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.

Look for Water avens in damp habitats, such as riversides, wet woodlands and wet meadows. It has nodding, purple-and-orange flowers that hang on delicate, purple stems.

Look for wood avens along hedgerows and in woodlands. Its yellow flowers appear in spring and provide nectar for insects; later, they turn to red, hooked seedheads that can easily stick to a…

The eel is famous for both its slippery nature and its mammoth migration from its freshwater home to the Sargasso Sea where it breeds. It has suffered dramatic declines and is a protected species…

The green sandpiper is a very rare breeding bird in the UK, and is mainly seen on migration in autumn. Look out for it feeding around marshes, flooded gravel pits and rivers. It even likes sewage…

This large shrike visits the UK in small numbers each year, passing through on migration or spending the winter here.

This well-camouflaged woodpecker used to be a common breeding bird in Britain, but is now only likely to be seen passing through on migration.