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.
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“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.
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Latest Wildlife Notes
Dr Phil Smith’s Wildlife Notes
JUNE 2025
Thankfully, the longest spring drought in living memory came to an end in June, with Formby experiencing 17 rain-days, giving a rainfall total of about 112mm at Rachael Park’s rain-gauge. This is around 40% more than the average for the month. It was the warmest June on record in England, though we largely escaped the two major heat-waves experienced in the south and east. Relative warmth and brisk winds meant that the sand-dune water-table fell by about 11 cm.
When I checked on 6th, the earlier drought had burnt off all the rare clovers that were such a feature last year on the Thornbeck Avenue verges, Hightown. As reported in May, many of our sand-dune plants flowered early. Usually seen in July, the first Evening-primroses were out by 5th, while most of the Sea-holly Broomrapes at Crosby Coastal Park were already over when I called in to see them on 16th. Steve Cross counted over 3700 broomrapes but there was no sign of the unique yellow form we found last year. The Coastal Park is a wonderful place for other notable plants. Dune Wormwood (two British localities) was showing lots of vigorous young shoots, the British endemic Isle of Man Cabbage was in full flower, while a patch of the Red-listed ‘Vulnerable’ Strawberry Clover, near the boating lake, was a new site record. I also counted 422 magenta spikes of Southern Marsh-orchids, though this was far fewer than the 1386 last year, probably because of the dry spring. However, Southern and brick-red Early Marsh-orchids elsewhere on the dune coast put on a spectacular show as usual, with the pale, frilly Marsh Helleborines taking over later in the month.
Having been alerted by Steve Cross and Robert Freeth, I hastened to Birkdale Common on 13th to see a new plant for me – the yellow-flowered Hoary Cinquefoil. It had been known from the Common for many years but it took a careful search by members of the Liverpool Botanical Society to re-discover it. With its unusual dark-red flowers, the related but much commoner Marsh Cinquefoil was easier to find on the Green Beach and in a slack north of Sands Lake, Ainsdale.
On 27th, Steve and Robert, together with Joyce and David Jarvis, joined me for the start of a survey of Baltic Rush in the Birkdale frontal dunes, its only locality in England. Otherwise, the nearest place for it is about 200 miles away in Scotland. This distinctive rush, with chocolate-brown flowers and fruits, was discovered here in 1913 by R.S. Adamson. Previous surveys in 1981/82, 2004, 2015 and 2022 showed that the rush was a good coloniser of young, sparsely vegetated slacks but was very susceptible to scrub invasion and the spread of tall plants, such as Common Reed. Our results will be reported in due course and written up for publication.
Several visits to the Devil’s Hole at Ravenmeols were invariably rewarding, with abundant Marsh-orchids and the first flowers of Grass-of-Parnassus. Most surprising was an immature Great Crested Newt under a piece of wood, the first I have seen here.
The warm and damp weather was just what the doctor ordered for the amazing Sefton Coast insects. In May, I mentioned that larvae of the non-native Harlequin Ladybirds were more numerous than usual. Enormous numbers of pupae and adults soon followed. I even found one larva eating a pupa of the same species. Dark Green Fritillaries were emerging at the start of the month; I caught up with two of these beauties on 4th at Ainsdale National Nature Reserve. Second-brood Speckled Woods were on woodland edges everywhere. The ‘Ringlet glade’ at Ravenmeols produced plenty of its namesake, my highest count being 31 Ringlets on 26th. These fairly recent colonists are becoming increasingly widespread on the Sefton Coast. Hogweed flowers attracted several of the weird-looking Carrot Wasp, which holds its abdomen in a strange upright position. The female has a long white-tipped ovipositor used for depositing eggs in the nests of solitary bees and wasps. Distribution maps suggest it doesn’t occur on the Sefton Coast but I have recorded it at least once before.
Downholland Brook at Alt Bridge, Formby, is renowned for its superb Banded Demoiselles. They were present throughout the month, my latest being seven on 28th. Earlier in the month, Large Red, Azure and Blue-tailed Damselflies also graced the brook’s marginal vegetation, in which I spotted a female Broad-bodied Chaser and my second ever Stilt-legged Fly. A Spear Thistle on the outskirts of Formby attracted a large solitary bee that was identified by bee expert, Ben Hargreaves, as a Wood-carving Leaf-cutter Bee, a southern species known for our region only since 2016.
Finally, back to the ‘Ringlet Glade’ on the 30th for June’s highlight, my first ever Musk Beetle. One of the largest of the Longhorn family, this stunning insect in metallic British racing-green is local in the UK, its larvae feeding in the young stems of willows. There are several previous records for the Sefton Coast but most are decades old.