Beguiled by blues
Butterfly expert Alan Sumnall offers a thorough guide to one of our most enchanting groups of butterflies – the blues.
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Chwilio
Azure damselfly
The Azure damselfly is a pale blue, small damselfly that is commonly found around most waterbodies from May to September. Try digging a wildlife pond in your garden to attract damselflies and…
Violet ground beetle
Violet ground beetles are active predators, coming out at night to hunt slugs and other invertebrates in gardens, woodlands and meadows.
Six-spot burnet moth
The six-spot burnet moth is a day-flying moth that flies with a slow, fluttering pattern. Look for it alighting on knapweeds and thistles in grassy places. It is glossy black, with six red spots…
My laboratory
Nora’s study of bird behaviour explores how small bird communities flock together to ward off larger predators. Nature has many things to teach us and is now widely acknowledged as a key…
Garden tiger moth
The garden tiger is an attractive, brown-and-white moth of sand dunes, woodland edges, meadows and hedgerows; it will also visit gardens. In decline, it is suffering from the 'tidying up…
My classroom
Pupils from Abingdon Primary School in Middlesbrough, Jon and Abdul, really enjoy learning outside the classroom, especially sketching butterflies.
Maritime cliff
Whether they are tumbles of soft rock home to a variety of invertebrates, or hard, soaring rock faces bustling with huge seabird colonies, maritime cliffs may be challenging to explore but are…
Beaver
Beavers are the engineers of the animal world, creating wetlands where wildlife can thrive. After a 400-year absence, beavers are back in Britain!
Common harvestman
The Common harvestman is familiar to us as the large, spindly spider-like creature that frequents gardens and houses. It predates on smaller invertebrates which it catches using hooks on the ends…
Green-veined white
The green-veined white is a common butterfly of hedgerows, woodlands, gardens and parks. It is similar to other white butterflies, but has prominent green stripes on the undersides of its wings.…
Grey squirrel
The grey squirrel was introduced into the UK in the 1800s. It provides an easy encounter with wildlife for many people, but can be damaging to woodlands and has contributed to the decline of the…