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Sim Elliott

@sim-elliott.bsky.social
423 followers 201 following 2.1K posts

Amateur naturalist & eco-socialist. Fascinated by lichens, botany and insects; the Sussex Downs & Weald; woodland, landscape & architecture. Only travel by bus, train & foot. simelliottnaturenotes.blog

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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Still lots of Clouded Yellows, Colias croceus, in Sussex. Saw five at Seaford Head NR @sussexwildlife.bsky.social today. One was a helice form (no photo)
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
🎶 New faces to run this place Our leaders dont think that we are worth too much The fact of the matter is... Tommorrow belongs to us 🎶
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
One thing we do know about Fairford is that it has a functioning BT red phone box (mentioned in a witness interview). That is truly amazing? What we know about RAF Fairford counter-terror probe www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
What we know about RAF Fairford incident and counter-terror probe
Five men have been arrested as counter-terror police lead an investigation into a major incident near the airbase.
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
1/2 You wouldn't expect friable rocks like chalk to be good substrates for saxicolous lichens & yet chalk scree (rubble) on the scarp slopes of the South Downs do have lichens. There's little chalk scree because most scarp slopes are consolidated by vegetation. Very hard to identify sans microscopy
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Still flowering or flowering again on the calcareous grassland of the South Downs. @southdownsnp.bsky.social Fairy Flax, Linum catharticum; Mouse Ear, Cerastium fontanum; Spear Thistle, Cirsium vulagare; and Selfheal, Prunella vulgaris. North-facing scarp of the Devil's Dyke @bsbibotany.bsky.social
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Nothing much! A tiny relict of ancient woodland on the scarp face of the South Downs at the Devil's Dyke just south of Fulking. Too small to get on the Natural England ancient woodland register. Yew, Ash, Beech, Hazel. A tiny scrap of land that has survived 4000 years of wood clearance.
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Its possible to think of Hawthorn as a scubbby nuisance on calcareous grassland, and some seedlings do need removal to stop progression to woodland, but some ancient Hawthorns are magnificent and the main substrate for Teloschistes chrysophthalmus. Devil's Dyke Hill Fort @southdownsnp.bsky.social
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Correction: Colletes hederae are are not strictly monophagous. Instead, they are more accurately described as oligolectic. Female ivy bees are highly specialized when it comes to feeding their young; but they will drink nectar from other plants for their own energy.
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Chiffchaff in Poynings, West Sussex
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A monophagous (only one food type) female Ivy Bee, Colletes hederae, gathering nectar and pollen from Ivy, Hedera helix, for its brood of 10-20 eggs, each in different chambers of this solitary miner bee’s nest.
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A Wall on a wall. A Wall doing what it says on the tin; sunbathing on a vertical wall; the south earth wall of the Devil's Dyke Iron Age hillfort called, in C18, the Poor Man's Walls. Possibly a 3rd brood. Section 41 species. @savebutterflies.bsky.social
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Led 2 intro to lichen workshops yesterday 4 the Lost Woods of the Low Weald Community Get-together, with bags of fallen twigs & handouts listing taxa, growth forms & reproductive structures with photos. Participant: “this foliate one with lecanorine apothecia is not on your sheet” RESULT💯 It wasn’t.
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This article is historically blind. “Some of Patriot Platform's disruptive, eye-catching tactics seem to have been borrowed from environmental groups like Just Stop Oil. ‘ No. “Anti-Migrant Activists” and “Patriot Platform” are Mosley’s Black Shirts and the British Union of Fascists for the C21.
bbc.co.uk
Anti-migrant activists like Danny Tommo are changing tactics
Patriot Platform wants to build a group of working-class voters to influence political parties on the right.
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
If you are a pensioner sitting in the road holding up a sign that says I support Palestine Action you are arrested under terrorism laws; if you are a violent fascist who attacks RNLI workers & the police you get arrested for careless driving, aggravated trespass and assault. UK law is an ass.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 24/09/2026
Tom Watson’s move to Palantir is the latest sign of how far the rot has spread in UK politics | Clive Lewis
theguardian.com
Tom Watson’s move to Palantir is the latest sign of how far the rot has spread in UK politics | Clive Lewis
When a former Labour deputy leader joins a firm built on surveillance and military targeting, it deepens public cynicism – and democracy depends on trust, says Labour MP Clive Lewis
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Gone over Carlina vulgaris, Carline Thistle. An iconic sights of the South Downs in Autumn & Winter. It stays in its gone over straw-like state for months because its inner bracts resist decay. Just as pretty as when blooming (pic 2) @sussexwildlife.bsky.social Malling Down @bsbibotany.bsky.social
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
False spring? New growth from Centaurium erythraea, Centaury; Clinopodium vulgare, Wild Basil and Reseda lutea, Mignonette on the South Downs at @sussexwildlife.bsky.social Malling Down. Are you seeing this elsewhere @bsbibotany.bsky.social
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Rather pretty Plant Bug, Lygus pratensis on Toadflax, Linaria vulgaris. @sussexwildlife.bsky.social Malling Down NR.
