Back in the day when I lived in Norfolk, Breckland was a familiar stamping ground, a mix of dry heathland on sands over chalk, bisected by rivers and fens, and much clad in forestry: diverse habitats, with a range of rare and interesting inhabitants. Later on I worked there, on a conservation strategy for one of the iconic Breckland birds, Stone Curlew. Interesting times which saw me spending many fruitless hours trying to persuade the then MP about their charms. Her name; Liz Truss….

So, recently, heading to give a talk in Barton Mills, I enjoyed the opportunity to return to the Brecks, to a site I had not previously visited, Cavenham Heath NNR. A sunny day helped light up the range of heathland habitats, from Heather heath, to Gorse heath, to Birch heath, to grass heath and lichen heath.

I  was enveloped by the sound of singing birds, including Stonechats and Whitethroats, Cuckoos, Skylarks and Yellowhammers … broken only by the roar of US military planes overhead. Sadly, such is Breckland.

And just occasionally, the bubbling song of ‘real’ Curlews, mingling with the wild wailing of Stone Curlews … there are a few places where both can be heard together on these ancient heaths now maintained and managed by an army of Rabbits.

Other special wildlife included Sandpit Mining-bee Andrena barbilabris, Common Heath moth and a Copper Greenclock beetle Poecilus cupreus, while Small Coppers and Speckled Woods (among a total of ten species of butterfly) and very fresh Oak Apple galls provided a welcome splash of colour on what can be rather monochrome heaths, at least until the heathers bloom in late summer.

Plants included Field Mouse-ear and Spring Beauty, although exploration of the open heaths was rather curtailed by access closures due to breeding Stonies…

At the eastern end of the heath, the dry ground drops down to the River Lark, and a very different series of riparian and fenland habitats. The first few Large Red Damselflies were on the wing, and the songs of Cetti’s, Willow and Garden Warblers and Lesser Whitethroats were added to the soundscape.

A very good day out, and so it remained after dark, when stepping out from the village hall I was immersed once again in the weird wails of Stone Curlews.

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A couple of weeks later, and I’m heading back to the Brecks to visit British Naturalists’ Association Chairman Steve Rutherford at his adopted nature reserve of Knettishall Heath. On the way there I took the opportunity to have a quick look in Redgrave & Lopham Fen, at the watershed of East Anglia, the Waveney flowing east straight to the North Sea and the Little Ouse, running west, towards the Wash.

A few kilometres down the Little Ouse is Knettishall Heath, as with Cavenhham a site previously unknown to me, where I was shown round by Steve and Sam, the Suffolk Wildlife Trust warden.

One of my first impressions was how much quieter it was than Cavenham, away from the flightlines of Mildenhall and Lakenheath Airfields. I could hear the birds without interruption! My second impression was how diverse the structure of the reserve is, and how all the people from all the cars of the car parks could simply disappear into the landscape.

It is remarkable to think that until SWT took control in 2012, much of this area was under blocks of conifer plantation, and those bits that weren’t were overrun with dog walkers as it was a country park (where access generally takes priority over nature).

Habitat restoration and management, along with effective public engagement now sees this bit of the Brecks returning to the rich, diverse heathland state it was in the early 20th century, with breeding Woodlarks, Stonechats and Curlews, while apparently Nightjars are also there along with Stone Curlews feeding at night.

We didn’t have chance to spend too much time tracking down wildlife, and indeed for insects it was very much on the cool side. But it was good to find Hound’s-tongue in flower, carpets of Mouse-eared Hawkweed not yet in bloom and localized patches of Mossy Stonecrop, only recently recorded at the site.

And a couple of interesting plant-interactions, the Anther Smut Ustilago violacea, a fungus that takes over the pollen-dispersal structures of campions and best of all, hot off the presses and kindly flagged for us by another very sharp-eyed warden David, galls of the gall-midge Geocrypta galii on Lady’s Bedstraw, a new record for the reserve, and (at least according the the National Biodiversity Network Atlas) new to the Suffolk Brecks, with just four localities shown in and around the Norfolk Brecks.

Never say never in Breckland. It always changes, has always changed. Indeed its biogeographic character was established by shifting agriculture and cultivation. And even after longer-term interruption to these cycles, such as under the deathly blanket of commercial conifers, if you give nature a chance it will return. Knettishall is proof of that! And I am sure I shall be back….