Baseline Recording

We want to improve the status of our local nature area at Charlton Down to make it more biodiverse. We would like to increase the number of different habitats by selective planting and management in the hope that it will encourage more wildlife to feed, live, shelter, and breed there. But how will we know that we are being successful, that we are making a difference? The answer is that we need know where we are starting from.

Over the years I have been a regular visitor to our nature area and have taken a lot of photographs, but it was only last year (2023) that I started with a slightly more methodical approach to record as many living organisms as I could without specialised equipment. In other words, I tried to identify and photograph everything I saw, as any observant visitor might, for a baseline survey. The resulting list of species has inevitable gaps but it is a starting point.

In this Blog I will share with readers the information we currently hold by posting photographs (as far as possible) of each species that has already been found in the Nature Area; and also the species lists as they are compiled (there will always be updates). This year I intend to introduce some different strategies for recording and identification in order to improve the accuracy of the lists.

So far, 306 species have been recorded. This may sound a lot but it is actually a rather modest count. In part this is because some plants and creatures have been under-recorded due to my own personal limitations; but also because the site is a work in progress with regard to diversification of microhabitats and the need for a reduction of disturbance from a number of sources.