Visit to Cleaver Heath

The summer committee meeting is always held at one of the reserves and this year we visited Cleaver Heath in Heswall.

This lowland heath has a wonderful display of heather and western gorse...

... and fantastic views over the Dee Estuary to Wales.


In the 10 years since the reserve was purchased by Cheshire Wildlife Trust the site has been managed by removing birch trees which create shade and prevent heather growing...

In the cleared areas heather is regenerating to help maintain this lowland heath...

It takes many hours of work by Mike and his volunteers to keep the birch at bay. If you want to help maintain the biodiversity on this reserve you can join in the work days on the first Sunday of every month through the autumn and winter. The next one is September 6th so contact Mike via email if you are interested.

Mourning Gnats

Click on the photo to see the gnats in all their glory.

On Monday, at our open air committee meeting at Cleaver Heath, we spotted several fungus gnats. John Gill, Wirral Wildlife's Treasurer, has been interested in these insects since first seeing them 5 years ago:

"Back in 2004 I first noticed these flies on Thurstaston Common when there were large numbers of them, all associated with the purple moor grass. I managed to get them positively identified as Sciara hemerobioides. This is a species of the group known as fungus gnats and doesn’t seem to have an accepted English name. The German name though translates as “mourning gnats” which I think is very appropriate with their black colouration.

2005 saw about one tenth of the numbers of mourning gnats at Thurstaston, and 2006 was even leaner with just a few individuals to be found (late July to early September seems to the period to find them, with August being the best time). 2007 saw an increase in numbers and 2008 was a big year again. I haven’t been to Thurstaston since the beginning of August yet so I don’t know how they are faring this year; but I found none in July.

Monday was the first time I have spotted mourning gnats anywhere other than Thurstaston Common, so finding about a dozen at Cleaver Heath was very good. As an update, this afternoon (Wednesday) I visited Heswall Dales and found another 11 mourning gnats on the purple moor grass there. Another first for me!"

Visit to Number 10

Environmental activists left their waterproofs and wellies at home and dressed up for a unique opportunity last week. The Prime Minister held a reception at 10 Downing Street "to celebrate the contribution that people make every day in support of their local environmental wildlife projects and organisations". Hilary Ash, volunteer conservation officer in Wirral for over 20 years, represented Cheshire Wildlife Trust at the event, as one of over 40 people from the national Wildlife Trusts movement.

Hilary says, "While the Prime Minister moved through the throng shaking as many hands as possible, we were able to talk to other politicians present. In particular I was able to discuss improvements to the forthcoming Marine Bill with Hilary Benn, and measures to get action on global climate change with Ed Milliband. It was also an interesting opportunity to talk to like-minded people in other organisations, such as Sustrans and the Womens Institute".

Gordon Brown made a short speech thanking those present for their hard work over many years to protect our environment and wildlife, long before the current rise in interest. He said that thanks to his children the garden at Number 10 is being made more environment-friendly, with a vegetable plot and bird boxes. The reception was held in the garden of Number 10, and Hilary noted that the pond installed a few years ago by The Wildife Trusts is still flourishing, though a heron has eaten the goldfish! The event is a welcome sign of government appreciation of the environment, and of the work done by volunteers in protecting it for the benefit of everyone. Hilary adds, " For those of us who have been involved as long as I have, and remember lobbying when national government took little notice of the environment, it is a pleasure to be listened to at national level. But the job is not finished - we need to continue to talk to government to encourage real and fast action on global climate change, or all our efforts over decades will be wasted."

Memorial orchard

On July 10th, Wirral Wildlife dedicated a new orchard in the walled garden, Central Park, Wallasey to A. Graham Harrison, a former chairman of the group.





Representatives from Wirral Wildlife group welcomed members of the Harrison family to this special occasion.

Watch group at Royden Park

For our July meeting we had an interesting walk around Royden Park and discovered how to identify trees from their leaves and bark. Unlike last month it only rained for the last 15 minutes!




Matt explained how important dead trees are - this one had woodpeckers nesting in it in previous years.


Daniel is making a leafy picture - assisted by Sue.




Luke worked hard too and found somewhere handy to store his collection.




Some members had their Dad as an artistic advisor.







Thanks to Margaret for the photographs.

Bee Orchids at Butterfly Park

News from Paul Loughnane...

New Ferry Butterfly Park has had record numbers of visitors this year. Through the seasons the grassland species change. Initially on the lime grassland there was a host of golden cowslips heralding spring. These have now given way to some more unusual plants.



These are bee orchids, rather strange plants that give the striking illusion of a bumble bee nectaring on a pink flower. These plants are essentially a Mediterranean type plant, however they are expanding northwards.

Charles Darwin noticed that insects rarely visited bee orchids. Who would want to muscle in on a bumble bee? So why did they evolve into these bee shape flowers? These plants use bee-like scents instead of nectar to attract a pollinating bee to visit the flowers. Unfortunately for the bee orchid this species of solitary bee does not exist in Britain. So after all this show of flower and frustratingly no visitation from a pollinator, they go for the self pollinating approach. These bee mimics flower for a short time and disappear by the end of June.

More information about the Butterfly Park and its opening times can be found on our website.

Sue's seagulls

Here are some photos from Sue, one of our Watch helpers...

This year there are 2 herring gull families on the top of Mount Pleasant car park (near the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool). Not sure if they are the same parents as last year but there are 3 chicks in the same lamp as last year.

Another pair also chose the car park roof as home to bring up their family of 3 chicks. The nest is situated behind 2 large bales of cable and the parents make sure the chicks are behind these when anyone comes close. Therefore, it's not easy to catch them all on camera but I thought you might be interested to see the photos.