NWT East Wretham Heath

Beautiful meres support large numbers of birds and are an attractive focus for birdwatchers and walkers alike. Both meres are fed by rising ground water and their water levels vary throughout the year - they are highest in summer and lowest in winter, and sometimes dry out all together for long periods.

What to look for: Spring/summer early forget-me-not, sheep’s sorrel, mossy stonecrop, heath bedstraw, harebell, lesser stitchwort, viper’s bugloss, great mullein, wall bedstraw. Brown argus and Essex skipper butterflies. Adder, grass snake. Redstart, willow warbler, woodlark, tree pipit, wheatear. Autumn/winter fieldfare, redwing. Year round gadwall, teal, shoveler, curlew, snipe, little grebe, skylark.

Facilities: Information board, way-marked trails and hide. Reserve leaflet.

Directions: NWT East Wretham Heath is located 5km north east of Thetford. Leave Thetford on the A1075 towards Watton. After 5km turn left into the nature reserve car park.

Access: Via the car park at the entrance to the nature reserve.

Did you know? NWT acquired this site in 1940, making it the first nature reserve to be established in Breckland. Poor soil quality is fundamental to the flora and fauna seen here. The area has very sandy soils and gets more sun and less rain than almost anywhere else in the country. We have been experimenting with new ways of keeping the soil fertility low, and turf stripping is proving a useful technique with which to remove surface nutrients from the topsoil and give typical heathland flora a chance to re-establish itself.

Between 1942 and 1970 the nature reserve was requisitioned for military training and used as an airfield. The crumbling runways now provide ideal conditions for mosses and lichens.