Wildlife at Pickerings Pasture Summer

June - August

  Marsh Orchids

Many visitors to Pickerings Pasture commented on the exceptional displays of Southern Marsh Orchids in the rough grassland. The number of plants and areas where they grow are expanding year by year. Another plant doing exceptionally well is yellow rattle- a strange plant which is parasitic on grass and other plants. It will have to be watched carefully in future years in case it overruns the meadows.

By early June the first broods of great and blue tits were fledging having had a reasonable breeding season. Several nests of magpies held young and a pair of carrion crows bred in one area of woodland. A minimum of two pairs of whitethroats reared young whilst at least one of the pairs of chiffchaffs bred successfully. The pair of buzzards, which were seen displaying over the pastures, did not actually breed there although we are fairly certain they bred close by in another woodland area.

Towards the middle of June the lapwings had already started to gather on the sandbanks and by the 20th over 700 were counted. On the same day four ringed plover were present and six cormorants were back on the river.

Rabbits had been increasing rapidly in the area and causing some concern regarding their numbers, but myxymatosis struck again and many were found dead or dying.  Around this time two visitors reported seeing ten weasels together: presumably a female with young, although the number seems exceptional. Once again a fox was seen on the marsh from the bird hide.

On the 20th June Rob Smith, the ranger, saw a hobby chasing swallows over the pastures. Around this time large numbers of swifts, swallows and house martins were flying over the meadows feeding on the massive numbers of insects which were present. They were joined by black-headed gulls and on one day they were joined by a second-summer plumaged little gull, which spent some time over the first meadow.

With the occasional spells of lovely weather the butterfly numbers were very good this year, with the first broods of common blue being recorded in early June. Large numbers of both meadow browns and gatekeepers were recorded. During July numbers of red admirals, commas and a few worn painted ladies were seen but the numbers of small tortoiseshells was very poor, with a maximum of three being seen on one occasion.

  Clouded yellow

On the August 5th, Rob Smith found a male clouded yellow butterfly (a migrant from Southern Europe - see separate article) This butterfly was present until at least the August 8th, on which day small skippers were  also  seen on the pastures.

  Small Skipper

  Godwit

During late July numbers of black-tailed godwits startedappearing on the estuary and by the months end had peaked at 560; some of these birds were still in summer plumage and looked bright red in the sunshine especially when they fed close to the shore's edge. On the very high tides the flock roosted on the marsh just out from the bird hide, on one occasion 250 dunlin were also present.  A little egret and common sandpipers were seen on several occasions feeding on the scrape pool; and a kingfisher was seen by a few lucky visitors.

In early August a female peregrine again turned up and roosted on a large piece of driftwood lying on the marsh. On several occasions she was joined by a young male who was not so good at hunting, but both birds caused pandemonium when taking flight over the wader flocks both on the marsh and the estuary.

The cornfield by the ranger's cabin, whilst not looking as good as previous years, still looked well with both corn marigold and corncockle doing well. There were fewer poppies than normal. Some work needs to be done on this field, removing some of the perennial weeds to improve the cornfield plants.

  Cornfield

By mid August several migrant hawker dragonflies were being seen near the bird hide and over the scrape pool. Occasionally brown hawkers and southern hawkers were noted as well with a few common darters.

  Common Darter

One morning in late August four ravens were seen by the Ranger circling over the pastures and later they were seen on nearby Hale marsh. These could be part of the family that nested on the other side of the Mersey at Helsby. He also got quite a surprise one morning when he heard a strange harsh call from the trees in the car park, later a parakeet (probably a ring-necked parakeet) was seen flying over the pastures. On the last day of August a barnacle goose was on the marsh in front of the bird hide.

A moth trapping session will take place at Pickerings Pasture at 19.30 pm Friday September 18th.  Light traps will be set and there will be people practised in identification to help you get the most from the evening. There will also be a bat expert on hand to help you identify the bats that fly around the Pastures. We hope to see you there.