Natural England - Ainsdale: what makes it special?

Ainsdale: what makes it special?

Sand dune habitats support a unique flora and fauna, including many rare, specialist species that cannot survive elsewhere.

In total, around 460 species of flowering plant have been recorded at the reserve, along with over 400 species of invertebrate and almost 800 species of fungi.

The beach supports large numbers of wading birds throughout the autumn and winter, feeding on the rich pickings of crab, molluscs and sea urchins washed up onto the strandline.

The high frontal dune ridges, or yellow dunes, provide a magnificent backdrop to the sea views across Liverpool Bay, as well as forming a crucial first line of defence against the rising tides. Sand lizards find their home here amongst the marram grass, sea holly and lyme grass, where there is plenty of bare sand for them to lay their eggs in the spring.

The mobile yellow dunes soon give way to older, more vegetated dunes, also known as grey dunes. The dune grasslands support a wide variety of life, including spiders, grasshoppers and specialist beetles.

Old asparagus plants can be found amongst the grasses and creeping willows, along with the distinctive black and red asparagus beetle. Rabbits graze these dunes, providing a constant supply of fresh sand dug up from their burrows.

Two particularly rare creatures, the northern dune tiger beetle and the mining bee, rely on these bare sand patches for their own burrows, as well as for the warmth provided by the sun kissed sand in spring and summer.

Plants found in these areas include biting stonecrop, sticky stork’s-bill and heath dog violet, which is often accompanied by the caterpillar of the dark green fritillary.

In between the ridges and dry dune grasslands are damper valleys, or dune slacks, one of the most important and diverse features of the reserve. Around 40% of the all the dune slacks in England are found on the Sefton Coast.

The slacks are often flooded in the winter, and the pools provide spring breeding grounds for natterjack toads, as well as great-crested newts and many species of dragonflies. The toads’ distinctive call can be heard for miles around.

As the pools dry up during the summer they are replaced by carpets of orchids, and other rare flowers such as seaside centaury, yellow bartsia, bog pimpernel and round leaved wintergreen.

The pinewoods, which are the remains of commercial plantations, are in stark contrast to the open dune and provide shelter from the sea breezes and shade from the sun. The woodlands are dominated by Corsican pine, interspersed with areas of wet woodland, alder beds and scrub.

The pines are home to the endearing red squirrel, a species increasingly under threat from encroaching grey squirrels which carry and transmit diseases to the red populations.

Amongst the trees, particularly where some sunlight is able to penetrate the canopy, dune and green flowered helleborine can be found. The pinewoods are also full of fungi in the autumn, offering a fascinating new world of dead man’s fingers, plums and custard and blueleg brownies!