Burnham Beeches – The Beyonder

Riddle at the heart of an ancient wood

Posted on July 10, 2024July 10, 2024 by andrew in Nature and Wildlife

IT SOUNDS as if it ought to be the subject of a pub quiz, or an obscure riddle from The Lord of the Rings.

Where, deep in the heart of an ancient Buckinghamshire wood, can you find names linking the land of the ancient pharaohs and pyramids with a biblical river that flows for more than 4,000 miles through the heart of Africa?

The answer, of course, is not so hard for those familiar with Burnham Beeches and the surrounding area, because the tiny hamlet of Egypt lies north of Farnham Common and the roadsign has doubtless led to many a conversation between passing motorists about the origins of the name.

Nearby runs the Nile, a somewhat modest watercourse when compared to its mighty African namesake, which runs from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean Sea.

**SUNLIGHT AND SHADE:** exploring the woods

By contrast, the Buckinghamshire Nile is just one of a number of small streams that trickle around the national nature reserve at Burnham Beeches,

Egypt Lane links the reserve with the small hamlet of just a few cottages clustered on the edge of woodland, a settlement with cottages dating from the 17th century.

**RICH HISTORY:** on the Portman Burtley estate

Egypt Wood borders the nature reserve and is the most ecologically important area of woodland on the Portman Burtley estate, a 2,000-acre slice of land with an organic beef farm at its heart, along with a large forestry business and a number of residential and commercial properties to let.

This is a mixture of ancient woodland and former common land with numerous ancient trees and very high biodiversity interest, managed under a joint agreement with Natural England and in regular consultation with the managers of Burnham Beeches.

By arrangement with the Forestry Commission, the estate allows access on permissive paths that criss-cross the wood and link to roads and public footpaths north of Burnham Beeches, joining the Beeches Way to Littleworth Common or looping round on Portman land down to Pennlands Farm and on to Hedgerley.

**ROAD LESS TRAVELLED:** heading to Hedgerley

The woods may have an ancient feel, but any connection with the North African country is somewhat misguided, thanks to a popular 16th-century misunderstanding.

Romany Gypsies have been in Britain since at least 1515 and the term ‘gypsy’ comes from ‘Egyptian’, which is what the settled population perceived them to be, perhaps because of their dark complexion or believing them to have come from ‘little Egypt’, the name given to a part of the Peloponnese peninsula in what is now Greece.

**DESERTED PATH:** heading to Abbey Park Farm

In reality, linguistic analysis of the Romani language proves that Romany Gypsies, like the European Roma, originally came from Northern India, but that didn’t stop parliament passing the Egyptians Act of 1530, specifically designed to expel the “outlandish people calling themselves Egyptians”, principally meaning Roma.

On pain of imprisonment, the Roma were given 16 days’ notice to depart the realm, the Act accusing them of using “crafty and subtle devices” to deceive people, notably by claiming to tell people’s fortunes while also allegedly committing felonies such as robbery.

**WHAT’S IN A NAME?:** gypsies may once have lived in Egypt Wood

Two further Egyptians Acts followed in 1554 and 1562, complaining that “Egyptians” were plying their “devilish and naughty practices and devices” and urging them to abandon their nomadic lifestyle.

Certainly local folklore and the Buckinghamshire Archives lend credence to the belief that the name of Egypt originates from gypsies who once lived in the woods some 500 years ago.

Today, these paths are often gloriously deserted, despite their proximity to Burnham Beeches and popular circular walks from Hedgerley.

**RAMBLERS’ REST:** the White Horse at Hedgerley

But on a quiet May day among the ferns and foxgloves of Egypt Wood, you can be blissfully unaware of the nearby motorway or fast-moving traffic on the main road from Beaconsfield through Farnham Common.

Here, squirrels rustle among the dead leaves and wood ants scurry about their business with a frantic intensity that can make the casual observer feel a little itchy.

This is certainly no place for a picnic, but their presence is a clear indicator of healthy woodland. If numbers alone are any measure, woodland doesn’t come much healthier than this.

Picture of the week: 04/10/21

Posted on October 6, 2021July 17, 2023 by andrew in Art & Photography

IF ONLY trees could talk, what stories they could tell.

And nowhere is that truer that at Burnham Beeches, a national nature reserve and site of special scientific interest where one can feel pretty insignificant surrounded by trees which have been towering over visitors for hundreds of years.

