Ron's Rotary Club Award

Ron Warne (on right in Christmas jumper)
after being given his award from the Rotary Club

We are very pleased to congratulate Ron Warne for his recent award from The Rotary Club of Birkenhead.

Ron was awarded the Sam Lamour Award for Developing Youth. This is because he has quietly worked to ensure that the world young people will inherit will be a good physical environment. He has provided support for the amazing fundraising by Woodchurch High School pupils, by identifying a system whereby funds raised can be shared amongst voluntary groups that aim to improve Wirral's environment.

Ron was a recorder with Wirral Wildlife for some years, recording small mammals and plants. It is due to his good offices that Wirral Wildlife has received generous funding from Woodchurch High School's fundraising activities, for heathland restoration work at Cleaver Heath. Also New Ferry Butterfly Park has received funding towards a new large barrow.

An Assembly of Tiles: Part 1 - the Comma Butterfly

Tile in progress showing Freya Levy's painting of a comma butterfly

Neil Glendinning, a ceramic artist based at the Canal Warehouse Workshops, Chester, and Freya Levy,  a local artist from Birkenhead, have collaborated together to create six bespoke decorative tiles for the brick pillars supporting the Silver Jubilee Gates at New Ferry Butterfly Park.

The painting of the tile nears completion

Freya painted the tiles at the workshop periodically from May until September. She worked on several images with some designs not making it, such as a railway tile and some butterfly species including the gatekeeper, the small copper, the brimstone, and the burnet moth, as these did not fit in aesthetically with the gates and pillars. Neil coached Freya about the colours as they do change once baked.

Neil Glendinning with the completed tiles

The completed art works were glazed, and the tiles baked at 1250oC in a kiln to vitrify them into stoneware, making them waterproof and sun resistant. Each tile is dedicated to a person or group. In a series of small blogs each dedication will be explored, starting off at home base.

The Comma Butterfly tile is dedicated to the Wirral Wildlife group who support the park. This tile remembers the Comma (community art) Project of 2012. The original art concept of the butterfly was by Carol Ramsay and is the logo for the park and the comma logo can be found on the wardens' clothing. It is the butterfly on the gates. Pictured are Stephen Ross and Linda Higginbottom of Wirral Wildlife committee with the tile dedicated to Wirral Wildlife.

Stephen Ross and Linda Higginbottom with the tile dedicated to Wirral Wildlife.
Note the comma butterfly on the Butterfly Park T-shirt and fleece!

Stephen Ross, chair of Wirral Wildlife entertains the guest of honour on our opening day and promotes the park whenever he can. Stephen suggested that the butterfly committee should apply to the Duchy of Lancaster for £5,000 funding for the gates. The application was successful and enabled the gates to go ahead. Linda Higginbottom, Wirral Wildlife Publicity Officer, amongst many other projects organises the warden rota for the summer Sunday afternoon openings and assembles teams to host group visits. Linda designed the logos for the New Ferry Butterfly Park wardens branded T-shirts and sweatshirts. Linda is a great communicator, running the Wirral Wildlife Blog, sending out regular Wirral Wildlife emails and hosting the Facebook page of New Ferry Butterfly Park and Wirral Wildlife. Wirral Wildlife group host an impressive plant sale on the park’s opening day each season and from there on after nearly to the end of the season. This plant stall is another attraction for the Sunday visitors. Recently Wirral Wildlife have started hosting apple days at the park too.

The Comma butterfly has distinctive ragged wing edges which camouflage it. At rest it looks just like a dead leaf! The Comma can be seen at any time of the year, occasionally awakening on warm winter days.The butterfly emerges from hibernation in March, giving rise to the next generation which appears at the end of June and start of July. The majority of the offspring have dark undersides, and these go on to hibernate. However, the remainder of the offspring have quite light undersides and brighter uppersides, and are known as the form hutchinsoni. This form is named after Emma Hutchinson who discovered that this form goes on to breed and produce another generation that then overwinter. As a result, there is another emergence of fresh adults in late summer. The food plants of the caterpillars are nettles, elm and hop which are all present at the park.

