Grey willow
One of our commonest willows, the Grey willow is a small tree that is found in ditches, reedbeds and wet woodland. It is well-known for its silver, fluffy catkins that give it another name, '…
Speckled wood butterfly - Vicky Nall
One of our commonest willows, the Grey willow is a small tree that is found in ditches, reedbeds and wet woodland. It is well-known for its silver, fluffy catkins that give it another name, '…
Photographing fungi is a great way to spend a day in the woodlands or grasslands.
Plaice is a common sight all around our coasts - if you can spot it! They are extremely well camouflaged against the seabed and can even change colour to better match their surroundings.
A ferocious and fast predator, the Devil's coach horse beetle hunts invertebrates after dark in gardens and on grasslands. It is well-known for curling up its abdomen like the tail of a…
Well-known for its role in making beer, Hop is a climbing plant that can be seen in woodlands and along hedgerows and field edges. Its female flowers bear the cone-like fruit that is used in beer…
The Yew is a well-known tree of churchyards, but also grows wild on chalky soils. Yew trees can live for hundreds of years, turning into a maze of hollow wood and fallen trunks beneath dense…
Luscious temperate rainforest once covered vast areas of the British Isles, but now only fragments remain in the west. These areas of rainforest are also known as Atlantic woodland or Celtic…
Escaped or intentionally freed from fur farms in the 1960s, the American mink is now well established in the UK. Its carnivorous nature is a threat to our native water vole and seabird populations…
Mackerel are a sign of summer's arrival, when they appear inshore in huge numbers all around the UK. As well as being a sustainable seafood choice, they are an important food source for many…
The stone loach is notoriously hard to spot - not only is it mostly nocturnal, it is also well camouflaged and can partially bury itself in the riverbed. It uses its whisker-like barbels to find…