July in the Valley
What you can expect to see...
 July is the month to listen for the distinctive call of the Nightjar
on warm summer evenings
at your local heathland site. Find out more about this intriguing bird, which is our featured Bird of the Month.
July and August are the best months to visit one of the Valley’s flower-rich meadows, they support a wide variety of insect life, which in turn provide food for the Valley’s bat population. The long warm July evenings are perfect for going bat watching the best sites are usually found around woodland edges, hedgerows or waterside vegetation. Although bat species are difficult to tell apart the Noctule is a large bat that will usually emerge before dusk in July. It flies high with sudden downward swoops as it hunts moths that will try to escape capture by plummeting earthwards.
This time of year is also high season for butterflies and the species are restricted to the plant their caterpillars will eat. An ancient meadow which can have upwards of 80 plant species can support vast numbers of butterflies. In fact, as many butterflies specialise on feeding on grasses, any field allowed to grow in summer rather than being mown short ‘for neatness’ will be worth visiting. Obviously the larger the field the better it will be for butterflies and the more plant species the greater the variety of butterflies it can support. Shepherd Meadows, Hawley Meadow and Hollybush Hill are sites all worth a visit.
 July is the month when most species of dragonflies and damselflies are active. The two types are easily distinguished from each other. The true dragonflies are big insects, strong fliers and rest with their wings spread open. The damselflies are smaller, delicate insects that tend to flutter amongst the waterside vegetation and rest with their wings folded over their backs. On a sunny day in July any area of water in the Valley is worth visiting.
The underwater larvae of dragonflies have to come out of the water to turn into adults, climbing up rushes and other tall water edge plants to do so. Look carefully and you may spot them; alternatively the empty outer skins of the larvae are more easily seen.
This month grasshoppers and crickets are chirping, whirring and scraping. Just as birds can be identified by their different songs, so grasshopper and crickets can be picked out by their ‘songs’. Grasshoppers ‘sing’ by rasping their hind legs against their wing edges. Crickets - which can be distinguished from grasshoppers by their longer legs and long thin antennae - sing by rubbing their wings together. Can you tell the difference?
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