New Ferry Butterfly Park Pond

No doubt your gardens are showing the effect of lack of rain and you will have seen the yellow grass verges.

The pond at the Butterfly Park got really low and this was Thursday July 12th. Luckily the centre is about 5 feet deep so there was somewhere for the newts and invertebrates to survive. The recent rain has helped a bit so it is looking better now but still too low to do any pond dipping.

Don’t forget to put water out in your garden for wildlife. A shallow tray with some pebbles and water helps bees to drink without getting wet.

Local Wildlife Rescue Groups

We sometimes get asked for advice about helping injured animals. Since we look after nature reserves we do not have that sort of expertise so we are very pleased to hear about two Wirral groups who do.

Pawprints Wildlife Rescue have set up their own charity to create a good refuge for wildlife in need​. They dream of opening a wildlife centre of excellence in the heart of West Wirral, supported and endorsed by local and national wildlife experts. It would be open to the public to teach visitors about our native wildlife, while the animals can recover in safety, receive expert clinical care and be safely released to live full and independent lives.

You can call Pawprints for advice on 07747 301 423. Their website can be found at

https://hello9759.wixsite.com/pawprintswildlife

Their Facebook page is

www.facebook.com/pawprintswildliferescue

Wirral Animal Samaritans will help if you find an injured animal. They have a Facebook group where you can post your questions or ask for assistance:

www.facebook.com/groups/251491252072218

If you want to speak to someone at Wirral Animal Samaritans in person you can ring them on 07484 110127.

Mud, Glorious Mud!

Thank you to Cheshire Wildlife Trust for letting us know about International Mud Day.

It’s International Mud Day on 29th June so let’s dig deep and look at the wonderful, wriggly creatures that live in the soil, find out what fun can be had in mud, and look at ways for you to get stuck in. Worms are wonderful! "It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world as these lowly organised creatures." Charles Darwin on earthworms Did you know...? We have 29 different species of worm in the UK. A single worm can eat its own weight in soil in one day. Worms absorb oxygen through their skin. The early bird may well catch the worm, but it’s not just our feathered friends that benefit from this amazing creature. Worms are vital food source for other wildlife like toads, beetles, shrews and badgers.

Dragon Hunters

Could you be a dragon hunter in July?

The British Dragonfly Society is in the process of launching a new citizen science project called the Dragonfly Challenge. This is a fun, educational activity to encourage people to spend more time outdoors over the summer.

Participants, known as ‘Dragon Hunters’, will have to try and find as many of the Challenge's six special species as possible within July. To do this they will have to learn about the species and their habitats, then explore different types of wetlands to find them all.

The species are: Large Red Damselfly, Blue-tailed Damselfly, Common Darter, Southern Hawker, Four-spotted Chaser, and Golden-ringed Dragonfly.

To access and download all the Dragonfly Challenge resources, and for more information, please visit the project page:

www.british-dragonflies.org.uk/content/dragonfly-challenge

Wirral Rocks at the Butterfly Park

New Ferry Butterfly Park has been hosting many pre-booked weekday and evening visits as well as being open every Sunday afternoon from noon to 4 pm.

This week 3 and 4 year olds from Small Steps Day Nursery in West Kirby came to visit.

They found this rock which had been hidden by 11th Bebington Beavers on an evening visit the previous week.

The nursery children have taken it away to hide it again somewhere else.

See Facebook Wirral Rocks for more about this idea of hiding a painted rock to be found by someone and then hidden in a new place.

Catwoman and Potter take up residence at Butterfly Park

Who are Catwoman and Potter? They sound like Batman’s archenemies. Well Catwoman is a 1,200g female hedgehog and Potter an 800g male hedgehog. They are rescue hedgehogs from Wirral Animal Rescue Centre based near Hoylake Station. Their names were pulled out of a jar when they arrived at the centre.

They were released on a fine summer evening at New Ferry Butterfly Park. They have been given their own hog house and bespoke hog feeding station just to help them get started off in their new natural habitat. Both the hog house and the hog feeder were expertly made by Martin Sharp of Wirral Animal Rescue Centre. Martin thought that the habitat at New Ferry Butterfly Park superb for hedgehogs. There are lots of mature dead wood habitat piles which they like and extensive woodland edge habitat as well as 400 metres of native laid hedgerow with dense bases. I was surprised at their limited lifespan of only two years in the wild. Martin brought leaflets about the danger of rubbish and litter causes to hedgehogs. It is good to be reminded.

At dusk with hushed excitement, we put the hogs into the hog house. We left the newly arrived hogs snuffling in the hog house and occasionally sticking their noses out to sniff the new surroundings. We will monitor them closely but it is expected that they will leave the hog house and make their own arrangements.

Martin gruesomely warned us about the increasingly cunning foxes who play the long game and lay in wait behind the curled hedgehog and until it unfurls and catches the unsuspecting hedgehog by the hind leg as it moves off.

The centre rescues about 400 hedgehogs a year! If you see a hedgehog in the day it is it definitely in trouble. They are always looking for further support, financial, volunteer time, names for the hedgehogs and welcome visitors to the centre. In spring time they are looking for suitable sites to house the rescued hedgehogs. Please get in touch with them:

https://wirralanimalsanctuary.co.uk/the-hog-centre

Paul Loughnane

For more photographs of Potter and Catwoman and their release, take a look at the Flying Canadian Photography blog:
flyingcanadianphotography.blog/a-day-in-the-life-of-wirral-animal-sanctuarys-hedgehog-centre/

A New Welcome Awaits You at New Ferry Butterfly Park

Pam Brown MBE, Her Majesty’s Deputy Lieutenant of Merseyside, unveiled a new interactive and exciting educational welcome board at New Ferry Butterfly Park. This was part of New Ferry Butterfly Park’s Opening Day. The event, which attracted 870 visitors, marked the start of the Sunday afternoon opening season which goes on until Wirral Heritage week in September. 

The Welcome Board. Photo Pam Sullivan

The welcome board has been fashioned with all the familiar elements such as secret doors, the creepy crawly bucket and the newt pond, but also has some new features. Centre stage is a new bee jigsaw, asking important questions like, can bees dance?  

The Bee Jigsaw.  Photo : Pam Sullivan

There are lots of new facts to learn about the insects in the park and an important message about recycling and not leaving rubbish lying around. The board has been designed and painted by artist Pamela Sullivan with thanks to Graham Smillie and Frank Moore for their help with the build and installation of the board and support with the more fiddly elements of the design. 

An earlier version of this welcome board was created by Pam Sullivan in 2013. It was a great focus for many of the beaver and cubs groups who visited the park in the last five years. Streams of 15 or so excited cubs and beavers all having a go at the board took their toll, wearing it out by their enthusiasm and love of it. This new improved version has more interaction components and is in a more robust and weather proof format which can be enjoyed by visitors over an extended number of years.

The welcome board is a brilliant addition to the park, and a great hit with children and adults. Being near the entrance, the welcome board sets the tone of the park as somewhere to explore nature thoroughly.  It will be wonderful when assembling visiting beaver/cub groups; a good starter for them to interact with before starting their nature sessions. 

The record breaking warm bank holiday weather meant there was a record breaking number of butterflies on the wing for the opening day. There was an increased number of stalls this year spread further round the park. There was a BBQ, cake stand, plant stall and the healthy cycle smoothie stand. There was Flourish promoting honeybees, a spider stand, local artists demonstrating their talents, spoon carving and, being the May Day bank holiday weekend, May Pole dancing was enjoyed too.  

Pond Dipping on Open Day

Do come and visit on quieter days when there is more nature to see as the summer season progresses. 

Paul Loughnane