Staffordshire in Summer

A quick and skilled aerial hunter, pied flycatchers, like the name suggest, will snatch flying insects mid-air, often using the same perch and flying back and forth. These summer visitors thrive in the mild, wet conditions of the UK's temperate rainforests and other suitable woodlands.

As the name suggests, they are black and white, just like our pied wagtails; the female is nearly a mirror image of the male apart from being brown instead of black but sharing the white throat, chest and smaller white feathers on her wings.

They are summer migrants, arriving from Africa to breed in the UK between April and October. Pied flycatchers like our temperate rainforest habitats, which cover less than 1 per cent of Britain and aren't all protected. 

House martins, although very similar looking to swallows, have dark blue upper parts, a bright white throat and a forked tail. Whereas swallows have much longer tail streamers and a red throat.

Just like swallows they feed on flying insects and aphids which they catch in flight but often feed at a higher altitude. They arrive in April and May and would previously have nested on cliff and rock faces, but the abundance of manmade structures means they are now associated with nesting on houses. They will select sites on top of eaves or under gable ends, earning them their name 'house' martin. They nest in colonies, usually with around five nests at one location.

Despite being associated with houses, they favour open country and farmland with water nearby, where they can often be seen feeding. These high flyers are in decline as their food source of insects is diminishing. They also need wet weather to build their nests earlier in the year and warm weather to gather food, a combination which is not guaranteed due to climate change in the UK anymore.

The sweet secretive field vole is not to be mistaken for bank voles; bank voles have smooth chestnut brown coats and very visible darker-coloured ears. In comparison, field voles have a shaggier grey-brown coat and less visible lighter-coloured ears.

Often seen scurrying across field margins and woodlands with plenty of cover, they can also be seen eating leaves and stems of grasses. Although a species in abundance with an estimated population of 60 million, they are a key prey species for many of our predators such as foxes, stoats, weasels, barn owls, tawny owls, little owls, kestrels and many more! The breeding success of all of these species has an exact correlation to the number of field voles in the local area, a good example of a vital species in the food chain and an important element of a healthy grassland ecosystem.

These timid Common lizards are widespread throughout the UK and are found in grassland, heathland, woodland edges, moorland and sometimes gardens, often bathing in spots of sunshine. On warm, cloudless days, they scan margins, looking for basking places, such as brash piles, low logs and bare rocks. They're hard to spot as they often make sure they're surrounded by cover, so they can make a quick getaway if disturbed or threatened. 

A delicate blue beauty the holly blue is often seen on its food plant, the holly bush, but can also be seen feeding on juices from rotting fruit or carrion. A small butterfly, it's a light silver blue in colour with black borders to the upper wing and different to species like the small blue, due to black speckles on the underside of its wings. Holly blues can be seen in woods and gardens across England and fluctuate in numbers but are increasingly common. 

Yellow rattle has yellow, tube-like flowers protruding from an inflated, green calyx, which appear from May to September. It has serrated leaves with rich, dark veins, which sprout opposite each other all the way up the stem. Its stems have black spots.
When the flowers of yellow rattle fade, the brown calyxes (containing the sepals) in which the tiny seeds ripen can be seen and heard - they give a distinctive 'rattle', hence the common name. Yellow rattle is an annual that thrives in grasslands, living a semi-parasitic life by feeding off the nutrients in the roots of nearby grasses. For this reason, it was once seen as an indicator of poor grassland by farmers, but it is now often used to turn improved grassland back into meadows - feeding off the vigorous grasses eventually allows more delicate, traditional species to push their way through.

Devil's-bit scabious has flattened, rounded flower heads that range in colour from blue to pinky-purple. Its leaves are long and oval and differ from those of field scabious, which are dark green, hairy and deeply lobed.
The rounded and nodding, purple-blue flower heads of Devil's-bit scabious can be found in damp meadows and marshes and along woodland rides and riverbanks. It is in bloom between July and October, its pincushion-like flower heads attracting a wide variety of bees and insects. It is also the food plant for the declining Marsh fritillary butterfly, which is classified as a priority species.

Devil's-bit scabious gets its Latin name - 'Scabere', meaning to scratch - from its traditional use as a treatment for skin conditions, such as scabies and the sores of bubonic plague. Its common name arises from the fact that its roots look truncated, as if bitten off, legend has it, by the Devil.