Wildlife in Fletcher Moss Park and Gardens
Rob Pugh's 'Fletcher Moss through the seasons'
This is a new 'blog' from wildlife enthusiast Rob Pugh, who has promised to send us regular updates on what he sees and hears on his frequent visits to Fletcher Moss park. We are very interested to hear from you if you have any observations, or have any questions for Rob. Keep those mails coming in!
July 2018
This has been an amazing month for wildflowers!!
The Purple Loosestrife shows no signs of going away, even in this incredible weather we're having! It's just off the path walking toward the old grass courts from the woods. There's also a patch of Greater Birdsfoot Trefoil in the same area, it grows quite a bit higher than the more Common Birdsfoot.
Around the middle of the month I discovered Sweet Cicely, it’s just near the start of the boardwalk near the road - looks a bit like Cow Parsley, prettier and later than Cow Parsley - the flowers have a really strong smell of aniseed!! Right next to it I'm pretty sure there's some Fool’s Parsley - all these parsleys can be tricky to distinguish but the Sweet Cicely smell is a dead giveaway!
From the middle of June to the middle of July I found a lovely small flower just off the boardwalk in the damp areas, it’s Enchanter’s Nightshade. Easy to miss, but a real joy to find. It’s a member of the Willowherb family and has 2 lovely white petals tinged with pink. Widely referred to in Greek Mythology!!
It’s a great month for the Willowherbs - Rosebay, Great and Broad-leaved . It's all at Fletcher Moss!!
The woodland trees are many and varied but this is a good time for identification as there's a lot coming into fruit now and into August / September.
I particularly like the path running from the boardwalk to the river. Turn right onto the path from the boardwalk (not sharp right) and it all comes to life!
There's Ash, Silver Birch, Oak, Crack Willow, White Willow & Rowan. The Wild Cherry trees caught my attention - the bark has prominent horizontal lines. Also, easy to identify from the leaf stalk, they have 2 red glands at the base of the leaf. On this path there's also some quite young Common Alder and Grey Alder. At this time they have green fruits which will turn to brown and stay on the trees all winter. They have a cone like appearance. The grey alder leaves are paler on one side with smaller fruits. There's some much older Alders near the grass courts backing onto where the big houses are. The bark is whiter and more aged. Interestingly, wherever there's an Alder tree, there's always another one another next to it! Maybe they get lonely!!
The Bay Willows next to the boardwalk are good to see - very glossy green leaves, same shape as a bay leaf really. The trunks are very furrowed and add to the woodland magic.
June 2018
The Water Forget-me-nots are still abundant in the marshy areas off the boardwalk.
A big patch of Yellow Loosestrife facing the river - very handsome with 5 cup shaped yellow flowers.
Purple Loosestrife off the path walking toward the old grass tennis courts - a very attractive wildflower - flowers are bright purple with crumpled petals on upright spikes.
There's a patch of Meadow Cranesbill near the river - lovely purple flowers.
I've not seen Meadow Vetchling before and discovered there's plenty of it on the meadow that cuts from the end of the boardwalk right through to the river path - its quite easy to find - seems to be amongst the buttercups but if you look closely its quite different. Groups of yellow flowers with leaves as a single pair of leaflets off their stems. The bee's love them!
A friend of mine pointed out a group of grey wagtails flitting from rock to rock on the river.
Lucky to see a kingfisher!
Hogweed and Himalayan Balsam starting to appear - will be seeing a lot more I think!
Big thanks to Alan Hill for asking me to record my discoveries in these wonderful woods!
Wildlife Garden
We are very pleased by the recent joint initiative of Manchester City Council, the RSPB, Southway Housing, and the Friends' group, to set up a Wildlife Garden at Fletcher Moss Park. The start of the garden is near the gate by the small car park on Millgate Lane, to the right along the path towards the boardwalk.
A bird feeding area and 'bug hotel' are already in place, and wild flowers and wildlife-friendly plants and shrubs have been introduced for our birds, insects and small mammals. There is a path though the garden which leads on to a lovely small meadow area and then to our dipping pond.
In this section we want to to tell you what there is to see at different times of the year. But we also want you to tell us what you have seen. And we want to try our best to answer your questions.
Are you interested in wildlife? We would also like to hear from you if you want to be involved or help in any way with our wildlife garden.
You can get in touch by using the 'Contact' details on the Welcome page. We would very much like to hear from you.
