Common sunstar
This large starfish looks just like the sun, with 10-12 arms spreading outwards like rays.
This large starfish looks just like the sun, with 10-12 arms spreading outwards like rays.
The variable damselfly looks a lot like the azure damselfly, but is much less common throughout most of the UK.
This colonial creature looks like an old-fashioned quill - that's where the name sea pen comes from.
This brown seaweed lives in the mid shore and looks a bit like bubble wrap with the distinctive air bladders that give it its name.
This sponge is found on rocky shores around the UK and looks like a thick bready crust (if you use your imagination a bit!).
The whinchat is a summer visitor to UK heathlands, moorlands and open meadows. It looks similar to the stonechat, but is lighter in colour and has a distinctive pale eyestripe.
Frogbit looks like a mini water-lily as it floats on the surface of ponds, lakes and still waterways. It offers shelter to tadpoles, fish and dragonfly larve.
The sea hare looks like a sea slug – but in fact has an internal shell. They can be up to 20cm long but are usually much shorter.
The silvery dace can be seen gathering in large shoals in lowland rivers and streams. It is a member of the carp family and looks very similar to the chub, but is smaller.
The scorpion fly, as its name suggests, has a curved 'tail' that looks like a sting. It is, in fact, the males' claspers for mating. It is yellow and black, with a long 'beak…
Goose barnacles often wash up on our shores attached to flotsam after big storms.
This large anemone is found on rocky shores around the UK and is so called because its green spots and red body means it looks like a strawberry!