From the 1st tee, singing SKYLARKS overhead welcome the visitor to Royal Birkdale. This bird is declining dramatically throughout Europe, but is still frequently observed over the open dune grasslands of the Sefton Coast.

In front of the 1st tee the delicate mauve-flowered LADY’S-SMOCK is found in the damp grasslands. This plant reminds us that the fairways were fist laid out along naturally wet gullies called DUNE SLACKS.

The scrub fringing the 1st hole include SEA BUCKTHORN with its orange berries, long thin grey-green leaves and spines, and WHITE POPLAR, the ‘Lancashire Weed’, also with grey green leaves with white undersides. Both species are alien to the Sefton coast. However birds such as WILLOW WARBLER and LINNET maybe heard singing and calling from the scrub.

LITTLE GREBE breeds each year on the course irrigation pond, west of the first fairway. MUT SWANS, MALLARDS, COOTS and MOORHENS are often present.