I visited the newly revamped and very recently opened Festival Gardens on Sunday, and what a brilliant job they have done with it, it is regrettable that in order for this to happen a percentage of the former festival gardens site has been sold off for development, but positives must be gained from negatives. The site consists of formal oriental gardens and open areas; great for families and day trippers, but the site also consists of wilder areas of semi mature woodland and meadowland, plus an impressive string of lakes that flow through the area. Although the park was very busy I still managed to find a Kestrel, Buzzard, plenty of Swifts and House Martins, Whitethroat, and singing Chiff Chaffs and Blackcaps, the tide was high at the time but at low tide the area leads on to the promenade and the shore which at low tide should hold plenty of goodies! Apart from birds; insects where evident with Small Copper, Common Blue, and Speckled Wood but best of all the Dragonfly's and Damselfly's which consisted of Blue Tailed Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly, Variable Damselfly, Common Darters and best of all 2 male and 1 female Black Tailed Skimmer. I have seen Black Tailed Skimmers in the area now for three summers in Sefton Park and seeing them here suggests that this species which is rapidly moving North is now a breeding species in the South Liverpool area. I later had another Black Tailed Skimmer on Sefton Park main lake. Click on the following link for more information on the Festival Gardens.
Last Thursday night on Penny Lane Pipistrelle Bats where flying at dusk around the North end of the lane, and what looked like a slightly larger Brown Long-Eared Bat flying around the corner of Penny Lane and Dovedale Road. Further down Penny Lane on the edge of the Cricket Pitch and railway a Vixen was accompanied by her three cubs, a brilliant sight as they slowly emerged from cover and walked out onto the pitch; the Vixen foraging as the cubs spent more time fighting and causing havock! At the bottom of Penny Lane more Pipistrelles could be seen hunting moths (of which two Swallowtail Moths could easily be identified) and another adult Fox crossed my path. When passing Greenbank Park another adult Fox was mooching around and another two well grown youngsters nearby........... I have never seen so many in such a short space of time.
In Wavertree Mystery Park yesterday I was very surprised to find what looked like a Hooded Crow, unfortunately I didn't have my camera or binoculars but I did get quite close and the bird looked more like a hybrid Hooded Crow X Carrion Crow a very unusual bird in the area, and possibly the offspring of a Hooded Crow that infamously bred with Carrion Crows in the Anfield Cemetery area, but this was over ten years ago; however the Crow family are long lived so it could be possible, the nearest other breeding or interbreeding Hooded Crows are in Holyhead and the Isle Of Man! Elsewhere in the park Chiff Chaff is still in song, plenty of Swallows and a lone Sand Martin was a rare sighting, numbers of Gulls are now starting to return......it is autumn for them now! Coming out of the park I was startled to see a Fox cub running up Wellington Road under the railway bridge in the middle of the day! After zig-zagging over the main road a few times and narrowly being missed by traffic it was in a frantic state,I followed it down the road and ushered it into the royal mail compound where I watched it head for the railway embankment, I recon it would have been okay from there as the den is not far away....fingers crossed.
In Sefton Park yesterday a Peregrine spooked the local pigeons as it shot through heading South over the South end of the Marine Lake, the Little Grebe nesting attempt appears to have failed again, as the water levels rose following the heavy rains the nest seems to have been washed away.........but I would love to be proved wrong. The family of Mute Swans snoozed on the island and large Carp could be seen surfacing around the South end of the lake. In the dell a Chiff Chaff was in song along with a Grey Wagtail, and a family of Nuthatch. Two immature Grey Herons were fishing around the bandstand area and allowed every close approach (always when I haven't got my camera), in the lake behind the cafe a family of Canada Geese have three young; which is a very rare sight in the park.
