Pyramidal orchid
The pyramidal orchid lives up to its name - look for a bright pinky-purple, densely packed pyramid of flowers atop a green stem. It likes chalk grassland, sand dunes, roadside verges and quarries…
Water vole by Terry Whittaker/2020VISION
The pyramidal orchid lives up to its name - look for a bright pinky-purple, densely packed pyramid of flowers atop a green stem. It likes chalk grassland, sand dunes, roadside verges and quarries…
Blink and you may miss the fantastic kingfisher! This beautiful bird is easy to recognise thanks to its bright blue and metallic copper colours. It darts along the riverbank or sits patiently on a…
The hummingbird hawk-moth migrates to the UK from Southern Europe each year. It can be seen hovering over flowers, feeding with its long proboscis; its wings move so quickly that it 'hums…
A small woodland and hedgerow tree, Spindle is most striking in the autumn when clusters of bright pink-and-orange berries hang from its twigs, providing food for mice, birds and even Red Foxes.…
An unmistakeable insect of heaths, sand dunes and grasslands, the Emperor moth is fluffy, grey-brown, with big peacock-like eyespots on all four wings. Males can be seen during the day, but…
The distinctive rounded wings of the lapwing are displayed beautifully when it wheels around a winter sky in a massive flock. In spring, these flocks disperse and some birds breed in the UK.…
This mysterious little bird is known for its haunting call and was once mistaken for witches by pirates off the coast of Wales! They travel thousands of miles every year to nest in their hobbit-…
Living up to its name, the oak apple gall wasp produces growths, or 'galls', on oak twigs that look like little apples. Inside the gall, the larvae of the wasp feed on the host tissues,…
One of our largest ducks, the shelduck is a handsome creature with a dark green head, red bill and chestnut-brown band across its white body. Look out for it around most of our coastline,…
Have you ever seen those dark red jelly blobs whilst rockpooling? These incredible creatures are beadlet anemones! They live attached to rocks all around the coast of the UK, the base of their…
The common scoter has suffered large declines in the UK, threatening its survival here. Look out for this duck feeding at sea in winter when its numbers are bolstered by migrating birds.