Dr Phil Smith’s Wildlife Notes
May 2025

With high pressure dominating for all but the last week, May continued the dry, warm and sunny theme of February, March and April. Overall, the Met. Office tells us that the spring was the warmest ever recorded in the UK and the second driest in England. Rachael Parks measured only 42 mm of rainfall in her Formby garden compared to an average of about 62 mm for May. Our sand-dune water-table fell by 13 cm during the month and an official drought for the Northwest of England was declared by the Environment Agency. Reservoirs in the region were at historic low levels for the time of year.

One of the results of the warmth were infestations of aphids and whitefly which flew up in clouds as I pushed through scrub during my duneland walks. Their predators responded, with larvae of the Harlequin Ladybird much more frequent than usual.

It seems to have been another poor breeding season for Natterjack Toads. They don’t like spring droughts, as the shallow water used for spawning soon dries up. Such was the fate of 1000+ tadpoles at the Devil’s Hole slacks on 9^th, while up to up to six Four-spotted Chaser dragonflies dashed about over what little water remained.

As mentioned in April, many insects, appeared much earlier than usual due to the warm conditions. My earliest ever Banded Demoiselles were flying at Alt Bridge on Downholland Brook on 1^st May. These spectacular creatures usually appear here about three weeks later. My highest count was 25 over a distance of about 100 m on 16^th. Similarly, the colourful Large Red Damselfly showed well at Alt Bridge throughout the month, with a peak of 32 on 8^th. This is a fairly recent colonist, my first here being as recently as May 2019. Hoverflies at the same place included an exceptionally early Black-horned Smoothtail on 5th. It usually flies in high summer.

In defiance of the drought, Hawthorn put on a tremendous, if short-lived, floral display. A pink-flowered form at Ravenmeols was particularly attractive to insects, a highlight on 4^th being a Plain-winged Spring Beegrabber. New to me, this mainly southern species has only one or two previous Sefton records. This was a hectic visit with a wide variety of insects to photograph on the south-facing woodland edge, including my first Azure Damselflies of the year, a Spring Heath Robberfly and a female Coastal Silver Stiletto amongst others. Butterflies were represented by lots of Speckled Woods, Common Blues, Orange Tips and a Peacock. That Sefton Coast speciality, the Spring Heath Robberfly, turned up several times during the month, including a mating pair at Sands Lake on 7th

Two days later, another new ‘tick’ was an Ant Beetle spotted by Robert Freeth on a pine trunk at Ravenmeols. It eats bark-beetles and is said to mimic the Velvet Ant, actually a solitary wasp with a fearsome sting. The same tree trunk had three of the rare, russet-coloured, Pine Long-horned Hoverfly.Fifteen years ago, it was confined to the Caledonian pine forests of the Scottish Highlands but has since spread into England. Pete Kinsella first found it at Ravenmeols in 2020 and has since recorded it widely in the dune pinewoods. I visited the same area on 15^th, initially seeing very little. As often happens these days, I forgot to pick up my rucksack and walked on. Realising my mistake after about 200 m, I dashed back to collect the bag and was rewarded with several choice insects, including two Pine Long-horns, a Spring Heath Robberfly my first adult Field Grasshopper of the season and two of the less common hoverflies, a Swamp Thickleg, and one of the Pitheads.

As usual, Sands Lake at Ainsdale was excellent for wetland hoverflies, highlights including Stripeback, Dimorphic Bumblefly and Dark-winged Wrinklehead, the latter having incredibly red eyes. Alerted by Pete Kinsella, I also searched successfully for the Crimson-belted Leafwalker, a spectacular hoverfly that doesn’t hover but runs about on leaves, feeding on honeydew and pollen. Until Pete found it recently at Sands Lake, it hadn’t been seen on the Sefton Coast since the 1950s.

A rather strange request led to a guided walk on 17^th for a group of vets from Scotland. I took them to the Devil’s Hole, where I described the fascinating landscape history of the area and showed them several splendid Southern Marsh-orchids. As a bonus they bought eight copies of my books!

On 23^rd I joined a group of insect experts at Hightown dunes on a field visit organised by the Tanyptera Project at World Museum Liverpool. They particularly wanted to see the Tawny Cockroach recorded here several years ago by Tony Hunter. I knew the exact spot and, sure enough, we found one! This small native cockroach is extremely rare away from its headquarters in southern England. I was also delighted to photograph a Stripe-legged Robberfly in the same place. The eagle-eyed Phil Brighton found a new fly for Britain! Whatever next?!