I love this place, because I can watch birds, collect mushrooms (When I mention what happened in 2011 and no-one believes me, I will completely understand) and take a bike ride at night down a muddy road returning to Brandon to catch a train
My favourite English nature reserve. And the amount of species that have been seen here by me, including rare ones that do not nest in Britain, is pretty impressive to me. I visited for the first time for the orioles, which I didn't know were gone, but not only did that visit overcompensate itself, a mere 2 months later I found and photographed a male golden oriole which I once heard outside my window in Russia!
Birds I have seen:
RED FOOTED FALCON FEMALE (31/05/18) As I found out I was the only person who saw it. It was not a hobby because its chest was literally almost brick-red, and when compared to a hobby it had shorter wings but a longer tail. It also had a greyish back, I think. I was unable to get any remotely good images of it, and saw it last when it disappeared into the woodland near Mere hide.
Barn Owl, observed near the car park this winter at slightly beyond sunset. There were also some I accidentally disturbed when going down the road linking Lakenheath and Brandon, the bashed-up cycle road
Cranes, observed with the help of a ranger, silhouetted against the sun as they fed on the other side of the railway line
Bittern, this is by far the best site for it in which I have been, the record was three bitterns in a single photograph, a mother and two juveniles
Cuckoo, common but almost as difficult as an oriole to see, I hear them every time I come int he summer, but the only time I got a photograph of it was in 2018, when its head was concealed by leaves as it sat no more than 15 meters away from me
Marsh harrier, these get everywhere and sometimes approach closely for spectacular displays. The best sighting was when a female sat down in a flower bush
Hen harrier, a male was very briefly observed on the other side of the river
Hobby, these get everywhere in the spring
Peregrine, I think they might have attempted to breed in 2019
Buzzard
Green woodpecker
Whooper swan, a flotilla of both adults and juveniles was present in early 2019
This is a wonderful place, and I typically like to come early and absorb the landscape, wait until sunset to see the cranes, then at the car park see the barn owls which are an incredibly easy photography target, even for my camera. There are also barn owls in the surrounding landscape, so much of them I was very surprised at what I was seeing. After in the winter missing the last train that stops at Lakenheath on purpose to see the owls, riding down an incredibly muddy cycle road to Brandon was a bit fun.
Thetford forest is an awesome place. A site where goshawks can be seen as well as, with luck, great grey shrikes in the winter, and a secret long-eared owl and tawny owl roost, birds are not the star attraction here.
Goshawks can be seen all over when they are displaying, but a particularly reliable place in the past has been Mayday Farm. There is an even better place now, but due to RSPB Lakenheath fen staff being extremely reluctant to reveal any closer than Mayday Farm, I think the nest is located close to that secret site. This is why I am not going to reveal the better site.
Great grey shrike visits most winters, they can be seen at various locations. The best way to see them I think is via a pre-booked tour which often encounters it. Be warned, however, these tours sell out completely months before the actual date. In all countries which I have yet visited, including Russia, it is rare!! Frustrating...
Hawfinch, firecrest, and little woodpeckers can be seen in different locations, and kingfishers on the river.
There is a tawny owl living in Lynford arboretum. And, amazingly, so is a long-eared owl as well. I am quite comfortable revealing this, because tours visit that area and always see the tawny owl, but never have I seen reports of the eared owl, except fro when it starts calling.
But the main attraction is mushrooms!!
In the Brandon part of Thetford forest, I am not going to lie, seriously, I won't when I say I might have found a first for Britain. Having found about 5 extremely rare leccinum percandidum boletes this summer, I noted they were identical to the mysterious white 'orange birch bolete' I found on my first visit. Due to my experience with this genus, I am 100% confident it is the leccinum percandidum I found. Of course when I found that I was 9 years old and essentially...removed it. It was tasty, thought.
In that part of the forest, penny buns, brown birch boletes and others can all be found. Penny buns prefer beech woodland whereas birch boletes occur in a very pretty sphagnum-filled glade. The beech woods have also, aside from the percandidum, been the source of Boletus erythropus, , badius, luridus and a possible Boletus fragrans, something very rare in Britain.
The first time I visited in 2011 was a day which has never been surpassed to this day. Even with incredibly proficient mushroomers even better than me, like my auntie, I can say that in the whole summer of 2020 in RUSSIA I was not able to find EVEN HALF of what I found during that first visit.
I don't know what caused this freak occurence, I seriously don't. Usually I collect 10-20 penny buns when I visit and around 15 brown birch boletes. But that first visit was monstrous.
We found so much penny buns that judging by my memory we required 4 massive bags to carry it all out, and when we got home we counted all we have found. The result was a COLOSSAL 126 PENNY BUNS ALONE, and even more brown birch boletes!!
All of these boletes were found between two places, two extremely small places.
I also have a really pleasant memory of listening to a cuckoo near Grime's graves