Wandering through these woods, it’s hard not to be swamped by images of the past, especially given that the landscape is dotted with ancient monuments like Hartley Court, a medieval moated farmhouse built in an age before the Black Death ravaged the land.

A long-term Beyonder haunt, this is a place which has provided a welcome refuge for families throughout the more recent pandemic – so much so that additional parking restrictions have been in place for most of the past year to prevent damage to the sensitive habitat.

This is the home of wood ants, owls, hornets, moorhens and an array of other woodland creatures, not to mention grazing cattle and ponies; a place where fungi flourish and a huge array of mushrooms and toadstools can be discovered.

And at this time of year, of course, it’s also the perfect place to take pictures of the annual autumn fireworks display as the greens of summer start changing to a stunning area of browns, reds and golds – which explains why it’s our picture choice of the week.

There’s even a rare chance to pick up a few tips from one an expert photographer whose portfolio of shots taken in these woods is simply stunning. Although Paul Mitchell moved away to the Dorset/Hampshire border about 18 months ago and has swapped Burnham Beeches for local woodlands nearer his home, he returns to his old stamping ground to share some of his secrets on a three-hour wander in November.

We can’t compete with Paul’s startling landscapes, but those same tree-lined paths provide a constant and ever-changing source of delight to ramblers, dog walkers and amateur photographers alike.

Exploring a land that time forgot

Posted on November 6, 2020June 2, 2023 by andrew in History and Heritage

STARE at these reflections in the woods at Burnham Beeches for a bit and it’s hard not to be swamped by images of the past.

For this water surrounds Hartley Court, a medieval moated farmhouse built here at some time between 1250 and 1350 (in other words, after the signing of the Magna Carta and before the Black Death ravaged the land).

Buried deep in the woods near the north-western corner of Burnham Beeches and one of three ancient monuments on the national nature reserve, the site is sufficiently distant from the main car parks to be largely overlooked by visitors, although it lies just off the Beeches Way footpath.

And on a glorious November morning with the leaves on the ancient oaks and beeches an exotic array of golds, yellows and browns, it’s easy to feel like a traveller back in time.

What would this part of Buckinghamshire have looked like in the Middle Ages? Not so very different, perhaps. The people who lived here made a living from the land, with cattle, sheep and pigs grazing and foraging in the surrounding woodland.

Some of the oldest oaks could even have been here when those settlers from Hartley Court ventured out to get firewood for heat and cooking.

The monument itself takes the form of a roughly rectangular central island surrounded by a moat, broad ditch and an outer bank which might once have been topped by a wooden palisade fence.

The moated central island was situated inside a larger diamond-shaped enclosure and was surrounded by a ditch which retains water for much of the year, supplied by rainfall and the natural water table.

Moated houses were popular during this period, more for fashionable reasons than for defence, and there are other examples across Buckinghamshire. No buildings remain at Hartley Court today, but the archaeologists believe there is evidence of a principal dwelling, a well and possible other outbuildings which might have included kitchens, stores, brew and bake houses.

Cultivated land inside the enclosure would provide produce for the homestead, while the boundary earthworks may have been designed to keep out livestock, and other animals grazing the surrounding woodpasture like pigs and deer.

Many settlements in the Chilterns had been recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, but populations were generally small, so that much of the area would have been characterised by scattered hamlets and isolated farms during the Middle Ages, with the Thames providing the easiest transport route for heavy materials.

Powerful lords of the manor became an established part of the feudal system introduced by the Normans following their victory at the Battle of Hastings, when William the Conqueror distributed land as a reward for loyalty – typically between 1200 and 1800 acres, which would support farming land, forests, common pasture land, a village, a mill, a church and a manor house.

The English landscape of the Middle Ages would have included numerous impressive manor houses, from where the lord of the manor would rule over the lives of their subjects, holding numerous privileges including hunting and judicial rights, presiding over the complaints of those working on the manor – from bailiffs and reeves to serfs, cottagers and servants – and overseeing the running of farm lands and collection of income and taxes.

Deer parks were common all over medieval England too, particularly in woodland areas, forming part of the lord of the manor’s demesne lands and providing an opportunity for sport, as well as the ready supply of venison.

There would have been castles around this area too – Windsor, of course, but Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire, Chalgrave and Totternhoe in Bedfordshire, Donnington in Berkshire, Boarstall and Oxford in Oxfordshire.

