A guide to the wildlife and wild places in the Sidmouth area of Devon

"For the people of Sidmouth interested in nature 
and for people from elsewhere interested in the nature of Sidmouth"

The aim of this website is to provide information about the wildlife and wild places in the Sidmouth area of east Devon. The focus is on enjoyment and education not science but, of course, if the data provided furthers the cause of conserving the biodiversity of the area then that would be considered a bonus. To make the website usable by anyone, even those with little or no knowledge, some scientific principles (notably in species classifications) have been blurred a little!

This is a personal project and this website is a home for my own records and photographs but I make it freely available to anyone who finds it useful. I am an enthusiastic amateur naturalist and am not an expert in anything so please use the information and data with caution as I cannot guarantee everything is totally accurate!

[This is a new project that started in January 2023 and a new version of the website launched February 2025]

Main Menu

The ways to find the information you want on the Sidmouth Nature website

Explore Sidmouth nature from top to bottom

All life forms are classified within what is commonly known as the 'Tree of Life'; it is a top down, hierarchical structure. To mirror this this website provides a means of navigation that uses a version of the 'tree of life' to explore the information available here about the natural world in, and around, Sidmouth.

Click the text to find out more ...

Chat with Sidmouth Nature to ask questions

Thanks to the latest artificial intelligence tools, especially Google NotebookLM, it is now possible to 'chat' with this website and ask questions about the natural world in the Sidmouth area from basic geology to details about slime moulds and everything in between!

Click the text to find out more ...

Search Sidmouth Nature with keywords

There are over 1,600 articles about all manner of topics on this website. The search facility provides a means of searching the text of those articles using up to three search words. These are AND keywords; if you use two or three then all have to be in the text. Use this to find a specific articles; if you have a question the chatbot might be a better option.

Click the text to start your search ...

Access Sidmouth Nature through the index

The 1,600 or more articles together with other content means that there is an incredible amount of information on the Sidmouth Nature website. These items have been organised by title into a master alphabetical index which can then be subdivided by topic providing many ways to filter out the type of content you want; species, sites, habitat, geology and more

Click the text to open the index ...

Query the Sidmouth Nature database with reports and charts

If you are interested in the detail rather than the informative articles then you can use various tools here to produce detailed reports and charts by interrogating the Sidmouth Nature records database. You can print your results, download data to your computer and share information with others.

Click the text to open the menu of options for available query functions ...

Learn about Sidmouth nature with 'threads'

The Sidmouth Nature library has over 1,600 articles about sites of natural interest, species seen and much, much more. The library (accessible through the 'search' menu option) is ideal if you want information about a specific place or species but if you want to learn about a wider topic, local geology for example or perhaps woodland habitats or the classes of insects and their features, the 'threads' section sews related articles together for perusal in a book form that you can page through.

Click the text for a list of threads you might find interesting ...

See Sidmouth nature in the photo gallery

Where ever possible species featured on this website have at least one photograph associated with it and all the sites have  number of photographs trying to reflect the nature of the site and its habitats. All of the available photographs for species and sites are displayed here in the gallery.  

Click the text for to see the photo gallery ...

Link from Sidmouth Nature to other resources

Whilst Sidmouth Nature focuses on the wildlife and wild places in its survey area there is, of course, much more information about specific species and nature in general on other websites and this is a list of those frequently used by the Sidmouth Nature project for detailed species information. 

Click the text for a list of websites you may find useful too ...