Where to watch special animals and plants in Britain


This video is about Atlantic puffins in Maine, USA.

From British daily The Independent:

Nature’s greatest spectacles: Where to feast your eyes on Britain’s wildlife

Sanjida O’Connell
Published: 26 July 2007

Basking sharks

Where to go: Falmouth, Cornwall

Bottlenose dolphins [see also here]

Where to go: Moray Firth, Scotland …

Glow worms

Where to go: Arnside Knott, Cumbria

Wordsworth called them “earth-born stars“. Rather more prosaically, a balmy summer’s night lit by glow worms makes you feel as if you could be in the Med. Glow worms are actually beetles and it is the females who do the glowing.

Seals

Where to go: Blakeney Point, Norfolk

If you’re looking for sheer cuteness, you can’t go wrong with seals. Both the grey and common species frequent our coastline. …

Silver-studded blue butterflies

Where to see them: The Great Orme, Wales

The Great Orme is a limestone peninsula with views of the sea and Snowdonia; the south-facing slope is covered in butterflies. Silver studded blues are tiny – about the size of a thumbnail – but there are half a million in the 60 hectare site. …

Red kites

Where to go: Gigrin farm, Powys, Wales ..,

Orchids

Where to go: Park Gate down, Kent

Orchids can be irresistibly fascinating, with a whiff of the illicit about them. We have 56 species of native wild orchid in the UK and the warm chalk downland of Kent is one of the best places to see them. Park Gate Down, a reserve managed by Kent Wildlife Trust, has 10,000 orchids growing in a tiny area. You’re likely to see fragrant, greater butterfly, late spider, musk, pyramidal, common spotted, early purple, lady, as well as the very rare monkey orchid. The latter is only found in three sites in the whole of Britain and, when you look closely, the flower really does look like a gangly spider monkey.

Natterjack toads

Where to go: Ainsdale, Merseyside …

Puffins

Where to see them: the Farne Islands, Northumbria

Who doesn’t love puffins? There’s something comical about their plump bodies, parrot-like bills and dapper, plumage. Puffins nest in large colonies on cliffs with grassy slopes, where they dig burrows. A puffin normally lays one egg in its burrow at the end of May; the chick hatches 43 days later. At this time of the year chicks will still be reliant on the parents for food. Their main diet is sand eels, the over-fishing of which has led to a decline in puffin numbers. On the Farne Islands, though, they are doing well: there are around 55,000 pairs, and you’ll be able to get quite close. The islands are one of Europe’s most important seabird sanctuaries, home to more than 20 different species, including eider ducks and four species of tern – some of which will dive-bomb you, so wear a hat.

Ospreys

Where to go: Rutland, Leics

Bill Oddie BBC TV series on British wildlife: here.

South Downs national park: here.

Moray Firth dolphins given extra protection from boats, development, dredging and the military: here.

June 2011: Peel Energy’s decision to shelve plans to build a full impoundment tidal energy barrage across the Mersey has been welcomed by conservation organisation: here.

2 thoughts on “Where to watch special animals and plants in Britain

  1. Pingback: Blue butterflies species difference | Dear Kitty. Some blog

  2. Pingback: Save wildlife in Sussex, England | Dear Kitty. Some blog

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