WHERE TO WATCH BIRDS IN THE BRECKS WHERE TO WATCH BIRDS IN THE BRECKS HEATH National Nature Reserve SANTON DOWNHAM THE BIRDS OF 11 English Nature 77 Forest Enterprise Fine example of ancient Breck heath, with wheatear, Part of Forest Nature Reserve in Little Ouse river THE BRECKS nighjar and stone curlew. Public access to the reserve valley. Mosaic of habitats. Woodlark, nightjar, tree pipit, south of the track. Parking at Temple Bridge, . crossbill, kingfisher, water rail. Parking near railway Tel: 01284-762 218. crossing north of Santon Downham or St Helen’s picnic site. Access via Little Ouse Path or Santon Street. COCKLEY CLEY LAKE Waymarked trails, mostly unsuitable for wheelchairs. 22 Cockley Cley Estate Tel: 01842-810 271. Nature trail through grazing meadows around lake breeding lapwing, little grebe, snipe. Bird hide. Car 88 NUNNERY LAKES A47 Illustrated by Robert Gillmor SWAFFHAM park and partial disabled access. Access via ‘Iceni 2 British Trust for Ornithology A112

Village’. Open April to October; entry charge. Tel: B1077 Reclaimed gravel pits, alder carr and grass heath; y se is W

01760-724 588. . wintering wildfowl; 70 breeding bird species R including lapwing and kingfisher. Car park nature reserve 2 WATTON access upstream of Nuns Bridges, 33 Wildlife Trust . Tel: 01842-750 050. Large area of grass heath with pine B1108 A1075 99

1065 woodland and meres. Wide range birds can be A COUNTRY PARK

A134 seen from nature trails and hide. Entrance and car B1111 St Edmundsbury Borough Council 6

park signposted off A1075. Reserve open daily 2 Grass heath maintained by grazing

111

B A1075 8am to dusk. Tel: 01603-625 540. FELTWELL sheep, birch and oak woodland,

A R.Thet 134 3 alder carr, reclaimed gravel pit 4 A11 use ttle O 7 beside River Lark. Nature trail and R.Li BRANDON B11 4 National Nature Reserve 07 4 10 EAST bird hide. Open daily 10 am A1065 THETFORD HARLING to 5pm. Access from A1101 A1066 Fine example of rabbit-grazed Breck heath. 8 A1066 via minor road. R .L Stone curlew a speciality, as well as ittle u B1111 O 10 Tel: 01284-728 718. A1088 10 A11 woodlark, lapwing, little owl. Reserve open B1112

April – September only, 7 am to 7pm; B1106 R A134 LAKENHEATH FEN .Lark visitor centre (April to August). Small MILDENHALL 9 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds entrance fee (free to NWT members). 1 1 5 740 acres / 300 ha of marshland with Signposted off minor road between A1101 reedbeds being recreated on this site by Weeting and Hockwold. Tel: 01603-625 540. 2003. Golden Oriole nesting in popular A14 plantation, viewable from public footpath on LAKES BURY ST. EDMUNDS KEY Boundary of the Brecks river bank. Parking for access between river bridge Wildlife Trust Heathland Stanford Military Training Area 55 Restored gravel pits attracting wide Forest A and B roads and Lakenheath Station on B1112. range of birds, especially wildfowl. Bird hides. Open Tel: 01603 660 066. daily. Access from A1101 between Lackford and DISCOVERING THE BRECKS . Tel: 01473-890 089. Find out more about the natural and cultural heritage of LYNFORD ARBORETUM the Brecks with leaflets and booklets published by the

66 Forest Enterprise Brecks Countryside Project. by Ron Hoblyn. Text Ark Design Co. Cover photographs by Chris Knights, David Mason and Forest Life Picture Library. Designed by Arboretum, lakes, meadows and woodland. Hawfinch, firecrest, crossbill, siskin. Waymarked trails Contact local Tourist Information Centres, or Ancient (including one suitable for wheelchairs) round lakes and House Museum, Thetford; or visit the Brecks website

Information correct at the time of going to press old landscape gardens. Tel: 01842-810 271. www.brecks.org .

