Ivy and Mistletoe at the Butterfly Park

Cross section through hawthorn with ivy surrounding the branch

We decided to fell one dying ivy-laden hawthorn, as it hung over the path. The photograph above shows the cross section through the sawn trunk. The hawthorn is the brown wood, the ivy the white wood. So more ivy than hawthorn! Ivy is an excellent plant for wildlife with flowers in autumn that are rich in nectar for insects feeding up before hibernation. Then berries ripen in January for the birds and there is shelter at any time of year for insects and small birds. However, it is possible to have too much of a good thing, and ivy can take advantage of dying trees to develop a large crown which then makes the tree likely to break. So encourage ivy - but in the right place.

Sawn down hawthorn tree

This is also a good time to see mistletoe as the leaves have fallen from the apple trees.

Mistletoe on apple tree

We introduced mistletoe to New Ferry Butterfly Park over a decade ago, partly as an educational plant to talk about parasitism in plants. It is flourishing on our various self-sown apple trees, and has spread to a hawthorn. The berries are not properly ripe till January or February, which is when the blackcaps and mistle thrushes will eat them.

Mistletoe on apple tree

However, for people there is no kissing under it this year - except within your household or Bubble!

Hilary Ash

Fantastic Fungi

Blue Roundhead toadstool

While out working with the North Wirral Coastal Park volunteers at the Gunsite in early October, John McGaw came across a lovely blue 'toadstool'. 

Looking on the internet he thought it may well belong in the genus Stropharia, possibly S. caerulenta, the blue roundhead. 

He referred it to RECORD, who passed it to a fungus expert, who said `It is most likely to be a Blue Roundhead. It’s hard to be 100% sure without seeing the gills closely though. You are correct in thinking this is an unusual record for the area, I’ve had a look on our main database and there are only 8 records from our area'. So a most unusual and interesting sighting.

Collared Earthstar 

A week later John found another unusual one nearby, Collared Earthstar (Geastrum triplex) 

It has been a good year for fungi. Has anyone found other unusual ones?

One Man Went To Mow at New Ferry Butterfly Park

Flail mower coping with the bumps in Charlie's Field

The many restrictions this autumn have put practical management well behind on many natural sites, but particularly on New Ferry Butterfly Park, where there is much grass that has to be mown to stop it smothering next year's growth.

Charlie's Field before mowing

It became obvious we would not be able to cope with it all by scythe, as we usually do. So we decided to spend some of our donated cash on a contractor. Tony Rainford from RS Securities came and did it with his large flail mower, and very kindly charged us a greatly reduced price!

Charlie's Field after mowing

Thank you, Tony!!

Acid grassland before mowing

Mowing in progress on the acid grassland

Acid grassland after mowing

Help Wanted To Plan Our Wildlife Survey Programme

A quadrat at Thurstaston Common, one of the sites we survey.

Help needed! One of the key activities of local naturalists is the surveying and monitoring of local wildlife. Here in Wirral some of this is undertaken and managed by the Wirral Wildlife group. We are lucky to have many sites of special wildlife interest in the Wirral and need to monitor how they are doing over the years. This lets us spot any changes including new species and losses of biological diversity in our area.

We need someone to help our team with the planning and management of our ongoing program of surveys and recording. All our records contribute to national wildlife recording databases which are key to preserving our wildlife for future generations. The task is not onerous but does require some basic computing skill, as records are now all held electronically. Most of the work is January - March each year as the surveys are planned.

If you think you may be able to help us with this important aspect of our work for local wildlife please contact Hilary, Margaret and Ron via email info@wirralwildlife.org.uk or ring Hilary on 0151 327 5923.

Treasurer Wanted for Butterfly Park

 

Howard receiving the Eric Thurston Award

Howard has been Treasurer of New Ferry Butterfly Park for over 20 years and is retiring next year. We need someone to take over from him and the new person can shadow him to learn the ropes.

What does the Treasurer do?

Accurate accounts need to be kept of donations made at the Butterfly Park and any purchases made. The busiest day is the Open Day in May when petty cash is needed and then money taken has to be counted and banked. The Treasurer checks bank statements every month and may be asked to supply information for grant applications. The accounts must be prepared annually for approval by an auditor and a verbal report is given at the AGM.

