Introduction


When we started walking the coast of England we had no intention that this would become a major lifetime project. Having to make a last-minute arrangement for our summer holiday in 1987, we said "Let's go to the nearest piece of coast and see how far we can walk along it." It turned out well and we started adding further stretches of coast, initially once every two years, but soon annually, or even twice a year.

We had always enjoyed the coast - there is something refreshingly "edgy" about having the sea always at our side, and one of us was into marine molluscs. We also enjoyed long-distance walking and had long been involved in general natural history recording. This project enabled us to combine all three interests.

You soon discover when embarking on a project like this that you need a few rules, which evolve from the first experiences. Our main rule was that we should walk as close to the coast as possible, which meant beach-walking whenever we could (unlike the official coast paths that largely remain above shore, recognising that at high tides the beach may be inaccessible). The route should also be capable of being a continuous walk, so that when we came to an unfordable river we walked inland along its banks to the first place at which we could cross, whether a bridge or a ferry.

We only carried light packs, so that at the end of each day's walk we had the problem of getting back to our car where we started. Initially we walked back, but soon realised we would be walking the coast twice this way! We used public transport whenever this was available - buses or trains, sometimes adjusting our start and finish points to make this easier. Failing this - and it was often not possible - we would phone for a taxi (an increasingly costly option over the years). Having our car with us gave us more freedom as to where we could stay at night - and after a day walking and only light food we were usually ready for being spoiled by a good meal and a comfortable bed! Even so, we stayed on the coast itself whenever there was a decent option.

Each walk was made for enjoyment, it was not a route-march to see how quickly we could get it finished. We therefore took it gently at times when passing through pleasant scenery or where there were many plants or creatures to record.

In terms of biological recording, we systematically noted every bird, butterfly, creature or sea-shell that we came across, sometimes spending time searching for the shells. We could not record every plant in the same way - there are too many common ones - so we were more selective, noting all coastal plants and any others that were not run-of-the-mill.

In our daily posts, edited from our original diaries, we include a star-rating from no star to **** according to our subjective estimate as to how special that day was from the point of view of natural history. This score (and our daily records) will, however, have been affected by the weather - it is difficult to appreciate the environment fully, for instance, in torrential rain, and there are many more butterflies and other insects to be seen in warm sunshine!

A summary of all our natural history records on the walk can be found using this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1LLGD55lKRHYXd1SGU1QndrcUU/edit?usp=sharing





Friday, 24 January 2014

Lancashire: Freshfield to Southport 11/6/2004****


 

Harpalus neglectus
 
Oplodontha viridula
 
Ainsdale dunes
From the station we walked north beside the railway line to the edge of Freshfield, and through a small heathland reserve, where there was an attractive hairy broom with red and yellow flowers.  We then crossed the railway to take the footpath across the golf course, where the Curtis Cup women were practising, so that we had to wait and watch while two teed off for the 3rd hole.  One of them was Hui Chong Dofflemyer, a Hawaiian reckoned of a standard to play with men, so an attendant informed us.  After this brief wait, among the surprisingly large crowd come just to watch a practice-round, we proceeded into the Ainsdale National Nature Reserve, which was here mainly wooded.  There were small-flowered sweetbriar and round-leaved dog rose just before the entrance.  The pinewood has destroyed most of the original dune flora, although the odd helleborine survived in bud and we saw a small group of common cudweed, but the wood is preserved for the red squirrels, for which this is one of their last English haunts.  We eventually saw a couple of them, although they disappeared quite quickly.  We also saw crossbills in the pines.  We continued round the outside of the reserve, entering a local nature reserve to walk towards the sea and then turn back south again, in order to explore the dune-slacks.  One had a large colony of marsh cinquefoil, which we did not see in any others.  Like the previous day we saw a great variety of uncommon plants including early, southern and northern marsh orchids, common spotted orchid (and hybrids with the marsh orchids), marsh helleborine, round-leaved wintergreen, brookweed, seaside centaury, seaside pansy, tawny sedge, dune helleborine and Grass of Parnassus.  There were also dune-inhabiting ground-beetles Harpalus neglectus and the coastal soldierfly Oplodontha viridula ('common green colonel').  We did not get all the way round this very large reserve before we needed to head across the fore-dunes to the shore and walk north up the beach to reach our destination in time, identifying shells as we went.  When we had passed the people on buggies powered by kites in the strong wind, and the Ainsdale holiday camp, we made our own way across the dunes once more to get to the road (finding many bee orchids, Pyrenean lily, and some more good dune-slacks with curled pondweed).  Crossing this road, we followed the walking trail beside it to Birkdale, passing sea holly and campion on the way, the large switchback ride of Southport’s Pleasureland visible as a sign of our destination.  From Birkdale we walked beside the road, above the beach for a while and then descended to the sand to examine an area of salt marsh on the shore.  The sea was so far out we could hardly see it, but we could see Blackpool Tower in the far distance.  When we reached the pier we walked east into the centre of town, across half a kilometre that was once sea only 40 years ago.  Now supermarkets and modern holiday facilities stand there.  There was a large marine lake with geese and swans.  Behind all these lay the strand and the large Victorian hotels that once marked the front, as Val could remember as a child.  Here there was a statue of Queen Victoria and a café QV named after her.  We had a welcome cup of coffee here before going to eat at Warehouse Brasserie, Italian-run, in West Street.  On our way out we collected obligatory pieces of Southport rock to suck on the train back to central Liverpool.

 

Round-leaved dog-rose
 
Leopard marsh orchid (hybrid)
Marsh cinquefoil
 
Marsh helleborine
Grass of Parnassus
 
Pyrenean lily
 
Red squirrel

 
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