Sunday at Bill's Mother's: 15th June 2025
Searching for monster crickets. Muddy Mother. And out there news.
Morning. Last year we had a different kind of difficult weather. It was so wet the insects disappeared, along with many creatures that feed on them. I walked up the byway to Stanage Pole twice, along with birders who go there every June, to hear (and maybe see) one of our weirdest summer visitors, the Nightjar. It was too cold and too wet for moths, and I heard and saw no moth-seeking Nightjars.
So I took another trip this week to see how this year’s bone dry spring had suited a local migrant that’s been around for over 40 million years.
We also have Muddy Mother, with helpful tips for nurturing babes (and toddlers) in the wood, and our latest out there news in brief.
If you like what you read here, please help us by sharing It’s Looking A Bit Black Over Bill’s Mother’s with anyone and everyone you think might like it. The more readers, the more subscribers, and especially the more full subscribers we have, the more we can do.
Out There News in Brief
Reclaim Our Moors - After 200 years, the business of inviting aristocrats and wealthy gun owners to shoot dozens of Red Grouse for fun is on the decline. The new Reclaim Our Moors organisation have suggested a sale of the notoriously degraded Moscar Moor for £1 may soon represent good business by owner the Duke of Rutland, whose relatives at Haddon Hall recently featured on Springwatch.
Disease and extreme weather are making it harder and more expensive to raise hundreds of grouse a year ready for the autumn shooting season, and the nation’s priorities to restore grouse moorland for the public (and natural) good are gaining ground, along with some acreage of actual worn out moorland to work with too.
The Duke has yet to respond to the offer, but Reclaim Our Moors are hoping the government’s new Community Right to Buy legislation might offer an opportunity.
We’ll be following this one up, of course. Meanwhile, here’s our great piece from last year by Reclaim Our Moors member Bob Berzins.
Trail Trouble At Trippet Wood - Seeds, trees, bugs and rainfall pay no attention to Farcebook outrages. And kids have been playing in areas of old pasture and ancient woodland of Sheffield long before it became the Outdoor City.
But the statutory decision to dig up a bike trail built on the slopes of Trippet Wood below Bingham Park has led, in some antisocial media quarters, to a battle between harmless young fun lovers and cranky old spoilsports.
The builders of the bike trail possibly had no idea the site was protected by law as part of a Local Nature Reserve, that the stonework and soil dug up has centuries of history and a now lost future seedbank of wild flowers, or that the compacted soil erodes the ground and potentially leads to pollution and flood risk.
The Friends of the Porter Valley and local rangers seem to have taken the criticism on the chin, however. More education for everyone is the key, I keep hearing when this kind of thing happens. (And that’s what this magazine is here for, so always feel free to comment below, and keep me posted at bbobillsmothers@gmail.com.)
Migration Matters - ‘Britain’s largest festival about sanctuary and refugees’ begins on Friday 20th and runs until Saturday 28th, with music, talks, art, food and learning events for the city of sanctuary. More in our full listings.
Cricket Score
A Nightjar, say my contacts at Sheffield Bird Study Group (SBSG), sounds like a faulty washing machine on spin cycle. Or slightly more poetically, a giant cricket.
Every June, outdoor enthusiasts trek out to Redmires or Wharncliffe (or one or two lesser-known Nightjar warm weather homes) to try and catch the unearthly summer night soundtrack of Sheffield’s Western edges in the falling light.
Last year, I joined the SBSG Crepuscular Creep field trip twice, but the miserable damp and cold meant I saw and heard no Nightjars. (A few birders with very sharp ears did hear something, but far away and notably unspectacular).
We did see Red Deer, Short-eared Owls, a Mountain Hare and numerous moorland birds, but I failed to score a Nightjar. This year, SBSG Nightjar veteran Richard Hill was more hopeful.
“Last year, with the cold and rain there were no flying insects, and we were saying ‘Where is everything?’ But this year has been good for flying insects, so Nightjars will have had a good start, and may even be feeding young now.”
On a good year, Nightjars will fly in from Africa early in May. (The earliest recorded arrival was in 2021 on 3rd May, Richard tells me, with the latest ever departure spotted on a garden fence near Orgreave on 13th September the same year).
Different species of Nightjars live all over the world, like Poorwills, Nighthawks and the less romantically titled Frogmouths in the Americas.
Just now, Swifts are the ancient bird with all the publicity here, but the ancestry of Nightjars (at 34-56 million years) is almost as long, and the birds are distant relatives, and both strange soaring mysteries in grounded human eyes.
But while Swifts are under threat due partly to loss of habitat (nest sites in particular) the fortunes of Sheffield’s Nightjars seem to be improving. Over 30 were recorded on the western edges of Sheffield last year, compared to just three at Wharncliffe in 1985.
Preserving tall standing dead wood for perching seems to help, along with stretches of open or felled woodland. One theory is that ancient Nightjars once followed rhinos or bison around as they crashed through primeval forests. It seems enlightened woodland management might be recreating a similar effect.
We head up the byway to Stanage among the moths and midges, and a Roe Deer watches us from the bracken, as oblivious runners pass by. We stop to watch for owls across the moorland, before eventually turning back for the dusky Woodcock and Nightjars, but the sky is quiet.
“We’ve drawn a blank on the owls,” sighs Richard.
“A lot of people at Hillsborough are saying the same thing,” someone answers.
One of the 30 strong party tells me he came last year, when he says many people he spoke to felt a sense of collapse due to the year’s terrible weather, the storms, the forest fires and the wet empty skies of Sheffield.
“It felt as if the Earth had stopped breathing,” he says.
We stop by the cleared woodland, with Nightjar-friendly stumps in view, and wait.
