30th Anniversary of the Butterfly Park: 2022

2025 is the 30th anniversary of New Ferry Butterfly Park. Over the next few months we will look back at the five years since our 25th anniversary. In January we began with what happened in 2020. Now to 2022...

That year we were able to have an Opening Day to signal the start of our Sunday afternoon openings. We celebrated the 27th open season to the public with the unveiling of the Silver Jubilee entrance gates. Delayed due to the pandemic, these were to celebrate the first 25 years of the park being open to the public. Nearly a thousand guests enjoyed the day at the park amongst the stalls, wildlife and refreshments.

Opening Day visitors

The spectacular gates were opened by Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside, Mr Mark Blundell, who said “New Ferry faces the many challenges of an inner-city area and this was compounded further by the explosion of March 2017 which destroyed a third of the main precinct. The Butterfly Park is seen as an emblem of hope and re-birth, in fact New Ferry sees itself as a butterfly town, with #Love New Ferry graffiti art by the former Co-op and the “I love New Ferry stickers in the shops” both with a butterfly theme. These spectacular gates will help secure the site and offer the opportunity to provide a welcoming entrance and celebrate the continued success of New Ferry Butterfly Park.”

Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside formally opening the new gates

As well as the fresh comma wings on the gate, another new set of wings seen at the park this week was a Dingy Skipper Butterfly, which had not been seen at the park for over two decades. This was a great endorsement of our habitat management for butterflies at the park. What could be better! We were still spotting new creatures 29 years on from starting to manage the site.

Dingy Skipper : Roy Lowry

The park was then open every Sunday, until Sunday 11th September.

Pond dipping on a Sunday afternoon

That year was the first year that the Wirral Wildlife plant sale continued every Sunday afternoon, thanks to the commitment of Mike Maher, and started raising extra funds.

 It was also a year of some unexpected visitors.

Roy Lowry regularly visits the Butterfly Park with his camera. On the morning of Sunday 12th June he managed to spot and photograph the first Large Skipper butterfly of the season.

Dingy Skipper butterfly

His most unusual photograph was of a fly which struck him as very different. Roy thought he recognized it as a locust blowfly - an African species that has been reported more frequently in recent years as a vagrant in the south of England.  One was seen in Southport in 2020. It did indeed turn out to be a correct identification so this was definitely a first at the Butterfly Park.

Locust blowfly

In July a white letter hairstreak was photographed by Colin Millington. Not seen for nearly two decades, this species was last recorded at the Butterfly Park on 5th July 2003. We rarely see them as they are feeding on the honeydew in the tree canopy (especially on elms). Perhaps levels of honeydew are low, bringing them down to the ground to find nectar in privet and bramble flowers.

White letter hairstreak butterfly

The  Butterfly Park was awarded a Green Flag Community Award for the 10th consecutive year,  the international quality mark for parks and green spaces. 

The Green Flag for 2022 -2023

For two Sundays in September, we were pleased to welcome some giant flower sculptures to New Ferry Butterfly Park. They were loaned from the Eco Art in the Park project, a collaboration between Wirral Environmental Network, artist Alison Bailey Smith, Wirral Unplugged and Wirral Eco Schools programme to highlight the importance of pollinator food plants.

Some of the flower sculptures 

Alison Bailey Smith created nine giant sculptures of plants made using repurposed materials such as garden hose, food packaging, yoga mats, light fittings and toothpaste tubes. The eight wildflowers and one grass depicted by the sculptures are all found in Wirral. 

Three more of the flower sculptures

We held an ‘End of Season’ barbecue for volunteers and, despite the heavy rain that afternoon, 22 people turned up. 

An October workday had 20 volunteers, including some students from Liverpool John Moores University Conservation Society working at the Park. Some apple pressing was expertly organised by John Bateman with 25 litres of apple juice being pressed. Volunteers got a bottle of apple juice to take home.

Pressing the apples to make juice

Bottles of apple juice

We were also able to install two new 1000 litre translucent water butts which have now been covered in a carpet to reduce algal growth. In October the 2000 litres of water collected in them was added to the pond which had suffered from this year’s lack of rain and the water level was raised by 5cm. 

Including that Open Day there were 2,453 visitors to New Ferry Butterfly Park in 2022, which was a good recovery in numbers from the Covid pandemic. There were 16 guided visits: 2 schools, 13 uniformed groups (Beavers, Rainbows etc) and one adult group of refugees, totalling 366 people. The Butterfly Park also welcomed Bebington Photographic Society and Cheshire Bee Group and Dr Hilary Ash gave two plant identification courses. Over the last 19 years an impressive total of 29,794 visitors have visited.

