The graceful great crested grebe is a familiar sight on our lakes and reservoirs, and is well-known for its elaborate courtship dance, during which it rises vertically out of the water and shakes…
As its name suggests, Himalayan balsam is from the Himalayas and was introduced here in 1839. It now an invasive weed of riverbanks and ditches, where it prevents native species from growing.
The vast, green mats that sometimes cover the surface of still water, such as ponds, flooded gravel pits and old canals, are actually Common duckweed. A tiny, single plant, it groups together to…
If you have a garden pond, look out for the large red damselfly resting at the water's edge. As the name suggests, males are bright red with a black thorax, but females may be almost entirely…
A ferocious and fast predator, the devil's coach horse beetle hunts invertebrates after dark in gardens and on grasslands. It is well-known for curling up its abdomen like the tail of a…
The gadwall is a dabbling duck, feeding at the surface of shallow water by 'upending' - putting its head down and its bottom up! Only a small number of gadwall nest in the UK, but large…
The humpback whale is making a comeback, with more and more individuals being seen in UK seas every year. They are well known for their acrobatic behaviour - so don't be surprised to see them…
The small, shaggy-furred Brandt's bat roosts in all sorts of houses, old or modern. It is similar to the whiskered bat and they often roost together, but in separate colonies. It feeds low to…
The land caddis is the only caddisfly in the UK to spend its entire time on land, with no stage in water. Look in oak leaf litter over winter to see the grainy cases of the larvae, in which they…
As its name suggests, giant hogweed it a large umbellifer with distinctively ridged, hollow stems. An introduced species, it is an invasive weed of riverbanks, where it prevents native species…
Despite popular belief, and its name (from the Old English for 'ear beetle'), the common earwig will not crawl into your ear while you sleep - it much prefers a nice log or stone pile!…
