The Naturalists' Notebook

After a night of high winds and heavy rain, we met on an overcast blustery morning, took the 86A to Mather Avenue / Danefield Road and then along Springwood Avenue to Allerton Cemetery. Three of us have family burials there, and we paid our respects at the graves. There were very few obvious birds about, but we did see two Great Tits, some Jackdaws and a flock of about 100 Starlings flying overhead. Some interesting trees and shrubs, though. Margaret took us to a Medlar tree she knew, and John spotted a hedge of the now-rare Juniper.

Medlar tree

Medlar fruit

Juniper hedge

After lunch we cut across to Allerton Hall and walked by the Nature Reserve named after the MNA’s founder Eric Hardy.

 
Hardy NR sign.

A huge fallen Beech tree is lying on the field. You can see how shallow the roots were, and they are all tangled with big hunks of sandstone. The Liverpool City Council tag identifies this as tree number 00280, one of the lowest numbers I remember seeing, so it must have been quite old.

 
Fallen beech

We crossed Woolton Road to Allerton Towers and spotted signs of spring – daffs shooting up and some early snowdrops in flower. Some Goldfinches were twittering in the shrubbery and there was a Blackbird on the lawns. Three tall Cypress trees have all been burnt on one side by vandals – a passer-by told us it was done eighteen months ago. Such a shame for such elegant specimen trees.

 
Burnt Cypress

The similarly-vandalised Irish Yews near the orangery (which I mentioned in my post of 29 August 2010) have now all been trimmed back and are starting to sprout again. 

 
Irish Yew

We went through the walled garden and emerged onto Menlove Avenue at about 2pm for buses home.

A treat today – a flock of Waxwings were in town, hanging about the junction of Leeds Street and Scotland Road. John C had spotted them (and their attendant photographers) earlier in the week.  Just a short bus ride and there they were, about 35 of them, high in the trees on the central reservation outside the main JMU building.  They eventually came down to the Cotoneaster bushes outside the St John’s Ambulance HQ and set to work on the berries.  These are pictures John took on the previous Friday.

Soon they wheeled off as a flock and appeared to go down somewhere in the St Anne Street area. As compensation, a pair of sparrowhawks flew up from the balcony of a flat in Edgar Street and played together in the sky before vanishing northwards. It was too cold to stand about for long, a still, damp cold, so we took the bus up to Stanley Park and checked the lake before lunch.There were lots of Canada Geese, several Mallard, two Coots and one male Pochard. There had been frost the night before, but only parts of the lake edge were frozen.

We ate our lunches outside the Conservatory then got moving again to keep warm.
There is a very striking sculpture behind the Conservatory – a sphere made of bronze leaves.

The big field had 30 Magpies and a flock of unidentified gulls. The first snowdrops were out on the lake edge.  Several of the Canada Geese surprised me by diving completely under the water and staying submerged for two or three seconds. It seemed to be associated with bathing behaviour, but I’ve never seen them do that before.
It was too cold to hang about, so we split up for buses home at about 2pm.

On a mild cloudy day we met at 10 at Central. Bill had found a wallet at a nearby cash machine. No cash left in it but the remaining cards suggested it belonged to an Irishman who had recently stayed at the Ibis hotel. We took it there, but he wasn’t still their guest. There was no answer at the Police Station on Canning Place (closed on Sundays!) so Bill will take it to Garston police on Monday. Then the business of the day – the 82 bus to Sefton Park at 10.45.
There were three or four pairs of adult Mute Swans on the lake, one with four grown cygnets, perhaps the motherless brood raised by their father, now with a new mate.

After heavy snow on Friday afternoon, public transport was a problem. The main group met at Central at 10, but despite my leaving home half an hour earlier than usual, the first southbound X2 didn’t appear in Crosby until about 10 so I didn’t get there until 10.40, after the group had left. So I took the next train to Bebington and hired a mini-cab to take me to the Eastham Ferry Hotel.  As we passed Green Lane on New Chester Road I spotted the rest of the gang, who had just come down Allport Road from Bromborough Station.  Success!
The snow was well-trodden on the paths through the woods and there was a very friendly (or hungry!) Robin coming quite close. Also a Song Thrush, a Nuthatch and a Jay. We heard a Great Spotted Woodpecker calling. 

David Bryant went into the Visitors’ Centre to look at the bird feeders at the back and reported that there were EIGHT Robins all feeding together with no signs of aggression. He has never seen so many together.
Then we had our Christmas Dinner at Eastham Ferry Hotel. Good to see some friends who haven’t made it to the walks for a while. Cards were exchanged, one or two beers were drunk, dinner and dessert were happily scoffed then we all trudged back to the main road for the bus back to Liverpool.
Happy New Year to all MNA and Sunday Group members!

We met at Central on a bright and sunny morning, but the temperature was only just above freezing. Train to Southport (Pink-footed geese and a Curlew from the train) and then the 44 bus from Lord Street to Elswick Road, arriving 11.40, and then a short walk to the Marshside reserve. The local council are putting a smart new path down the side of Marshside Road and a pelican crossing on Marine Drive. Long needed, both of them.
Most of the pools in the reserve were frozen, but there was some open water along Marshside Road and in front of the Sandgrounders hide. It was a pretty bleak prospect, though, and we were amused to see ghostly bird tracks showing on the ice, probably made when it was slushy.

