Taylor Park

Coot 136
Tufted Duck 15
Mute Swan 3 (2ads & 1 juv.)

A pretty decent count of Coots, certainly far more than I've ever recorded at Eccleston Mere.

Common Eyelash, Eccleston Mere

Common Eyelash fungus Scutellinia scutellata growing on a fallen tree.

Hard Fern, Eccleston Mere

This is Hard Fern Blechnum spicant growing on the side of a woodland stream at Eccleston Mere. It's a relatively common fern, which I have seen in other parts of the UK, but I've never seen it in St Helens before. The internet resource NBN Gateway shows it as recorded in the Carr Mill Dam / Sankey Valley area, but I'm not aware of any recent records. It's probably just overlooked. If you look carefully at the plant, you can see that it has two distinct types of fronds ("leaves"). The sterile evergreen fronds are the shorter more robust looking, whilst the fertile fronds look longer, thin and spindley.

Birds today included 2 Bullfinches, 2 Buzzards, 9 Great crested Grebes, Kingfisher, Nuthatch and about 30 Goldfinches.

Eccleston Mere

Teal 2
Bullfinch 2
Siskin 3
Goldfinch 50
Buzzard 2
Sparrowhawk 1
Goldcrest 2

A Turkey Tail (possibly!)

I found this beautiful fungus growing on a tree stump in a garden in Lowton today. I can't decide what it is, perhaps Turkey Tail Trametes versicolor, though it doesn't look quite right to me. Whatever it is, it's a wonderful display.

Waxwings Warrington

A flock of 60 Waxwings feeding and showing well on trees around the VW garage in Warrington this afternoon. They have been present for at least five days and at times come within a few feet. Well worth a look if you haven't caught up with Waxwing yet this autumn.


When I arrived at Milner Street, the Waxwings hadn't been seen for quite a while, and there were murmurings amongst the birders present that they may have gone for good. Three or four birders even left without seeing them. However, in my experience it's not at all unusual for Waxwings to go missing for an hour or two, and there were still plenty of berries on the trees, so I decided to wait. Sure enough, after about 15 minutes I heard a familiar call overhead and 9 birds flew in and landed in a tall tree next to the car park. A couple of minutes later, a much larger flock flew in and joined them.


After a few minutes, they flew down and started feeding on the berries, almost oblivious to our presence and the comings and goings of cars in the road. Waxwings are always exciting, immaculate birds, I've never seen a grotty one, and I don't think they have juveniles! It's always a good day when you see a Waxwing.


It was a another glorious autumnal day, we've been so lucky this year, and I just love the colours in these photographs. It did occur to me when I took the photo of the VW sign that I had chopped off part of the logo, and I took several other photos with the logo intact, but unfortunately, on balance, this is the best photo of the birds, so I'm sticking with it.

Eccleston Mere

Woodcock 1 flushed from woods at the end of the stream.
Goldfinch 40
Buzzard 1
Tufted Duck 4


This is a fungus called King Alfred's Cake Daldinia concentrica. It grows primarily on fallen Ash trees, and is quite common. With Ash die back now threatening to wipe out most of our Ash trees, it's an example of how our wildlife will be adversly affected. I would guess that we can expect King Alfred's Cake to become extremely common in the short to medium term, but once the Ash trees have disappeared, the fungus will presumably become pretty rare itself. What could be more British than King Alfred's Cake, but how many people will mourn the demise of this fungus, or even notice its passing????


There were many thousands of tiny fish in the steam today, virtually the entire width of the stream for about 50 yards was crammed tight with fish!

Old Coach Road

Pink-footed Goose 5000
Peregrine 1
Fieldfare 20
Pied Wagtail 50

The geese are a very impressive sight at the moment, but the Peregrine was the highlight today, I followed it flying very high, and then watched it stoop at breathtaking speed on a group of Woodpigeons.

Eccleston Mere

Shoveler 1 male
Pochard 2 males
Tufted Duck 6
Kingfisher 1
Goldfinch 50
Goldcrest 10


Weeping Willow and Alder Carr (in the south west corner).


A great display of Rosebay Willowherb Epilobium angustifolium, gone to seed, in the south west corner, and yet another fungus.

Eccleston Mere

Looking out of the window now, it's hard to believe what a lovely pastel coloured morning it was earlier today. I think that the weather this autumn has been almost perfect, plenty of rain yes, but also nice bright sunny days to raise my spirits, and none of those long dull, drizzley periods we often get.

It was much better for birds today, waterbirds included 7 Tufted Ducks, 2 male Pochard, 2 Little Grebes and 2 adult Mute Swans. Finches included 40 Goldfinches, 3 Bullfinches and 2 Siskins. Star bird was a Water Rail in the Alder Carr in the south west corner. Just a brief view today as it legged it for cover, but nice to see the little fella back. Hopefully it will stick around all winter.



Woodpigeons are generally unappreciated, but when you get a good look at a pristine adult, they're actually quite smart looking birds. This particular individual which was having a wash in the mere set my pulse racing for a few seconds, before I got my bins onto it!

Another photo of the as yet unidentified toadstool in the south west corner. I've included this today because it was taken without the flash, and therefore shows it's more natural colour. I'm sure that it must be a pretty common species, I just need to spend a bit less time on the blog, and a bit more time looking at my books....

Eccleston Mere

I found this pink fungus growing in the south west corner today. It was about 4" diameter, but at the moment I'm not sure which species it is. Continuing the recent trend, it was almost birdless again, with only a single Buzzard being noteworthy. Ducks are completely absent at the moment, except for the ubiquitous Mallard.