麻豆约拍

The stretch of unspoilt coastline on the edge of Formby provides one of the last refuges in England for the red squirrel.

Red squirrels have become extinct in most parts of the country due to the influx of the grey squirrel.

Formby鈥檚 unique position means it is one of the few places where red squirrels can still be seen.

The pinewoods and adjoining large dunes of the Sefton coast have been cared for by the National Trust for the last 40 years.

鈥淩ed squirrels are now in decline in most of the country due to the grey squirrels鈥� says the National Trust's Warden in Charge, Dave Williams.

Dave works in and around the Freshfield pinewoods and coastal sand dunes, which are some of England鈥檚 largest, 鈥淲e鈥檙e quite fortunate that Formby is almost what you could class as an island.

鈥淲e鈥檝e got the sea on one side of us, we鈥檝e got the River Mersey, heavily keepered mosslands and Southport. So we鈥檙e isolated from the greys.鈥�

Even in Formby the grey squirrel is getting closer to the pinewoods and wardens are having to take innovative steps to protect the red squirrels.

鈥淭he greys are just coming to the boundaries of the property now,鈥� says Dave Williams.

鈥淲e鈥檝e spent years making the woodlands favour the red squirrel.

鈥淲e work on the principle that grey squirrels and red squirrels have a similar skeletal size, but grey squirrels are twice the body weight.

鈥淪cot and corsica pines suit red squirrels, whereas if we were to plant the likes of hazelnuts the grey squirrels eat them when they are green, but red squirrels have to wait for them to ripen, so we鈥檇 be favouring the grey squirrel.

鈥淲e keep our woodlands to suit the reds and not favour the greys.鈥�

鈥淭hey鈥檙e nocturnal so no one will see them unless they鈥檙e out at night,鈥� says Dave Williams.

鈥淚f you come out at about 10.30pm you鈥檒l often hear singing, it鈥檚 a croaking sound somewhere between a croak and a football rattle.

鈥淭hey look very similar to a common toad.

鈥淭hey use the water that is brought in on winter storms to breed in and what they do is actually live in the dunes and they burrow in to the dunes and hibernate for the winter and come out in the spring.鈥�

The squirrels and natterjack toads aren鈥檛 the only things under threat in Formby, the coastline itself is also disappearing. Each year approximately 4 metres of coast is lost from the front of the dunes at Formby. The low-lying coastline has been eroding for the last hundred years.