You are likely to spot the smooth newt in your garden or local pond. It breeds in water in summer and spends the rest of the year in grassland and woodland, hibernating over winter.

This brown seaweed lives high up on rocky shores, just below the high water mark. Its blades are usually twisted, giving it the name Spiral Wrack.

A fierce pirate of the sea, the great skua is renowned for stealing fish from other seabirds and dive-bombing anyone that comes near its nests. It breeds on the Scottish Isles.

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 Rutland in the Midlands.

Flitting about the house in summer, the gangly, brown daddy longlegs is familiar to many of us. They are a valuable food source for many birds.

A delicate wader, Red-necked phalaropes are as comfortable swimming as they are on land. Unusually for birds, the females are more brightly coloured than the males.

The common sandpiper breeds along rivers, and by lakes, reservoirs and lochs in upland Scotland, Northern England and Wales. It can be spotted as a passage migrant at many inland wetlands across…

Living up to its name, the shoveler has a large and distinctive shovel-like bill which it uses to feed at the surface of the water. It breeds in small numbers in the UK, but is widespread in…