My retirement
Malcolm loves volunteering every week at Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve where he indulges in his passion for wildlife, keeps active and meets with friends.
Malcolm loves volunteering every week at Blashford Lakes Nature Reserve where he indulges in his passion for wildlife, keeps active and meets with friends.
As its name suggests, giant hogweed it a large umbellifer with distinctively ridged, hollow stems. An introduced species, it is an invasive weed of riverbanks, where it prevents native species…
The fearsome common backswimmer hunts insects, tadpoles and fish. It uses its oar-like legs to swim upside-down under the water's surface where unsuspecting prey can be found.
Bev is grateful to live down the road from Potteric Carr Nature Reserve, a 210ha wetland site which stores excess water from the River Torne during times of high
rainfall. This saved her…
It’s easy to see where these butterflies get their name – the males have bright orange tips on their wings! See them from early spring through to summer in meadows, woodland and hedges.
The most commonly encountered ray around the British Isles, it's easy to see where the thornback ray got its name from - just check out the spines on its back!
The eel is famous for both its slippery nature and its mammoth migration from its freshwater home to the Sargasso Sea where it breeds. It has suffered dramatic declines and is a protected species…
Our most well-known amphibian, the common frog is a regular visitor to garden ponds across the country, where they feast on slugs and snails. In winter, they hibernate in pond mud or under log…
It's easy to see where the snakelocks anemone got its name when you spot its flowing tentacles. But be careful when out rockpooling, those tentacles give a nasty sting!
With yellow-and-black bands, the giant horntail looks like a large wasp, but is harmless to us. The female uses her long, stinger-like ovipositor to lay eggs in pine trees, where the larvae then…
The bee orchid is a sneaky mimic - the flower’s velvety lip looks like a female bee. Males fly in to try to mate with it and end up pollinating the flower. Sadly, the right bee species doesn’t…
Heathlands form some of the wildest landscapes in the lowlands, where agriculture and development jostle for space, containing and limiting natural processes. Once considered as waste land of…