Wildlife explorer

Natterjack toad

The rare natterjack toad is found at just a few coastal locations, where it prefers shallow pools on sand dunes, heaths and marshes.

Navelwort

The disc-shaped leaves and straw-coloured flower spikes of Navelwort help to identify this plant. As does its habitat - look for it growing from crevices in rocks, walls and stony areas.

Netted dog whelk

A small, but feisty scavenger, this carnivorous sea snail does not let anything go to waste!

Nightingale
©Chris Gomersall/2020VISION

Nightingale

The melodious song of the nightingale is the most likely sign of this bird being about. Shy and secretive, it sings from dense scrub and woodland, day and night.

Nightjar

The easiest way to find out if the nocturnal and well-camouflaged nightjar is about is to listen out for its distinctive 'churring' call at dusk. A summer visitor, it is most numerous in southern England.

Noble chafer

The Noble chafer is a rare and beautiful metallic-green beetle that can be found in traditional orchards. It is on the wing over summer, feeding on umbellifers. The larvae live in the decaying wood of old trees.

Noctule

Our largest bat, the noctule roosts in trees and can be seen flying over the canopy in search of insect-prey, such as cockchafers. Like other bats, it hibernates over winter.

Norfolk hawker

The rare Norfolk hawker is a pale brown dragonfly, with a distinctive yellow triangle on its body. It is only found in unpolluted fens, marshes and ditches of the Broads National Park in Norfolk and Suffolk.

Northern gannet

Famed for its super-fast fishing dives into the sea, the northern gannet (or gannet) is a distinctive white bird with a yellow head and black wingtips. It nests in large, noisy, smelly colonies on cliffs around our coasts.

Norway spruce

The Norway spruce was introduced into the UK from Scandinavia in the 16th century. It is familiar to us all as the 'original' Christmas tree and displays hanging, reddish-brown, oblong cones.

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 most frequently encountered species and also one of the smaller ones. Some of us have felt the painful bite of the Notch-horned cleg-fly (a 'horse-fly') while out walking in grasslands or woods, although it prefers to feed on the blood of cows and horses.

Nursehound

The nursehound is a nocturnal predator, hunting smaller fish close to the seafloor.