Summer is well and truly among us. Wildflowers are growing in the meadows, the hedgerows are alive with birds twittering away, and (for now at least) the sun is shining.
Before the UK is subjected to months of horizontal freezing rain and the dark nights draw in; check out this incredible list of things to do.
How many can you do?
1. Spot an otter
These slinky creatures have made a comeback and nothing beats a glimpse of an otter gliding through water.
2. Listen out for the warble of a Dartford warbler
First find your heathland - Chobham Common is an ideal spot. A warm, still day is best, as little birds tend to stay hidden if it’s windy. Dartford warblers have a habit of following stonechats around, so if you see a stonechat perched up, check out the bushes around and below it. You may find a Dartford warbler quietly picking off insects nearby.
3. Listen to a dawn chorus:
Birds begin to sing an hour before sunrise as it brings the risks of alerting predators it is best done before the early morning sun. At Snipe Dales in Lincolnshire the valleys and woods are filled with bird song.
4. Dance in the rain!
We don’t have to stay inside on those wet rainy days. Put on your wellies and get muddy!
5. Scour riverbanks for Ratty
Head to the riverbank to track down one of our most endangered and much-loved mammals, the water vole. Follow the water vole trail to Winnall Moors.
6. Feel the grass between your toes
Take off your shoes and socks and go for a wander -meadowland is perfect for this. Enjoy Hartington Meadows’ wildflowers in June
7. Peer at puffins
The clown-like puffin rears its pufflings in cliff top burrows and will return each year to the same spot.
8. Watch a sunset
Climb a hill or find a local high point to get the best view to watch the sky spill with colours. Beacon Hill overlooks the picturesque village of Trellech.
9. Relax around summer orchids
Enter a bewitching world of men and monkey, ladies, lizards, frogs and flies – all our summer orchids. Some are fragrant, a rare one smells strongly of bill goats!
10. Go on a bat walk
Unseen and unnoticed by most of us, the countryside fills up with these nocturnal insectivores. A walk down by the river at nightfall may well land you in luck. For a special view take a bat punt safari in .
11. Trek to the UK’s newest island at Spurn Point
A wilderness which needs a 4x4 specially converted Unimog Spurn Safari to reach the tip - there’s no road.
12. Follow a sat tagged osprey
Ospreys fly from sub-saharan Africa to a variety of watery UK locations including Rutland Water, Loch of the Lowes, Cors Dyfi Nature Reserve, Foulshaw Moss Nature Reserve, and Leaplish Waterside Park to make their summer home. Follow their progress and see them and their fledglings .
13. Watch a gannet dive
These amazing seabirds are mesmerising plunge-divers and Skomer and Alderney are great islands to visit with your binoculars.
14. Make a wild cordial
Elderflower and nettles can both make deliciously refreshing beverages. Go on a wild walk and collect what you can (gloves are needed if you’re looking for nettles!).
15. Watch out for wild beavers
Four hundred years after England’s beavers were hunted to extinction, stroll along the banks of the River Otter at dusk or dawn to spot the country’s only wild beavers.
16. Listen to birds
Shut your eyes and count how many bird songs you can hear. A walk in the woods is an ideal place to do this, and
17. Have breakfast, lunch and dinner outside
Picnic benches in the meadow next to Essex Wildlife Trust's visitor centre boast close, panoramic views of the large reservoir, which is a haven for birds, especially wildfowl.
18. Nap in nature
Visit your favourite spot, lie down in the grass and relax…
19. ID a spider
Whether it’s the cardinal living in your bathroom or the garden spider roaming your garden borders.
20. Be bewitched by a buttercup
Once a year you can see one of Britain’s rarest wild flowers, the Badgeworth buttercup. It is found in just two spots in the UK one of which is a Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust nature reserve.
21. Star gaze
The best spots to see the stars are, by nature, rather remote. Escape from the light pollution and visit Nipstone Rock.
22. Find a frog
Whether it’s in the local park or your garden pond frogs are now hopping around. Look out for amphibians at Askham Bog near York – one of the few ancient fenlands left in Yorkshire - is a great place to start.
23. Rock pooling
See what creatures you can find and ID at the coast. Porth y Pwll, North Wales is an ideal spot. Along this stretch of coastline lie many bays which are fantastic rock pooling sites.
24. Set up a nature camera
Find out who is visiting your garden or local wild spot. From otters to badgers, you’ll have to wait until the morning to find out who is star of the show.
25. Find urban nature
Whether it’s wild ferns pushing through the concrete or a gull making a nest on a window ledge, see if you can spot nature in unlikely places. London has a great inner city reserve nestled between two of its busiest railway stations.
