Field Trips 2018
Cronton Colliery 21/4/2018 Wepre Woods 28/4/2018 Crosby 12/5/2018 Altcar 18/5/2018 Waitby Greenriggs 9/6/2018
Red Rocks, West Kirby 30/6/2018 Green Beach, Ainsdale 21/7/2018 Maghull 11/8/2018 Moore Nature Reserve 1/9/2018 Birkenhead North and Bidston Tip 15/9/2018 Eastham Country Park (fungi foray) 13/10/2018
Cronton Colliery 21/4/2018 Wepre Woods 28/4/2018 Crosby 12/5/2018 Altcar 18/5/2018 Waitby Greenriggs 9/6/2018
Red Rocks, West Kirby 30/6/2018 Green Beach, Ainsdale 21/7/2018 Maghull 11/8/2018 Moore Nature Reserve 1/9/2018 Birkenhead North and Bidston Tip 15/9/2018 Eastham Country Park (fungi foray) 13/10/2018
Cronton Colliery
Saturday April 21st
Leader – Stephen Fletcher
Met at Dacres Bridge Lane off Cronton Road. (SJ 470890) to see the re-vegetated colliery waste and fringing woodlands.
76 plant species were found. See attached list.
Saturday April 21st
Leader – Stephen Fletcher
Met at Dacres Bridge Lane off Cronton Road. (SJ 470890) to see the re-vegetated colliery waste and fringing woodlands.
76 plant species were found. See attached list.
| cronton_colliery.xlsx |
Wepre Woods
Saturday April 28th
Leader – Peter Gateley
Altogether 16 members met up at the Wepre Park (Parc Gwepra) visitor centre on a sunny Saturday morning, a small band had made it there by train but the extensive car parks are a great lure!
The northern end of the park was the site of an ancient manor house, replaced in the eighteenth century by a neo-classical hall and its attendant walled gardens and extensively planted grounds with many exotic trees and shrubs, many of which survive as majestic ancient specimens. For example, there are huge specimens of Douglas Firs and a whole row of gigantic cedars.
We set off to the north-west of the visitor centre into the Taylor’s Wood area where there are stretches of diverse ancient woodland habitat along the course of Wepre Brook, with a good range of typical groundflora species, but also a quite extensive area of Beech plantation, with some Hornbeam mixed in. Typical groundflora noted here included Dog’s Mercury (Mercurialis perennis), Wood Sanicle (Sanicula europaea), and Moscatel (Adoxa moscatellina). The change in groundflora from the Oak-dominated mixed woodland to the Beech plantation was very noticeable. This part of the estate has had past disturbance, hence the replanting, with coal pits being dug here in the early nineteenth century.
We descended back to the river and crossed just south of the waterfall created by the weir, installed as part of a scheme to provide electricity to the Hall in the early twentieth century. From here we joined a long stretch of boardwalk, taking us over water and marshy habitats. We were able to compare and contrast the foliage of Watercress (Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum) and Fool’s Watercress (Helosciadium nodiflorum) and get close views of Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris) in full flower. Many other wetland species were also listed from here, with a rich woodland groundflora on the slope to the western side featuring some of the estate underplanting for game cover, with Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) and Salmon-berry (Rubus spectabilis).
From the boardwalk we followed the course of the river upstream through diverse woodland rising quite steeply on both sides of the valley. Bluebells (Hyacinthides non-scripta) were just starting their mass flowering, but the blue haze was not fully underway. Wood Melick (Melica uniflora), with its distinctive yellow-green tufts of foliage, was also just beginning to flower and there was abundant Soft-Shield-fern (Polystichum setiferum) unfurling their main stems and individual pinnae each side. The path takes us past tall exposures of red sandstone then continues through interesting old woodland, with Bistort (Persicaria bistorta), Early Dog-violet (Viola reichenbachiana) and Hairy Woodrush (Luzula Pilosa), amongst many other groundflora species. We arrived at Ewloe Castle for lunch, ‘the castle in the woods’ a Welsh castle (dating from 1257) acting as a hidden refuge in the woodland, now a picturesque ruin.
From here we followed a tributary of Wepre brook , still through rich woodland, then curved back onto the main path and followed that back up to the visitor centre, spotting many species not noticed on the way south!
Saturday April 28th
Leader – Peter Gateley
Altogether 16 members met up at the Wepre Park (Parc Gwepra) visitor centre on a sunny Saturday morning, a small band had made it there by train but the extensive car parks are a great lure!
