Wildlife to see in the United Kingdom in July
8 spectacles at their peak in the United Kingdom in July, and 2 more still going on. Wild animals only: no zoos, no wildlife parks, no hunting. Open United Kingdom in July in the interactive calendar for listening times on the day you pick.
At their peak in July
Manx shearwaters returning at nightHundreds of thousands of birds crashing in, with cackling, choking, hoarse calls from the air and burrows all around you.
Nightjars churringContinuous mechanical churring with changes of gear, wing-claps, 'coo-ick' flight calls, with tree pipits and woodlarks at dusk.
Seabird citiesA wall of seabird calls: gannet grating, kittiwakes calling their name, guillemot growls, puffin burrow moans, sea and wind below.
Storm petrels at Mousa BrochPurring and hiccupping from inside the Iron Age broch walls, and the bat-like flutter of returning birds passing your head.
Swift screaming partiesHigh-speed screaming packs racing around rooftops, doppler passes at head height, and the sound of summer evenings.
Tyne kittiwakes — the urban colonyAbout 800 pairs of oceanic gulls calling 'kitti-wake' from the Tyne Bridge girders and the Baltic art gallery ledges, echoing between the bridges over the river and city traffic.
Bat emergence & autumn swarmingMostly ultrasonic: echolocation and feeding buzzes, social calls. Noctule social calls and some horseshoe calls are partly audible.
Bottlenose dolphins from the shoreWith a hydrophone: whistles, clicks, and burst pulses. Above water: blows and splashes very close to shore.
Also going on in July
Corncrakes callingThe rasping 'crex-crex' from iris beds and meadows, with snipe, redshank and the sea behind.
Late-summer bush-cricket & grasshopper chorusLoud sewing-machine buzz of great green bush-crickets from coastal scrub; ticking of dark bush-crickets; the electric drone of Roesel's in rough grassland.