Granddad’s CameraWildlife calendar
UK wildlife in August: what to see, and where
What’s worth looking for in August in five corners of Britain: a town and its gardens, the New Forest, the Norfolk Broads, the Pembrokeshire coast and the Cairngorms. The month for screaming swifts, seal pups in Pembrokeshire and bat walks.
Happening in August
- Swifts
Swifts are back from Africa, screaming over the rooftops. - Seal pups in Pembrokeshire
Grey seal pups are born in the Pembrokeshire coves. Watch from the clifftop, never the beach. - Bat night
The last weekend of August: bat walks all over the country, detectors crackling at dusk.
Moments worth waiting for
What the animals are up to this month, the most seasonal first.
- Fulmar chick on the ledge
A fluffy grey fulmar chick sits tight on its ledge while its parent glides back along the cliff. - The valezina form
Among the orange butterflies, one female glows an unusual bronze-green: the rare valezina. - Roe rut
A buck chases a doe in tight circles through the bracken, barking hoarsely, leaving a pounded ring behind them. - Newborn adders
A pencil-thin newborn adder, already venomous, basks beside its mother. - Feeding on windfalls
A red admiral spreads its wings on a fallen apple, uncoiling its tongue to sip the juice. - Eyespot flash
Disturbed, the butterfly flicks its wings open and hisses, eyespots glaring. - Roost emergence
Bats stream from a gap under the roof tiles one by one and vanish into the dusk. - Hovering inspection
A southern hawker hovers half a metre from your lens, then zips away along the hedge. - Mother and hoglets
A mother hedgehog leads several pale, soft-spined hoglets across the lawn. - Mother and calf
A small dark fin rises beside a bigger one: a mother porpoise with a calf stuck close to her side. - Dragonfly hunt
A hobby stoops on a hawker dragonfly, seizes it and feeds on the wing, dropping wings as it goes. - Chasing swifts
A pack of swallows scatters and mobs as a hobby scythes past. - Rafting at dusk
A vast raft of shearwaters gathers on the water, waiting for darkness before heading in to the island. - Surface feeding
A huge triangular fin and tail tip cruise slowly through the calm water, the shark's mouth agape to sieve plankton. - A charm on the teasel
A charm of goldfinches clings to a teasel head, picking seeds and tinkling to each other. - Chicks on back
Striped chicks peek out from under a parent's wing. - White-coat pup
On a quiet beach a white-coated pup lies motionless while its mother watches the surf, ready to nurse. - Sunny-perch patrol
A male red admiral perches on a sunlit leaf and darts out to chase off rivals. - Feeding low before rain
Swifts skim low over the canal and playing fields, scooping up insects as the air thickens before a shower. - Courtship circling
Two hedgehogs circle each other, huffing loudly in the dusk. - Swimming across
A vole paddles across the dyke, head just above the surface. - Burrow calls after dark
Out of the black sky come shrieks and gurgles: shearwaters drop clumsily onto the turf and scuttle towards their burrows. - Drinking at a woodland pool
A small flock drops to a rain-pool on the forest track, males and females drinking with a quick dip of the crossed bill. - Bow-riding school
A school of dolphins races in from the side, then surfs the bow wave, flashing tan-and-grey flanks just below the surface.
Where to look
At their best in August, quickest to see first, with the best time of day.
Rare visitors
Not here most of the time, but August is when these can turn up: Glossy ibis, rose-coloured starling, humpback whale and snowy owl.
Moths on the wing
Coming to a garden moth trap in August: Large yellow underwing, heart and dart, angle shades, garden tiger, Jersey tiger, burnished brass, brimstone moth, green carpet and rosy footman. All the moths, and how to trap them kindly.