BIRDS IN THE BRECKS HEATHLAND STOCK DOVE The Brecks is a unique region of diverse habitats which The Stock Dove is smaller and darker than the Wood Pigeon, support an impressive cross-section of British birds, Several different heathland types occur in the Brecks. offering exciting opportunities for the keen enthusiast. with two short black wing bars Heather, lichens and mosses dominate on acid soils, to and no white on the wings or Ideally located in the heart of East Anglia, it is a regular be replaced on alkaline sites by chalk grassland. and convenient stopping-off place for the many bird- neck. Although found in a Traditional short rabbit-grazed breck with characteristic watchers who visit the and Suffolk coasts variety of habitats, they are all through the year. unstable areas of blown sand still occur in a few places, familiar birds of the heathland and with scattered clumps and lines of ancient scots where they find rabbit burrows attractive nest sites. pines make up the unique landscape for which the ABOUT THE BRECKS Brecks is famous. Today's heaths, though, are really The Brecks is one of the great only remnants of the once vast tracts that existed prior to STONE CURLEW natural areas of Britain. It is a NORFOLK afforestation, intensive agriculture and increased urban The Brecks is the main stronghold in Swaffham place of strange beauty and Norwich pressure. Britain for the rare Stone Curlew. hidden stories which go back to They are present between March the Stone Age. Thetford WHEATEAR and October and can be observed at a few well known sites. A strange Cambridge Colourful in appearance SUFFOLK Ancient heathland once covered looking bird, it has a short heavy Ipswich huge areas of the Brecks, created and attractive in behaviour, the Wheatear’s bill, large yellow eye and ‘thick The Brecks is 370 square miles/940km2 by the axes of prehistoric farmers knees’, giving rise to its other familiar of countryside in Norfolk and Suffolk and the nibbling teeth of sheep association with rabbit- grazed breck is well name. Active at night, and rabbits. ‘Brecks’ were temporary fields cultivated for its strange a few years and then allowed to revert to heath once the known. Sadly however it is declining and is now wailing call soil became exhausted. Sand storms were once a regular heard from a occurrence, such as the one which engulfed the village mostly seen on passage in spring and autumn. lonely heath is of Santon Downham in 1668. Through many centuries the very essence the heaths, and the mysterious, fluctuating of the Brecks lakes known as meres, became home to a distinctive landscape. range of plants and animals.

Over the last HOBBY hundred years the STONECHAT With sickle shaped wings resembling a large swift, a ancient character of Stonechats are scarce in the Brecks small falcon hunts for flying insects at dusk over a the Brecks has been but can sometimes be found on Breckland heath. During the day it preys on changed forever. The certain heaths and also in young small birds such as Swallows and large-scale pine forestry plantations. Always very Martins. This is the Hobby, once a plantations of active birds, they perch on rare bird but happily nowadays and tops of bushes constantly

© Graham King quite common. Its favourite nest the use of modern flicking their wings and tail. sites are clumps of trees, farming technology have transformed much of it into Look for the distinctive especially pines, where it more productive land. The remaining stretches, and the black head, white collar makes use of old crows nests. more open parts of the forest, are now vital areas for and chestnut under- wildlife conservation. The Brecks is an ideal area for parts of the male. 1 quiet recreation, and the forests now welcome over 1 /2 The female is million visitors each year. drabber and much less conspicuous. WOODLARK NIGHTJAR FOREST AND WOODLAND Woodlarks are found on clear- Nightjars are another species that CONIFEROUS WOODLAND felled areas in the forest as well as are doing well on forest clear-fells. on some heaths. It is quite different They are nocturnal birds active Thetford Forest Park, managed by Forest Enterprise, is from the Skylark, with distinctive mainly at dusk and dawn from Britain’s largest lowland pine forest and covers one fifth of rounded wings, a very short tail mid-May to the end of August. the Brecks. Clear felling and re-planting over the last and a beautifully musical song Their churring song is three decades has resulted in an interesting uneven-aged uttered mainly in flight. It is in unmistakable, and their display is forest structure, each stage having its own special bird fact considered to be one of our extraordinary with the white wing communities. best songsters. March and April and tail patches of the males standing are the best times to see them out clearly in the half-light. BROADLEAVED WOODLAND before their breeding season The Brecks also has some fine areas of broadleaved really gets under way. GOSHAWK woodland, mainly oak, beech, sycamore and birch The Goshawk is a rare bird but a few which support good songbird populations. pairs are resident in the Brecks, mainly WOODCOCK in Thetford Forest. They are mostly GOLDEN PHEASANT Woodcock are another species that very secretive and difficult to see Thetford Forest has the largest are best seen at dusk in spring and except perhaps in the early spring, self-supporting Golden Pheasant summer ‘roding’ along open when their large size and soaring population in Britain. Despite plantation edges. Their long straight display flights can sometimes give their bright colours they can be bills, rounded wings and croaking them away. hard to see, spending most of call are unmistakable. their time in dense cover and venturing out in the open at HAWFINCH quieter times such as early The heavy build, morning or evening. CROSSBILL massive bill and bold white wing Crossbill numbers depend on bars readily identify the periodic invasions from the Hawfinch, that is providing you REDSTART continent, and in some years can see it in the first place). They The male Redstart is one of they are very common in are very secretive birds and are our most colourful birds. It Thetford Forest. They breed best looked for in winter and frequents all types of very early, and the brick red spring before leaf growth occurs. woodland but has a males can be heard singing in Fortunately Hawfinches preference for areas where mid-winter in the tops of pine sometimes perch high in the holes in old trees provide trees, their heavy bills tops of trees and ‘tic’ loudly, a ideal nesting sites. The song is distinctive in silhouette. Quite note they also give in flight. usually uttered from the large groups often fly over the highest tree-top, is not very forest giving sharp, single call-notes. Because their staple loud and can be quite difficult to pick up. diet is conifer seed they are thirsty birds, and can often be seen drinking at puddles or at garden ponds. FARMLAND Farmland is the largest land component in the Brecks, NIGHTINGALE SISKIN occupying three-fifths of the total area. Mostly cereal crops The Nightingale is a summer The Siskin is a tiny finch and a species of mature and sugar beet, it is generally not as bird-rich as other visitor arriving in late April, coniferous forest. It was habitats, but provides vital breeding areas for Stone Curlews. and frequents a wide variety of formerly known mainly as a Three-fifths of the Brecks population nests on farmland. woodland and fen habitats winter visitor but now where shrubby understoreys breeds in the Brecks, CORN BUNTING are present. Its superb attracted by the increase Nicknamed the ‘fat old bird of the corn’, song can be heard during the in conifers. Look for the the Corn Bunting is heavily built and day but is best listened to at distinctive transparent rather drab in appearance. Irregular night when most other birds ‘window’ in the wing as and unreliable in its distribution, it is are silent. Actually seeing a they pass overhead uttering their usually seen perched on a post or Nightingale can be difficult ‘tsee-tsee’ flight calls. In telegraph wires giving its jingling song as its drab colouration gives it effective camouflage in its winter Siskins often visit likened to a rattling bunch of keys. woodland setting. garden bird tables for peanuts - even in towns.

