One of the most colourful fish in UK seas, the cuckoo wrasse looks like it belongs in the tropics. Don't be fooled though, it's very much a native species.

The six-spot burnet moth is a day-flying moth that flies with a slow, fluttering pattern. Look for it alighting on knapweeds and thistles in grassy places. It is glossy black, with six red spots…

The Keeled skimmer is a dragonfly of heaths and commons with shallow pools. It has a skittish and weak flight, and is on the wing in summer and early autumn.

"One for sorrow, two for joy…" is a popular rhyme associated with the magpie - a bird of much myth and legend. An unmistakeable member of the crow family, it can be seen almost anywhere…

A great way to get up close and personal with the magnificent osprey is via one of the many nestcams set-up in the places that it breeds: Scotland, Cumbria, Wales and the East Midlands.

The striking red crown, golden back, and bright yellow wings of the goldfinch make it one of our prettiest garden birds. It happily visits birdtables and feeders across the UK.

The grass snake is our longest snake, but don't worry if you find one in the compost heap - it's harmless! Look out for this green and yellow beauty in grasslands and wetlands, too.

The serotine is one of the first bats to appear at night and can be seen around lamp posts chasing moths, or at treetop height. It likes to roost and hibernate in old buildings in the south of the…

Eyebright has small, white flowers with purple veins and yellow centres. It likes short grasslands, from clifftops to heaths, and is one of a number of species and hybrids that are hard to tell…