This colonial creature looks like an old-fashioned quill - that's where the name sea pen comes from.

The variable damselfly looks a lot like the azure damselfly, but is much less common throughout most of the UK.

Stone curlews are unusual waders with large yellow eyes - perfect for hunting beetles at night.

The large white is a common garden visitor - look out for its brilliant white wings, tipped with black.

This comical little duck lives up to its name – look out for the black tuft of feathers on its head!

Listen out for the 'chattering' song of the reed warbler, while wandering the UK's lowland wetlands in summer. A small, brown bird, they are quite hard to see.

The turtle dove is the UK's fastest declining bird species and is on the brink of extinction. A small and pretty pigeon, it breeds in lowland England and winters in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Look for the small, pink, pea-shaped flowers of Common restharrow on chalk and limestone grasslands, and in coastal areas, during summer.

Herb-robert is a low-growing plant, with small, pretty, pink flowers. Look for it in shady spots in woodland, hedgerows and coastal areas.

If you spot a crawling shell next time you're at the seaside, take a closer look… it might be a hermit crab!

Look for the deep magenta, star-shaped flowers of Marsh cinquefoil in marshes, bogs, fens and wetlands in the north, west and east of the UK.

Freshwater pearl mussels spend their adult lives anchored to the river bed, filtering water through their gills and improving the quality of the water for other species.