Heathland
Heathland is one of our most threatened wildlife habitats: they are wide, open spaces where gorse, bracken, heathers and grasses grow, and birch and pine trees are often dotted around.
Search
Water vole by Terry Whittaker/2020VISION
Chwilio
Sea-holly
The spiky, silvery leaves of Sea-holly give this plants its common name. Look for its beautiful, thistle-like, blue blooms on coastlines and sand dunes in summer.
Wigeon
The wigeon is a colourful duck that can often be spotted wheeling round our winter skies in large flocks. A dabbling duck, it surface-feeds on plants and seeds in shallow waters.
My reward
Carole has been volunteering at Idle Valley for seven years now; whilst she used to get involved with the heavy work out on the reserve, the garden is now her domain, working with the Recovery…
Toadflax-leaved St John's-wort
Toadflax-leaved St John's-wort has star-shaped, bright yellow flowers. It is a rare plant, with most of its population existing on Dartmoor. It likes steep, sunny slopes, acidic soils and…
Join
If you join Wildlife Watch as a member you'll get all sorts of wildlife goodies - posters, magazines, stickers, a badge, a membership card and more! And, best of all, by being a member you'll be helping to protect wildlife and look after the planet.
Giant horntail
With yellow-and-black bands, the giant horntail looks like a large wasp, but is harmless to us. The female uses her long, stinger-like ovipositor to lay eggs in pine trees, where the larvae then…
Common medium stonefly
As the name suggests, the Common medium stonefly is found in gravelly upland rivers and streams, often on bankside stones and plants. There are 34 species of Stonefly in the UK, which are hard to…
Grow your own oak tree
Even the mightiest oak starts with a tiny acorn!
Dog's mercury
Often seen carpeting the floor of ancient woodlands, Dog's mercury can quickly colonise, its fresh green leaves shading out rarer plants. It is also very poisonous.
Sea potato
Sea potatoes may have a funny name, but they are perfectly adapted for life in the sand. They are a type of sea urchin that live in a burrow in the sand, feeding on dead animals and plants using…
Yew
The Yew is a well-known tree of churchyards, but also grows wild on chalky soils. Yew trees can live for hundreds of years, turning into a maze of hollow wood and fallen trunks beneath dense…