Paul Loughnane

New Ferry Butterfly Park Reserve Manager

Autumn/Winter Activity at Cleaver Heath (2023/24)

In October the volunteers cleared grass, bramble and bracken which was growing in an area of sloping heath that was cut close to ground level in 2022 as part of a long term plan to increase the age range of heather across the reserve by rotational cutting of specific areas over a twenty year period. This unwanted vegetation was threatening to outgrow and shade out the small regenerating heather plants.

Clearing grass, bramble and bracken

Managing the heathland to create space for regenerating heather plants

During this work some interesting insects were observed in the thin surface soil and leaf litter. Several parasitoid ichneumon wasps were possibly looking for moth pupae to lay their eggs in and the very characteristically shaped bishop's mitre shield bug was running at the base of some grass tussocks. This bug has been previously recorded in several coastal dune locations across Wirral in recent years.

Ichneumon sarcitorius - female

Bishop's mitre shield bug (Aelia acuminata)

During November and December we worked hard on a range of tasks despite some very wet and cold weather. Overly tall birch was coppiced in the 'managed scrub' area to provide improved habitat conditions for nesting birds and, working with Graham from Cheshire Wildlife Trust, we removed and stump treated a section of unwanted tall birch and gorse from within the central heather panel. While dragging away cut birch, one of our volunteers observed an empty cocoon of an emperor moth attached to a small oak sapling, hopefully we will see some adult moths flying in the reserve in Spring.

The empty cocoon of an emperor moth found at Cleaver Heath

Some interesting fungi were also observed at this time, thriving during the very wet conditions.

Clockwise from top left: birch polypore, common earthball on the woodland floor,
turkey-tail fungus and oyster mushroom.

Tiny bonnet mushrooms on dead bramble stem - Mycena sp. ?

More wet and cold task days in December and January saw us carrying out widening of some narrow overgrown sections of the public access pathways close to the main entrance. We also continued to cut back vegetation that had overgrown through the iron railings onto Oldfield Road.

Widening a narrow section of the path

Cutting back vegetation that had grown through the railings onto Oldfield Road

During January and February, working with Graham from CWT, we cleared and stump treated invasive birch within the lower sloping heath and cut back and dug out many of the roots of a very large rhododendron that was growing within the woodland area.

The planned contractor-led heathland regeneration project should be going ahead shortly and we will be topping up the recently widened public paths with stone in March so plenty to do in hopefully much improved weather conditions as Spring approaches.


John McGaw
Volunteer Warden Cleaver Heath

The Evolution of New Ferry Butterfly Park’s Promotional Leaflet

Peter Martin and Freya Levy with the 2024 Butterfly Park promotional leaflet

The Butterfly Park’s first promotional leaflet was derived from a visitors’ guide and was created in 1998 by Year 8 students from Bebington High. It was a black and white leaflet with a good park map, but with few illustrations and the location map was a photocopy from an A to Z. Interestingly the leaflet described the park’s entrance road, Howell Rd, as lying between the railway line and the Queen’s Public House. This pub was soon demolished after Aldi’s arrival in 2002.

The front of the first promotional leaflet in 1998.

The map inside the 1998 leaflet.

In 2006, this leaflet was revamped by Steve Niblock, then local councillor for the Ward. The 2006 leaflet had specially made black and white illustrations produced by artists Emma Greenwood and Bob Hughes, used to illustrate the park map, and the location map developed into a sketch map.

The 2006 version of the Butterfly Park's leaflet

Black and white illustrations on the map in 2006

In 2012, as part of the Comma Project the promotional leaflet was revamped by Carol Ramsay, Artist in Residence at the park. At this stage, the leaflet went into colour production and the park map was replaced by Vicky Hose’s brilliant artistic map of the park. On the front the Comma butterfly replaced Speckled Wood, to fit in with the COMMunity Art (COMMA) project running at that time. The leaflet also mentioned the caravan-based visitor centre, which although fantastic, sadly did not last due to vandalism.

