The Naturalists' Notebook

After a delayed depature leaving Liverpool the MNA coach eventually arrived around 11:30am at North Wales Wildlife Trust Reserve at The Spinnies. We wandered down the small lane that runs alongside the high stone wall of Penrhyn Estate. Gloriously sunny day with signs of Spring all around with a drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker, Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs and Blackcap in song along with the usual Robins, Dunnocks, Chaffinches, Goldfinches and Tits. Much botanical interest with flowering Lesser Celandine Ranunculus ficaria, Dog’s Mercury Mercurialis perennis, Jack-By-The-Hedge Alliaria petiolata, Common Dog Violet Viola riviniana, the garden variety of  Yellow Archangel Lamiastrum galeobdolon, Ivy-leaved Speedwell Veronica hederifolia, Alexanders Smyrnium olusatrum, Ramsons Allium ursinum, Bluebell Hyacinthoides non-scripta just beginning to emerge and Lords And Ladies Arum maculatum the  pale green spathe or leaf-like hood was closed when we walked down but had opened up to show the purple spadix on our return along the lane. I was lucky and heard a movement in the vegetation beside the wall and caught a glimpse of a Bank Vole Myodes glareolus as it scurried into a hole in the wall.

Jack-by-the-Hedge

The tide was out in the Aber Ogwen and I took the opportunity to wander along to photograph the wooden groynes. I had a brief mooch around photographing some Knotted Wrack Ascophyllum nodosum with its egg-shaped bladders and a few encrusting Barnacles on a rock. They are Chthamalus montagui with a characteristic kite shaped aperture.

Groynes

Egg Wrack

Mature Barnacles with smaller baby barnacles 🙂

Gorgeous white blossom on the Blackthorn bushes Prunus spinosa edging the beach.

Birdlife included a Raven cronking as it flew overhead, a few Buzzards circling over woodland across the estuary, Shelduck far out on the mudflats, two Mute Swans and a few Mallards in the tidal creeks where a Goosander was also spotted plus a great gathering of Gulls in the distance. As we wandered back past the Spinnies reedbed a Sedge Warbler erupted into its scratchy song. A few Butterflies with Small Tortoiseshell, a Speckled Wood sunbathing amongst the ivy on the wall and a bright newly emerged Orange Tip.

An eventful and exciting day. Eighteen of us set out from West Kirby, five of us made it to Hilbre Island and the rest ended up marooned on Middle Eye as the tide cut them off.

Gazzilions of Wheatears, the Bird Observatory guys were kept busy ringing the phylloscopus Warblers that had hankered down on the island after the overnight rain. The best bird caught in one of the heliogoland traps was a Ring Ouzel!

A moulting Merlin, hirundines – Swallows, Sand Martins & House Martin overhead, Turnstones, Purple Sandpipers, a Tree Pipit overhead, Gannets and a Sandwich Tern out at sea kept us busy. A Grey Seal hauled out at the north end of the island and a Common Frog kept my camera busy.

Lots of marine life with Beadlet and Green Sea Anemones, Sand Gobies, Lugworms, Limpets, various Bivalves.

All with the wonderful backdrop of the weathered and mottled bunter sandstone on the island.

Just took a stroll around Greenbank and Sefton Parks. Both have many calling nuthatches and I watched three different nest holes being used by pairs. While having an ice-cream at the Boating Lake in Sefton Park I watched 5 buzzards circling together. Two stock doves fought for possession of a nesting hole for 10 minutes. By the Dell a pair of sparrowhawks soared high together and a red kite came into view and drifted south. Another buzzard, a chiffchaff and pair of nuthatches in Greenbank rounded off an eventful afternoon walk.

A large group of 30 or so people met up at 11am with Dr Ian Wallace of Liverpool Museum where Shore Road joins the beach at Ainsdale. This was the field meeting organised as a follow-on event to last weekend’s “Shells Training” afternoon. We were given some common sense safety advice on beachcombing such as checking the tide times, taking care with the sharp edges of broken shells and avoidance of squidgy cylindrical brown shapes on the beach. We all checked we had remembered our Liverpool Bay Marine Recording Partnership Sheets; trays, sieves and plastic bags from a well known supermarket were handed out to collect our finds then we spread out and headed across the beach towards the sea.

A large variety of Shells were found including numerous Rayed Trough Shells Mactra stultorum – a large wreck of this species occurred in January along the Sefton Coast and there are still many scattered along the beach, plenty of Pod and Bean Razor Shells Ensis species, a few Otter Shells Lutraria lutraria, Common Cockles Cerastoderma edule, a few Prickly Cockles Acanthocardia echinata, White Piddocks Barnea candida and Thin Tellins Angulus tenuis.

White Piddock Barnea candida

Green round gelatinous eggs belonging to the Green-leaf Worm Eulalia viridis were attached to the sand by a thread or in groups attached to seaweed. There were plenty of Sea Gooseberries Pleurobrachia pileus – the small spherical comb jelly around 2cm in diameter.

Green-leaf Worm Eggs Eulalia viridis

A brown scum over the surface of the sand was caused by diatoms, unicellular organisms whose colouration is caused by its yellow-brown chloroplasts that enable them to photosynthesize. Indeed, tiny bubbles of oxygen produced by this process were visible above the scum. These diatoms are an important food source for some of the filter feeding molluscs.

Photosynthesizing Diatoms

Dr Wallace gave us a demonstration of mud puddling in an area of quicksand much to the amusement of the children in the group. The Cockles and Tellins are moved to the surface and we watched as they began to bury themselves back into the sand.  

