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.
With the Latest Wildlife Notes and Wildlife Notes 2012 onwards it is possible to click or tap on a thumbnail image in the document and view an enlarged image in stunning close up detail. Best viewed on a larger screen
To view previous monthly wildlife notes please click HERE
“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.
To view please click here (pdf opens in a new tab)
Latest Wildlife Notes
Dr Phil Smith’s Wildlife Notes
FEBRUARY 2026
A strange month weather-wise; it was the fourth warmest February on record for England, with very few frosty mornings and no snow at all in Formby. Rainfall varied widely in different regions of the UK, several having a deluge. In contrast, Met. Office maps showed the Northwest of England had average or slightly below average rainfall, this being in accordance with Rachael Parks’ Formby data. She recorded 82.5 mm in her garden; about normal for the month, though as many as 17 days with measurable precipitation reflected the mainly cloudy, damp conditions. The sand-dune water-table rose by only about 2 cm.
The damp weather was ideal for mosses and liverworts. Having rather neglected them during the winter, I visited Lifeboat Road at Formby Point on 3rd to reacquaint myself with two of our most spectacular bryophytes, the appropriately-named Big Shaggy-moss and Little Shaggy-moss, both of which grow abundantly with the much commoner Broom Fork-moss on a west-facing wooded slope. Two Crossbills flew over calling and a noisy flock of 150 Jackdaws gathered in the pines. Both Missel Thrush and Song Thrush were singing in the distance. A few days later, the woodland Oaks at Freshfield Dune Heath Nature Reserve were covered in mosses, especially the distinctive Mamillate Plait-moss which, though widespread inland, is scarce on the coast.
Reports of an influx of White-fronted Geese saw me driving across the mosses several times during the first half of the month, searching for flocks of geese. Both Plex Moss and Altcar Moss supported large flocks of Pink-footed Geese, which will usually tolerate a car down to about 200 m but not someone on foot, as they are shot for sport over most their range. Totalling over 5000 birds, most of the flocks I found were too distant to search and I didn’t spot any White-fronts with my telescope. Nevertheless, the grey hordes of Pinkfeet were an impressive sight and sound; we are incredibly lucky to have them wintering here. Plex Moss also had a flock of 80-90 Greylag Geese. We often get the odd one or two with the Pinkfeet but this many was unexpected. No doubt they were feral birds from Southport Marine Lake and/or Marshside. A group of six Whooper Swans, also on Plex Moss, was a bonus, while flocks of gulls following the plough included several hundred Common Gulls on their return migration north.
Cabin Hill National Nature Reserve had only three Snipe on 17th; I have mentioned before in these notes the apparent decline of this species. However, my first Skylark of the spring was singing over the open dunes, while a pair of Buzzards were thinking about nesting. Cabin Hill Wood had its usual spectacular display of Snowdrops. About 50 Herdwick Sheep from Cumbria were too busy nibbling the reserve’s grassy sward to take much notice of me.
Visible from the Hightown side of the R. Alt, the high-tide wader roost on the Altcar Rifle Range shore held 800 Oystercatchers and 100 Redshanks on 22nd, while a flock of about 5000 Knot wheeled around in the far distance. Despite warning flags and regular gunfire, five lads on bikes flushed the entire roost before being escourted off by Range Security.
I made a couple of trips to Ainsdale Sandhills Local Nature Reserve to check out the impressive amount of scrub clearance work completed by Green Sefton contractors during the winter period. They mainly removed Sea Buckthorn and birch scrub that was invading and dominating the seasonally-flooded dune slacks. The contractors had evidently done a great job, also creating lots of bare sand for dune specialists. However, I was concerned that the nationally rare Don’s Willow might have fallen foul of the big machines. Happily, all four bushes in the affected area had been marked with tape by Green Sefton staff and were fine. I had, of course, provided a map earlier showing their positions. Similar work had been carried out at Hightown dunes, getting rid of several enormous old clumps of Sea Buckthorn. Again, several Don’s Willow bushes had been avoided. Even better, I found a new bush not previously recorded. I don’t know how I missed it before, as I must have walked past it dozens of times. I shared my exciting discovery with a passing dog-walker, who probably wondered what all the fuss was about.
The ‘Buckthorn Bashers’ met on the afternoon of 26th February for the 17th and last time this season Thirty-eight volunteers, including 13 new recruits, took part at an average of 15 per event, totalling 486 volunteer hours. An outstanding effort by all concerned.
On the last day of the month, Common Toads were spawning in a scrape at Hightown dunes, while the first Dandelions were in flower nearby. Spring has arrived at last!