IT’S a month of birdsong and abundant greenery, of foraging badgers and bats at dusk.
Or as the Welsh poet and tramp W H Davies put it:
Yes, I will spend the livelong day With Nature in this month of May; And sit beneath the trees, and share My bread with birds whose homes are there
HANGING CURTAIN: in full bloom PICTURE: Lesley Tilson
It’s that time when wildflowers burst into bloom, when the swifts arrive on our shores and the scent of blossom fills the air.
The morning symphony starts with the thrushes and robins and swells as others join the chorus, eager to convince a mate of their potential to provide a well-stocked larder.
CAUGHT ON CAMERA: a common whitethroat PICTURE: Graham Parkinson
With migratory songsters like whitethroats and nightingales having arrived back on these shores to join the fray, this is the month when the dawn chorus reaches its annual crescendo.
The millions of migrant birds have been pouring back in from Africa to their summer homes since mid-April, and by early May, against a backdrop of gorgeous green leaves and blossoming flowers, the trills, whistles and chirrups grow in volume to reach their peak as morning breaks.
FEEDING TIME: a hungry young starling asks for more PICTURE: Nick Bell
May 2024 was the warmest since records began in 1884, but for many the month felt like an endless deluge of rain, contributing to the wettest spring since 1986.
SUNSET SONG: startling skies over Chesham PICTURE: Leigh Richardson
But if warm and wetness collided to leave much of the nation drenched, gardeners, growers and farmers were glad to see the rain and those brave enough to venture out managed to capture some dramatic skies and glorious sunsets.
INTO THE BLUE: the colour palette changes PICTURE: Leigh Richardson
Photographers up and about early and late were still able to capture spectacular backdrops and elusive wildlife.
The explosion of spring colour that brought the Chilterns woodlands alive in April continuing to carpet woodland floors with swathes of bluebells, while hedgerows and woods from Hedsor to Penn were awash with purple rhododendron flowers.
CARPET OF COLOUR: bluebells at Coombe Hill PICTURE: Gel Murphy
From the white surf of hawthorn blossom to the pinks, whites and reds of the horse chestnut trees, the explosion of life in the meadows and woods is encouraging an array of insects are making the most of the array of food on offer.
GRUB’S UP: a treecreeper on chick-feeding duties PICTURE: Graham Parkinson
From fox cubs and goslings to woodpeckers and treecreepers, fresh life is emerging all around us, that wonderful timeless display that gave Milton such joy all those centuries ago:
Hail bounteous May that dost inspire Mirth and youth, and warm desire, Woods and Groves, are of thy dressing, Hill and Dale, doth boast thy blessing. Thus we salute thee with our early Song, And welcom thee, and wish thee long.
HAPPY FAMILIES: greylag goslings on the march PICTURE: Graham Parkinson
Wildlife photographers sometimes cover impressive distances in their search for an unusual subject: the chance sighting of an adder or water vole, perhaps, or an opportunity to capture the exotic colours of a green orb weaver spider or fast-moving damselfly.
RIVER DANCE: a female azure damselfly PICTURE: Graham Parkinson
Much of our wildlife can be quite elusive, making it hard to spot during a normal daytime walk in the woods but as always, our contributors have often managed to find the ideal spot to capture that perfect shot of an elusive butterfly, rare flower or striking sunset.
Their pictures capture some of the brighter moments amid the May monsoon and capture the glorious beauty of the Chilterns countryside through the changing months.
PERFECT TIMING: another Chesham sunset PICTURE: Leigh Richardson
As always, we’d like to give a very big thank you to all the keen local photographers who have allowed us to use their work. If you would like to contribute any pictures, favourite moments or seasonal suggestions to our calendar entries, contact editor@thebeyonder.co.uk on email or via our Facebook group page.
FEBRUARY. It might be one of the coldest, bleakest months of the year, but it’s also the shortest – and a time when families out on muddy wintry walks are eagerly on the lookout for the first signs of spring.
Not this year. This year, come February 24 and everyone’s eyes are on the other side of Europe and the shock Russian invasion of Ukraine.
LILAC WINE: a February sky outside Amersham PICTURE: Sue Craigs Erwin
Suddenly it seems a little trite to be chatting blithely about the Chilterns countryside awakening after winter. Instead, we are all glued to the television and the unthinkable images of war engulfing Europe.
As days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months, whole streets and towns are turned into rubble, sparking the biggest refugee crisis since World War II.
PALE HUES: dramatic colours over Coombe Hill PICTURE: Lesley Tilson
The devastation is already reminiscent of the streets of Syria and Iraq, and with families streaming over the border to Poland and other neighbouring countries, the fear is palpable and the threat is real.
How ironic then, that in the same week that war broke out we are visiting the Polish resettlement camp at Northwick Park in Gloucestershire and recalling how a previous Russian invasion more than 80 years ago changed the course of world history.
WARTIME ECHOES: Northwick Park camp PICTURE: Olivia Rzadkiewicz
It’s one of many reminders around the UK of those terrible events from the spring of 1940, made all the more painful by history being repeated so many years later.
Marysia, the wonderful woman we are visiting with, lived briefly in this camp when she first came to England as a teenager after the war – like so many others after a long and arduous journey via Russia, Persia and Africa.
LIVES IN TRANSIT: the monument at Northwick Park PICTURE: Olivia Rzadkiewicz
She was seven when the Russian soldiers arrived and her family was deported from their forest home to the icy wastes of Siberia.
After the war, Northwick Park was a brief stopping-off point before she was moved on to Herefordshire, but with many of the Nissen huts used to house families then still in use today for local businesses, in many ways the place looks very like it did more than 70 years ago, bringing memories flooding back.
