The banded demoiselle can be seen flitting around slow-moving rivers, ponds and lakes. The males are metallic blue, with a distinctive dark band across their wings, and the females are a shiny…

Beautiful demoiselles are, well, beautiful! Often confused for a dragonfly, these giants of the damselfly world are hard to miss with their metallic blue and green colours.

The common banded hoverfly has a fitting name: it is not only one of our most common species, its black body is also covered in yellow bands! It can be seen in many habitats from gardens to…

The bearded tit is an unmistakable cinnamon-coloured bird of reedbeds in the south, east and north-west of England. Males actually sport a black 'moustache', rather than a beard!

Found in compost heaps and under stones in gardens, the flat-backed millipede is a common minibeast. It is an important recycler of nutrients, feeding on decaying matter.

The lesser-black backed gull can be spotted around the coast in summer, with the biggest colony on Walney Island, Cumbria. Look for it over fields, landfill sites and reservoirs during winter.