Argent & sable
This striking black-and-white moth flies during the day in open woodlands, moorlands, and bogs. It's most common on Scottish moors.
This striking black-and-white moth flies during the day in open woodlands, moorlands, and bogs. It's most common on Scottish moors.
Look for the pinky-white flowers of the dog-rose in summer, and its bright red rosehips in autumn. It is a scrambling shrub of hedgerows, woodlands and grasslands.
The Marsh helleborine is a beautiful orchid of fens, wet grassland and dune slacks. Growing in profusion in places, look for reddish stems and white-and-pink flowers.
Parsley fern lives up to its name - the pale green fronds form in clusters among rocks and look just like parsley. Look out for it in upland areas, particularly in Wales and Cumbria.
The tiny, brown-and-white sand martin is a common summer visitor to the UK, nesting in colonies on rivers, lakes and flooded gravel pits. It returns to Africa in winter.
Although introduced by the Normans, the fallow deer has been here so long that it is considered naturalised. Look out for groups of white-spotted deer in woodland glades.
It's easy to see where this small starfish got its name, it really does look like a little star-shaped cushion. Keep an eye out under rocks next time you're rockpooling for this little…
The brimstone moth is a yellow, night-flying moth with distinctive brown-and-white spots on its angular forewings. It frequently visits gardens, but also likes woods, scrub and grasslands.
In May, our hedgerows burst into life as common hawthorn erupts with creamy-white blossom, colouring the landscape and giving this thorny shrub its other name of 'May-tree'.
Traditionally a coastal species, Lesser sea-spurrey has spread inland, taking advantage of the winter-salting of our roads. Its pink-and-white flowers bloom in summer.
In May, our hedgerows and woodland edges burst into life as Midland hawthorn erupts with masses of pinky-white blossom. During the autumn, red fruits known as 'haws' appear.
The pied flycatcher is a summer visitor, migrating here from West Africa to breed. Look for this small, black-and-white bird in woodland, parks and gardens, mostly in the west of the UK.