Wildlife explorer

The true fox-sedge is a rare and threatened plant in the UK. It relies on lowland floodplain meadows and damp habitats, which are rapidly disappearing. Look for reddish-brown flowers in summer.

This comical little duck lives up to its name – look out for the black tuft of feathers on its head!

A scrambling plant, Tufted vetch has violet flowers. It is a member of the pea family and can be seen along woodland edges, on scrubland and grassland, and at the coast.

The turkeytail is a very colourful bracket fungus that grows throughout the year, but is at its best in the autumn. Its circular caps can be seen growing in tiers on trees and dead wood.

The turnstone can be spotted fluttering around large stones on rocky and gravelly shores, flipping them over to look for prey. It can even lift rocks as big as its own body! Although a migrant to the UK, it can be seen all year-round as different populations arrive throughout the seasons.

Many of us have felt the painful bite of the Twin-lobed deer-fly (a 'horse-fly') while out walking in damp grasses or woods. But mostly, it prefers to feed on the blood of cows and ponies, often becoming a pest.

This small finch nests on moorlands and coastal crofts, spending the winter on the coast. The UK population has declined dramatically.

The undulate ray has beautiful wavy patterns on its back, which helps it camouflage against the sandy seabed.

The mohawk-sporting caterpillar of this moth is often seen on shrubs and trees in late summer. As adults the orange-brown males fly by day, but the flightless females don't stray far from their cocoon.

The variable damselfly looks a lot like the azure damselfly, but is much less common throughout most of the UK.

The shells of this small scallop are often found washed up on our shores and comes in lots of different colours, including pink, red, orange and purple.!