Woodlands were the biggest natural resource of the Chilterns during the Middle Ages, providing construction materials for houses, carts and fences, as well as all the fuel and heating needed by peasants and their feudal lords – not to mention providing clay for bricks and tiles, and food for livestock.

But the area around Burnham parish was always remarkably well wooded – woodland enough to feed 600 swine, according to the Domesday Survey – and Hartley Court may have been included in land bestowed with Burnham Manor in 1266 as part of the foundation charter for Burnham Abbey by Richard, Earl of Cornwall – or retained by Richard as part of his manor at Cippenham, which he had bought in 1252.

Richard is known to have maintained his land there as a deer park for hunting and was close to his brother Henry III, who lived at Windsor Castle.

You can imagine the pigs snuffling for acorns under these trees as the residents of Hartley Court went about their daily business on this smallholding, a rather more humble existence than the feasting of the royal hunting parties, but not an uncomfortable one, especially with such a ready supply of top-quality timber (and widespread carpentry skills).

It may be impossible to tell what life was like here all those centuries ago – and before the plague would devastate English populations in the 1340s. But staring into the still waters of the moat on a tranquil day, it’s only too easy to be transported back in time…

Friends help solve our mushroom mystery

Posted on October 20, 2020December 21, 2020 by andrew in Nature and Wildlife

AFTER our recent post about toadstools and mushrooms flourishing in Burnham Beeches, we’ve been back out in the woods uncovering an even wider range of fascinating and beautiful fungi.

And what an amazing range of shapes and colours we found. The only problem is that we still couldn’t tell a tawny grisette from a glistening inkcap – not to mention a horn of plenty, velvet shank, parrot waxcap or weeping widow.

The names alone are enough to want to make you find out more – from the stinking dapperling to the charcoal burner, golden scalycap, grey knight or wrinkled peach.

But even armed with the Woodland Trust’s fungi identification guide and those of Wildfood UK and First Nature, the only mushrooms we could identify with any real confidence were the foul-smelling stinkhorn (Picture 15) and the beechwood sickener (Picture 11).

So we put out an appeal to our friends on Twitter and Facebook to help us complete our captions – and the response was terrific.

All 20 pictures were taken on a single afternoon on a short woodland walk at Burnham Beeches.

Within minutes our friends in the Wild Marlow facebook group were pointing us towards the Buckinghamshire Fungus Group – and overnight, group secretary Penny Cullington was able to fill in a lot of the gaps in our knowledge.

If you have similar problems in identifying specific species, check out the group’s detailed alphabetical picture guide – look up the name in the list to locate the photo, with helpful tips about identification.

‘Mushroom man’ John Harris from Leicestershire also has an incredibly useful blog that can help with all aspects of mushroom identification, not to mention a pocket guide for those wanting to investigate further.

And sincere thanks to all those who helped in our quest and commented in forums on Facebook or on Twitter.

**PICTURE 1:** just a rotting fungus past its sell-by date?

**PICTURE 2:** our friend @PipsticksWalks helped to pin this down as upright coral fungus (*Ramaria stricta*). Apparently there are an incredible number of species of coral fungi, but this one is pretty common in our Chilterns woods

**PICTURE 3:** too little detail to identify this one?

**PICTURE 4:** **Penny from BFG** pointed us towards Tricholoma sulphureum, the poisonous Sulphur Knight, once known as the gas works mushroom because of its pungent odour

**PICTURE 5:** *Lycoperdon pyriforme*, the stump puffball, says **Penny from BFG**

**PICTURE 6:** too many possibilities to choose from here?

**PICTURE 7:** a faded Amethyst deceiver, *Laccaria amethystina*, we are told

**PICTURE 8:** probably the common rustgill or *Gymnopilus penetrans*, we now believe

**PICTURE 9:** too far gone to identify?

**PICTURE 10:** **Penny from BFG** identifies this as the birch bracket or *Fomitopsis betulina* (formerly known as *Piptoporus betulinus*)

**PICTURE 11:** the poisonous beechwood sickener (*Russula nobilis)* is known for its bright colours and crumbly gills. It plays a vital role in the woodland ecosystem since beech trees rely on fungi in the soil to pass minerals to them in exchange for sugars from the tree

