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Outer Hebrides: It’s nearly 100 years since anyone lived on this hostile archipelago, though their ‘village’ remains – as does an astonishing wealth of wildlife Dawn on a deep-rolling ocean, and I am about to realise a dream. We’re 35 nautical miles west of the Outer Hebrides, on

Charmouth, Dorset: On a busy beach day, I find bright green gutweed thriving by the river mouth. It’s resilient – and loves the nutrients found in sewageCharmouth beach is always busy. Even on grey and stormy winter days, walkers and their dogs patrol the hissing waves, and fossi

Hitchin, Hertfordshire: The broad-bodied chaser is often the first to arrive at a new pond, and sure enough, I spot an exuvia clinging to a leaf bladeThe hole in the nest box on our house wall is all mouth. A sparrow chick on the cusp of fledging has thrust its head out, beak ope

Ailsworth, Cambridgeshire: It’s hard enough to find the crested cow-wheat, it would be even harder were it not for one far-sighted wardenBefore 7am, the heat is already pressing down. I’ve come out early for my annual pilgrimage to a local colony of crested cow‑wheat, Melampyrum

Buxton, Derbyshire: What a fine sight it is to see one throwing its head back in song, especially after a 50-year absence. Yet this is a journey of vulnerabilityThe wood warbler is one of my signature birds, a highlight of schooldays when a pair bred annually in Lightwood five mi

Barston, West Midlands: It’s been a strange year so far for butterflies, and I get my summer meadow brown moment beneath a roaring jumbo jetOn one of the longest days, my mum and I walk through Warwickshire countryside near her home beneath the flight path of Birmingham airport.

Ynys Enlli, Gwynedd: A stroll down this island’s one road provides clues to its past – and it has nothing to do with the 20,000 saints apparently buried hereIn 1938, the Welsh naturalist Ronald Lockley described Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island) as a mountain “crudely cemented to a low

Langstone, Hampshire: Tree bumblebees are generally placid, but they’re not keen on someone prodding their home with the end of a bamboo caneLast summer, one by one, all our visiting hedgehogs fell victim to the road. For the first time in years, the hedgehog house beneath a purp

Brigg, Lincolnshire: It’ll take six weeks to cut it all, starting with barley and likely ending with beans. Thank goodness the combine has air-conditioningThe crops have managed to survive winter flooding (almost) and two heatwaves, but another hot spell of weather is on the way

Allendale, Northumberland: Farmers use it as cover crop, and I sow it into bare soil – but not before I’ve had a close look at its stunning detailsCupped by bristly sepals, the five-petalled flowers of phacelia flare open at the tips, drawing insects to their abundant nectar and

Eyam Moor, Derbyshire: I go in search of a leveret, which is a tricky business. For them, subterfuge is key to survivalHigh on Eyam Moor, there was no shortage of things to look at. Meadow vetch and lady’s bedstraw had turned the trackside a vibrant yellow. The moor itself glitte

Frome, Somerset: I feel like a walking carriage, trundling down Colliers Way, glimpsing hedgerows and hayfields and, best of all, one of the original tracksIf there is such a thing as a level playing field in the Mendip Hills, I have yet to find it. Not one street has “Rise” in i