August is a month brimming with life. Schools have broken up, and warm summer days are punctuated by the hum of insects, occasional swooping swifts and the glorious colours of verdant hedgerows and butterflies fluttering-by. Our evenings are filled with the fragrance of honeysuckle and jasmine, the buzz of a bat skimming by, and if you’re very lucky, the occasional owl.

Bats are most active in the summer months when they come out of hibernation, hunt insects, give birth and raise young, and the best time to see them is around sunset or sunrise when it is warm and dry. A summer evening stroll along the Lines Way near Leeds will offer a glimpse of bats foraging overhead - Potteric Carr nature reserve near Doncaster is also a great place to spot bats, and Staveley nature reserve in north Yorkshire is particularly good for pipistrelle bats. Yorkshire Wildlife Trust are running a Bedtime Bat Walk at Water Haigh Woodland Park on 25^th August.

For a day by the sea, head to Flamborough Cliffs nature reserve, which hosts internationally important numbers of breeding seabirds including kittiwakes, guillemots, and puffins - creating quite the raucous – as well as a fantastic shoreline and some open-water cruises. The auks, including puffins, begin to depart by early August, but the Trust hosts lots of exciting events on the coast including beach cleans, seashore safaris, fossil hunts and more.

Yorkshire’s heather blossom peaks in August, providing bees, stonechats and skylarks with a sun-drenched home. Allerthorpe Common is one of the last three remaining pockets of lowland heath in the Vale of York, and a great place to catch a glimpse of an adder basking on the warm soil – enjoy them from a distance! At Fen Bog nature reserve, listen out too for curlew, spot the swoop of a merlin overhead, or spy the famous North York Moors Railway steam trains, which pass next to the nature reserve.

Finally, for those in the mood to learn more about some of the creatures we share our space with the Trust are hosting a number of wild creature discovery days across Yorkshire during the summer.

Try out an early morning moth identification event at Potteric Carr on 12^th August, a shark egg hunt at Spurn on 14^th August, or dig around for minibeasts at Ripon City Wetlands on the 16^th August.

If you’re interested in learning more about what events Yorkshire Wildlife Trust are running this summer, check out the events page,

With over 100 nature reserves across Yorkshire, there’s a wild spot for everybody and soul!