Eccleston Mere

Goldfinch 40
Goldcrest 3
Buzzard 1

A very quiet day at the mere. Just waiting for something to happen......


Jelly Ear Auricularia auricula-judae, a very attractive fungus growing on Elder.


Lichen growing on Hawthorne.

Old Coach Road

Peregrine 1 adult
Raven 1
Pink-footed Goose 2000
Pied Wagtail 100
Fieldfare 20
Redwing 20
Goldcrest 5



The Old Coach Road runs through large swathes of farmland, the southern most end of the Lancashire mosses. Amazing to think that much of this photograph is in St Helens.

Frodsham to Helsby

Today we parked the car at Beacon car park on Frodsham Hill and walked part of the Sandstone trail towards Alvanley, and then made our way over Helsby Hill and back through Woodhouses and Foxhill arboretum. It was another beautiful autumnal day, our Sunday walks certainly seem to be blessed at the moment! There was plenty of bird activity, with lots of Goldcrests, Nuthatches, Redwings and tits, and larger birds included Raven and Buzzard.


We sat on a bench in a beautiful sunny glade in the middle of an ancient woodland and ate our lunch. It was almost like summer again in this sheltered spot, with warm sunshine and Robins and Wrens singing. I found this interesting looking green fungus under an Oak tree, which looks like Common Earthball Scleroderma citrinum, though that species isn't normally green.


Also basking in the sunshine were a couple of Comma butterflies and this old female Common Darter. In fact there was plenty of insect activity in the glade, with lots of hoverflies feeding on the ivy flowers.


This is a good time of year to see bracket fungus, and Birch Polypore Piptoporus betulinus is one of the commonest. The brown fungus is (I think!) Southern Bracket Ganoderma australe and is one of the largest I have ever seen, approximately 60cm across!

Old Coach Road

At least 5000 Pink-footed Geese roosting on Simonswood Moss. It's difficult to view this area because it's quite distant and very low lying, and at best you can only see the tops of the birds heads. It's perfectly possible therefore that there were many more than 5000 birds.


Pink-footed Geese over the Old Coach Road and thousands roosting on Simonswood Moss (behind the cows!). Although Pink-footed Geese have been in the Rainford area for as long as I can remember, Simonswood Moss is a relatively new roost site, and was created by peat extraction.

Eccleston Mere

Gadwall 1 female
Mute Swan 2 adults
Tufted Duck 7
Little Grebe 2
Great crested Grebe 8
Willow Tit 1
Siskin 2
Lesser Redpoll 1
Goldfinch 50
Goldcrest 5
Redwing 10
Buzzard 1
Kingfisher 1

Mosslands birding

This morning I was out early on the mosslands between Ormskirk and Southport. Loads of Pink-footed Geese about, also plenty of Fieldfares and Redwings. Best of all, I watched a Barn Owl for several minutes hunting along a ditch, and then later in the same area, a ringtail Hen Harrier. A beautiful morning, but very chilly!

Eccleston Mere

Pochard 1 male
Tufted Duck 7
Teal 1
Redwing 10
Goldcrest 1
Goldfinch 20
Rain (lots)


This magnificent winter plumage adult Lesser Black Backed Gull has been on the mere for several days now. Adults in summer plumage are immaculate birds I think, and one of the first signs of spring, but this is one of the best marked winter birds I've seen on the mere for a long time. If only I knew a bit more about gull id, I'd probably claim it as something else! It's a mean looking critter!

Springtails (collembola)

I was at a springtail (collembola) workshop at Edge Hill University today. It was to test a new key to springtails which will be published shortly and will help people to identify them to family.

I've worked with springtails before from the Ribble, but only with dead specimens. Today we collected live specimens from the leaf litter at Edge Hill, and it was a delight to watch them through a binocular microscope, charging around a petri dish. All of the photos below are from Edge Hill apart from the last.

The appendage which allows the springtail to "spring" is known as the furca and looks like a tail when the animal is dead, but in life it is tucked under the springtails body, ready for action should the creature be threatened. Springtails also have a ventral tube, which is on their tummy (the first abdominal segment) and is used to help regulate water and for self-righting when the springtail is upside down.

There can be up to 2 million individuals per cubic metre of soil.


Dicyrtomina minuta (yellowish with a black spot) and Orchisella villosa (the large brown hairy one). Dicyrtomina minuta is about 1.5mm long.


Dicyrtomina saundersi from above, with the furca extended behind like a tail, and from below with the furca tucked under the body in the "ready to spring" position.


Orchisella villosa with Dicyrtomina saundersi, and Dicyrtoma fusca (the purple one).


Tomocerus longicornis from Crossens Marsh, Ribble Estuary.

Rainford Mosslands

Pink-footed Goose 2000 Old Coach Road, 2000 Dairy Farm Road,500 over Catchdale Moss.
Fieldfare 100 Old Coach Road, 30 Dairy Farm Road, 20 Green Lane, Catchdale Moss.
Redwing 30 Dairy Farm Road, 50 Old Coach Road, 20 Green Lane, Catchdale Moss.
Golden Plover 1 flew over Old Coach Road.
Pied Wagtail 150 Clare's Moss, Old Coach Road.
Buzzard 2 Old Coach Road, 2 Dairy Farm Road.

Dragonflies: 1 Southern Hawker Old Coach Road.

I'm not sure where the wagtail flock has been hiding for the past couple of weeks, but it was back today in even larger numbers!


Green Lane, Catchdale Moss and Billinge Hill from Green Lane.

Eccleston Mere

Redwing 50
Fieldfare 10
Blackbird 50
Song Thrush 2
Mistle Thrush 1
Pink-footed Goose 800 flew over
Peregrine 1
Siskin 3
Goldfinch 50
Bullfinch 2
Kingfisher 1
Goldcrest 2

A beautiful morning at Eccleston Mere, the thrush flock in the western hedge is an impressive sight at the moment, with loads of birds moving through and along  the hedge, and the air is full of cackles, ticks and seeps.

Peregrine on a pylon (photo taken a couple of days ago).

Queens Park

Pink-footed Goose 120 flew over heading south.