I can’t wait to…

…LISTEN TO A VALLEY

In high summer, the sound of a valley from above is special. It’s a hot, quiet afternoon, you’ve been in the hills all day, and you’re on your way down again. Your ears are readjusting to the lower altitude, and suddenly, up from below, comes any mix of the following: sheep, running water, jackdaw, distant tractor, kids playing, cricket match, beer garden.

It says you’re coming out of the wilderness and back into civilisation. Obviously it can happen any time of year (apart from the cricket) – but in summer, moist of forehead, hot of foot and happy of heart, it’s absolute magic.

Nick Hallissey, Deputy Editor

…HEAR A NIGHTJAR

I like to hang around in open woodland at dusk at this time of year. When it’s hard to see anything else, it gets easier to find this myth-laden bird.

Sitting motionless in its grey-brown camo in daytime, it springs to life as light fades. And then you hear it. A baffling song that fills the ears. Best described as electro-insect churring, best experienced in real life. Analysis has identified a burst of more than 40 notes a second. A wing-clapping sound as they fly is like applause. And they’re yet to shake a weird nickname picked up through superstition 2000 years ago – goatsucker – even though they pay little attention to goats. Marie Marsh, Production Editor

…FIND AN ORCHID

I grew up believing orchids were as rare as the Holy Grail, and only

Indiana Jones stood any chance of finding one. I now know only some are rare, and some are abundant, but they retain that air of the unicorn for me. The common spotted orchid

(pic) is found all over the UK

(except the Highlands); next among our 52 growing wild

I want to see a bee orchid. As a species they are amazingly varied, but share some things: they have three petals and three sepals; each share male and female organs fused into a column; and common to the lot is a pronounced lip petal (labellum) a brazen comehither to pollinators that’s utterly irresistible. Guy Procter, Editor