“A quiet spot with amazing variety; lots of individual pockets to
explore, each with their different wildlife.”

This spring fed fen with herb-rich meadows was allocated to the poor in 1679 for grazing and peat digging. More recently management has focused on conserving the flower-studded grassland by the use of grazing cattle. Chalk grassland plants include quaking grass, cowslip, small scabious, sheep’s bit and Devil’sbit scabious. In the fen area plants such as marsh marigold, bugle, ragged-robin, saw sedge, yellow sedge and greater burnet provide a splash of colour.

Brimstone and speckled wood butterfly and a large variety of moths have been recorded here including some specific to Breckland. The fen was the last known site in Britain for the rare leaf beetle Cryptocephalus exiguus, about which little is known except that the young appear to feed on sorrel. Precise control of stock grazing is needed to manage its habitat. Birds such as nightingale, whitethroat and long-tailed tit nest in the small woodland where roe deer are regularly seen.

Photo by Ian Goodall

                              Nightingales can be heard in the spring singing from the dense vegetation.

Pashford Poors Fen is leased by Suffolk Wildlife Trust from Lakenheath Consolidated Charities.

Other Trust reserves nearby: Lakenheath Poors Fen, Wangford Warren

Five-spot burnet moth on thistle

STAR SPECIES
Greater burnet
Roe deer
Small scabious