How long might this take?

Around an hour a week in the summer when the Butterfly Park is open. Half a day after Open Day to count cash, pay it into the bank and update records. A few hours are needed to complete the annual accounts.

If you have the skills for this role or want to learn them Howard will run through it all with you.

Any offers of help or questions can be emailed to info@wirralwildlife.org.uk and they will be passed on to Howard.

Butterfly Count 2020

Red admiral

Paul Loughnane, Secretary of New Ferry Butterfly Park, has just collated butterfly records for 2020. It has proved to be one of the poorest years ever – apart from Red Admirals. However two new species were recorded at the Butterfly Park, an Essex Skipper and a Purple Hairstreak. So there was a little more diversity in species but a drop in abundance.

Purple hairstreak. Photo: Wikipedia

The numbers may reflect fewer recordings than usual due to Covid19 but the wet weather in July and August will also have had an effect.

This year Pat Thurston has started carrying out regular transect monitoring and his report is below.

Essex skipper

New Ferry Butterfly Park, Transect Report

Pat Thurston

The first counts were not carried until late May and so a full season of monitoring has still not been carried out on this transect. However, despite its relatively small size and its urban location, this transect has a variety of habitats and is very well managed. As well as a good planting of various larval food plants there are also good sources of nectar throughout the season. Most predominant species are small white and speckled wood. There are very healthy populations of gatekeeper and meadow brown and other meadow butterflies such as common blue, and small and large skipper are also present. Of note, whilst not recorded on my transect counts this year, there has been a confirmed sighting of the Essex skipper during a separate study. Hopefully it will be possible to carry out a full set of counts next year.

Spectacular Silver Jubilee Butterfly Park Gates

Artwork for the new gates at the Butterfly Park

As part of continuing improvements in New Ferry, and to celebrate the park’s Silver Jubilee, New Ferry Butterfly Park has received a £5,000 grant from the Duchy of Lancaster Benevolent Fund (i.e. HM The Queen, Duke of Lancaster) towards the cost of new spectacular butterfly-themed gates. This award was given in recognition of the work the park does for the local community in providing a safe wildlife haven, an education space, a space for outdoor art works, and youth work with groups such as the Princes Trust, Guides and Scouts. 

The aim of the new gate design is to provide a welcoming feature to the park, giving a flavour of what is beyond the entrance way. Currently, a dilapidated understated standard black metal gate with barbed wire is present, which is not very aesthetic, not very welcoming and does not give any indication of the park or what it stands for. The Comma butterfly is a strong recognizable image and it, along with the name clearly stated, will be visible from a distance and on approach to the Butterfly Park. These spectacular gates will help secure the site but offer the opportunity to provide a welcoming entrance and celebrate the Butterfly Park. The gates have been sensitively designed by Ed Snell of Above Zero Landscape Architecture.  

Paul Loughnane, Hon. Secretary, New Ferry Butterfly Park exclaimed “This is really excellent news. Along with the murals in New Ferry town centre this is certainly brightening up the area. With various covid disruptions it has been a long journey to secure funding for these gates. The project has been supported by New Ferry and Port Sunlight Community Fund, Wirral Wildlife and Wirral Farmer’s Market Community Fund. Paul added “The park’s opening day on the first May Day Bank Holiday Sunday is a regular and well-loved feature of the New Ferry calendar. It is hoped to invite the Queen’s representative, the Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside to have an unveiling event then, Covid permitting. Next spring we hope to welcome back our visiting groups, as well as being open to anyone on Sunday afternoons.”

Autumn 2020 at Cleaver Heath

Autumn at Cleaver Heath

It’s been a strange autumn here. The leaves are being prematurely ripped from the branches by a series of gales and a sequence of showery periods has contributed to some flooded paths.

Of course, the weather has not been the only complication in getting conservation work started this year - COVID has played its part. We need guaranteed dry spells for carrying out stump treatment within the heather panels but we also need a number of willing volunteers to help with that and other routine task such as birch and gorse coppicing. We have nevertheless been able to carry out some COVID-safe jobs working independently in the fresh air. Even if the socialising aspect is a bit restricted, I found many volunteers grateful for the excuse to get out, spend time in a nice place and help the environment.