There is a lot of wildlife activty to enjoy at present (Spring/Summer 2018). Take a walk through Stenner Woods, alongside the Hay Meadow and the river, and specially in the Wildlife area and bird feeding station. Click on the link below for a description of what you might come across. And please let us know if you see anything interesting, or have any questions to ask.
What to see and hear in Spring and early Summer
What to see and hear in December and January
December is a fairly quiet month for birds and insects. The main job for most birds each day is to find enough food to eat, and shelter to keep warm. Birds don't sing anything like as much now as they will be doing in spring, when they sing to establish a territory and (for males) to attract a mate. One of the birds that does sing for most of the year is the Robin, and wherever you go (even at night!) you are quite likely to hear a robin singing. If you walk through the park you will see and hear other birds too. Blue tits and Great tits are busy hunting for food and flitting through the trees. One of the loveliest songs is that of a Nuthatch, and we are fortunate to have several nuthatches in the park and Stenner Woods. Other birds you might see around are Sparrows, Blackbirds, and Thrushes (both Song Thrushes and Mistle Thrushes); if you are lucky you might spot a Treecreeper working its way up one of the trees in Stenner Woods.
On the river Mersey we are beginning to see an increasing number of Goosanders. These beautiful ducks have come to spend the winter in this area. Some of them have come from Scandinavia (Norway and Sweden), some have come from further north in Britain (north Scotland) and some have already spent the summer in the north of England. Quite often you will see a male and a female together as they are already forming bonds which they will keep when they start breeding in the spring.
You can find out more about all our birds by going to the RSPB website where they have videos and sounds of hundreds of birds:
https://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/
If you have any interesting sightings, or questions you want to ask, just use the e-mail details on the 'Welcome' page. We would very much like to hear from you.
On Thursday 10th December, Simon Gough wrote:
A nice walk down the river to Millgate Fields, hoping for some winter birds. First notable sighting was the first local flocks of Redwings I've seen this winter. I don't know about anyone else but I've seen plenty of Fieldfares and hardly any Redwings. As I walked up the (Poplar) path along the side of the rugby pitches I saw a male Bullfinch, then a female, and then another male, and eventually 5 birds materialised, 3 male and 2 female.
Next up was the main species I was hoping to spot, Siskin. Having heard a rather wan call, I noticed 2 birds, then a couple more and eventually I was sure there were 10. They were so mobile it was impossible to count them, and I had run out of fingers anyway to be fair...Some dog walkers wandered past and the flock flew off, and I counted 12 or 13 birds in the air, and 2 were left, so I ended up going with 'about 15'. Don't sign me up for any surveys I guess...
Walking back through Stenner Woods I picked up a nice Reed Bunting. What adaptable birds these seem to be. I saw one in a tree with a Yellowhammer in farm fields on Sunday, then today in woodland with Chaffinch and Great Tit. Neither of which is really what you think of as their core habitat, although to be fair in both cases some prime habitat was nearby.
Also seen, Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush, Nuthatch, Common Gull and a Cormorant over. Lots of Long-tailed Tits and Black-headed Gulls. The river was very high and I saw no Goosander, I guess they prefer shallower water?
[Thank you Simon. Have you any bird sightingings to tell us about?]
On Wednesday 16th December we had a visit from Class 4S, Broad Oak School
Class 4S came to Fletcher Moss to help us construct some bird boxes and to make and put up some bird feeders. They worked hard and enthusiastically and we were very grateful for their help. Looking after our birds in the winter is very important. Thank you very much.
Class 4S from Broad Oak School hard at work making nesting boxes for birds
On Wednesday 6th January Linda Otten saw a small flock (16-20) Siskins feeding on the alders at the side of the path (southern section) around the Hay Meadow.
Knowing more about local Wildlife
If you would like to know more about the birds of Fletcher Moss we have two information sheets. The first is mainly about the birds you will see all year round - the 'resident' birds:
Some common birds of Fletcher Moss
The second includes the 'migrant' birds - those that are not here all the year round but come here to breed in the summer, or to find food and shelter in the winter - though there are some 'resident' birds on this sheet too:
And if you want to know some of the more common butterflies of Fletcher Moss please use this link:
If you want to know more about our local wildlife and how you might be able to play your part in helping protect our wildlife at home and in the local area, click on this link:
On Saturday 30th January Alan Hill saw, near the wildlife garden: Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tit, Wren, Robins. On the boardwalk and near the dipping pond: Long-tailed Tits,Treecreeper, Jay, Nuthatch, Goldfinches, a small flock of Redwings, Thrush. Parakeets heard but not seen. Another birdwatcher reported having seen a Goldcrest.