The first leaflet in colour in 2012

The park map, with illustrations in full colour

In 2018 the promotional leaflet was improved by John Ash with the addition of a colour location map.

An update to the location map on the back of the leaflet in 2018

This year the promotional leaflet has been enhanced again. The leaflet’s front now has an illustration of the Park’s Silver Jubilee Gates, complete with the new decorative tiles inset into the supporting brick pillars. The leaflet has an email contact address, QR codes, a link to the Park’s Facebook page and another to the Wirral Wildlife website, both full of useful information about the Park and ongoing activities. These extra resources give extra life and vitality to the leaflet. Two art works within Vicky Hose’s original 2006 illustrated map have been changed, to feature creatures that visitors are more likely to encounter. One of these was first recorded breeding at the Park and Wirral in 2014. Freya Levy, an artist new to the park, has blended these images into the leaflet following Vicky’s style. Can you see the different styles or work out which two invertebrates have been removed and which two added?

The latest version of the Butterfly Park leaflet

See if you can spot the difference as two species on the 2024 map have been changed

The 2024 leaflet has been an in-house collaborative effort via numerous emails and two in person meetings, patiently co-ordinated by Peter Martin. The meetings discussed ideas with the leaflet projected onto a screen for all to see clearly, allowing Peter to try out some changes there and then with instant feedback. The leaflet got up to version 22! Hopefully, the leaflet can be enjoyed by many, and more visitors will be attracted to the park resulting in some more volunteers. Thanks to Freya for her artistic talents, Peter Martin for his digital proficiencies in making this 2024 leaflet revamp happen and all who have commented at the various stages of its development. Creativo have printed the leaflet and there are plenty of copies at the Park. Do drop in once we are open, or on a workday, and collect some to share with friends or use as publicity.

Paul Loughnane

Wirral Council and Climate Action Scorecards

Climate Emergency UK assessed all UK councils on the actions they've taken towards net zero. The Council Climate Action Scorecard assessment consists of 91 questions or fewer, depending on council type, across 7 different sections, created in consultation with over 90 organisations and individuals. Each council was marked against these criteria and given a right to reply before the scores underwent a final audit. This work was completed between January and August 2023.

The good news is that Wirral Council is slightly above the average for single-tier councils - though at a Total Score of 42% well below the top scorers, who are London boroughs at 55-60%.

See the full Climate Action Scorecard results for Wirral Council here:
https://councilclimatescorecards.uk/councils/wirral-council/

A summary of Wirral Council's Climate Action Scorecard results

Wirral Council scored particularly well on Biodiversity and Planning and Land Use. They have a score of 69% for Biodiversity (compared to an average of 27%) and 55% for Planning and Land Use (compared to an average of 35%). The lobbying that Wirral Wildlife and other voluntary groups have done over the last 50 years is having an effect.

A Waste Reduction and Food score of 34% and a Transport score of 20% are low results. However everyone can play a part by thinking about everyday actions.

To reduce waste remember the three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. We must try and use fewer resources, mend whatever we can, share our good but unwanted items and recycle anything that has got to the end of its life.

For tips on how to mend, recycle, reuse and upcycle see https://www.cheshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/actions/recycle-and-reuse

Wirral Repair Café can help with repairing items such as clothing and electrical appliances. On the first Sunday of each month they can be found at Wirral Deen Centre, 371-375 Borough Road, Birkenhead, CH42 0HA. Email: wirralrepaircafe@gmail.com

Wirral Repair Café is one of an international network of repair cafes where volunteers try to fix items, brought in by members of the public, that would otherwise be thrown away because they’ve stopped working or (in the case of clothing, can no longer be worn). The goal is to reduce landfill waste, encourage people to carry out their own repairs and save them money in the process.