Common lizards found during the survey at Cleaver Heath

So, what else has been happening at Cleaver since the summer newsletter? The Common Lizard survey has drawn to a close. There were a total of 16 sightings between July and September. The good news was that most of the sightings were juveniles including some quite tiny ones. So we have breeding lizards at Cleaver. Less good news was that the sightings were confined to one particular panel east of the main path. Strangely, there were no sightings in the many refugia deployed in the less frequented areas of the reserve. We will be pondering this when planning future surveys.

Butterflies and spider web at Cleaver Heath

As summer moved into autumn there were still quite few second brood butterflies on the wing. As well as large numbers of whites we had regular sightings of Holly Blues (top right), plenty of Red Admirals feeding on holly flowers (bottom left) and a nice Small Copper seen right at the end of September (top left). On the colder bright mornings, much of heather was adorned with ‘hammock’ spider webs (bottom right) as well as the more conventional concentric circle webs.

Fungi in the woodland at Cleaver Heath

Lots of fungi are to be seen in any walk round the reserve these days. The path through the south woodland area had lot of Earthballs (genus Scleroderma) like the ones shown on the top left here. The others are all from the Amanita genus: continuing clockwise Tawny Grisette (A fulva), Blusher (A rubescens), Fly Agaric (A muscaria)…. I think!

Long-tailed tits

On the bird front, there was a spell in September when the now less frequent Easyjet and Ryanair flights tracking over our house and the reserve were replaced by skeins of Pink Feet all heading for the Dee. Their musical calls as they agree final landing arrangements are always a welcome sign of autumn. The tits are starting to go around in flocks, especially the Long-tailed Tits whose gang sizes are growing. Redwing and Fieldfares have been appearing around Wirral but I have not yet spotted any in the reserve or in my garden. We had a very good, early crop of Rowan berries which the Mistle Thrushes and Blackbirds finished off in short order, leaving nothing much for the other winter thrushes. On a couple of mornings we observed 8 Mistle Thrushes at a time on the garden Rowan.

Mistle thrush

Following the increased footfall through Cleaver, particularly on sunny Sundays, a member recruitment officer from the Trust visited recently and had some success showing that the face-to-socially-distanced-face recruitment still works. This is Will Robinson pictured in a brief spell between his sign-up activities and bird spotting. As a keen birder he particularly enjoyed his day out even with his mask on.

Will Robinson, Cheshire Wildlife Trust Member Recruitment Officer 

Here is my usual seasonally-updated photo of the reserve entrance. Do you notice that the gate has finally been painted to match the railings?

Cleaver Heath entrance

Alan Irving

Volunteer Reserve Warden for CWT

Cleaver Heath

November 2020

Green Flag Award for Butterfly Park

The Green Flag raised at the Butterfly Park

The Green Flag team visited New Ferry Butterfly Park on October 2nd to hand over the Community Green Flag 2020-21.

Hilary Ash being filmed by the Green Flag Award team

This is the 7th Green Flag this urban nature reserve, run by local people, has been given.

Two members of the Green Flag Award film crew at the Butterfly Park

While there the team did some filming and the video (which includes the Butterfly Park and Port Sunlight village) can be seen here

 

The Butterfly Park opened on Sunday afternoons from mid June to mid September and around 500 people visited in that time. A one way system and passing places were introduced to help to keep everyone Covid-safe. There was no pond dipping or other hands-on activities but everyone appreciated being able to stroll around and appreciate the flowers and insects.

Eagle In The Frame

Mel Roberts, who had the vision to create New Ferry Butterfly Park, was a watercolour artist among other talents. He painted a picture of a white-tailed eagle and gave it to Frank Cottrell, who was so vital to getting Cheshire Wildlife Trust to take on the Butterfly Park.

White-tailed eagle painted by Mel Roberts

Frank recently paid for it to be framed. The proprietor at Framework (Bromborough) was very impressed with it and said it was the best quality painting he had had in to frame for years.

 

Frank Cottrell with the painting of a white-tailed eagle

Paul Loughnane, Secretary of New Ferry Butterfly Park Committee, is looking after it now.