**PICTURE 12:** maybe a dappled webcap, but other angles needed for a confirmed identification

**PICTURE 13:** **Penny from BFG** suggests the bonnets in the foreground may be saffrondrop bonnets (*Mycena crocata*) with common stump brittlestem in the background (see below)

**PICTURE 14:** *Psathyrella piluliformis* or common stump brittlestem is common and widespread in woodlands, we discover

**PICTURE 15:** the stinkhorn (*phallus impudicus*) is recognisable by its foul odour and relies on flies and other insects to transport its spores

**PICTURE 16:** a species of webcap, we believe

**PICTURE 17:** clustered bonnet (*Mycena inclinata)*, known by some as the oak bonnet

**PICTURE 18:** like Picture 4, **Penny from BFG** believes this is another Sulphur Knight

**PICTURE 19:** very old honey fungus (*Armillaria mellea*)

**PICTURE 20:** probably a shaggy parasol (*Chlorophyllum* *rhacodes*), says **Penny from BFG**, but hard to be sure without seeing the gills and stem

Woods come alive with autumn colour

Posted on October 15, 2020July 13, 2023 by andrew in Nature and Wildlife

CHILLY nights and rainy days can turn your favourite walk into a muddy morass and take some of the fun out of autumn rambles.

But brighter days in October and November are a perfect time to capture autumnal colour when the sun breaks through the clouds and turns local parks into places of wonder and mystery.

Nowhere is more inviting in the sunshine that Burnham Beeches, a national nature reserve on the doorstep that is also a site of special scientific interest and special conservation area.

Much of Burnham Beeches was once wood pasture, with a mix of young and mature trees standing in open grassland or heathland. This type of habitat has been created by land use going back thousands of years, where the trees or pollards harvested for timber and the grassland beneath would be grazed by livestock.

The constant regrowth encouraged by oak and beech pollarding extends the lives of the trees and older trees often have features such as hollow rotten stems, dead or decaying branches and loose bark which can be a great habitat for animals, plants and fungi, some of which are very rare.

Dog walkers and families out for a weekend stroll quickly disappear into the 500 acres of beech woodland, and a map of paths and trails offer the opportunity to escape from other visitors, especially on weekdays and out of season.

This is also a very different world from your visits back in the spring (below), with so many of the vivid greens replaced with russets, reds and golds.

There has been woodland here since the last Ice Age and people have used the site since at least the Iron Age, as evidenced by the Seven Ways Plain hill fort located in the south west part of the Beeches.

And if the landscape looks familiar, it might be because the proximity of Pinewood, Shepperton and Bray studios have made this a perfect filming location, with everyone from Robin Hood to Harry Potter and James Bond using the Beeches as a backdrop for their woodland adventures.

Mind you, the same can be said for nearby Black Park, another perfect escape for families needing some fresh air, with a big adventure play area for youngsters wanting to let off steam and an extensive network of surfaced tracks to walk, cycle or run.

And since the park is spread over 530 acres, it allows older teenagers and more ambitious walkers to lose themselves for a little on the less well-trodden paths.

Although the area round the 14-acre lake and popular cafe tends to be packed with families and dog walkers at weekends, it’s still possible to get away from the crowds – especially during the week or early in the morning, when many of the pathways through the towering trees can be virtually deserted.

As part of the historic Langley Estate, Black Park was first mentioned in 1202 and has been in the ownership of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, although it is now one of three country parks in the area managed by Buckinghamshire County Council.

Nearby Langley Park is another favourite autumn retreat, offering a peaceful oasis of colour and tranquillity looking out towards Windsor Castle.

This is a world of pooh sticks and Eeyore houses, where toddlers decked out in bobble hats and wellingtons are kicking leaves and splashing in puddles like generations before them.

For those wanting an even more spectacular vista, there is also the sprawling Cliveden Estate, 376 acres of magnificent Grade I listed formal gardens and woodlands with panoramic views over the Berkshire countryside.

Owned, managed and cared for by the National Trust, the dog-friendly grounds slope down to the River Thames and feature a number of woodland walks suitable for families, as well as perfect picnic spots for when the rain lets up.

This estate was the meeting place for political intellectuals in the 1920s and 30s, and in the early 1960s was the setting for key events in the notorious Profumo sex scandal that rocked the Macmillan government.

In 1893, the estate was purchased by the American millionaire William Waldorf Astor, who moved to Hever Castle and left Cliveden to his son Waldorf when he married in 1906.

