Wildlife Notes
Dr Phil Smith is a retired biology lecturer who was a Trustee of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust from 1970 to 2010. He has wide natural history interests, being especially enthusiastic about the flora and fauna of sand-dunes and salt-marshes. Spending much of his time on biological surveys to promote the understanding and conservation of Northwest wildlife, Phil is also a keen photographer.
In 2002, he was awarded an MBE for services to nature conservation. Phil has written over 300 scientific reports, articles and papers and two books, including The Sands of Time Revisited (2009) describing the history and natural history of the Sefton Coast sand-dunes.
In the series of monthly articles Phil describes some of the highlights of a life spent amongst nature in Merseyside.
With the Latest Wildlife Notes and Wildlife Notes 2012 onwards it is possible to click or tap on a thumbnail image in the document and view an enlarged image in stunning close up detail. Best viewed on a larger screen
To view previous monthly wildlife notes please click HERE
“The History of Human Influence on the Sefton Coast”
Dr. Phil Smith has provided an updated and fascinating (44 page) report
supported with a wide variety of fascinating images for our Civic Society pages.
To view please click here (pdf opens in a new tab)
Latest Wildlife Notes
Dr Phil Smith’s Wildlife Notes
JULY 2026
In my notes for June this year, I described various heatwaves, concluding with “There could be more to come.” That prediction became abundantly true; the Met. Office described July as “A remarkable month.” England and Wales had the driest July since records began 190 years ago! This was coupled with exceptional warmth. Formby had measurable rain on only five days, totalling 7 mm, compared with an average for the month of around 100 mm. Here, the sand dune water-table fell by about 17 cm. More than half of England and the whole of Wales were officially in drought, with severe impacts on agriculture and water-supply. Wild fires devastated many of the country’s most important wildlife sites, though, so far, the Sefton Coast seems to have escaped.
Locally, dune ridges, road verges and lawns were scorched yellow. Even hardy brambles started to die off. Fortunately, the dune slacks retained sufficient soil moisture to support a rich flora but with earlier and shorter flowering seasons. Thus, the first flowers of Grass-of-Parnassus, a Sefton Coast speciality, appeared on 1st July, several weeks early. On 4th, I joined Lancashire Botanical Society, led by Steve Cross, on a field visit to Crosby Coastal Park, a prime locality for unusual plants. Several new ones were added to the already impressive park list, including a rare and attractive garden-escape, the Round-headed Leek. Later in the month, I found about 50 plants of the uncommon Yellow Bartsia in a scrub-cleared slack at Ainsdale Sandhills Local Nature Reserve. Similar habitat nearby on Falklands Way, Ainsdale, was a riot of colour, with Creeping Thistle, Common Fleabane, Common Ragwort and Water Mint attracting hordes of butterflies. Nearby, I was delighted to find that several bushes of the extremely rare Don’s Willow that were cut down by mistake during the winter had vigorously resprouted to a height of about 2 m.
On one of my regular recording trips to the Green Beach north of Ainsdale-on-Sea, I bumped into two lady botanists from Wirral enjoying their first visit to the Sefton dunes. They had picked a wonderfully diverse area, so I was able to show them many of our special dune plants, including the nationally rare Sea-holly Broomrape, which was new to them.
Otherwise, the month belonged to insects that like it hot, though most of the main highlights passed me by. An extraordinary discovery by Pete Kinsella was of an enormous Oriental Hornet on Fennel at Crosby Coastal Park. With only three previous British records, this impressive creature is spreading from its usual home in Asia and Africa. It is known to stow away in cargo ships, which is probably how it got to Crosby. Another excellent find was an Essex Skipper at Marshside on 3rd, possibly the first for north Merseyside of this southern butterfly that has been rapidly moving north. John Dempsey’s photos show the black underside to the antennal club which separates it from the Small Skipper. Pete Kinsella also located several Essex Skippers at Crosby Coastal Park but I failed to find any during my duneland walks. Frustratingly, I also missed an influx of Clouded Yellows from continental Europe, many being spotted on the Ribble Estuary sea-banks, together with a few elsewhere. Nationally, 2026 appears to be a “Clouded Yellow year”.
Early in the month, up to 12 Ringlets were still in their Ravenmeols glade, while another spectacular Golden-bloomed Grey Longhorn beetle was basking on bramble leaves. By 8th, the Ringlets had been replaced by dozens of Gatekeepers, flying up in clouds at every step, soon to be joined by equally numerous Meadow Browns. The same place provided several Small Coppers, Small Skippers and Common Blues and I also spotted one of my favourite hoverflies, the Hook-banded Meadow Fly. The following day, there were still several Banded Demoiselles at Alt Bridge while a massive female Southern Hawker was bombing around at high speed. I potted a Notch-horned Cleg about to sink its mandibles into my hand. These small horseflies make interesting subjects for photography because of their colourful eyes. Graylings hatched at Freshfield Dune Heath Nature Reserve on the early date of 13th July, while I saw the first red-and-black Six-spot Burnet moths on 17th. These soon became abundant, Pete Kinsella counting 833 at Crosby Coastal Park ten days later. It seems to have been a good summer for Red Admirals, Peacocks and Painted Ladies but I saw only one Small Tortoiseshell. Sadly, this previously common butterfly has suffered an 88% national decline since 1976. The Tanyptera Trust organised an entomological field trip to Freshfield Dune Heath on 24th. Although it was cool and cloudy, I found some interesting insects, including several Heather Colletes bees, a Coastal Leafcutter bee and a likely first for the Sefton Coast of a mainly southern Acorn Weevil Curculio venosus.
Invasive non-native plants are a constant menace on the sand dunes and I began a mapping exercise on the latest problem species, Broad-leaved Everlasting-pea, which has exploded in the last few years. With permission, Tony Doyle flew a drone over one of the worst affected areas, taking a large number of high-resolution photos to help with the project. Once we know how much of it there is, we can think about a possible control programme.