Socially Distanced Surveying at Thurstaston Common

 

Belinda and Natasha with a quadrat taped up at Thurstaston Common

Just before restrictions tightened in Wirral again, we managed to get the Thurstaston Common annual monitoring done. This is its 39th year for the oldest 5 quadrats. Wirral Wildlife recorders have been doing the monitoring since 1992. The results are currently being analysed by Prof Rob Marrs. The quadrats measure 5m x 5m, so social distancing is easy!

If you find a metal bar sticking out of the ground on Thurstaston Common - please leave it alone, it is probably marking one of the 12 quadrats!

Apple Days Revisited

Display of apple varieties at Apple Day

This year should have been the 23rd Apple Day organised by Wirral Wildlife. As it has had to be cancelled I thought I would look at the history of our Apple Days and what has been achieved.

Apple Day was initiated on October 21st 1990 by Common Ground at an event in Covent Garden, London. They had noticed a decline in local orchards and apple varieties and wanted to create a ‘calendar event’ to remind everyone about the relevance of local apples and orchards.

As far as I know the first Wirral Wildlife Apple Day was held on 19th October 1996 at Bob’s Orchard in Eastham. The original organiser was John McGee and, when he moved to live in the south of England, Frank Cottrell took over until 2010. My first personal records date back to 2005 when I was organising some children’s activities. Common Ground had a competition to see how long a continuous piece of apple peel could be produced using a knife or a mechanical peeler. I set up a mechanical peeler for the children to use and measured the peel taken off the apple. The secret was to have as round an apple as possible, not necessarily an enormous apple. In 2006 someone from our Brimstage Apple Day won the national Under 16 Competition with peel 269 cm long and in 2008 we had another winner from Eastham Country Park with a peel 240cm long.

The Longest Apple Peel competition

The Longest Apple Peel competition

The Longest Apple Peel competition

We used to hold two Apple Days – on the Saturday at Brimstage Hall and on the Sunday at Eastham Country Park. As our days attracted more and more people and got very busy for a small band of volunteers, in 2012 we moved to one event only at Eastham Country Park. The original Apple Days were held around October 21st but we noticed local apples were ripening earlier. We moved Apple Day to the first weekend in October and then since 2015 we have held it on the last Sunday in September.

Home made apple pie at Brimstage Hall

Apples on display at Brimstage Hall

We have always had on display (and for tasting) as many locally grown apples as possible and in 2018 hit a peak of 28 varieties.

Apple varieties at Eastham Country Park

Apple varieties at Eastham Country Park

These come from the trees in Brimstage Hall Orchard, Willaston Community Orchard, Upton Hall Orchard and others from people’s gardens.

Apple trees at Brimstage Hall orchard

A closer look at the fruit on an apple tree

The wooden apple press is popular with everyone and children love to help squash the chopped apples, mash them up and then turn the handle on the press. The resulting juice looks a bit brown but I bet it is the tastiest apple juice around.

Chopping up apples ready to be pressed into juice

Crushing the apples with a big stick!

Crushing the apples

Mincing up the crushed apples

Turning the handle on the apple press

The tastiest apple juice

As well as the apple peeler we have other things for the children to do like making badges, writing apple poems, colouring and wordsearch.

Making pollinator mobiles

Coloured in apple shapes and apple poems hung on the tree

Coloured in apple shapes

Making badges

For the last few years Lena and her team have brought home made apple products like cake, crumble and apple butter to sell.

Home made cake, crumble, jam and apple butter

Another highlight is the presence of Mersey Morris Men who dance for us come rain or shine. Although last year the pouring rain meant it was a bit of a squeeze inside the visitor centre!

The Mersey Morris Men

Music from the Mersey Morris Men

Volunteers wanted for the Mersey Morris Men

The Mersey Morris Men performing in the courtyard at Eastham Country Park

The Mersey Morris Men performing indoors on a rainy Apple Day at Eastham Country Park

Our aim has been to highlight the range and taste of locally grown apples as opposed to the limited range available at the supermarket. We hope to convince everyone of the value of ancient orchards and new community orchards for both people and wildlife.