A common moth across most of the UK. The large, hairy caterpillars are often seen in late summer.

Once a rare visitor to the UK, this striking gull is now found nesting here in large colonies.

The emperor dragonfly is an impressively large and colourful dragonfly of ponds, lakes, canals and flooded gravel pits.

This large starfish looks just like the sun, with 10-12 arms spreading outwards like rays.

These large seals can often be seen bobbing in the sea or lying on beaches waiting for their food to go down.

The eider is a large seaduck, famed for its soft, downy feathers that are not only used by the bird to line and insulate its nest, but also by humans to stuff our quilts and pillows. It nests…

The bulbous buttercup has the familiar butter-yellow flowers of its namesake, but grows from a bulb-like 'corm' (a swollen underground stem). Look for it on chalk and limestone…

Chicken of the woods is a sulphur-yellow bracket fungus of trees in woods, parks and gardens. It can often be found in tiered clusters on oak, but also likes beech, chestnut, cherry and even yew…

Looking like a short dandelion, but with a much rounder middle, colt's-foot is a 'weed' of waste ground and field edges that brightens up early spring with its sunshine-yellow…

With black-and-yellow markings, the hornet robberfly looks like its namesake, but is harmless to us. This mimicry helps to protect it from predators while it perches in the open, waiting for its…

Heralding spring, a carpet of sunshine-yellow lesser celandine flowers is a joy to see on a woodland walk. Look out for it along hedgerows, in parks and even in graveyards, too, from March onwards…