Perch
With tiger-like stripes, red fins and a humped back, the perch is a striking fish. It can be seen in lowland waterbodies and waterways across the UK, often in shoals.
With tiger-like stripes, red fins and a humped back, the perch is a striking fish. It can be seen in lowland waterbodies and waterways across the UK, often in shoals.
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…
The diminutive common eyelash fungus can be found on wet wood and humous-rich damp soil, often by streams or in wet places. Its orange cup is fringed with tiny, black hairs, providing its common…
Turn over large stones or paving slabs in the garden and you are likely to find a Red ant colony. This medium-sized ant can deliver a painful sting, so be careful! In summer, winged adults swarm…
As its name suggests, Red bartsia does have a red tinge to its stem, leaves and small flowers. Look for it on roadside verges, railway cuttings and waste ground in summer.
The water scorpion is not a true scorpion, but it certainly looks like one! An underwater predator, it uses its front pincer-like legs to catch its prey. Its tail actually acts as a kind of '…
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.
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.
The bright green ring-necked parakeet is an escapee and our only naturalised parrot; its success is likely due to warmer winters. It can be seen in the South East.
The bar-tailed godwit winters in the UK in the thousands; look for it around estuaries like the Thames and Humber. In spring, the males display arresting breeding plumage, with brick-red heads,…
Be a nature detective and see what animals and plants you can spot in the wild!
Look out for the black guillemot all year-round at scattered coastal sites in Scotland, England, Wales and the Isle of Man. It tends not to travel far between seasons, breeding and wintering in…