They do not take business away from professional repairers and will refer the visitor to a professional if it’s appropriate. However, people are often aware that the cost of repair could be more than that of replacement, or that the value of the item is too little to justify the repair cost. Their motto is ‘Bin it? No way’

• Get advice and learn repair skills
• Examples of types of repair: electrical appliances, computer software, bicycles, clothing and textiles, upholstery, toys, costume jewellery, wooden items, musical instruments
• Soldering and sharpening services available
• Free repairs, but donations are welcome

To influence the Food score we can be careful what we eat, reduce food waste and shop and eat to reduce the climate impact of food. Planning meals in advance and using all of the food we buy will reduce waste. We can eat less meat, choose local and seasonal produce or even grow our own vegetables and fruit. If there is anything left over then home composting could be another thing to try – don’t send your waste to landfill.

For composting advice see
https://www.cheshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/actions/how-compost-your-waste

What about the transport score? If we travel less, walk when we can, cycle or use public transport we can cut our carbon footprint. Of course, the public transport and active travel infrastructure needs to be there and that is something you could lobby about.

Wirral Council has a Climate Action Hub

Wirral has a target to be carbon neutral by 2041. This means that the amount of carbon that we produce compared to what we take out of the atmosphere is balanced. Learn more at the Climate Action Hub:
https://haveyoursay.wirral.gov.uk/hub-page/climate-action-wirral

Public and personal action together will help us reach these targets for a more sustainable future on Wirral.

Take part in the Cool Wirral Climate Action Challenge

Autumn/Winter 2023 Prize Quiz: Winner and Answers

Hilbre Island, the answer to question 4 in the quiz. Photo: Peter Craine  

The autumn/winter 2023 prize quiz featured 50 cryptic clues to the names of islands or island groups that are part of the British Isles. The entries have been marked and the winner from the correct entries chosen.

Congratulations to Mrs Julia Needham, of Hope Valley, Derbyshire, who will be receiving a £10 gift voucher.

Here are the answers to those clues:

1. Named after a six-times Olympic gold medallist?  You can find the Old Man here in 29 (3). HOY

2. In 49 an island with strong spirit! (3). RUM

3. A Clyde island? No, a Welsh one! (6). CALDEY

4. Greeting Pound concerning this English island. (6). HILBRE

5. Beccy unable to stir without little Cyril in 26. (9). BENBECULA

6. One of 21, shares its name with a garment and a cow... (6). JERSEY

7. ... and another one of 21, also shares its name with a garment and a cow. (8). GUERNSEY