The young Astors used Cliveden for entertaining on a lavish scale and it’s not hard to see how the spectacular location made it a popular destination for film stars, politicians, world leaders and writers of the day.

Witty, glamorous and fashionable, Nancy became a prominent hostess among the English elite and followed her husband into politics, in 1919 becoming the first woman to sit as an MP in the House of Commons.

That sense of history is all about you here, on the banks of the Thames – memories of autumn walks across the centuries where the timeless beauty of the trees has provided a backdrop to countless human dramas, hopes and fears…

For more information about Burnham Beeches, visit the City of London website. For Black Park, visit the park’s website and Facebook page or call 01753 511060. For Langley, visit the website or call 01753 511060. For more information about Cliveden, see the National Trust website.

Check out our nature guides page for things to do in the woods and our What’s On page for other local attractions and special events.

Postcard from . . . Burnham Beeches

Posted on September 2, 2020July 13, 2023 by andrew in Beyonder Blog

IF ONLY trees could talk, what secrets they could tell…

The ancient oaks and beeches of Burnham Beeches have provided a place of solace and refuge during difficult times this year.

Through the long summer holidays that followed the easing of lockdown restrictions, the woods have been alive with the cries of children and lolloping spaniels, a safe place to socially distance away from the pressures of supermarket shopping and public transport.

Paths wending through overhanging branches have provided shade from the sweltering heat of early autumn and shelter from the rain, a place for bug hunts and Pooh sticks, of family adventures and solitary wanderings.

From hungry ducks and moorhens to foraging ponies and cattle, the woods are home to an array of wildlife, from the ubiquitous pigeons and squirrels to the industrious ants, colourful dragonflies and elusive reptiles.

Spread across more than 900 acres, Burnham Beeches soaks up visitors and provides a cross-section of different habitats, from heathland ferns and heather to lily-covered ponds and carefully grazed wood-pasture.

A national nature reserve for almost 30 years, it is an oasis of calm in a hurried world, and one which hundreds of local families will remember with affection for the part it played in making the long difficult summer of 2020 just a little easier to cope with.

Trees remain in tune with the past

Posted on August 22, 2020July 13, 2023 by andrew in BURNHAM BEECHES, Nature and Wildlife

IT’S a perfect day for a walk in the woods…not totally airless, not too hot, but warm in the sunshine and even the darker glades are dappled with light.

But here at Burnham Beeches we are in a place where one can feel pretty insignificant, especially when wandering round a tree with a startling past like the Druid’s Oak.

The old-timer may not look so majestic these days, but this tree is around 800 years old, dating back through the reigns of some 35 kings and queens to the era of King John, when the Magna Carta was being drawn up.

This is a time of the crusades and Marco Polo’s travels. It’s hard to believe the same oak will be standing here in later centuries to witness the Spanish Armada, Gunpowder Plot or Great Fire of London.

But time stands still in Burnham Beeches, where ancient sentinels silently recall generations of Victorian schoolchildren coming here for Sunday outings or the war years when the woods were awash with service personnel, with some 65 huts and other buildings hidden among the trees.

Wander down this path and you’re at the site of an Iron Age hillfort. Take that route through the trees and you find a small plaque commemorating the poet Thomas Gray, who wandered the woods in the 18th century and completed his famous poem ‘Elegy in a Country Churchyard’ in 1750 amid the peaceful graves surrounding St Giles’ church in nearby Stoke Poges.

The past is all around you here – and at no time is that more obvious than on an August afternoon when the dragonflies are flitting around, the wood ants are on the march and the cattle are lazily munching their way through the undergrowth.

Helpful Wildlife Trust contacts are able to suggest my fuzzy picture is a male ruddy darter, and a magnificent video from Roger Havercroft on the Wild Cookham facebook page soon confirms this.

At the other end of the size spectrum are the British white cattle casually sun-bathing on the grass. They, along with other traditional breeds such as Exmoore ponies and Berkshire pigs, have been used to bring grazing back to the reserve – a practice which helped to create this ancient woodland.

Back in the woods, the rowan berries are out, the first leaves have fallen and the ancient beeches rustle a little as the evening breeze begins to pick up.

It really is an extraordinary landscape: beautiful, haunting, ever-changing and intimately in tune with the past.