26. Spend the night under canvas
Camping is a great way to immerse in wildlife. Listen to the dawn chorus as you lie in bed or watch bats swoop above your tent as the sun sets.
27. Hug a tree
Visit a wonderful woodland and wrap your arms around the biggest tree you can find. You might be able to sap up some of that old-oak-energy at Coed Dyrysiog, an ancient woodland nestling in the Nant Bran Valley.
28. Paddle in a stream
Get your feet wet and explore rocks and crevices with your toes!
29. Leave a wild patch in your lawn
This simple action helps to create a wider range of habitats in your garden. Flowers are good for bees, long grass helps to shelter moths and small mammals.
30. Be dazzled by a buzzard
Listen out for their cat-like, 'kee-yaaa' calls as they soar in high circles over grassland, farmland and woodlands
31. Purr with a turtle dove
Listen out for the evocative purr of the turtle dove over the summer months. Found in woodland edges and hedgerows, Norfolk hosts a wonderful habitat for these delicate doves at Foxley Wood, west of Norwich
32. Gape at hunting hobbies
This handsome falcon with a bold black moustache gorges on dragonflies. See this sleek bird over reedbeds and wetlands.
33. Spot wildlife on the train
It is amazing just what you can spot from the train window. From a fleeting glance of a roe deer’s rear to the flick of a hare’s tail. Pick a seat by the window and stay patient.
34. Watch a kingfisher fish
Often only to be spotted by a fleeting flash of vibrant blue, these majestic birds can be hard to spot. They love clean rivers so finding a place with excellent water quality is key.
35. Soak up the sun with a lizard
All our reptiles are sun-worshippers. Find a south-facing slope, with patches of bare ground that warm up quickly next to areas of cover into which the animal can flee if disturbed, and you have the perfect reptile spotting spot. You can help them out by building a reptile rockery in your garden for them,
36. Journey to a seabird city
Experience the sights and sounds (and smells) of a seabird colony! Longhaven Cliffs offers spectacular views of seabird colonies and natural features such as sea stacks, caves and arches.
37. Visit a bird hide
Take a thermal flask of tea and a pair of binoculars. Give yourself an hour and you will be surprised at just how much you spot. Watch out for waders at Wheldrake Ings.
38. Admire the view from the top of a tree
You were probably about nine the last time you climbed a tree but don’t let that stop you. Enjoy wildlife at a different angle and see habitats up close.
39. Be amazed by avocets
Time your visit for the very start of June to get the best chance of seeing the newly hatched chicks. Once a great rarity, the avocet is now a fantastic success story and can be spotted across the regions including Brockholes, Lancashire.
40. Visit a peregrine’s odd abode
Replacing cliffs and mountain ledges with cathedral spires and sky scrapers you are now probably more likely to see a peregrine in town than in the countryside. In London you can gaze up at the Tate Modern or Charing Cross Hospital to catch a site of a resident pair.
41. Discover the rare spoonbill
This bird is brilliant - Google image it now! Although they bred in East Anglia during Medieval times, spoonbills had not bred in Britain for over 300 years until, in 2010, a colony was discovered on the north Norfolk coast. One of the best sites is probably Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Cley Marshes, where a record flock was recorded in 2014.
42. Delight in a glow-worm
Late June and early July is the best time to go on a glow-worm hunt. Choose a still, warm evening with a crescent moon (glow-worms are less likely to glow with a full moon). And try not to use a torch. Let your eyes adjust to the dark, and then you are more likely to pick out the faint green glow of the glow-worm.
43. Keep a wildlife diary
You will be amazed at just how much wildlife you encounter once you start to record it. Keep a journal and have a go at identifying a bird song you hear or that beetle you nearly trod on!
44. Follow a bee
Bees go on incredible journeys, sometimes foraging for miles. Next time you spot one watch where it goes next.
45. ID a butterfly
Up close these insects are spectacular. Head to Norfolk to catch a glimpse of our largest butterfly, the rare swallowtail. Make Hickling Broad your first port of call or try Ranworth Broad where you could even spot a swallowtail before leaving the car park.
46. Watch the clouds
Nothing beats laying on the grass and watching the world go by.
47. Marvel at marine megafauna
basking sharks can be 10 metres long but only feed on animal plankton, sieving it through their vast mouths. See them off the
48. Find your flippers for a snorkel trail
Seas off the North West Highlands coast brim with life, small sea squirts, and anemones right up to dolphins, whales and harmless basking sharks.
49. Watch a badger sett
Set up a night-watch on a sett and be enchanted by badgers, but don’t disturb them.
50. Investigate tracks and signs
Many animals leave behind clues and making a footprint trap or inspecting wet ground can lead to some intriguing revelations about who is visiting the area.
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