We found a few Common Cockle and Rayed Trough Shells that were black in colour but otherwise appeared as normal. Anaerobic bacteria living in anoxic sediments produce hydrogen sulphide that can interact with iron in the sediment producing iron sulphides that blacken sea shells. This blackening only usually occurs on the shell surface. If more oxidising conditions and iron is present – leading to the formation of ferric oxides then shells can be stained orange.

One of the largest shells found at around 13cm was that of the Icelandic Cyprine Arctica islandica recently re-named as the Ocean Quahog. They are one of the longest lived bivalve molluscs with individuals reaching nearly 400yrs old! They live buried just below the sand with only their small siphon tube extended just above the surface of the seabed. They are an important food source for Cod and are also eaten by people in Norway and Iceland. Over the next few years, parts of the Irish Sea will be given further environmental protection in the form of Irish Sea Conservation Zones. One potential zone runs from Crosby along the Sefton Coast to Formby an area where Ocean Quahogs and Oysters have been recorded as well as the famous intertidal peat beds where Mesolithic and Neolithic footprints from humans and animals have been found.

Ocean Quahog Arctica islandica

Another interesting find was a piece of cartilaginous material possibly from a Skate and I found a small piece of the soft-coral Dead Man’s Fingers Alcyonium digitatum and the remains from a Masked Crab Corystes cassivelaunus.

Cartilaginous Bone

After discussing our finds a few of us wandered along the strandline finding many Sea Wash Balls the egg cases of Common Whelks Buccinium undatum, Sand Mason Worm Tubes Lanice conchilega, Hornwrack Flustra foliacea the bryozoans with broad-lobe like fronds often mistaken for seaweed.

Seawash Ball

A great introduction to the variety of ‘dead sea life’ that can be found whilst beachcombing on the Sefton Coast.

In view of an exceptionally high tide, 10.2 metres, I headed upriver for a change towards the old sandstone quay below Neston’s sewage plant. Seaward it proved rather quiet – numerous Shelduck, a dozen or so Pintail, one Short-eared Owl and four Little Egrets, busy stabbing at the water and drifting vegetation and unusually vociferous. As I wandered the fields, hedgerows and copses birds were in full song – numerous Greenfinches and Chaffinches, Great and Coal Tits, Robin, Dunnock, Song Thrush, Blackbird and at last a Chiffchaff, eventually joined by another. March is that transition month because in the paddock five Redwings were feeding in the grass by the horses.

To have my lunch and survey the flooded marsh I sat on the old quay. I hadn’t been there long when two pipits landed on the wall about 40ft away and what a contrast. One was an obvious Meadow Pipit with its boldly black-streaked underparts while the nearer bigger bird was more upright, longer-legged and with an overall sandier brown plumage and brown streaks confined to the upper breast. It was a Richard’s Pipit and so convenient to have the two birds together. They stayed for a few minutes before the inevitable dog frightened them off.

I spent an enjoyable afternoon at the World Museum in Liverpool on 19th March 2011 in the company of Dr Ian Wallace and Steve Cross on a ‘Shell Training Course.’ The Liverpool Bay Marine Recording Partnership (LBMRP) has recently been set up to record some of the common species that can be found washed up on Liverpool Bay Beaches. A handy recording sheet has been produced with photographs of the variety of shells; crabs, shrimps & other crustacea; starfish,; urchins, jellyfish; eggs; fish and seaweeds that can be found. It focuses on species found on Liverpool Bay beaches so you are not bogged down with shells etc. that may only occur in say Cornwall. Dr Wallace jokingly referred to it as the Dead Sea Life Survey as those species washed up on our beaches will be decaying or dead.

We had a brief introduction to the internal shell anatomy of bivalves, followed by the anatomy of gastropods and how to identify right and left spiralled shells. We then tested our skills using the recording sheet to identify a variety of shells and seashore debris from the museum collections.  A field day is being held at Ainsdale Beach on 27th March 2011. Meet 11am at the western end of Shore Road where it joins the beach.

Recording Forms can be obtained from LBMRP via Steve.cross@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk or write to Steve Cross, Clore Natural History Centre, World Museum, William Brown Street, Liverpool L3 8EN. Also return any completed forms to Steve who will enter the information onto a database. If you encounter something really interesting that is not featured on the recording form please send them a photo they’d be interested to know. 

Pod Razor Shell Ensis siliqua

An Auger Shell Turritella communis

Common Wentletrap Epitonium clathrus

We were invited to a quick behind-the-scenes tour of the aquarium. They had a few Common Whelks Buccinum undatum in one tank. Whelks orientate by smell and when some food was dropped into the tank they all migrated towards it with their siphon tubes waving around as they tried to locate the source of the smell.

We were also shown the re-circulation systems for the tropical and cold-water tanks in the aquarium including protein skimmers, UV sterilizers and sand filters.  IAT International Aqua-tech in Anglesey (who my brother happens to work for) designed the system. Their projects have included some of the world’s greatest aquaria such as in the Burj-al-Arab in Dubai and Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. 

We took a peek into the top of the tropical tanks when a Long-horned Cowfish Lactoria cornuta decided to take a peek back at us. Certainly not a species we’re likely to see on our beaches! but I was lucky enough to see one in Madagascar a few years back that a group of fishermen had hauled up in their nets. They thankfully don’t eat them so they kindly placed it on the sand for me to take a quick snap before returning it to the sea.