None of these things could be achieved without our volunteers and at the Cheshire Wildlife Trust AGM Butterfly Park volunteer June Mortazavi was presented with the Eric Thurston Award. This is the highest accolade for volunteering given by Cheshire Wildlife Trust. It is given to acknowledge the Trust’s most inspirational and outstanding volunteers

June (centre) receiving her Award

At New Ferry Butterfly Park, she rapidly got involved in practical habitat management and also as a warden, an active committee member and helping host courses and open days. She is also part of the Wirral Wildlife biological recording team She helped the Wirral Wildlife recording team process data and publish a peer reviewed paper on quadrat survey carry out at Thurstaston common for 39 years. That is a lot of data! June also gets out and fights for nature, for example liaising with neighbours over injured hedgehogs found at the New Ferry Butterfly Park. programme in January 2019 and continues to flourish.

As you can see 2022 saw us back up to speed after the restrictions of the previous two years.

Wirral Wildlife Spring/Summer 2025 Prize Quiz

Solve the weather themed clues in our prize quiz for a chance to win a £10 voucher

Can you crack the cryptic clues in the Wirral Wildlife Spring/Summer 2025 prize quiz?

All the answers are terms and expressions linked to the weather.

A £10 gift voucher will go to the entry with the best overall score.

Money raised through selling the quiz sheets will go to Wirral Wildlife.

Closing date: 31st July 2025

Download the quiz sheet and instructions here

Cleaver Heath Regeneration Project

Nationally, lowland heathland is a well known type of habitat occurring on acid sandy or peaty soils of low fertility. It is characterised by the presence of a range of plant species such as heather, gorse and bracken together with scattered trees such as birch, oak and pine and mosses, lichens and grasses. In prime condition it is also home to a wide range of both vertebrate and invertebrate animals.

Heathland is one of our most threatened habitats and by 1997 Britain had lost 60% of it's lowland heath, mainly to agriculture and construction. Locally on Wirral, heathland is restricted to areas such as Cleaver Heath, Heswall Dales and Thurstaston Common.

Lowland heathland habitats are typically relatively fragile and susceptible to succession by woodland trees or bracken which out compete and smother plants such as heather. At Cleaver Heath, this situation is exacerbated by the fact that the open lowland heathland habitat is surrounded by silver/downy birch dominated woodland with a ground flora dominated by bracken. Management work at Cleaver carried out mainly by volunteers, involves controlling birch, gorse and bracken growth in the areas dominated by heather, so preventing succession to dense scrub and woodland.

The site at Cleaver Heath before the gorse, bracken and birch were cleared
(photo: Ben Patterson)

In 2019 the possibility of carrying out a heathland regeneration project at Cleaver was discussed with the aim of increasing the overall amount of lowland heath habitat within the reserve. A site of approximately 0.25 hectares in area, covered in gorse, bracken and some birch and with some heather also present was selected for clearing. The plan was to employ specialized contractors to clear gorse, bracken and birch to ground level with machinery within the experimental site and then monitor the regeneration of the heather over time whilst controlling any regrowth of gorse, bracken and birch. To encourage the regrowth of heather after clearing, the additional application of fresh heather seed or heather litter from within the site containing seed would be carried out.

Although at the time, the project was supported by Cheshire Wildlife Trust and Natural England, the onset of the pandemic, together with funding issues, prevented the project from going ahead. However, Wirral Wildlife received a very generous financial gift from Woodchurch High School which has now been used to help fund the project. This was carried out by experienced habitat management contractors at the beginning of February.

The work in progress at Cleaver Heath
(photo: Ben Patterson)

After clearing existing vegetation from the selected site, any unwanted regrowth of bracken and gorse occurring during the Spring and Summer will be removed and heather seed from within other areas of the reserve will be collected and applied to the new site during the coming Autumn and Winter months. Regeneration of the heather will be closely monitored and managed by Cheshire Wildlife Trust and Wirral Wildlife volunteer teams.

More work in progress (photo: Ben Patterson)

If successful this project will result in a significant increase in important heath habitat within the reserve.

John McGaw (Honorary reserve manager) 

30th Anniversary of the Butterfly Park: 2021

2025 is the 30th anniversary of New Ferry Butterfly Park. Over the next 5 months we will look back at the five years since our 25th anniversary. In January we began with what happened in 2020. Now to 2021...