8. Silence and French territory in this group. (8). SHETLAND

9. High tension under hairpiece – sounds colourless! (5). WIGHT

10. Dress up to ruin drag here in Scotland! (8). GRUINARD

11. Shakespeare, for example? Looking back, yes. (7). BARDSEY

12. Television company, oriental, one of 49. (4). SKYE

13. What do I hear? Someone calling a taxi? Or frozen rain falling? No, an island! (7). HAYLING

14. Sport associated with All England, Wimbledon, without Radiohead. (6). COQUET

15. I start rearing African antelope. (7). IRELAND

16. A winter illness in 15. (6). ACHILL

17. Island fern I uprooted here. (11). LINDISFARNE

18. You are unlikely to find a coconut shy, ghost train or waltzer here! (4). FAIR

19. Chap with three legs?..... (3). MAN

20. ..... Part of one of those legs? (4, 2, 3). CALF OF MAN

21. Tune your television to this group? (7). CHANNEL

22. Low pitch sound of popular music. (4, 4). BASS ROCK

23. One of 49, reportedly first person to possess article. (4). IONA

24. Dad Raymond, has taken in direction to one of 29. (4, 7). PAPA WESTRAY

25. Short holy person follows international organisation, one of 8. (4). UNST

26. EU brothers die in excitement in this group. (5, 8). OUTER HEBRIDES

27. Personnel with article, one of 49. (6). STAFFA

28. This one of 21 came out of Noah’s Ark! (4). SARK

29. Group caused excitement for New York, but not Washington initially. (6). ORKNEY

30. Would you like to visit this one in 15? Rather! No hesitation! Nothing back to follow. (7). RATHLIN

31. This one is shut out roughly in 26. (5, 4). SOUTH UIST

32. Mostar rebuilt here, near JoG? (6). STROMA

33. Sounds daft! (6). SCILLY

34. Controversially, I target Brian. (5, 7). GREAT BRITAIN

35. Contemplate one of 49. (4). MULL

36. Might be right, solid or acute, with South European unknown. (8). ANGLESEY

37. Weary at end of adventure in 49. (5). TIREE

38. Am backing away from the coast in 8, and in 29. (8). MAINLAND

39. English football’s Alf, Welsh football’s Aaron and the CofE’s Michael share its name. (6). RAMSEY

40. I whirl, as sander starts up.  One island or two in 26? (5, 3, 6). LEWIS AND HARRIS*

41. For starters, look under North Devon – you’ll see this one. (5). LUNDY

42. There are several of these: they are entirely islands, so we are told. (4). HOLY

43. Punctuation mark for example, one of 49. (8). COLONSAY

44. Romeo enters the supermarket – one of 33. (6) TRESCO

45. An annelid’s loaf of bread? (5, 4). WORMS HEAD

46. One of 21, well wrapped up in thermal underwear. (4). HERM

47. British railway with that woman – one of 33. (6). BRYHER

48. I am a murderer, one of 49! (5). ISLAY

49. Her Late Majesty, after pub, found ladies to be married, led by His Excellency in this group. (5, 8). INNER HEBRIDES

50. A small river flowed on this one. (5). ARRAN

*We also accepted “Harris and Lewis”, as this is an accepted name for the island, although the letter count is wrong.

New Ferry Butterfly Park Photo Recording 2023

In this blog post, Roy Lowry reviews his photo recording visits to the Butterfly Park in 2023.

I started photo-recording wildlife in New Ferry Butterfly Park back in 2014 making 2-3 visits a year when the reserve was open. Then in 2022 I was entrusted with a key and the number of visits rose to 23. In 2023, it increased to 28 between March and December. On each visit I wander around photographing anything that attracts my attention. Back home the images are converted into wildlife observations on either iRecord or iNaturalist. Inevitably, there is a bias towards pollinating insects because these are the most accessible and also interest me the most. it is also a long way from scientifically rigorous systematic biodiversity surveying, but it provides some evidence on how well the reserve management is working.

During the year I logged a total of 628 observations, which I have now compiled in a spreadsheet to provide an overview. I classified them into 22 categories (ants, bees, other beetles, birds, bugs, butterflies, damselfies, dragonflies, other flies, grasshoppers, hoverflies, isopods, ladybirds, mammals, moths, plants, sawflies, slugs, snails, soldier flies, spiders, spittlebugs, and wasps). Over half of the observations belonged to just three groups, namely bees (81), butterflies (114) and hoverflies (171), so I will concentrate on these for the rest of this summary.

I find bees the most difficult of these groups to record because of the lack of accessible identification support. Bee records submitted to iRecord are very rarely verified and whilst the community approach of iNaturalist can be helpful it can also be disruptive, especially when identifiers fail to take account of differences between bee populations in the UK and elsewhere in the world. Consequently, I am trying to develop my bee identification skills with excellent support from the Cheshire Bee Group and the Tanyptera Project who also help with identifications should I come across anything particularly interesting. Recording hoverflies and butterflies is much easier because all records submitted to iRecord are verified within a couple of weeks or even a couple of days.