A Woodcock flies across, and we hear Curlews in the dark, and then Richard raises his hand and everyone goes very quiet as the song of a giant cricket rattles out away over the tree line. The moths are back, and the Nightjars are still here. There may even be wasps this summer.
Muddy Mother - Adventuring Through The Woods
Sheffield has plenty of woodland opportunities. One of my favourites is Ecclesall Woods: with tens of entrances to choose from, and hundreds of different paths, you could do something different every time. Unless you’re like me and are so scared of getting lost that you stick to the same three routes.
There’s an excellent café if you decide to start off from the Discovery Centre. This is also a good option if, also like me, you have a giddy dog that’s likely to poo three times in the first five minutes: there’s a dog poo bin right as you set off, so you’re not left carrying several bags of poo (infinitely more problematic when the toddler also wants carrying and the dog panics at the sight of her own poo in a bag).
The woods are fast becoming a preferred spot of mine with two children, as playgrounds are more difficult to navigate when I’m solo parenting.
The toddler can play on his own a bit now, but still needs my help figuring some things out. The baby is at an age where all he can do is go on a swing. So, one swing, one whirlwind of toddler energy, and only one pair of grown up hands is a lot to manage.
But in the woods, the baby is normally in the pushchair or sling, happily occupied watching leaves or people, and if I can persuade the toddler to walk or engage in a little activity, then we can all spend a happy hour or two wandering around one of nature’s playgrounds.
Arrival is usually met with excitement or total reluctance, depending on the mood, the weather, or the presence of cousins.
If it’s excitement, then I might not need to do anything at first, other than steer small people towards the path, rather than the road.
If we’re having a hard time getting started, pointing at something in the near distance will usually help. Favourite at the moment is a dandelion clock.
If I’m feeling like a supermum that day, I may have thought ahead to write up a scavenger hunt. I have two directions with these; 1) Take a little bag and only include things on the list that can be picked up and collected, such as stones or leaves. 2) Take a pen along too to tick off bigger or less collectable objects.
It’s important not to mix these two up and to give specific instructions so the toddler doesn’t try taking a squirrel hostage or dragging a fallen tree back home with you.
If the weather is playing ball with a bit of sunshine when little legs get tired, my toddler likes a game of catch my shadow. This is good, because you can cover as much ground as you want until you allow your little one to jump onto your shadow. Let them get you fairly frequently though, otherwise they’ll give up and then you’re just running away from your child, which is frowned upon.
Big sticks are a fantastic persuasion technique. They can be perfect walking sticks which might encourage little feet to pick up the pace, and could also be a horse, or a dragon, or a broomstick for a little boost. Not necessarily quicker in the long run, but it might make the next 100 metres more appealing. They can also be used to play drums on a log or a tree, though this is not helpful if you’re trying to actually get somewhere.
Playing aeroplanes has also been a big hit for us, or this could be trains or unicorns or anything else that moves, as long as it’s of interest to the toddler in question.
If you’re incredibly organised (like I was on one occasion), you might cut out a tree shape and back it with clear tape so the toddler might stick things he finds onto it, creating a beautiful tree picture.
The one time I did this, it got about 40 seconds of interest and I spent the rest of the walk carrying around a piece of my own artwork that I wasn’t all that interested in either. Organisation is clearly not all it’s cracked up to be, so plan activities that you will enjoy too, so if you’re the only one playing, at least you’re entertained.
My best trick for woodland walks is don’t plan to go far. Go at the child’s pace and if you turn around at the first signs of weariness, then you might just all make it back having had a fun, drama-free time.
Muddy Mother’s Substack magazine covers local independent makers, household interior tricks and tips, and her own renovation battlefield, as she calls it.
Secret Seating 13 - The Result
I wondered if this one was too difficult until the discovery of a message hidden in the Substack ether from Mark Phillips, who correctly identified one of two new benches in the old Spring Wood at the south of Carterknowle Park. Gold medal to Mark, and SS 14 coming soon. (And please make your guesses in the comments so I can find you!)
More What’s On Out There (from Sunday 15th June)
A tiny selection from our new (and regularly updated) What’s On Out There news and listings post for June and beyond.
Sun 15th - Steel City Trail 10 - Parkwood Springs
Mon 16th - Friends of Whirlow Brook Park volunteer session
Tues 17th - Friends of Ecclesall Woods volunteer & footpath repair session
Weds 18th - Shirebrook Valley - Volunteer Session
Thurs 19th - Green City Action Grimesthorpe community allotment
Fri 20th - Sat 28th - Migration Matters Festival
Sat 21st - It Happened Here - live art experience exploring the streets of Heeley (Migration Matters Festival)
Sat 21st - Sun 22nd - Small Park Big Run at Meersbrook Park
Sunday at Bill’s Mother’s arrives for you every week thanks to many hours of phone calls, interviews, visits, photo editing, research and hassle. And that happens thanks to our current 300+ paying full subscribers who pay the bills to help cover our costs.
But we need to grow to 380 full subscribers to really get going, with more features and more freelance contributors.
If you feel local journalism needs to continue, reader-support is the only way to make it happen. Joining our unique out there publishing social enterprise will cost you less than a souvenir Sir David Beckham No. 7 shirt digital download poster.
Hi David - re your recent Secret Seat item - my understanding is that Spring Wood - your “old woodland next to Carterknowle Park” - is actually IN the Park; as it was all originally Abbeydale Grange School playing fields until the school was closed in 2010. It’s officially classed as semi-ancient woodland meaning its over 500 years old.
Not quite as old as Snaithing Wood between Millhouses Lane and Dobcroft Rd which according the Sheffield Ecology Unit is the oldest in the city - though regrettably not publicly accessible.
I believe the petition banning grouse shooting is due to be debated in Parliament on 30th June.Should be interesting