Nature Notes July 2026
Nature Notes
On a short, very hot, few days away, we camped on a very nature friendly farm at Wordwell in the Suffolk Breck. Sitting outside the tent in the shade, we were able to watch Stonechats hunting from the fence and hear Skylark, Yellowhammer and the occasional Turtle Dove singing. Our evening stroll took us past the Barn Owl’s tree, where we could hear the young hissing, saying they were hungry, and we regularly saw an adult hunting over the conservation headlands. We would walk into the edge of the vast King’s Forest, where there was a sizable clearing with a few isolated trees. As the light dimmed, the Cuckoo would briefly call and eventually the Song Thrush would fall silent, which was the time were we waiting for. Almost immediately the Nightjars would start to ‘churr’; a mechanical sound which could last for minutes without apparent breath. Then a ‘gweek’, as the bird left its perch and was briefly seen against the luminous sky, long wings held high as it twisted and turned in its search for moths and other flying insects. On a day when there was a good breeze, we explored some of the forest, finding chalk loving flowers in the more open areas: Purple Milk Vetch, pink Restharrow and yellow Biting Stonecrop but the most spectacular display of colour came from the swathes of bright blue Viper’s Bugloss which lined the wide open sandy tracks. We could often smell their sweet scent before we could see them. They were buzzing with insects: many different species of Bumblebee as well as Red Admiral, Painted Lady and Large and Small Skipper butterflies. Woodlarks and Tree Pipits have returned to the area, now that the smothering blanket of trees has been opened up to allow suitable places for them to feed and nest. The Brecks are a unique habitat in the UK, akin to the steppes of Eastern Europe, and much of the wildlife suffered badly in the drive to grow more timber and produce more food after the Second World War. Now however, both Forestry England and local farmers are redressing the balance and actively taking steps to allow nature back onto their land. We were delighted to have more proof of this on our last night. As we walked back in the gloaming from the Nightjar clearing, we heard the evocative ‘willie-reeve’ calls of Stone Curlew, coming from farmland to the south. These are crepuscular birds, most active at dawn and dusk and almost impossible to see in the daytime, as they are the same colour as the sandy ground on which they nest, and rarely move during the day. They originally nested of the wide sandy heaths and suffered more than most in the planting of the pinewoods, so it is really good that Breckland farmers now leave big Stone Curlew plots on their land to help the population recover.
Do let me know if you see any interesting wildlife. Rachel rachel.42rr@btinternet.com