How to create a mini pond
Even a small pond can be home to an interesting range of wildlife, including damsel and dragonflies, frogs and newts.
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Chwilio
Mud
From vast plains spreading across the seabed to intertidal flats exposed by the low tide, mud supports an incredible variety of wildlife.
Hairy shieldbug
This large shieldbug lives up to its name, bristling with long pale hairs. It's a common sight in parks, hedgerows and woodland edges in much of the UK.
Hedgerow
Hedgerows are one of our most easily encountered wildlife habitats, found lining roads, railways and footpaths, bordering fields and gardens and on the coast.
Upland acid grassland and rush pasture
These grasslands, occupying much of the UK's heavily-grazed upland landscape, are of greater cultural than wildlife interest, but remain a habitat to some scarce and declining species.
How to build a mini stone wall
Learn a tradition with its roots in the Iron Age and build your own mini dry stone wall to attract wildlife.
Bullfinch
The rose-red breast, large black cap and thick bill make the bullfinch easy to identify. A plump-looking bird of woodlands, hedgerows and orchards, it also frequents gardens.
Rivers
From otters to freshwater shrimps, all animals are dependant on an abundant and reliable supply of clean water. Rivers sustain the natural environment, wildlife and people in equal measure.
Marsh gentian
The bright blue, trumpet-shaped flowers of the marsh gentian contrast deeply with the pinks and purples of the wet heaths it inhabits. The New Forest holds a large population of this late-…
Garden bumblebee
Unsurprisingly, the garden bumblebee can be found in the garden, buzzing around flowers like foxgloves, cowslips and red clover. It is quite a large, scruffy-looking bee, with a white tail. It…
Giant horntail
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…
Great diving beetle
The Great diving beetle is a large and voracious predator of ponds and slow-moving waterways. Blackish-green in colour, it can be spotted coming to the surface to replenish the air supply it…