A day of feathered friends and squirrels! Through the Wallasey tunnel, £1.30 these days, and parked in Ashville Road between the lower and upper Park.The first wildlife were squirrels spotted by Chris as we walked around the first lake. The geese, see above, were cropping the banks of the lake and, apart from an initial interest to see if we had bread, were not bothered by our presence in any way. Further on we were greeted by a variety of ducks and their young...
Convinced we did have food. The ducklings left positive bow waves as they dashed across the lake. Chris kept telling them we didn't have anything for them (as if they understood!)Back onto the perimeter road to the gates between Kemp's House (whoever Kemp was/is!) and the Castellated lodge. The next part was surprisingly rural, eventually crossing Wirral Ladies Golf Course (I'll resist any comments) and onwards to Storeton Ridge. The views were surposed to be of the "Wirral Peninsula and the Dee Estuary over to the hills of North Wales". Perhaps in winter this may be the case but at this time of year the hedges/trees etc blocked any view.Down through modern housing we then headed back up the hill to get confused by the written directions (outside St Saviour's Church). The problem was, the writer of the guide gave the wrong name for the road! Very annoying! That sorted we went on our way through Oxton Village, which is a conservation area; disappointing as again the write-up suggested it would be more impressive than it was. Perhaps we are getting too critical, having seen so many nice villages/conservation areas. Don't get me wrong, there are some wonderful buildings along the walk but many are looking 'tired'. Down Christchurch Road past
Christ Church, on our right; in the distance Chris spotted St John's Tower (Liverpool); if you look carefully you will see it on the horizon.The next port of call was the Williamson Art Gallery; not been before and well worth a visit. On permanent display are Victorian oil paintings, English watercolours, Liverpool Porcelain and Della Robbia Pottery. A range of collections: from local history and ship models to fine decorative arts, part of the Merseyside Embroidery Trail and a display of wildlife photography were the highlights
Back into Birkenhead Park, via the gate next to the Italian Lodge, we passed the wildlife pond and went around the lower lake with views of the Swiss bridge...
and the boat house...
Squirrels and pigeons, which for some reason Chris kept calling penguins, competed for bread...
...and generally kept us amused until we reached the new "Visitors' Pavilion" with their formal gardens...
They reminded me of the Abbey Gardens in Bury St Edmunds (My home Town!) After a drink in the pavilion (Chris also had toasted tea-cakes) we headed back to the car and home.The walk made me realise how wealthy the area had been in the past and it was nice to see attempts to revitalise the park. Many of the 'mansions' were now converted into flats and, as I've already said, many of what were fine buildings were looking tired!
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