RINGED PLOVER Inland breeding Ringed Plovers are not common, but the Brecks is one place where they do! A few pairs only, they utilise stony fields WETLAND which obviously are good KINGFISHER substitutes for shingle beaches. (RIVERS, FENS AND MERES) Perhaps Britain’s most exotic- Four rivers meander serenely through the Brecks: the looking bird, the Kingfisher LAPWING Thet, Wissey, Little Ouse and Lark. Their valleys contain is reasonably common The Lapwing is also known as a fascinating mosaic of riverine habitats. Poplar along all Breckland rivers. Look for a the Peewit or Green Plover. plantations with lots of dead timber lie next to cattle- brilliant blue flash as it comes off a The first name is taken from its grazed meadows; alder carr merges into thickets of perch and flies away low and rapid erratic flight with slow flapping sallow and willow scrub to form primaeval fen over the water. Better still, watch wing beats. Peewit is derived interspersed with ancient dykes and long-established it fishing from that perch! from its call, and Green Plover reedbeds. Much of this is true wilderness, rich in bird- from its iridescent greenish-black life. So too are the meres, natural lakes with unusually and white plumage. Typical of fluctuating water levels. GOLDEN ORIOLE farmland areas, the Lapwings' LESSER-SPOTTED The black and yellow plumage headlong plunges during their of the male Golden Oriole is a aerobatic display flights are one of the first WOODPECKER perfect camouflage amongst the heralds of spring. The Lesser-spotted dappled foliage of its fenland Woodpecker is only the size poplar habitat. A few pairs of this TREE SPARROW of a Sparrow and very rare bird breed on the The Tree Sparrow used to be a consequently can be quite western fringes of the Brecks, common bird but sadly nowadays it elusive. It likes areas with and it is sometimes possible to observe is declining. However it can still be lots of dead timber especially them at a certain site. found in a few places, especially along river valleys. The around derelict farm buildings. extremely rapid ‘drumming’ and SNIPE Much more rural than the House loud repetitive call are heard in these habitats in late Although not as common as they were, Snipe can still Sparrow, it differs in its smaller size, winter and throughout the spring and early summer. be found on some of the water meadows and meres of more slender build, the chestnut Breckland. A small brown crown of the head and a black spot on GRASSHOPPER WARBLER wader with a long straight the white neck. It also has a much higher- A typical wetland species, the bill, it is mostly seen in the air pitched voice. Grasshopper Warbler is thinly and is easily identified by the scattered in suitable habitats characteristic zigzag flight and GREY PARTRIDGE throughout the Brecks. Secretive harsh rasping call. During Known also as the English Partridge, it is less and shy, its unusual mechanical their display flights Snipe dive common than its Red-legged or ‘French’ cousin. song can be compared to the with their outer tail feathers Smaller in size and lacking the red winding of an angler’s reel and widely spread, producing an legs of that species, the best may be heard both during the unusual vibrating sound distinguishing features are a day and at night. known as ‘drumming’. dark horseshoe-shaped mark on the belly (more noticeable on the male) and a rusty coloured head. Look for groups or ‘coveys’ of this bird as they feed on the arable fields.