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Sim Elliott PSL TQ4600 & TQ4500 @tq4600-tq4500.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
tq45004600-pan-species-listing-sellio.blogspot.com/2026/09/a-wa... A "forest" of Great Mullein to the west of Tide Mills on land previously used as salterns, then seemingly covered in dredging spoil covering vegetated shingle
tq45004600-pan-species-listing-sellio.blogspot.com
A wander round the Great Mullein "forest" of the west part of Tide Mills; an old saltern. 18.09.26
The west part of Tide Mills is signed "Newhaven Port Nature Reserve"; but this appears to be historic green-washing by the Port of Newhaven ...
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Sim Elliott PSL TQ4600 & TQ4500 @tq4600-tq4500.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
From Sicily to Tide Mills via the Oxford Botanic Garden and the growth of 19th century railways tq45004600-pan-species-listing-sellio.blogspot.com/2026/09/oxfo...
tq45004600-pan-species-listing-sellio.blogspot.com
Oxford Ragwort; from Sicily to New Mills via the Oxford Botanical Gardens
Oxford Ragwort, Senecio squalidus, growing in the shingle beside the ruined Marine School for disabled children at Tide Mills, Newhaven, ne...
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
It is worth consulting the on-line collection of historic Ordnance Survey maps (held by the National Library of Scotland, but covers all of the UK) when you find something odd. The "odd" landscape between Newhaven & Tide Mills might be partly be explained by it previously being salt pans (salterns)
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
British & Irish Wild Flowers & Plants: A Pocket Guide; so good I now have it on kindle too, on my phone. Always have phone so always have guide! My field assistant - Silent Running’s Dewy - is checking the filaments to see if they match the description for Great Mullein. @bsbibotany.bsky.social
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
The soil of the westerly part of Tide Mills contains dredged silt from Newhaven Harbour and shingle. This “poor” quality soil has produced abundant Great Mullein, and Sea Kale routed in shingle but growing through a layer of grass growing in humus on shingle. An unusual habit for Sea Kale.
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
1/4 Oxford Ragwort, Senecio squalidus, growing in the shingle beside the ruined Marine School for disabled children at Tide Mills, Newhaven, next to the shoreline railway spur used to transport building materials for Newhaven harbour breakwater.
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Hop, Humulus lupulus, draped over a hedgerow in East Sussex.
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Sparrow club meeting at Tide Mills, East Sussex, on Friday.
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Bit of a rubbish photo of a Grey Phalarope at @rspb.bsky.social Pagham Harbour yesterday.
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Brexit Bin 🇪🇺 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 @brexitbin.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Jim Ratcliffe is still peddling the myth of "trickle down economics". Trouble is, he's a liar who never let a penny of his own super-wealth trickle down because he fucked off to a tax oasis! 😡 The poor don't get more when the super-rich pay less. The poor get less so that the super-rich have more!
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
simelliottnaturenotes.blog/2026/09/20/o... Some green and red alga, Greasewort, a huge Ivy Bee nest agglomeration, a Digger Wasp, Dragonfly Nymph and Sticklebacks
simelliottnaturenotes.blog
Organisms in water and sand in the Low Weald of Sussex. Two water courses and a sand pit near Lewes. 17.09.26
This was a joint trip of three friends; we identified together. Plumpton Mill Stream In the mill stream, where the public footpath crosses the stream, which is fed from the South Downs springs near…
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
UK policy prioritises brownfield development. Some brownfield sites are important for invertebrates & better ecologically than some arable fields. This relict sandpit in Sussex currently has 1000 + Colletes hederae & some Mellinus arvensis. A habitat for solitary wasps & bees @buglife.bsky.social
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Dragonfly nymph possibly Golden-ringed, Cordulegaster boltonii, and a Stickleback, probably Three-Spined, Gasterosteus aculeatus, in an East Sussex stream; safety returned to stream. Nymph didn’t eat Stickleback!
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Look at me! How beautiful am I? Wall, Lasiommata megera. Stanton Farm Sand Pit, West Sussex. @savebutterflies.bsky.social Butterfly Conservation priority: High. Section 41 species of principal importance under the NERC Act in England (widespread but rapidly declining) GB Red List (2022): Endangered
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
1/2 Went to a relict Folkestone Formation (Lower Greensand Group) sand pit in East Sussex today. Saw 1000s of Ivy Bees, and their nests, including some mating balls. Evidence of previous other mining bee occupation. Going to be a place I return to next year across the year @britentsoc.bsky.social
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Hildenbrandia rivularis, a freshwater red alga, on quaternary tufa on Cretaceous Wealden Folkestone Beds sandstone in the Plumpton Mill Stream, East Sussex. Shown to me by Dave Bangs. A weak indicator of water quality.
