Hedgehogs

As the weather warms, hedgehogs will be waking from their winter hibernation and looking for food to eat in gardens. They love long grass full of insects to feast on once the sun has set.

To help them move around your neighbourhood you could make a hedgehog hole in your fence – don't forget to speak to your neighbour first! Why not see if you can get the whole street to do the same so your gardens can all be linked for hedgehogs, helping them to roam around and find food. 

How to create a hedgehog hole

Ladybirds

Ladybirds are among the handful of British insects that hibernate - often huddling together in their thousands. In April they emerge in their millions to go hunting. Did you know that ladybirds are mostly carnivorous? Despite their cheerful appearance, many ladybirds will devour aphids - which can often lead to a counter-attack by ants which 'farm' aphids in order to drink the sugary honeydew they excrete. Spend an hour in your garden on a warm April day and see what drama unfolds!

Swallows

Look out for swallows returning to the UK from their winters in Africa. They feed on small, flying insects, and are often found near farmland or grassland, particularly if there’s water nearby. According to the British Trust for Ornithology, females look for males with the most symmetric tails to mate with!

Skippers

The dingy skipper is a small butterfly with a moth-like appearance and a buzzing, low, darting flight. They like to bask in sunlight on bare ground, making them hard to spot! You may find them on chalk grassland, woodland rides or clearings, heathland and wasteland. The caterpillars of dingy skippers feed on bird’s-foot-trefoil, horseshoe vetch or greater bird’s-foot-trefoil. 

Grizzled skippers have a striking dark brown and white chequerboard appearance. They are found in similar areas to dingy skippers, but their caterpillars need wild strawberry, or cinquefoils: their pattern makes them easy to distinguish from the dull brown dingy skippers. 

Both butterflies can be seen in the clearings and woodland edges at Dancersend Nature Reserve, or on the chalk grassland at Hartslock, near Goring. 

Bats

On the warmer spring evenings bats will be out flying around over gardens and parks looking for insects to eat. One of the most common bats you'll see is the common pipistrelle. Even though these are tiny they can eat around 3,000 insects every night!

Discover more about bats

Pasqueflower

This rare purple flower with a bright yellow centre grows on undisturbed chalk grassland like that at Hartslock nature reserve. It blooms near Easter, giving it its name which derives from ‘Paschal’.

Legend has it that Pasqueflowers sprang up in places that had been soaked by the blood of Romans or Danes because they often appeared on old barrows and boundary banks. However, it's more likely that these sites are favoured because they tend to be undisturbed chalk grassland.

Snake's head fritillaries

There’s some debate about whether snake's-head fritillaries are a native species in the UK or not, but whatever its origin it’s been adopted as the county flower for Oxfordshire. Here, the sight of thousands of purple and pink chequered blooms nodding in the wind at Iffley Meadows nature reserve near Oxford city centre draws people from far and wide.

Each year, a team of volunteers counts the number of flowers on site – watch our video to see how last year’s count took place!

Small fry

A fierce predator of small fish and flying insects, the brown trout is widespread in our freshwater rivers. It has a golden body, flanked with pale-ringed dark spots. Mating season for these fish is usually January to March, with eggs laid in riverbed gravel. At this time of year the tiny fry start to hatch out.  Spend an hour by a clear river or stream and see how many fish you can spot.

Pond life

While you’re watching the water, you may notice a number of smaller creatures skimming along the surface…

The common backswimmer can swim upside-down through the water, often near the surface where it grabs insects that have fallen into the water film. It is an active and voracious predator, hunting many smaller invertebrates, tadpoles and small fish. Sensing the vibrations of its prey, it charges at it with lightning speed and stabs it with its 'beak', injecting toxic saliva into the wound so it can suck out the contents of the body – yum!

The lesser water boatman looks very similar, but can be distinguished as it does not swim upside-down. Also, unlike the carnivorous backswimmer, the water boatman is herbivorous, eating algae and detritus.

Nesting coots

Coots are a familiar sight on our park lakes, ponds and rivers, and at this time of year can be spotted in their large and untidy-looking nests on the water. Their chicks may not have the conventional cuteness of mallard ducklings, or the quirky hitchhiking habits of great-crested grebes, but the black-and-orange fluff around their faces lends them undeniable character.

If you see a coot sat on its nest in April, keep a watch from a respectable distance and see if you can spot a bald-looking head poking out!

How to help wildlife in April