The northern end of the park was the site of an ancient manor house, replaced in the eighteenth century by a neo-classical hall and its attendant walled gardens and extensively planted grounds with many exotic trees and shrubs, many of which survive as majestic ancient specimens. For example, there are huge specimens of Douglas Firs and a whole row of gigantic cedars.
We set off to the north-west of the visitor centre into the Taylor’s Wood area where there are stretches of diverse ancient woodland habitat along the course of Wepre Brook, with a good range of typical groundflora species, but also a quite extensive area of Beech plantation, with some Hornbeam mixed in. Typical groundflora noted here included Dog’s Mercury (Mercurialis perennis), Wood Sanicle (Sanicula europaea), and Moscatel (Adoxa moscatellina). The change in groundflora from the Oak-dominated mixed woodland to the Beech plantation was very noticeable. This part of the estate has had past disturbance, hence the replanting, with coal pits being dug here in the early nineteenth century.
We descended back to the river and crossed just south of the waterfall created by the weir, installed as part of a scheme to provide electricity to the Hall in the early twentieth century. From here we joined a long stretch of boardwalk, taking us over water and marshy habitats. We were able to compare and contrast the foliage of Watercress (Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum) and Fool’s Watercress (Helosciadium nodiflorum) and get close views of Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris) in full flower. Many other wetland species were also listed from here, with a rich woodland groundflora on the slope to the western side featuring some of the estate underplanting for game cover, with Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) and Salmon-berry (Rubus spectabilis).
From the boardwalk we followed the course of the river upstream through diverse woodland rising quite steeply on both sides of the valley. Bluebells (Hyacinthides non-scripta) were just starting their mass flowering, but the blue haze was not fully underway. Wood Melick (Melica uniflora), with its distinctive yellow-green tufts of foliage, was also just beginning to flower and there was abundant Soft-Shield-fern (Polystichum setiferum) unfurling their main stems and individual pinnae each side. The path takes us past tall exposures of red sandstone then continues through interesting old woodland, with Bistort (Persicaria bistorta), Early Dog-violet (Viola reichenbachiana) and Hairy Woodrush (Luzula Pilosa), amongst many other groundflora species. We arrived at Ewloe Castle for lunch, ‘the castle in the woods’ a Welsh castle (dating from 1257) acting as a hidden refuge in the woodland, now a picturesque ruin.
From here we followed a tributary of Wepre brook , still through rich woodland, then curved back onto the main path and followed that back up to the visitor centre, spotting many species not noticed on the way south!
| wepre_woods_spp_list.doc |
Tony Carter found the Ascomycete, Belonidium mollisimum on our trip to Wepre on Saturday. It was growing on some dead stems that we managed to identify as Wood Avens (Geum urbanum). Tony can find no record of this fairly common (but tiny) fungus growing on this species before.
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Crosby / Waterloo
Saturday May 12th
Leader – Steve Cross
This was a trip to see a range of coastal and urban plants. Urban streets with the hard pavements, extreme conditions of changing temperatures and moisture levels provide a difficult environment for plants but an interesting variety of native and aliens plants were found including Feverfew Tanacetum parthenium, Eastern Rocket Sisymbrium orientale and Common Whitlow Grass Erophila verna.
Cappadocian Maple Acer cappadocicum was a strange find in such an urban setting, it was a planted tree in a tiny rough car park at Wesley Street.
Mown dry grassland at Waterloo Town Hall on Great Georges Road suprisingly provided Field Madder Sherardia arvensis and Parsley Piert Apahanes arvensis. Moving just around the corner on to the grasslands near the Marina, but still close to the gardens of Brunswick Parade we had a mix of native, alien,dry ground and dune plants. Of interest were Star of Bethlehem Ornithogalum umbellatum, Parsley Piert Apahanes arvensis and Smooth Rupturewort Herniaria glabra. The latter is principally a bright lime- green mat plant native to East Anglia, but regarded as a casual elsewhere. It is planted as ground cover in dry, nutrient poor conditions and this is the origin of a scattering of records elsewhere in Britain (including the Sefton Coast). It is also has been used as a medicinal herb, it is a diuretic and has been used against urinary infections. First found at Kenilworth Road, Ainsdale by Peter Gateley in 1988 it has been found at a few Sefton Coast sites and Phil Smith note summarising its occurence on the Sefton Coast is in the BSBI News archive 100 p23-25 link here. This area had a strange mix of Lyme Grass, Green Alkanet, hybrid Bluebell, Tree Lupin, Biting Stonecrop, Early Forget-me-not and Bulbous Butercup.
