I am an amateur naturalist. I am particularly interested in
vascular plants, lichens, bryophytes and invertebrates; but I try, to the best of
my ability, to undertake pan-species listing in my patch. But my lichen and bird patch is Sussex (the vice counties of East and West Sussex for biological
recording purposes in the UK), That is way too big to do systematic pan-species listing and recording. I only travel by public transport to reduce my
carbon footprint. I am a retired teacher (special education). So I have restricted my pan-species listing/recording to one square kilometre a monad - TQ2611.
In a world of massive loss of biodiversity, it is really important to to widen the knowledge of the general public of what species exist in their local area, so that these species can be conserved; to conserve something, that thing has to have a name, and to record over time so that patterns of abundance and diversity and the effect of climate change and biodiversity loss can be seen.
I have been visiting the Devil's Dyke fortnightly over the last four years (on the 77 and 17 bus) but I have not formally recorded what I have seen. From now on I will formally record in iRecord the species I see.
TQ2611 encompasses a rich tapestry of habitats, including unimproved chalk downland, the dramatic chalk combe of the Devil's Dyke, ancient woodland surrounding a wet chalk stream valley, rising in a spring, secondary woodland part of an old chalk pit, and, at the foot of the downs, low weald pasture farmland.
Ordnance Survey Maps
Ordnance Survey (2006) TQ2611 | OS Maps (Accessed: 31/08/26) © Crown Copyright 2016 Ordnance Survey
Natural England Ancient Woodland online map Ancient Woodland (England) | Natural England Open Data Geoportal
All of the species in this blog have been recorded on iRecord. I have only recently started recording all my sightings in this monad on iRecord (part of the National Biodiversity Database); previously I only recorded significant sightings on iRecord. If you want to see my iRecord recordings go to iRecord and use a NS grid filter for TQ2611. I find iNaturalist is useful for expanding the general public’s interest in the nature around them, and I used iNaturalist for pan-species recording everywhere in the UK Click iNaturalist to see my iNaturalist records
I am a volunteer ranger at RSPB Pagham Harbour and I
volunteer with the Woodlands Trust’s Lost Woods of the Low Weald and Downs and
the National Trust leading walks to develop public awareness of lichens
I am a member of the British Naturalists’ Association, the
British Lichen Society, the British Bryological Society, and the Botanical Society
of Britain and Ireland.
I wrote posts about my nature journeys in Sussex, trying to
identify what I saw. These posts give details of how to get to these sites by
public transport in order to promote public transport use. I do not add any
more to this website, but all of my previous These can be accessed here: https://www.simelliott.net
You can follow me on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/sim-elliott.bsky.social
Qualifications: BMus, PGCE (Primary Education), MA (History
of Art: dissertation on the representation of flowers and landscape features in
late Byzantine mosaics in Constantinople), MSc (Applied Positive Psychology,
with a particular focus on nature and well being)
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