This wading bird is mainly a visitor on its spring and autumn migration, though a small number nest in Scotland.

The cormorant is an excellent fisher. It is most easily spotted when it is perched, stretching its wings out in the sun to dry after a dive. The UK holds internationally important wintering…

The bright green ring-necked parakeet is an escapee and our only naturalised parrot; its success is likely due to warmer winters.

This smelly, strange looking fungus is also referred to as octopus stinkhorn or octopus fungus. Its eye-catching red tentacles splay out like a starfish.

Freshwater pearl mussels spend their adult lives nestled in the river bed of fast flowing, rocky streams, filter feeding the water.

Horseradish is used as a well-loved condiment. This member of the cabbage family is actually an introduced species in the UK, but causes no harm in the wild.

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.

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,…

Sometimes called 'Marsh samphire', wild common glasswort is often gathered and eaten. It grows on saltmarshes and beaches, sometimes forming big, green, fleshy carpets.