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Norfolk Nature: Spring 2026 Part 3

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  Spring 2026: Spring Brecks. Every year, birders from the north coast of Norfolk make a number of pilgrimages to the Brecks, the dry lands of heath and pine in the south of the county on the borders with Suffolk, in the hope of seeing some of the rare and beautiful birds which still inhabit this distinctive landscape. Few birds capture the mysterious quality of this flat and flinty area as well as the stone curlew, a bird which is a wader by definition but more of a game bird by habit, remaining largely immobile by day, camouflaged inscrutably against the sandy Breckland earth, but active at night, its mournful call drifting out at dusk. The NWT reserve at Weeting Heath has long been a place to see this shy creature and there is something appropriate about the human eye having to work to the natural world, slowly deconstructing the landscape of stone and scrape to identify the piercing yellow eye and bright beak and then to conjure the body around it. Mistle thrushes, though simil...
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Norfolk Nature: Spring 2026 Part 2.

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 SPRING 2026: Part 2 Spring is a more elastic season than perhaps it's given credit for. The first signs of light - soaring raptors, birdsong and blossom, the hardy celandines and crocuses poking their flowers skyward - are greeted with such relief after the dregs of winter that thoughts often leapfrog  to summer abundance. Spring moves at an average speed of 1.9mph across the UK from March, temperature depending, from the SW to the NE, although there are individual speeds for various natural events. While the bullace has bloomed already, and bird cherry and blackthorn have flared in the hedgerow, the hawthorn drumsticks are popping on the branches, beating out the season's rhythm and building to its finale: that first great flush of flowering set against blue skies, and the lush, bright, green-and-white understorey of cow parsley and alexanders which is never quite replicated in the rest of the year. Hawthorn blossom spreads nationwide at an average speed of 6.3mph, laying th...
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Norfolk Nature: Spring '26

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  SPRING 2026 Winter clung on dully but the rare sunny days saw goshawks on the wing. It is instructive to think that thirty years ago, a sparrowhawk or kestrel might have been the only raptor aloft and that now buzzards, kites and goshawks are vying for airspace over Norfolk's woods with perhaps a marsh harrier or even a peregrine too. Pairs of displaying goshawks, rumbling powerfully on the thermals, circle each other like wary heavyweight boxers before brief flurries of activity - tumbling and flapping - to declare their interest. Kites were much in evidence at Holkham, spruced up in smart plumage, soaring playfully over the lake and then perching high to cast a haughty eye over the park. The spring warmth also draws reptiles and amphibians out of cover to bask gratefully in the sun. Adders, despite the glowing red of their beady eyes, always seem slight and fragile, and far from the venomous vipers of cautionary childhood tales. Toads and frogs have been embarking on their...
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