In January of 2021, one hazel bush was already in flower.

Hazel catkins in flower at the Butterfly Park in January 2021

Guelder rose berries were still on the bush, a sign that the migratory thrushes like redwing had not found them yet.

Lots of berries on the Guelder Rose bush

A fox was spotted taking a stroll.

 

The pond froze over - we had not seen that many times in recent years.

The icy pond in winter 2021

In May we started opening on Sunday afternoons but didn’t have our usual Open Day as some Covid restrictions were still in place.

By July it was now 18 months since New Ferry Butterfly Park’s Silver Jubilee Gates design was drawn up. Due to Covid the gate costs had risen and the Park’s income had fallen. However with support from several funding sources - New Ferry and Port Sunlight Community Fund, Wirral Wildlife, The Duchy of Lancaster, Wirral Farmers’ Market Community Fund, Poulton Hall Walled Garden Trust and the recent online public Crowdfunder appeal - the money was finally raised. The first physical steps in realising this project started with the post’s foundations being dug out and strengthened and a start made on the brick pillars.

Once the brick pillars were constructed they were left for five weeks to allow the pillars to set. Whilst this happens, the final measurements were taken to make sure the bespoke gates will fit perfectly.

A finished gate pillar

In August, Howard Gibson retired as Honorary Treasurer of New Ferry Butterfly Park, after 22 years of dedicated service. We were immensely grateful to Howard for so many years of sterling work, when we could always rely on the Park’s accounts being accurate, up to date, and professionally presented in apple-pie order. When someone like this retires, particularly after such a long period of service, you suddenly realise how important a Treasurer is. It is the only position that any organisation must have. Organisations can cope without a Secretary or a Chair but not without a Treasurer. Howard was a recently retired HSBC (Midland) bank branch manager when in 1998 he was recruited by Mel Roberts, the visionary founder of the park, taking over from our first treasurer Vi Otter.

Howard Gibson, who retired as Butterfly Park Treasurer in 2021

The Treasurer’s role started on small scale, but developed into a much more involved role reflecting the considerable development and increased activities taking place at the park. It is busy job in the summer, sorting out weekly collections put in the donation tin and distinguishing between donations: general, wood chip, soil improver or group visits. These are accurately and clearly presented in the annual accounts. The accounts give the committee a clear picture of the financial resources and how each income stream has contributed over the year. Howard’s accounts were used to demonstrate the park is a business - we sell wood chip. This was an important point raised in court in 2009 when protecting the park’s business tenancy. Howard became an expert in VAT and claimed 20% refund on our disabled accessible composting toilet via Cheshire Wildlife Trust. This refund helped with funding the surround ground works required.

Following that year’s al fresco AGM at the Park, Howard was presented with a caricature of himself painted by Carol Ramsay. This was beautifully framed, using recycled wood, by Pam Sullivan, who created our Welcome Board. The smile on Howard’s face as he opened the portrait said it all. With such a lovely, personal and fun portrait like that the committee will all want to retire!

The framed caricature of Howard!

Since then Howard has been busy in the Park with many of his other roles such as mowing the grass, fixing and painting the site furniture and offering valued advice.

By November the brick pillars for the Jubilee Gates had been raised, filled with concrete and left to set for five weeks. The new Silver Jubilee Gates could then be installed.

Delivery of the gates to the entrance of the park

The finished gates

The end of 2021 saw relaxation of many restrictions imposed to combat Covid19 and we looked ahead to a more ‘normal’ year for our visitors.

Autumn/Winter 2024 Prize Quiz: Winner and Answers

An armadillo, the answer to clue 1. Photo: Rich Anderson, Flickr

Thank you so much to everyone who sent their answers to our Mammals of the World quiz. We really appreciate your support and welcome the money sent to us for the entrance fee.

We received a total of 147 entries, of which 56 were all correct. The winner selected in a random draw is Miss J E Milne, of Bude. Congratulations!

The answers to the clues are below.

