Common sea-lavender can be found around our coasts on mudflats, creek banks and saltmarshes. Despite its name, its not a lavender at all, so doesn’t smell like one.

The common whelk is the largest sea snail found in UK seas, though you're more likely to find the dry balls of empty whelk egg capsules washed up in strandlines.

The fluffy, white heads of common cotton-grass dot our brown, boggy moors and heaths as if a giant bag of cotton wool balls has been thrown across the landscape!

During the breeding season, the common tern can be seen around our coasts and also inland at gravel pits, reservoirs and lakes. It nests in noisy colonies and can be spotted plunge-diving for fish…

The shy and retiring bittern is a master of blending in and can be very difficult to spot in its reedbed home. It does sound like a booming foghorn, however, when it calls, so can often be heard…

It is so easy to miss this clever little moth. It is a master of disguise, blending in perfectly as it looks just like the twig of a birch tree! Flying only at night, the buff-tip moth can be seen…

Kissing under the mistletoe is a much-loved Christmas tradition, making this plant familiar to us all. It actually grows as a parasite on trees - look for it hanging off branches in large balls…

Only a few pairs of snow bunting breed here, so look out for this striking black-and-white bird in winter around Scotland, the North West and the East coast of England.

The lesser-black backed gull can be spotted around the coast in summer, with the biggest colony on Walney Island, Cumbria. Look for it over fields, landfill sites and reservoirs during winter.

The dense, spiky tufts of Marram grass are a familiar sight on our windswept coasts. In fact, its matted roots help to stabilise sand dunes, allowing them to grow up and become colonised by other…