Group In The Sand DunesToday's trip was to a favourite site, Sefton Coast, and to a special friend of BEES, Pat Lockwood. We had planned to visit a different part of the coast from previous visits but Pat had found that a recent dry spell of weather meant that the Spring annuals that she had wanted to show us were over but she found them in a spot previously visited. A full minibus left Bradford and journeyed to Formby in the hope that we might avoid the forecast rain showers and was welcomed by Pat at her home where we ate our lunch sandwiches in the company of local expert Philip Smith who was again to be our guide for the day.
The showers started as we left for the coast and persisted throughout the afternoon but were never heavy enough to spoil our enjoyment of the many plants that were on display. Joan recorded 58 plants in flower together with four ferns. Of special interest were Spring Beauty, Dune Pansy, Early Forget-me-not, Hound's-tongue, Sea Pea, Lamb's Lettuce, Portland Spurge, Marsh Pennywort, Curled Dock and various rare grasses including Early Hair Grass. Heath Dog-violet was abundant and Milkwort was found in three different colours; white, blue and mauve - the first time that Joan had come across all three on the same site. This is the location of the very rare Creeping Willow hybrid Salix x Friesiana (of which we were able to see examples in Pat's garden!)
Creeping Willow was also abundant on the dunes and supported large numbers of White Satin Moth caterpillars. One Angle Shades caterpillar was also recorded and one Northern Tiger Dune Beetle to the delight of John. The natterjack toads, however, kept out of sight on this occasion!
Whilst most members were enthralled with the botanical delights of the site one or two set out to discover what bird life there might be around and we managed to record 29 species including whitethroat, stonechat, reed bunting and both sedge and reed warbler.
After an interesting afternoon in the field we returned to Pat's house for tea and cakes, several of which had been baked by group members for which we were very grateful and so it was a contented group which returned to Bradford in the early evening. Many thanks to Joan and her friend Pat for the organisation of the day and for Pat's splendid hospitality, to Julia and Robert for the driving and to Sue who stuck to her photography duties despite suffering the ravages of jet-lag after her recent return from China.
See the photos here.
Stuart