But there were corporeal birds, too: Wigeon, Teal, Black-headed Gulls, Lapwings, Moorhen, Coots, Greylag Geese, Starlings, one or two Shelduck, a female Shoveller, some Magpies and a dozen or so Black-tailed Godwits. Further out we saw a Little Egret and Mallards, and about 40 Pink-footed Geese flew over southwards. Someone called “Water Rail” from the north side of the hide, and there it was, swimming just under the windows, showing itself between patches of reeds. Best bird of the year for the Sunday Group!
On the other side of the road around the sand works we saw more Pinkies flying south, a Snipe, a Song Thrush and a Robin being stalked by a black-and-white cat. (Happily the Robin escaped!)
We walked back down Marshside Road for the bus and noticed the same small colony of House Sparrows we had watched in the spring. Why are they there and nowhere else? They are around a little old brick building, dated 1886, “The Fernley Observatory”, with a tall pole on its roof which used to carry a fog bell. Are the sparrows able to get in under the old roof and eaves to nest and roost, and is that why they are there?
We got the 2.28 train from Southport back to Liverpool.
Programme for the next few weeks is:
19th December, Eastham Woods and Christmas Meal, 10 am Central Station or 12 noon Eastham Ferry Hotel.
No walks after 19th December until 23rd January 2011. All walks in January and February 2011 will meet at 10am Central Station but the destination will be decided on the day, depending on the weather. (Note that the destination is subject to change at the discretion of the leader, but the meeting places will usually be the same.)
The Sunday Group 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! Anyone is welcome to join us. If you want to come out on 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.

Yet another tussle with Merseytravel this week. The frost had frozen some points, so it was a rail replacement bus from Rock Ferry and we didn’t arrive at Chester until 10 to 12. Yesterday’s rain had washed most of the ice off the pavements, but there were still some slippy bits on shady steps and cobbles. The canal wasn’t frozen, but there were only Mallards, a Greylag Goose and a squawking crowd of Black-headed Gulls.
We lunched on the Cathedral lawn, with crows cawing while flying between the trees and the Cathedral roof. This morning’s bright sunshine had clouded over, so we sought warmth in the Grosvenor Museum then toured the Christmas Market in the Castle courtyard. There were several Pied Wagtails amongst the Christmas shoppers.
We took the 3 o’clock train home, going through a thick localised patch of mist between Bache and Capenhurst. Our only other bird of the day was a buzzard in the trees, seen from the train.
Now that spring is coming (we hope) are there any more MNA members who would like to write about wildlife sightings on this blog? You are most welcome. Register first, the Admin will get a notification, and will then make sure you get “write” access. (We have to have a registration process to keep out people selling blue pills or dodgy investments.) 

This was the mystery destination that John had been planning for a while. It turned out to be in Birkdale. The trip appeared to be ill-fated almost before we got under way. The trains from Central Station were disrupted so the 10.23 to Southport didn’t leave Central until 10.35, and we arrived at 11.20, just after the departure of the hourly bus we wanted. We decided to have an early lunch.
In the freezing sunshine we sat in the shelter by Marine Lake. Most of it was frozen, but on the few areas of free water there were Canada Geese, Greylag Geese, Black-headed Gulls, Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Common Gulls, Moorhens, Mute Swans and one Black-tailed Godwit.

The ice wasn’t thick, and we watched some Canada Geese come in to land, sliding for a few feet on the ice before breaking through.
We took the 44D bus at 12.18 from Eastbank Street and were at the Town Lane Forestry Commission site in about 10 minutes. Not many trees, just an area of open grassland with a gravel path through it, but some Skylarks flew up, there were Crows and Magpies about and a Snipe flew out from the shrubbery. Just as we approached Dobbies Garden Centre a Sparrowhawk zoomed low past us and vanished.
We spent a happy half hour inside Dobbies, getting warm and looking at the tropical fish and reptiles. As we were waiting on Town Lane Kew for the bus back into Southport, several skeins of Pink-footed Geese flew south over our heads, 200 or more, perhaps heading for Marshside.
We got the 3 o’clock train back to Liverpool, and on the fields between Hightown and Hall Road we saw a Curlew, a few dozen Pinkies and some Golden Plover.  Not bad for a day that looked like a disaster when we started!
Here is Dobbies festive band.  Happy Christmas to all!

On a bright and sunny day we took the 79 bus from Queen Square to the junction of Childwall Valley Road and Score Lane, and into Score Lane Gardens. There were six House Sparrows in the bushes, a Magpie on the grass and the north-eastward view was splendid. Past Childwall All Saints church and along Childwall Abbey Road took us into Childwall Woods.

By now it was cloudy, still and damp. Mixed parties of Long-tailed Tits, Great Tits and Blue Tits were flitting through the bare trees, and a Bramble was just coming into late flowering. We saw a Jay and a Grey Squirrel on the ground, perhaps competing for the same acorns. There was a clump of Sulphur Tuft toadstools at the base of a dead tree and some purple, grey and white fungi on an old beech log. They don’t appear to be brackets, because they were complete circles. They were up to 2 inches (5cm) across and flexible. Any ideas?

We left the woods by Quickswood Close, crossed Woolton Road and went into the Black Wood for lunch. We found a caramel and fawn ladybird on a Holly bush but it dropped to the ground before we could take a picture of it, and it was immediately invisible amongst the fallen beech leaves. It was either a Cream-spot or an Orange ladybird, probably the latter – both are common in the leaf litter of deciduous woodland. A dead twig had some very strange fungi growing from the broken ends, exactly the size and shape of limpets. They are probably also young bracket fungi, but showing what they can do when they are not jammed against a tree trunk. The pictures below are of the same one, from above and below.

Wood View Road, Woolton Hill Road and Church Road brought us to Reservoir Road, the highest spot in Liverpool at 292 ft. On the corner are the Grade II listed Mere Stones, marking the old boundary between Much Woolton and Little Woolton.

The sundial in Reynolds Park had the Latin motto Solem quis dicere falsum audeat, which is from the poet Virgil and means “Who will dare say the sun is wrong?”.  A winter-flowering cherry was just starting to show blossom.
We headed down to Woolton Village for the bus back to Liverpool at about 2.30.