County Wildlife Site Seething Observatory & Airfield (2057) hadn’t been visited by a member of the County Wildlife Site team at Norfolk Wildlife Trust in over 10 years. I therefore recently visited the site with chairman Andrew and David Provan to discuss how the site has developed in this time and additional management recommendations as required. Our records for the CWS in 2009 convey that the Seething Observatory site was largely unmanaged and rank. It is immediately evident that this has now changed for the better, following the careful interventions made by David, to create a site abundant with wildlife alongside supporting the workings of the Norwich Astronomical Society. The small meadows have greatly improved in floristic diversity and the surrounding scrub has developed into excellent nesting bird habitat.

The CWS status of the site allows the NAS to access expert advice and support from NWT regarding on-going management and a small amount of funding to achieve this. Its status also highlights how important this site is in the wider landscape for wildlife, providing essential connecting habitat to local Sites of Special Scientific Interest such as Hedenham Wood and Tindall Wood.

The Society have created an excellent example to show how nature, wildlife and the practice of Astronomy can indeed go hand-in-hand.

Lydia Kittle

(County Wildlife Sites Adviser)

This is just an example of things that go on in the background, behind operation of the Observatory ,and shows just how valuable our volunteers efforts are in maintaining the vegetation on site.