Eccleston Mere

Common Tern 2 (adult and juvenile)
Pochard 1 male
Tufted Duck 8

Autumn migration is now in full swing, Common Sandpiper yesterday and the first juvenile Common Tern today! The geese will be back soon........
Copulating Blue-tailed Damselflies.

Eccleston Mere

Common Sandpiper 1 flew from the SE corner to the island
Kingfisher 1
Mute Swan 1 adult
Coot 50

A day of bright colours on the Great Orme

On a hot sunny day in July, there is no finer place to be than perched on the edge of a sea cliff on the Great Orme, with a picnic, a camera, binoculars and pleasant like minded company. The colours are staggering. To the north, the seemingly endless blue sea stretches away into the distance, the flat calm occasionally broken by porpoise or seal, and  dotted with gulls, guillemots and razorbills. To the west the red sands of the Conwy estuary sit in front of the mighty Snowdonian mountains and the Island of Anglesey. To the east, the beautiful Victorian seaside town, Llandudno, still with its donkey rides, Punch and Judy and Grand Hotel. Llandudno heaves with tourists, yet up here on the Great Orme we sat for two hours and hardly saw a single person.

The Great Orme is hardly renowned for it's sea bird colonies, yet there are still good numbers of auks, Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Cormorants and Shags, and these are periodically scattered in all directions by the hunting pair of Peregrines in residence near the old lighthouse. I watched as the male caught prey and then handed it over in flight to the much larger female. Ravens croak overhead and if you are lucky you may also see a pair of Choughs.

Yet despite all of these wonderful views, birds and seaside attractions, I spent most of the day looking at the array of colours around my feet.  This is limestone country, and the flora and associated invertebrates are what really make this place special.


There are many spectacular seascapes on the Great Orme, whilst at your feet fly the iridescent gems which are Cistus Forrester moths. These are day time fliers which love the bright sunlight, and the Great Orme is a  good place for seeing them.



In different light conditions they appear to change colour.

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The Great Orme is home to a wide variety of butterflies, including Large Skipper (photographed here on Bloody cranesbill), but also Dark Green Fritillary, Silver-studded Blue and Grayling. Like Bloody Cranesbill, Field Scabius is a fairly common plant on the cliff edges.


Common Rockrose is a common plant on limestone, but when seen alongside Hoary Rockrose Helianthemum oelandicum, it virtually guarantees that you are in North Wales, because outside of coastal Wales, and the north in particular it is a very rare plant.


There may be no Spring Gentians on the Orme, but these Harebells did their best to make up for that!

Eccleston Mere

Gadwall 1 female
Cormorant 3 over east
Tufted Duck 2 (male and female)
Buzzard 1

Eccleston Mere

Hobby 1 hunting distantly towards Prescot Reservoirs.
Common Tern 1 adult
Oystercatcher 1
Kingfisher 1
Nuthatch 1

Rainford Mosslands

Curlew pair with 4 chicks
Oystercatcher pair with chick
Little Owl 1 Old Coach Road
Buzzard 2 Berringtons Lane, 2 Dairy Farm Road
Tree Sparrow 4 Kings Moss
Linnet 4 Catchdale Moss
Yellowhammer 2 singing Berringtons Lane

I was amazed and delighted to find the Curlews with chick, the first time I've known them to breed in St Helens.


Little Owl and Curlew chick.

Red eyes at Leg O'Mutton an Paddock Dam

About 8 Red-eyed Damselflies at Leg O'Mutton Dam, and about another 5 at Paddock Dam today. Also Brown Hawker and Emperor Dragonfly. These 2 dams are next to Taylor Park and are probably the only reliable sites in St Helens for Red-eyed Damselflies, though they have also been recorded in the Sankey Valley.



Red-eyed Damselflies are a lily pad loving species. They are annoyingly difficult to photograph because they will insist on sitting out on a lily pad in the middle of a lake. They never seem to choose the plants nearest the shore! Apart from having red eyes, they also seem to have more bulbous eyes than other damselflies, which are quite obvious even in flight.