The next stop (where we also had lunch) was the nature reserve area at the south of the marina, mostly alder carr with more open ponds and wet grasslands. Of note was Water Mint, Meadowsweet, Gypsywort, female Orange Tip butterfly, Speckled Wood butterfly, Smooth Newt and mating Alder Leaf Beetles Agelastica alni.
Along the edge of the small boating lake adjacent to the marina was Common Reed, Sea Beet and a large patch of Slender Spike-rush Eleocharis uniglumis at the north end edge. Phil Smith's Sefton Coast survey of this species is in the BSBI News archive vol 115 p18-24 link here
The dunes near the pumping station had the usual dune species along with abundant Oxford Ragwort, Lucerne, Sea Buckthorn, Whitebeam and Japanese Rose showing that a lot of aliens are now in this habitat. Classic dune plants such as Lyme Grass, Sand Sedge, Sea Mouse-ear, Sea Spurge, Sea Holly, Kidney Vetch and Early Forget-me-not showed that some natives are still doing fine here.
The Dune Wormwood Artemisia campestris ssp.maritima was starting to look a bit swamped by the surrounding "aliens" and general more luxurious growth, however a few more younger plants show that it is still doing ok here.
Some of the Isle of Man Cabbage Coincya monensis was in flower on the dunes to the north.
The final plants were by the works compound, car park and wall at Blucher Street - Common Cornsalad Valerianella locusta, Field Madder, Eastern Rocket and Common Ramping Fumitory Fumaria muralis plus a Holly Blue Butterfly. All in all a fascinating trip with a wide diversity of plants seen.
Species list to follow.
Photos by Steve Cross
Saturday May 12th
Leader – Steve Cross
This was a trip to see a range of coastal and urban plants. Urban streets with the hard pavements, extreme conditions of changing temperatures and moisture levels provide a difficult environment for plants but an interesting variety of native and aliens plants were found including Feverfew Tanacetum parthenium, Eastern Rocket Sisymbrium orientale and Common Whitlow Grass Erophila verna.
Cappadocian Maple Acer cappadocicum was a strange find in such an urban setting, it was a planted tree in a tiny rough car park at Wesley Street.
Mown dry grassland at Waterloo Town Hall on Great Georges Road suprisingly provided Field Madder Sherardia arvensis and Parsley Piert Apahanes arvensis. Moving just around the corner on to the grasslands near the Marina, but still close to the gardens of Brunswick Parade we had a mix of native, alien,dry ground and dune plants. Of interest were Star of Bethlehem Ornithogalum umbellatum, Parsley Piert Apahanes arvensis and Smooth Rupturewort Herniaria glabra. The latter is principally a bright lime- green mat plant native to East Anglia, but regarded as a casual elsewhere. It is planted as ground cover in dry, nutrient poor conditions and this is the origin of a scattering of records elsewhere in Britain (including the Sefton Coast). It is also has been used as a medicinal herb, it is a diuretic and has been used against urinary infections. First found at Kenilworth Road, Ainsdale by Peter Gateley in 1988 it has been found at a few Sefton Coast sites and Phil Smith note summarising its occurence on the Sefton Coast is in the BSBI News archive 100 p23-25 link here. This area had a strange mix of Lyme Grass, Green Alkanet, hybrid Bluebell, Tree Lupin, Biting Stonecrop, Early Forget-me-not and Bulbous Butercup.
The next stop (where we also had lunch) was the nature reserve area at the south of the marina, mostly alder carr with more open ponds and wet grasslands. Of note was Water Mint, Meadowsweet, Gypsywort, female Orange Tip butterfly, Speckled Wood butterfly, Smooth Newt and mating Alder Leaf Beetles Agelastica alni.
Along the edge of the small boating lake adjacent to the marina was Common Reed, Sea Beet and a large patch of Slender Spike-rush Eleocharis uniglumis at the north end edge. Phil Smith's Sefton Coast survey of this species is in the BSBI News archive vol 115 p18-24 link here
The dunes near the pumping station had the usual dune species along with abundant Oxford Ragwort, Lucerne, Sea Buckthorn, Whitebeam and Japanese Rose showing that a lot of aliens are now in this habitat. Classic dune plants such as Lyme Grass, Sand Sedge, Sea Mouse-ear, Sea Spurge, Sea Holly, Kidney Vetch and Early Forget-me-not showed that some natives are still doing fine here.
The Dune Wormwood Artemisia campestris ssp.maritima was starting to look a bit swamped by the surrounding "aliens" and general more luxurious growth, however a few more younger plants show that it is still doing ok here.
