Make the most of Sheffield's wonderful woods this summer

Local walking during lockdown has meant many people have begun to appreciate nature close to hand.

And the joy of contact with nearby nature continues throughout the summer.

Some birds like blackbirds, mistle thrushes, robins, and chiffchaffs are still vocal, but the main bird chorus has reduced.

Foraging flocks of titmice roam more widely across the countryside including though the woods and along the woodland edge.

Go to the woods when they are quiet with fewer human visitors and you may happen on roe deer, foxes with cubs, or even badgers – you just never know what is around the corner so tread quietly.

Nuthatches are still calling loudly and you will also hear great spotted and green woodpeckers, and less obvious, the high-pitched calls of treecreeper families.

During the summer, our woods darken with canopy closure and gain a new set of smells and fragrances and these vary with the weather.

So following a torrential downpour after a thunderstorm, the atmosphere is heavy with mist and humidity as the hot sunshine lifts moisture from the sodden earth.

As a light mist settles across low ground in the countryside and in open glades of the woodland, the landscape is lit up by shafts of hot sunlight to create an almost surreal and transient atmosphere.

Hot, humid weather suits butterflies and speckled woods are joined by meadow browns and red admirals and flit along the woodland edge, across a ride, or in a glade.

Rivals aggressively defend their territory against incomers of both the same and of different species.

Old, hollow trees may have wild honeybees and in a hot summer, even nests of hornets; both are generally quite mild unless disturbed. If you pause quietly in an area of damp woodland then you can hear the soft background noise of a myriad flying insects buzzing in and around the tall tree canopies.

The sounds merge with damp fragrance of decaying wood and moist earth.