Late autumn to winter sees the appearance of a number of grassland fungi, such as Waxcaps, which are very colourful and easy to spot.
The winners and runners up of the NBN Awards for Wildlife Recording 2021 were announced at an online ceremony on Wednesday 24 November 2021. Amanda Cogan Barber was announced as the runner-up of the 2021 NBN Award for Wildlife Recording - Terrestrial and Croxteth Park Volunteer Group was announced as the runner-up of the NBN Group Award 2021. These are both prestigious, annual, UK-wide awards organised by the National Biodiversity Network Trust.
The fungi season has begun in earnest. Forays with North West Fungus Group and Liverpool Botanical Society have been held. Ainsdale Sand Dunes NNR produced over sixty specimens, seven not having previously been recorded there by the Group! Stereopsis reidii was also discovered last month in Ainsdale, its only known location in the UK!
Check out this article to see what species you could find in North Merseyside.
October had a total of 16 rain-days, being wet and windy early and late in the month, with a dry 10-day period in the middle. Gales in early October blew in masses of sand, deeply burying the rich strandline vegetation at Ainsdale that I highlighted in the September notes. The associated 10m high-tides washed up drifts of seaweed, presumably from North Wales, which will provide the nutrients for next summer’s strandline plants.
As in October last year, the relatively warm weather kept insects going longer than usual.
I thought I would spend a couple of hours on 3rd September 2021 recording the variety of strandline plants north of Ainsdale-on-Sea.This habitat is the best I have seen for at least ten years.
Another month without meaningful rainfall. Nevertheless, fungi have started to show. This month Tony recorded several different species such as, Hypholoma fasciculare (Sulphur Tuft) , Leucopaxillus giganteus (Giant Funnel) , Leucopaxillus giganteus (Giant Funnel) and many more.
Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia Japonica) is a non-native invasive species, causing major issues for native species and even us!
Horticulture.co.uk have released an interactive map on it's website, which show users Japanese Knotweed records in their area, with the aim of improving public awareness and increasing data collection for Fallopia Japonica.
Recent weather has not been very good for finding fungi, however recent days have seen a marked improvement and things are starting to move. Tony discovered a local rarity, Hericium ericaeum (Lion’s Mane), in a wood in south Liverpool. This species is usually found in the south and south west of England, with very few records in our region. A great fungi find!
Local naturalist, Dave Owen, discovered a Giant Lacewing (Osmylus fulvicephalus) at Sankey Valley Country Park. This locally rare species has only been sighted once in St.Helens, back in 1988 at the Goyt woodland, Carr Mill about a mile and a half north of Sankey Valley Country Park. Hopefully more of these very impressive insects can be recorded in our area and we can begin to learn more about their distribution!
There are more Local Wildlife Sites in England than any other kind of terrestrial wildlife designation. They exist equally in our most rural and urban areas and unlike Local Nature Reserves they are designated purely on their importance for biodiversity and exist on the basis that they protect what is most important in the local area as such they are vitally important to identifying and protecting our most important areas for biodiversity...
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