Pelicans at half two, and other wild things near the West End

The one guaranteed wildlife sighting in central London is in St James's Park at about 2.30pm, when the keepers feed the pelicans. They've lived there since 1664, a gift from a Russian ambassador to Charles II, and this year the colony did something it had never done before.

Pelicans and hedgehogs in the royal parks

Four chicks hatched in the park this year, the first pelican chicks ever raised there. They're being raised in a fenced area away from visitors, but the adults are hard to miss: they sit on the benches and the lakeside rails near Duck Island and ignore the crowds entirely. The Royal Parks has added a morning feed while the chicks grow. Walk through Green Park next door to reach the lake, and get there a little before feeding time.

Regent's Park has what The Royal Parks calls inner London's only breeding population of hedgehogs. They're nocturnal and shy, so seeing one comes down to luck on a summer evening walk round the edge of the park. The Royal Parks also runs guided nature walks and volunteer wildlife surveys, so on a stay of a few weeks check its website for dates.

You don't always have to go out. In May the dawn chorus starts well before 5am in the leafy squares of Mayfair, Kensington and Belgravia, robins and blackbirds first, and foxes cross the garden squares at night all year round. Leave a window open on your first night and you'll hear both.

Deer, otters and wetlands

About 600 red and fallow deer roam Richmond Park, as they have since 1637. It's a National Nature Reserve and London's largest Site of Special Scientific Interest, with protected stag beetles, bats and skylarks. Go early in the morning or in the hour before dusk, when the deer graze out in the open. In the autumn rut, from late September, the stags roar and fight, and in May and June the does hide newborn fawns in the bracken; either way, The Royal Parks asks you to keep a safe distance and dogs on short leads. Take the District line to Richmond and walk up the hill to Richmond Gate.

From Kensington or Chelsea, the WWT London Wetland Centre on Queen Elizabeth Walk in Barnes is the easiest big wildlife day out, with otters, hides over lakes and reedbeds full of water birds, and the only flock of Australian pelicans in the UK. There's adventure play for children, and WWT knocks a bit off if you book online. Allow half a day, and go on a weekday morning outside the school holidays if you can.

Two London Wildlife Trust reserves are a Tube ride away. Camley Street Natural Park, between King's Cross and St Pancras, is a small patch of woodland, grassland and wetland on the Regent's Canal, with a pond-dipping platform and a café, open 10am to 4pm from October to March and until 5pm in summer. Walthamstow Wetlands, near Tottenham Hale on the Victoria line, is a different scale altogether: ten working reservoirs, free to get into and full of wildfowl in winter.

Vauxhall City Farm, on Tyers Street near Vauxhall station, squeezes pigs, alpacas, goats, sheep, rabbits and poultry into an acre and a half. Entry is free, with a suggested £4 donation, and it's open Tuesday to Sunday, 10.30am to 4pm, with last entry at 3.45pm and the Old Dairy café on site. For families on a long stay, it's the easiest animal fix in central London.

If you can pick your month, pick May. Highs are in the high teens, the birds are singing, there are fawns in Richmond Park and the parks are at their greenest. Book the Wetland Centre online and plan the pelicans for mid-afternoon.

London weather by month

July is the warmest month, averaging 23°C by day. July has the fewest wet days (9) and October the most rain (80 mm). For sightseeing on foot, June scores best on our combined warmth-and-dryness measure.

Month	Avg high	Avg low	Rain	Wet days	Chance a 7-day stay sees a washout	Record high / low
January	8°C	2°C	74 mm	13	53%	16°C / -12°C
February	8°C	2°C	51 mm	10	43%	18°C / -8°C
March	11°C	4°C	45 mm	9	44%	23°C / -7°C
April	14°C	5°C	54 mm	10	44%	26°C / -3°C
May	17°C	8°C	54 mm	9	39%	30°C / -1°C
June	20°C	11°C	58 mm	9	35%	34°C / 2°C
July	23°C	13°C	52 mm	9	34%	34°C / 4°C
August	22°C	13°C	68 mm	9	37%	37°C / 4°C
September	19°C	11°C	62 mm	9	39%	29°C / 2°C
October	15°C	8°C	80 mm	11	47%	27°C / -2°C
November	11°C	5°C	76 mm	12	52%	18°C / -6°C
December	8°C	2°C	69 mm	12	50%	16°C / -8°C

Calculated NOAA GHCN-Daily observations at the Hampstead weather station, north London (records 1960–2015; averages from about 25 years per month). A wet day has 1 mm of rain or more.