My family time
Siti and Amin love visiting Stocker’s Lake for a walk at the weekend. It’s just 15 minutes from where they live in Rickmansworth. The great outdoors is right on your doorstep.
Siti and Amin love visiting Stocker’s Lake for a walk at the weekend. It’s just 15 minutes from where they live in Rickmansworth. The great outdoors is right on your doorstep.
The harvest mouse is tiny - an adult can weigh as little as a 2p piece! It prefers habitats with long grass, but you are most likely to spot its round, woven-grass nests.
The diminutive pygmy shrew has a distinctively pointy nose and tiny eyes. It lives life in the fast lane, eating every 2-3 hours to survive, and only living for a year or so. Look out for it in…
This large, fluffy-looking moth is on the wing in July and August, but you might spot a caterpillar at almost any time of year.
The lime hawk-moth is a large, night-flying moth that can be seen from May to July in gardens, parks and woods. It is buff-coloured, with green patches on its scalloped-edged wings.
The distinctive spiky, or 'bearded', green flower heads of wall barley appear from June to July and are easy to spot in an urban environment as they push their way up through pavements…
Horseshoe vetch is a member of the pea family, so displays bright yellow, pea-like flowers and seed pods. Look for this low-growing plant on chalk grasslands from May to July.
It is so easy to miss this clever little moth. It is a master of disguise, blending in perfectly as it looks just like the twig of a birch tree! Flying only at night, the buff-tip moth can be seen…
Once widespread, this attractive plant has declined as a result of modern agricultural practices and is now only found in four sites in South East England.
This tiny wading bird is most often seen in autumn, feeding on the muddy margins of wetlands.
Large scale drainage in the UK has seen a massive reduction in the range of this sensitive aquatic plant which now only occurs in around 50 sites in England.
Bladder campion is so-called for the bladder-like bulge that sites just behind the five-petalled flower - this is actually the fused sepals. Look for it on grasslands, farmland and along hedgerows…