Ferns and foxgloves set the tone

Posted on June 29, 2020July 11, 2023 by andrew in Nature and Wildlife

AT LAST the welcome relaxation of lockdown restrictions has allowed scope to roam a little further afield – and after the bluebells of April, it’s foxgloves and ferns which provide the focus of woodland forays in June.

What a joy to be able to escape into the trees of Denham, Langley and Black Park again. And after the hawthorn blossom and horse chestnuts putting on a show earlier in the year, now it’s time for the foxgloves to provide a welcome splash of colour amid the glorious greenery.

We may have missed those startling May displays of rhododrendrons in the Temple Gardens at Langley, but the wildflowers are out, the wildfowl are busy on the lake and the arboretum provides a welcome escape from face masks, shopping queues and worries about illness.

Once a hunting ground for medieval monarchs, this is part of a network of green spaces which make up the huge Colne Valley Regional Park, formed in 1965, which stretches from Rickmansworth to the Thames, Heathrow and Slough and provides the first proper taste of countryside west of London.

Cross the road from Temple Gardens and you are immediately in Black Park, another woodland oasis with more than 600 acres to explore.

From miniature mariners to unusual wildfowl, there’s always something to see on the lake, and with 10 miles of footpaths through woodland, heath and open space, this is one of those places where it really does feel possible to lose your bearings – for a short while, at least.

This is a perfect place for children to let off steam, but although the lake area tends to be packed with families and dog walkers at weekends, it’s still possible to get away from the crowds – especially during the week or early in the morning, when many of the pathways through the towering trees can be virtually deserted.

Need to get even further away from the family fun? Footpaths lead from here to Stoke Common, and the largest remnant of Buckinghamshire’s once extensive heathland, one of the rarest habitats in England.

There’s less for youngsters to do here, but for walkers wanting room to breathe, the 200 acres are a Site of Specific Scientific Interest (SSSI) which provides home to some very rare plants, animals and insects – although it may take a sharp eye to spot some of them.

A lot easier to spot are the 20 Sussex cattle currently being used to graze heathland plants on the common, which has been managed by the City of London Corporation since 2007, with friends and volunteers helping to restore it to its former glory.

The site has small areas of birch, pine and mixed woodland, with several ponds, and like nearby Burnham Beeches was grazed by livestock for centuries.

The only difference is that the wood pasture at Burnham is being grazed by seven British white cattle, along with Exmoor ponies.

Due to the they way they graze, livestock help to create a diverse plant structure which is great news for the local wildlife – although stumbling across a beast of this size behind a bush can be quite a surprise, despite their normally placid natures.

Like Black Park, Burnham Beeches is a marvellous haunt for families, and with 500 acres to get lost in, its ancient oak and beech pollards provide a perfect backdrop for those wanting to get back to nature after spending too long indoors.

Ramblers wanting to get a little further off the beaten track don’t have to look far in the Chilterns, of course. Footpaths criss-cross the area, including long-distance paths like Shakespeare’s Way, opened in 2006 from the great man’s home town of Stratford-upon-Avon to the Globe Theatre in London, passing through Marlow and Burnham Beeches on its way.

Or there’s always a chance to walk a section of the 134-mile Chiltern Way, particularly well signposted by the Chiltern Society and offering some particularly scenic sections around here, whether through the Marlow woods and on to the Hambleden Valley or sweeping north from the Chiltern Open Air Museum towards Chenies, Sarratt and beyond, in a huge circle heading towards Dunstable Downs.

Closer to home those foxgloves are still beckoning, this time just off the Chiltern Way at Homefield Wood, another SSSI owned by the Forestry Commission and managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

The nature reserve is made up of beech, ash, sycamore and whitebeam with glades and open grassland.

Wild orchids flourish here, including the rare military orchid, and the place is a haven for butterflies such as the marbled white, white-letter hairstreak and the silver-washed fritillary – not to mention hundreds of species of moth.

Resident and visiting species of birds include chiffchaff, cuckoo and blackcap. Tawny owls can often by heard calling during the day. Fallow and roe deer are also regular visitors to the reserve.

If open vistas and sweeping views are more appealing than woodland wanders, check out some of the local National Trust common land like the pastures at Winter Hill with their breathtaking views over the Thames, or the hay meadows at Pinkneys Green, where a rich variety of grasses, flowers and buzzing insects have made their home.