1. Equip a herb with a weapon-o! (9) ARMADILLO

2. Sailor’s reply to an officer’s order! (3-3). AYE-AYE

3. Forbid taking in what a timid person never says to a goose. (6). BABOON

4. Brass ensemble with water bird – I slip in between them. (9). BANDICOOT

5. Prohibit high-tension starts for organised local exhibitions. (4, 4). BANK VOLE

6. A mix-up lets Barry be a pa! (7, 3). BARBARY APE

7. If you see this one in the wild, it will be a very exciting experience. (6). BEAVER

8. I heard him say something like “Cheerio, youngster!” (5). BISON

9. Courage, without any selenium, for the son of the King of France, translated. (10, 7). BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN

10. In Downing Street, did Gordon Brown bear responsibility for the Credit Crunch in 2007/8? (5, 4). BROWN BEAR

11. BR won her a makeover. (5, 4). BROWN HARE

12. Describes two US presidents in the first year of their lives. (4, 4). BUSH BABY

13. Arrived and departed shortly after, having got the hump. (5). CAMEL

14. Animal doctor chases a number of Dalmatians. (5). CIVET

15. Could this be Basil Brush, arriving at Heathrow airport? (6, 3). FLYING FOX

16. Goliath, say, with a police car. (5, 5). GIANT PANDA

17. Famous for the decline and fall of an empire. (6). GIBBON

18. British armed service, led by American soldier, gets college training shortly. (7). GIRAFFE

19. Goes round every year, selling endive and lettuce, primarily. (4, 4). GREY SEAL

20. This one stuttered “Mother, save us!”. (7, 5). HARVEST MOUSE

21. I heard “Hello, Mrs Sharples.”! (5). HYENA

22. Type of wild dog for two boys, John and Alan. (6). JACKAL

23. One of Joey’s parents? (8). KANGAROO

24. The wall in Paris. (5). LEMUR

25. You can find this one in all Amazonian forest areas. (5). LLAMA

26. Sounds like a place to play golf at the seaside. (4). LYNX

27. Chap with a shirt. (7). MANATEE

28. Mare, most skittish! (8). MARMOSET

29. Setter swallowed writing fluid and a cry of distress was heard. (5, 5). MINKE WHALE

30. Non-governmental organisation taken in by 31. (8). MONGOOSE

31. Small rodent loses its uniform; Oscar steps in to sort it. (5). MOOSE

32. Searching in the area, there wasn’t a café to be found; so she said “OK, a picnic it is then!” (5). OKAPI

33. These upset Goran’s aunt. (10). ORANGUTANS

34. This one is pro-arable culture. (5, 4). POLAR BEAR

35. Popular reptile loses two times; papas step in and see to that. (8). PORPOISE

36. 37, once Katharina has gone, rides an ancient Greek river horse. (5, 12). PYGMY HIPPOPOTAMUS

37. One track up Snowdon, with setter’s, or rather Shakespeare’s, Katharina. (5, 5). PYGMY SHREW

38. Motoring services company – company working for a masked mammal. (7). RACCOON

39. Did I hear you say “It’s wet outside, my love.”? (8). REINDEER

40. I heard Charlie remark that the weather had “ ‘eated up”. (3, 5). SEA OTTER

41. One of seven capital vices. (5). SLOTH

42. Seasonal publication, nothing left out – about a rugby player? (9). SPRINGBOK

43. 17th century Dutch explorer, together with a Scot, encountered Satan! (9, 5). TASMANIAN DEVIL

44. Piece of sporting equipment belonging to a hater of garlic! (7, 3). VAMPIRE BAT

45. This one can be found in Heswall, a by-product of 19th century introductions. (7). WALLABY

46. One that wanted seven maids with seven mops to clear away the sand. (6). WALRUS

47. Feature of Oliver Cromwell’s face had others grinning initially. (7). WARTHOG

48. Support for a painter’s use after whiskey. (6). WEASEL

49. Beware of this one – it’d claw you if you annoyed it! (4, 3). WILD CAT

50. Author of “Importance of being Earnest” on Honeymaker Street. (10). WILDEBEEST

Here are some notes on the ones that seemed to cause the most difficulty:

3. BABOON – According to the saying, a timid person ‘wouldn’t say “Boo!” to a goose’.

5. BANK VOLE – Prohibit = Ban; High tension = kV (kilovolts); OLE are the first letters of “organised local exhibitions”.

7. BEAVER – Hidden in the clue: “it will BE A VERy …”

9. BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN – We couldn’t allow “Bottlenosed” because it is not the correct name, and it doesn’t match the clue or the letter count.