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Volvox sp. of chlorophyte alga in a Sussex riverine SSSI; shown to me by Dave Bangs. Spherical colonies (coenobia) with an extracellular matrix of glycoproteins containing motile somatic cells with flagellae - that enables the colony to “swim” toward light. Reproduce sexually & asexually.
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
1/4 Its amazing that Byzantine liturgical traditions of saints in Constantinople linked to Emperor Justinian (6CE) reached rural Sussex in the late Saxon period resulting in the parish church of Keymer, Sussex being dedicated to Cosmas and Damian Κοσμᾶς καὶ Δαμιανός. Church & saints in IstanbulL
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I thought I had lost this MP4, but just found it again. A Ringed Plover doing the "broken wing act" to lure a predator (a dog) away from its nest. 03.05.22. Tide Mills, East Sussex, I haven't seen a Ringed Plover at Tide Mills since 2023. @sussexornitholo.bsky.social @sussexwildlife.bsky.social
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
The start of my relationship with this Gorse Shieldbug wasn't too great - I collected it by bashing the branch it was on with my field rolling pin. But it didn't seem too purturped & I put it back on the juniper it was in. I iRecorded it. I would never disturb an insect's life without a purpose.
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Saw quite a few Common Blues today; they were all on Devil-bit Scabious, Succisa pratensis; if it weren't for Devils-Bit they'd have little nectar and pollen to forage on; such an important plant for pollinator in autumn, especially for Blues, who have a strong leaning toward purple flowers.
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Micro-climates of the South Downs @friendssouthdowns.bsky.social. Yesterday I saw Sciancywort, still in flower on the wall of a chalk pit at Newtimber Hill. Gone over everywhere else. Chalk Pits are slightly warmer & less windy due to chalk high albedo effect & wind shadow @bsbibotany.bsky.social
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Debbie Alston @debbie1alston.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Moon carrot still flowering at Seaford Head today #wildflowerhour
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Sim Elliott PSL TQ2611 @tq2611.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Finding a Juniper and a Red Star-thistle not on the @bsbibotany.bsky.social Distribution Database and adding them on iRecord; a sence of achievemnt
tq2611-pan-species-listing-s-elliott.blogspot.com
A wander round the north hill-top meadows of the Devil's Dyke and Newtimber Hill: a "new" Juniper & Red Star-thistle & Shieldbugs 14.09.26
A random walk after doing the bryophyte recce walk. Some interesting things seen: Candolleomyces candolleanus Pale Brittlestem on the stee...
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Sim Elliott PSL TQ2611 @tq2611.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Wandering up the Poynings Stream and Shaw looking at bryophytes with the VC Bryophyte Recorder; planning a Sussex Bryophyte field meeting (British and Irish Bryological Society). Lovely Greater Featherwort and Rambling Tailmoss! tq2611-pan-species-listing-s-elliott.blogspot.com/2026/09/bryo...
tq2611-pan-species-listing-s-elliott.blogspot.com
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Just reflecting on meaning & purpose and well being. This juniper wasn't recorded on the @bsbibotany.bsky.social Distribution Database. Now it is coz I iRecorded it. Juniper is in decline so we need to know where they are. Small frequent meaning boosts are I think more important than pleasure.
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Top daft thing I said today (to VC bryophyte recorder). "That moss Plagiochila asplenioides looks like a liverwort" It is a liverwort! I say daft things every day; I think intellectual humility is a strength - and good to believe when you are gaff prone. Scarp face chalk spring stream; very humid!
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Just found out that Lithospermum means Stoneseed! Being a secondary mod boy I often feel that I am playing catch-up with the world of nature, that was defined by members of an elite class who had classical educations! As a teacher in state schools I always knew that knowledge & class are related.
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Sim Elliott @sim-elliott.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Lithospermum officinale, Common Gromwell. Newtimber Hill, West Sussex. Not so common now; "continued to decline throughout its range due to habitat destruction" @bsbibotany.bsky.social The Latin epithet 'officinale' meant the plant was kept at the chemists 'shop' (officina), i.e. it was medicinal.
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Sim Elliott PSL TQ2611 @tq2611.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Two lovely chalk grassland specialists on the very steep slope of a chalk pit on Newtimber Hill, South Downs, West Sussex. Sciancywort, Asperula cynanchica & Juniper, Juniperus communis. @bsbibotany.bsky.social
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Sim Elliott PSL TQ2611 @tq2611.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Two best buds on Juniper. Devil’s Dyke. South Downs. Gorse Shield Bug, Piezodorus lituratus and Hairy Shield Bug, Dolycoris baccarum. @southdownsnp.bsky.social
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Sim Elliott PSL TQ2611 @tq2611.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Gothic Tendencies. Black Clock Beetle. Pterostichus madidus. “Clock” is old English dialect word for any large, buzzing insect. Poynings, West Sussex.
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