Country diary: A masterclass in biding your time | Ed Douglas

Padley Gorge, Derbyshire: In among the fresh lime-green oak leaves is a spotted flycatcher. I watch for movement, but there is none - yetEven midweek, warm spring weather brings crowds to the top of Padley Gorge. Sheffielders bask on patches of grass beside the peaty trickle of Burbage Brook. The ice?cream van on the road above does brisk trade. Kids shriek as they splash in the water. The lack of rain has brought out fire notices: "No barbecues"; and, in a sign of the times, "No shisha". There's a faint smell of weed, but that's about it on the combustibles.The world below is wholly different. Here the stream bed drops away and its banks become thronged with oaks. These are not the straight-stemmed specimens of manicured parkland. They are demotic, stunted, twisted, writhing wonders that jostle and clash, a labyrinth of shade and mystery. Paths run either side of the stream, and from my perch I can look down on small groups of people moving through this otherworld, occasionally looking up from the rocky path to gaze at the canopy. Continue reading...