Summer

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In some ways, summer is the quietest time in the wood. The trees are fully-leaved often making the wood gloomy-looking on a dull day. The carpets of garlic and bluebells have faded away leaving other flowers such as enchanter’s nightshade to unsuccessfully attempt to replicate the early season glory.

The wood’s birds will have fledged, but may still be being fed by their parents. Look out for sparrowhawks and buzzards looking to these chicks as easy prey. Seeing a sparrowhawk take a young bird is a difficult but fascinating thing to watch. It is nature, after all.

Hob Hey is a good site for a couple of butterflies that are quite rare in Cheshire. The white-letter hairstreak, which lives only on elm, was once common. Dutch elm disease, which wiped out 60 million British elms saw their population crash by 93%. There are few areas with elm in Hob Hey and white-letter hairstreaks still live here. A similar butterfly, the purple hairstreak also lives in Hob Hey. These live only on oak and find the extensive number of oaks in the wood to their liking. Both of these species are difficult to spot as they usually flit about at the top of trees but can be seen with persistence.

If the orchard has remained uncut, this is a spectacular area for butterflies with 11 species common here including the once rare ringlet. Plenty of bees and dragonflies patrol the area too as well as, unfortunately, small horseflies (clegs) that can inflict a painful bite. Only the females bite (collecting protein for making eggs).

Several species of bat roost in Hob Hey and I have used a bat detector to identify at least seven species here. This includes the Nathusius' pipistrelle, a bat that is rare in Britain! If you visit looking for bats, find a field next to the wood and watch them against the sky flitting about hunting moths. They can come so close that you can hear the sound of their wings!