Giant house spider
The giant house spider is one of our fastest invertebrates, running up to half a metre per second. This large, brown spider spins sheet-like cobwebs and pops up in the dark corners of houses,…
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Chwilio
St Mark's fly
The St Mark's fly is small, black and shiny. It is so-called because it emerges around St Mark's Day, April 25th. Large numbers of adults can be found in woodland edges, hedgerows,…
Wern Plemys
The nature reserve consists of three wildflower meadows and a large area of woodland. The nature reserve lies on the site of a former coal mine and is a wonderful example of how nature can reclaim…
Arctic tern
The Arctic tern is famed for its aggression towards any that would disturb its nest - it will dive-bomb intruders with its sharp beak. Large, noisy colonies can be found on the Farne Islands and…
Notch-horned cleg-fly (horse fly)
The Notch-horned cleg-fly isa horse fly dark grey in colour, with grey-brown mottled wings and intricately striped, iridescent eyes. There are 30 species of horse-fly in the UK; this is one of the…
Quail
This tiny gamebird is rarely seen, but its distinctive "wet my lips" call can be heard ringing out over areas of farmland on summer evenings.
Velvet swimming crab
Look out for the bright red eyes of this speedy crab in rockpools - but be careful, they're notoriously feisty and will give a painful nip!
My Early Days
I was appointed to the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust on 20th July 2020, as Head of Nature Recovery South, after being interviewed on two Zoom meetings, a very odd experience in these strange…
Sand martin
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.
My homecoming
Juliet Sargeant was first inspired by nature as a child: when she’s working, her mind often wanders back to playing in the woods with her friends.
She left a career in medicine to train as…
Long-eared owl
Unsurprisingly, the nocturnal long-eared owl sports large 'ear tufts' on its head, while the short-eared owl has much smaller ear tufts. A shy bird, it is best spotted around the coast…
Great fen-sedge
A tall and robust species of sedge, the Great fen-sedge has long leaves with sawtooth edges. It forms dense stands in lowland fens and around lakes.