Mighty moss
Next time you pass a verdant cushion of moss carpeting the woodland floor, or creeping out between a couple of paving stones, stop and study this superhero of the natural world; often overlooked,…
Next time you pass a verdant cushion of moss carpeting the woodland floor, or creeping out between a couple of paving stones, stop and study this superhero of the natural world; often overlooked,…
Our most familiar fern, bracken can be found growing in dense stands on hillsides, moorland, heathland and in woodlands. It is very large and dies back in winter, turning the landscape orangey-…
As a Trainee Reserves officer at Rutland Water Nature Reserve, Dale is lucky enough that he can take his passion for wildlife to work with him, with a job that will set him up for a career in…
This beautiful beetle is fond of damp meadows and woodland rides, where it's often found on umbellifers or thistles.
Our only venomous snake, the shy adder can be spotted basking in the sunshine in woodland glades and on heathlands.
A mixed woodland bursting with wildlife
A tall orchid of woodland and scrub, the broad-leaved helleborine has greenish, purple-tinged flowers that look a little 'drooping'. Strongly veined, oval leaves spiral around its stem…
Rare summer visitors, honey buzzards breed in open woodland where they feed on the nests and larvae of bees and wasps.
Common cow-wheat is a delicate annual that brightens up the edges of acid woodland and heaths with deep golden flowers in the summer.
Elegant, airy woodlands of silver-barked birches found across the northern uplands. Often transient in feel, with scattered trees growing over the heathy field layer of the surrounding moorland,…
The umbrella-like clusters of white, frothy flowers of cow parsley are a familiar sight along roadsides, hedgerows and woodland edges.
The little ringed plover first nested in the UK in 1938, but has since moved in happily! It has taken advantage of an increase in man-made flooded gravel pits, reservoirs and quarries that provide…