UK wildlife in June: what to see, and where

Happening in June

• Bitterns booming
  Bitterns boom from the Broads’ reedbeds at dawn. Seeing one is another matter. Bittern
• Puffin season
  Puffins are back on Skomer, bills full of sand eels, with razorbills and guillemots on the cliffs. Puffin, razorbill and guillemot
• Swifts
  Swifts are back from Africa, screaming over the rooftops. Swift

Moments worth waiting for

What the animals are up to this month, the most seasonal first.

• Egg-laying Swallowtail · day
  A female skims low over the fen, dabbing eggs on milk-parsley leaves.
• Caterpillar run Blue tit · day and dawn
  A blue tit arrives at a nest hole with a green caterpillar in its bill, and a chorus of chick calls answers.
• Chicks on the shore Oystercatcher · day
  A tiny, fluffy chick freezes on the pebbles while its parents call from the rocks.
• Feeding the brood Great tit · dawn and day
  A great tit shoots into the nest box with a green caterpillar, and leaves with a white faecal sac.
• Fawns Fallow deer · dawn and dusk
  A spotted fawn, tucked motionless in the bracken, its mother watching from the tree line.
• Puffin with sand eels Puffin · day and dusk
  A puffin lands with a shining row of sand eels dangling from its bill, stops for a moment and vanishes down its burrow.
• Ledge jumpers Guillemot · dusk and dawn
  A chick shuffles to the edge and tumbles out, whirring tiny wings as it plops into the sea beside its father.
• Froglet exodus Common frog · day and dusk
  Hundreds of thumbnail-sized froglets hop from the pond edge into the wet grass after a summer shower.
• Jumpling day Razorbill · dusk and dawn
  A downy chick pauses on the ledge, then leaps, fluttering to the sea with its father calling from the water below.
• Male display Beautiful demoiselle · day
  A male flashes his blue wings over a riffle, guarding his patch of stream from rivals.
• Kids in the bracken Roe deer · dawn and dusk
  A doe steps out of the trees, ears swivelling, one spotted kid tucked in the grass behind her.
• Males wrestling Stag beetle · dusk
  Two males lock jaws on a log and heave, trying to flip each other, while a female watches.
• Host feeding a giant chick Cuckoo · day
  A tiny reed warbler crams a caterpillar into the gaping mouth of a chick four times its size.
• Perching Norfolk hawker · day
  A male settles on reed.
• Emerging Norfolk hawker · dawn
  A new dragonfly hangs on a water soldier leaf.
• Bittern feeding flight Bittern · dawn, day and dusk
  A bittern rises above the reeds on broad, owl-like wings with a fish for hungry young.
• Ducklings in a line Mallard · day and dawn
  A mallard leads a line of fluffy ducklings across the canal, one straggler paddling to catch up.
• Fledglings and parents Stonechat · dawn and day
  A male stonechat clings to gorse with food in his bill while fluffy spotted fledglings call from the bush.
• Cubs at play Red fox · dusk and dawn
  Three cubs tumble out of the earth and pounce on each other's tails.
• Screaming party Swift · dusk
  A gang of swifts sweeps round the rooftops at speed, shrieking, then rockets skywards.
• Roost emergence Common pipistrelle · dusk
  Bats stream from a gap under the roof tiles one by one and vanish into the dusk.
• Food pass Marsh harrier · day
  The male carries prey over the nest; the female rises, rolls and takes it mid-air.
• Fawns in the reeds Chinese water deer · dawn and dusk
  A tiny spotted fawn lies frozen in the sedge as its mother feeds nearby.
• Food pass Peregrine falcon · day
  The male arrives with a kill and the female rolls in the air to take it from his talons.

Where to look

At their best in June, quickest to see first, with the best time of day.

Rare visitors

Not here most of the time, but June is when these can turn up: European bee-eater, red-footed falcon, glossy ibis, rose-coloured starling and snowy owl.

Moths on the wing

Coming to a garden moth trap in June: Large yellow underwing, heart and dart, elephant hawk-moth, poplar hawk-moth, lime hawk-moth, privet hawk-moth, eyed hawk-moth, buff-tip, peppered moth, ruby tiger, burnished brass, brimstone moth, swallow-tailed moth, green carpet and rosy footman. All the moths, and how to trap them kindly.