Arable land
Most arable fields are large, featureless monocultures devoid of wildlife, but here and there are smaller fields and tucked away corners that are farmed less intensively, or are managed specifically with wildlife in mind.
Beaches and Shorelines
Skip the town beach and find an untamed shore to explore. Wild sand and shingle beaches are great places to see the variety of natural habitats and the amazing force of the elements that help shape them.
Chalk streams
Cool, crystal-clear waters flow over gravelly beds, streaming through white-flowered water-crowfoot and watercress in serene lowland landscapes.
Coastal and floodplain grazing marsh
Enormous flocks of geese, ducks and swans swirl down from wide skies to drop onto the flat, open expanses of flooded grazing marshes in winter. In spring, lapwing tumble overhead and the soft, damp ground speckled with cuckooflowers provides excellent habitat for waders probing for prey in the damp soil. By summer, when the ground is drier, some marshes are cut for hay or silage, but the ditches remain wet and come alive with dragonflies and other insects.
Coastal cliffs
Whether they are tumbles of soft rock home to a variety of invertebrates, or hard, soaring rock faces bustling with huge seabird colonies, cliffs may be challenging to explore but are well worth the reward.
Heathland
These wild, open landscapes stretch over large areas and are most often found in uplands. Although slow to awaken in spring, by late summer heathland can be an eye-catching purple haze of heather.
Hedgerow
Hedgerows are one of our most easily encountered wildlife habitats, found lining roads, railways and footpaths, bordering fields and gardens and on the coast.
Lakes
Lakes come in many forms: some are splendid and clear, while others are more reminiscent of a murky swamp. Each lake is strongly influenced by the underlying lakebed and the surrounding landscape, and collectively, lakes support a huge variety of animal and plant life.
Lowland calcareous grassland
Typical of softly rolling pastoral landscapes, the short, aromatic turf of lowland calcareous grassland is flower-rich and humming with insects in the summer. Its long use by humans lends it an ancient feel and it is often seen amongst prehistoric burial mounds, hill forts and old trackways.
Lowland dry acid grassland
Sprinkled with diminutive, short-living flowers in spring and parched dry by July, this is a habitat of heathlands, coastal grasslands and ancient parkland.
Lowland fen
Water-logged and thick with reeds and robust tall-herbs or tussocky sedges, fens are evocative reminders of the extensive wet wildlands that once covered far more of the lowlands than they do today.
Lowland heath
Heathlands form some of the wildest landscapes in the lowlands, where agriculture and development jostle for space, containing and limiting natural processes. Once considered as waste land of little value, lowland heathland is now appreciated and protected for its unique wildlife and austere beauty.