11. BROWN HARE – An anagram.

14. CIVET – 101 is a number of dalmatians from the Disney film.  That is CI in Roman numerals. Vet is an animal doctor.

20. HARVEST MOUSE – Some entries did not spot the anagram here.  We liked “GRIZZLY BEARS” but couldn’t allow it.

25. LLAMA – Another hidden answer in this clue “in aLL AMAzonian …”

27. MANATEE – We couldn’t allow Mandrill because it has 8 letters, not 7.

29. MINKE WHALE – This was an answer that many people spelt incorrectly as Minky Whale.

33. ORANGUTANS – The clue, and the letter count, require a plural answer here so we didn’t accept ORANGUTAN.

35. PORPOISE – The popular reptile is TORTOISE; replace the “t”s with “p”s.

36. PYGMY HIPPOPOTAMUS – We were surprised at how many different ways there are of misspelling “Hippopotamus”!  And “Pigmy” is incorrect and not in alphabetical order.

37. PYGMY SHREW – The track up Snowdon is known as the Pyg Track.

38. RACCOON – Another answer that was often misspelt.

46. WALRUS – From “The Walrus and the Carpenter” – Lewis Carroll.

We have launched a weather themed quiz, It Blows It Snows. The closing date for entries is 31st July 2025. Download the Spring/Summer 2025 quiz here.

New Ferry Butterfly Park’s 30th Anniversary

2025 will be the 30th anniversary of New Ferry Butterfly Park. Over the next 5 months we will look back at the five years since our 25th anniversary.

In January we begin with what happened in 2020...

2020 wasn’t the year anyone expected. Lockdowns starting in March and restrictions on gatherings meant a strange year for everyone.

On Sunday 3rd May 2020 we should have been welcoming hundreds of visitors to our annual Open Day and celebrating the start of our new season. Luckily the lockdown hadn’t affected the flowers, trees, butterflies, bees, newts and the other creatures that make their home in the Park. The newts may even have been relieved to miss being dipped out of the pond every Sunday afternoon. That year spring was running several weeks early! Out in flower on 2nd May, when they are usually at least 2 weeks later, were hogweed, dog rose and elder. This meant plenty of nectar and pollen for invertebrates.

Dog rose in flower in early May 2020

A hawthorn tree blossoming early in the spring of 2020

Getting outdoors, even for restricted times, was a lifeline for many and the Butterfly Park did eventually open on Sunday afternoons. Around 500 people visited between mid June and mid September. 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 admire the flowers and insects.

2020 should have been a celebration of New Ferry Butterfly Park’s 25th Anniversary but that had to be postponed because of the Covid19 restrictions. In our July blogs we featured lots of articles about the history and development of the Butterfly Park and Cheshire Wildlife Trust filmed a video to mark the 25th Anniversary of the reserve. You can watch the video here.

Also in July, Angela Eagle MP and Alison McGovern MP plus Seacombe Councillor Paul Stuart visited New Ferry Butterfly Park. Charlotte Harris CEO of Cheshire Wildlife Trust was also there to welcome them along with members of New Ferry Butterfly Park committee. It was a sunny day and lots of bees and some butterflies were around. Very appropriate as there was discussion about the Wildlife Trusts ‘Take Action for Insects Campaign’ and the Big Butterfly Count.

Charlotte Harris, Alison McGovern MP, Angela Eage MP and Paul Loughnane
socially distanced while visiting the Butterfly Park

Over the previous 25 years the reserve had become a haven for wildlife thanks to the management plans and hard work of its volunteer community. Its value has been recognised by the Awards it has received. The Green Flag team visited New Ferry Butterfly Park on October 2nd to hand over the Community Green Flag 2020-21. This was the 7th Green Flag our urban nature reserve had been given. While there, the team did some filming and the video (whichincludes the Butterfly Park and Port Sunlight village) can be seen here.

The Green Flag team filming at the Butterfly Park

Flying the Community Green Flag 2020-21

That year, as part of continuing improvements in New Ferry, and to celebrate the Park’s Silver Jubilee, New Ferry Butterfly Park 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 design of the Silver Jubilee gates for the Butterfly Park

The aim of the new gate design was to provide a welcoming feature to the park, giving a flavour of what is beyond the entrance way. At the time a dilapidated understated standard black metal gate with barbed wire was present, which was not very aesthetic, not very welcoming and did 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, would be visible from a distance and on approach to the Butterfly Park.

Paul Loughnane, Secretary of New Ferry Butterfly Park, collated butterfly records for 2020. It had 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. The numbers may reflect fewer recordings than usual due to Covid-19 but the wet weather in July and August will also have had an effect.

Essex skipper, a new species at the Butterfly Park in 2020

Purple hairstreak, another new entry on the species list

As the year ended. the UK had begun a massive vaccination programme but there were still restrictions in place for Christmas. We could only imagine how 2021 might unfold.