Because of the identification uncertainties I can't precisely report the bee species diversity, but it is possible to give an overview based on genus-level identification. During the year I recorded six 'types' of solitary bee in addition to the social honeybees and bumblebees. In early spring there were flower bees (Anthophora) and mining bees (Andrena), followed by mason bees (Osmia), plasterer bees (Colletes), leaf-cutter bees (Megachile) and furrow bees (Lasioglossum). In addition there were cuckoo bees (Melicta, Nomada, Coelioxys and Sphecodes) whose host preferences covered most of the solitary bees seen.

The highlight of the bee recording was the sighting of a male red-girdled mining bee (Andrena labiata) in April. This is quite a rarity with only five records for the Cheshire recording area (which includes Wirral) in iRecord and no other records north of Birmingham in INaturalist. As it was so unusual I had the ID checked and confirmed. I kept a careful lookout after this for any other sightings, preferably of a female, but to no avail. I'll continue the search in 2024 as this species is documented as one of many increasing its range northwards.

Male red-girdled mining bee Andrena labiata

The hoverfly records were both numerous and diverse with 45 different taxa (species or genus not identifiable to species) logged. These included the four of the five large and spectacular members of the Volucella genus: two variants of the bumblebee hoverfly (Volucella bombylans), two species of hornet mimic (Volucella zonaria and Volucella inanis) and the black and white (almost transparent) pellucid Hoverfly (Volucella pellucens). This last species is a very noticeable resident of the Butterfly Park because the males are very territorial and spend their flight season (June and July) defending their territories against all comers, including people. There was one particularly aggressive specimen on the path between the pond and the lime waste who seemed to have a particular dislike for photographers with telephoto lenses.

 Female yellow-girdled fleckwing hoverfly (Dasysyrphus tricinctus)

My favourite hoverfly sightings of the year were a yellow-girdled fleckwing (Dasysyrphus tricinctus) in May and a gorgeous superb ant-hill hoverfly (Xanthogramma pedissequum) in September. I thought the fleckwing (called the yellow-girdled brusheye in iNaturalist) was a rarity. I hadn't seen one before but during the year I found them at Burton Mere and the Liverpool Festival Gardens so maybe they are just under-recorded. The superb ant-hill hoverfly is fairly uncommon (15 Cheshire records in iRecord), but the Butterfly Park is just the place to attract them with its large number of meadow ant nests. The larvae of this hoverfly develop in these nests feeding on the ants' fungus gardens.

Female superb ant-hill hoverfly (Xanthogramma pedissequum)

Butterfly records were also pleasingly diverse with 20 species recorded (14 on a single day - July 19th), which was up from 16 in 2022. The four species added were the brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni), Essex skipper (Thymelicus lineola), painted lady (Vanessa cardui), and small tortoiseshell (Aglias urticae). The first two of these were artefacts of my modus operandi because although I saw brimstones in flight and what I was convinced were Essex skippers I couldn't get the necessary photographic proof. This year the brimstones co-operated by landing in camera range and I managed to get Essex skipper pictures clearly showing the black antenna nudum. This verified the species and got New Ferry Butterfly Park formally recognised as an Essex skipper site.

Male brimstone butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni)

Male Essex skipper butterfly (Thymelicus lineola)

The small tortoiseshell and painted lady were different stories. The former have been noticeably absent in the past couple of years so it was delightful to see one. I hope I will see more in 2024. The latter are migrants, arriving in the UK when favourable winds carry them from Africa and Spain. There were about half a dozen present on a single day and I also saw significant numbers in Mayer Park around the same time so I guess this was a migratory fall.

Possibly the most satisfying butterfly sighting was catching a couple of dingy skippers egg laying on patches of birds' foot trefoil, which means that this butterfly not seen in the area for 20 years until last year is now listed as a breeding species for the site.

Female dingy skipper butterfly (Erynnis tages) laying eggs

New Ferry Butterfly Park has provided me with a most interesting year of invertebrate observation in both 2022 and 2023. I can't wait to see what 2024 brings.