The grasses in these open, unfenced meadows are left to grow tall all summer, with a wealth of wildflowers adding specks of colour across the open expanse of meadow, from delicate yellow cowslips and kidney vetch to bright white oxeye daisies and purple field scabious.

On a sunny day, walkers pause for a lazy chat under the trees, but on a windy evening there’s something invigorating about the gusts sweeping over the meadow and the clouds scudding across the sky, making it a perfect place for kite-flying too.

From Pinkneys Green to Dunstable Downs, the freedom to get out and about across the local areas is such a blessing after the dark days of lockdown. And who would prefer a packed south coast beach at Brighton or Bournemouth to the fresh air and open countryside of the Chilterns?

Amazing antics of the humble ant

Posted on June 2, 2020July 11, 2023 by andrew in Nature and Wildlife

ACID-SPRAYING giant ants with a brutal bite sound like the stuff of horror movies.

But at Burnham Beeches these formidable predators are actively encouraged and cared for, so they can’t be as terrifying as they sound.

Unwary visitors to the stunning Buckinghamshire nature reserve might not feel quite as warmly disposed to the mound-building woodland forager, especially if they inadvertently stumble over a nest.

But this site of special scientific interest is particularly well suited to support colonies of formica rufa, with its ancient oak and beech pollards and welcoming mountains of rotting wood.

More alert ramblers won’t take long to spot the small armies eagerly transporting building materials and prey back to their nests, which might support more than 100,000 ants.

They may not be as immediately likeable as the 56 species of birds which inhabit these woods, but they are fascinating creatures, and with numbers decreasing across the country it’s important to pay more attention to the role they play in our ecosystem.

Wildlife film maker Tom Hartwell’s film for Woodlands TV takes a closer look at the life of wood ants with the help of Helen Read, conservation officer at Burnham Beeches for nearly 30 years.

Helen explains how the woodlands provide the perfect location for these insects as they use rotting wood and tree stumps for their nests, collecting pine needles, twigs and other woodland debris to create a “thatch” exterior which acts like a sun trap for their ant cities.

Farming aphids for their food, the ants are known for the strong smell they emit when disturbed, spraying a pungent formic acid to protect themselves from predators. But it has been found that some birds visit wood ants nests to be deliberately sprayed, as the acid helps to repel lice and mites.

It’s said that there are more ants roaming the world than any other creature on the planet and it’s certainly not hard to believe that on a sunny day here at Burnham, where they can be seen scurrying everywhere with their burdens – up to 100 times their own weight.

The combined weight of all the ants on earth would total more than the combined weight of all the humans. Relative to their size, ants have the largest brain of any insect, with someone calculating that an ant’s brain has more processing power than the computer controlling the first Apollo space missions.

To hear the sound of a colony in action (above), tune in to a recording made at Burnham Beeches by Mark Wilkinson in 2017 and featured on The Badger’s Eye website.

Find out more about wood ants from the website of the National Wood Ant Steering Group and more about Burnham Beeches in this short video produced by the City of London Corporation:

Ancient site offers a place of refuge

Posted on March 21, 2020July 10, 2023 by andrew in Nature and Wildlife

WORRIES about coronavirus may have brought chaos to the supermarkets, but with 500 acres to get lost in, Burnham Beeches should be an ideal place to put social distancing to the test – although gathering in groups to socialise in the park totally defeats the whole purpose of the Government’s strategy.

Few places are more welcoming on a sunny day than this national nature reserve on the doorstep that is also a site of special scientific interest and special conservation area.

A pollard is a tree that has been cut to just above head height, forcing the tree to send up new multiple shoots and preventing livestock grazing among the trees from eating the tender new shoots.

However the Mother’s Day weekend also brought government warnings that young people in particular were not taking social distancing seriously – and across the country there were concerns about crowds inundating beaches, parks and other public spaces.

The tarmac roads around the site are mainly closed to cars, so are ideal for cyclists and buggies, although the sensitive habitat here limits the scope for off-road cycling.

If the landscape looks familiar, it might because the proximity of Pinewood, Shepperton and Bray studios have made this a perfect filming location, with everyone from Robin Hood to Harry Potter and James Bond using the Beeches as a backdrop for their woodland adventures.

Filming is restricted to no more than 20 days per year and is banned in environmentally sensitive areas, but the revenue goes directly to fund the upkeep and management of the site.

For more information about Burnham Beeches, visit the City of London website.