upper Park Lake we noted Moorhen, Mallard, a single Cormorant and several young families of Canada Geese. On the edge was a crèche of eight goslings, looking super-cute. They were probably two merged broods, because there were four adults around them.

This leaf of Field Maple had a scattering of yellow spots, probably the early sign of Red Pustule Gall, Aceria myriadeum.

Our second tree puzzle was on the edge of the Upper Park Lake, definitely some relative of the Horse Chestnut, but the leaflets were longer and thinner. Was it an American Yellow Buckeye or an Indian Horse Chestnut?  I think it was probably Yellow Buckeye, Aesculus flava, because the flowers had been yellow and there was no trace of pink in the leaf midribs.

At the western end of the lake a Dad and kids were throwing food to the birds on the bank, some kind of grain or seed mix. There were the usual Mallards, Canada Geese and Feral Pigeons muscling about after it, To our surprise a pair of Moorhens and their two half-grown chicks, usually so shy and retiring, were boldly going into the fray, hoping to get a share.

Just over the railings was a newly-planted tree with a nursery label.  We can never resist taking a look. It said Cydonia oblongata ‘Vranja’, half standard. I looked it up later and was surprised to see that it was Quince.  It used to be classified in the Pyrus genus, the pears, and there are pictures on the internet of profuse pear-shaped quinces. So what is the one with early red flowers and thorns that I call a quince? It seems the red-flowered shrub is the Japanese quince, Chaenomeles japonica. Its fruits are smaller and apple-shaped. So are they related? Yes, the next taxonomic step up from genus is sub-tribe and they are both in the Malinae. They are species “cousins”, not “siblings”.

There were plenty of Grey Squirrels around, approaching us in the hope of hand-outs.  There were also four large terrapins hauled out on a log. A passer by said there are a lot more in other places in the park. All terrapins and turtles in British park lakes are aliens, abandoned pets, and most are Red-eared Slider terrapins, popular since the Ninja Turtle boom of the 1980s. When the little ones bought for the kids’ home aquariums get too big, Dad sneaks them out to the park and dumps them. They say it is too cold here for them to breed, so they won’t become pests like Grey Squirrels are, but the world is warming …

As we headed to the visitors’ centre there were a few spots of rain, but there were no thunderstorms after all. We were amazed by the magnificent flower beds outside, full of tall high-quality bedding plants. They were far showier than we usually see in municipal parks with their tight budgets. A small sign revealed that they were sponsored by the Showtime ice-cream company, whose products are sold in the café.

As we ate our lunch, a Mistle Thrush was hunting on the hillock by the picnic tables.

On the corner by the Jackson memorial obelisk is a gorgeous Chinese Dogwood Cornus kousa. We usually come here in the autumn or winter, when it is uninteresting, so it is a treat to see it in flower.

Public transport details: New Brighton train from Central at 10.20, arriving Birkenhead Park Station 10.32. Returned on the 437 bus from Park Road North / Trinity Street at 1.35, arriving Liverpool 1.50.