STARS OF THE FOREST
Listen carefully and you’ll discover Thetford Forest is alive with rare and beautiful sounds, like the song of the woodlark. Some say it has the most exquisite song of any bird in Britain, with its fluting trills and rich yodels. In the 1980s it’s thought just 220 pairs were left in the UK, but lucky walkers can now hear it across southern and eastern England with a particular concentration here at Thetford where areas of heath, recently felled forest and young trees provide the ideal habitat for ground nesting. It’s more compact than its skylark cousin and has a shorter tail, but it too likes to sing on the wing, or from a high treetop, pouring its song down from above. Another rare bird, the nightjar, favours the felled and rejuvenating landscapes of this working forest too. As the name suggests, it’s nocturnal and is almost impossible to spot during the day, camouflaged by plumage that closely resembles fallen leaves and old bark. But during a summer dusk, when it comes out to hunt moths, you might hear the male’s distinctive churr – the jar part of its name – ringing through the trees and see it silhouetted on a branch. Other notable birds include goshawks, crossbills and siskins. The forest is alive with insects too, including the speckled wood butterfly which you might spot basking in warm sunlight or flying up to feed on aphid honeydew in the treetops. Adders like to bask in the hot sunshine too, and rare speedwells sprinkle the herb-rich verges with tiny, deep blue blooms.