Some of the Isle of Man Cabbage Coincya monensis was in flower on the dunes to the north.
The final plants were by the works compound, car park and wall at Blucher Street - Common Cornsalad Valerianella locusta, Field Madder, Eastern Rocket and Common Ramping Fumitory Fumaria muralis plus a Holly Blue Butterfly. All in all a fascinating trip with a wide diversity of plants seen.
Species list to follow.
Photos by Steve Cross
Altcar Rifle Range
Friday May 18th Evening meeting
Leader – Steve Cross
Species list to follow.
Photos by Steve Cross
Friday May 18th Evening meeting
Leader – Steve Cross
Species list to follow.
Photos by Steve Cross
WAITBY GREENRIGGS
Saturday 9th June 2018
Leader -
Species list below
Saturday 9th June 2018
Leader -
Species list below
| waitby_species_list.rtf |
Red Rocks - West Kirby
Saturday 30th June 2018.
Leader and species list Robert Freeth
Saturday 30th June 2018.
Leader and species list Robert Freeth
| lbs_2018june30_west_kirby_dunes_to_red_rocks_plant_species.docx |
Green Beach, Ainsdale
Saturday 21st July 2018
Leader - Steve Cross
Species list to follow.
Photos by Steve Cross
Saturday 21st July 2018
Leader - Steve Cross
Species list to follow.
Photos by Steve Cross
Maghull
Saturday 11th August 2018
Leader: Peter Gateley
Photos by Steve Cross
Saturday 11th August 2018
Leader: Peter Gateley
Photos by Steve Cross
| maghull_species_lists.rtf |
Moore Nature Reserve
Saturday 1st September 2018
Leader: Howard Harris
MOORE N.R., WARRINGTON. SJ 578 855 – 01/09/2018
Ten LBS members accompanied by Anne-Marie Belcher, Reserve Warden and Lee Lappin, local naturalist explored the paths and bird hides of Moore Nature Reserve and Moss Side. Moore Nature Reserve is situated between the Manchester Ship Canal and the River Mersey. The 186 acres site has been managed as a nature reserve since 1991 after a history of land use for farming and sand quarrying. Today the reserve is surrounded by woodland, meadows and wetlands which provide a rich biodiversity of habitats for birds, mammals, insects, plants, amphibians and fungi. On the day 180 species of wildflowers were recorded.
Howard Harris Leader
species list below Robert Freeth
Saturday 1st September 2018
Leader: Howard Harris
MOORE N.R., WARRINGTON. SJ 578 855 – 01/09/2018
Ten LBS members accompanied by Anne-Marie Belcher, Reserve Warden and Lee Lappin, local naturalist explored the paths and bird hides of Moore Nature Reserve and Moss Side. Moore Nature Reserve is situated between the Manchester Ship Canal and the River Mersey. The 186 acres site has been managed as a nature reserve since 1991 after a history of land use for farming and sand quarrying. Today the reserve is surrounded by woodland, meadows and wetlands which provide a rich biodiversity of habitats for birds, mammals, insects, plants, amphibians and fungi. On the day 180 species of wildflowers were recorded.
Howard Harris Leader
species list below Robert Freeth
| lbs_moore_nature_reserve_plant_list_only_v2_2018sep01.docx |
Birkenhead North and Bidston Tip
Saturday 15 September 2018
Leader: Eric Greenwood
Saturday 15 September 2018
Leader: Eric Greenwood
| lbs_field_trip_to_birkenhead_north_and_bidston_tip_15_september_2018.docx |
Eastham Country Park
Saturday 13th October 2018
Leader - Steve Cross
Seven members and friends braved the wind and rain for the fungi foray at Eastham. We found some sixty-six species of fungi and 1 slime mould. Only a few plants were still in flower including Purple Toadflax Common Ragwort, Bramble and Gorse. Grey Squirrel were common, and eight Stock Dove were seen and Jay, Nuthatch and Treecreeper heard.
Species list below
Photos by Steve Cross
Saturday 13th October 2018
Leader - Steve Cross
Seven members and friends braved the wind and rain for the fungi foray at Eastham. We found some sixty-six species of fungi and 1 slime mould. Only a few plants were still in flower including Purple Toadflax Common Ragwort, Bramble and Gorse. Grey Squirrel were common, and eight Stock Dove were seen and Jay, Nuthatch and Treecreeper heard.
Species list below
Photos by Steve Cross
| eastham_country_park.docx |
| easthamoct18.xlsx |
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2018 Field Trips slide show for AGM by Steve Cross as a pdf
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