FOREST CAMP: Polish families lived in Hodgemoor Woods until 1962 PICTURE: Andrew Knight
Many of the Polish families relocated to the UK lived in camps like this for years – including those in Hodgemoor Woods beside Chalfont St Giles, where the camp remained open until 1962.
Indeed by October 1946, around 120,000 Polish troops were quartered in more than 200 such camps across the UK.
All of which is an all-too-vivid reminder that the events being played out in the towns and cities of Ukraine today will have an impact on people’s lives for decades to come.
SHEPHERD’S DELIGHT?: a Chesham sunset PICTURE: Lesley Tilson
As the pale skies and dramatic sunsets of February give way to the brighter weather of March, we stumble across a young woman looking a little lost in local woods at sunset.
She has no dog and seems a little disorientated as dusk falls, but when we ask if she is OK she assures us that she is. She’s from Ukraine and adjusting to a new life in the Chilterns, insisting that she is fine.
FLYING HIGH: on the wing outside Amersham PICTURE: Sue Craigs Erwin
But as she wanders back to the village, we’re left wondering just how many families will be torn apart by the current conflict – and how many decades it will be before the shockwaves stop reverberating across Europe.
Here, the dawn chorus is beginning to pick up volume as the branches begin to look a little less bare and the first flowers poke through the frost: snowdrops and primroses, later to be followed by the daffodils and bluebells.
SPRING DANCE: daffodils brighten the hedgerows PICTURE: Sue Craigs Erwin
Once more photographers across the Chilterns are up with the lark, capturing the sights and sounds of the changing months as hungry badgers and foxes get braver in their hunt for an easy snack and insects and reptiles emerge from their slumbers.
There may still be a chill in the morning air, but the morning dog walk is no longer a battle against the elements.
THE EYES HAVE IT: a hare pauses for the camera PICTURE: Graham Parkinson
Beyonder stalwarts Nick Bell and Graham Parkinson are on the hunt for less usual sights, tiptoeing through the undergrowth on the trail of an elusive hare, fox cub or cautious deer.
Regular contributors Sue Craigs Erwin and Lesley Tilson also have their eyes peeled for those spectacular sunsets or rare moments when a bird or insect stays long enough on a twig for the perfect shot.
FIRST FLUTTER: a peacock butterfly PICTURE: Sue Craigs Erwin
Deep in the forest, there’s new growth everywhere, with fluffy lichen and moss coating tree barks and warmer weather tempting walkers back out onto footpaths no longer submerged in a sea of mud.
As the weather warms, there’s more time to study the colourful plumage of regular garden visitors, enjoy the first butterflies or spot a muntjac foraging in the woods or a fox returning proudly to its den with breakfast for the family.
We are so lucky to live here: only an hour from central London, yet a haven for wildlife, with a network of thousands of miles of footpaths stretching across the 320 square miles designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Suddenly, after long grey days of eager anticipation, the natural world seems alive with activity with something new to spot every day, the green shoots and bursting buds a welcome reminder that spring has once again returned with a vengeance.
WARMER DAYS: Chess Valley reflections PICTURE: Andrew Knight
From historic market towns to sleepy hamlets, this is a landscape dotted with quintessentially English coaching inns, ancient churches and picturesque chalk streams.
It many no longer boast charcoal burners or “bodgers” in the woods, or an abundance of watercress farms and cherry orchards, but it’s still a world of muddy boots and excited dogs, log fires and historic pubs.
ANCIENT LANDSCAPE: St Nicholas’ church at Hedsor PICTURE: Andrew Knight
In the spring, the air is thick with birdsong in morning and early evening, robins, blackbirds and wrens shouting about territory while the local wood pigeons strut and coo.
There’s frogspawn aplenty in local ponds and nest-building is under way in earnest, though it’s still hard to fully concentrate on all the intimate daily changes in quite the same way it was before the war started to dominate the news agenda.
FURRY FRIEND: a holly blue butterfly PICTURE: Sue Craigs Erwin
After the anxieties and distractions of lockdown we are once again free to explore the local landscape fully, yet it feels almost insensitive to be savouring that freedom against the backdrop of the apocalyptic pictures and real-world horror stories emerging from Ukraine.
Pandemic, climate change, war – no wonder our teenagers are worried about the world and find it hard to concentrate in class.
But then just as lockdown gave us time to re-examine our relationship with the natural world, we know too just what an important role nature can play is maintaining or re-establishing our mental health.
Yes, we must do what we can to provide practical help to those fleeing the war, but it’s no bad thing for us to be immersing ourselves in nature again too.
SUMMER STORM: an ominous sky PICTURE: Sue Craigs Erwin
It’s easy to get depressed by the pointlessness, chaos and destruction of war, but perhaps it’s even more important that we celebrate beauty at such a time and remind ourselves of the importance of those small daily delights that still matter so much.
Whether it’s the sounds of woodland creatures stirring in the early morning sunshine, country lanes awash with spring colour, the screech of an owl as dusk falls, the spring lambs gambolling in the fields or a family of little ducklings learning to swim, the Chilterns landscape has the power to soothe our fears and revitalise us to face new challenges.
RUNNING FOR COVER: red-legged partridges PICTURE: Nick Bell
Our timeless landscape has witnessed its fair share of bloodshed and conflict across the centuries, but the froth of hawthorn blossom in the hedgerows, dancing bluebells in the woods, and nodding poppies in the cornfields remind us that life must go on, and sustain us at times when our spirits are low.
When the news feels overwhelming, there could be no better way of keeping a grip on reality, clearing away the cobwebs and banishing our own fears and anxiety among the bluebell woods and country paths of the Chilterns.
FIELD OF DREAMS: a deer among the poppies PICTURE: Lesley Tilson
As Melissa Harrison says in her nature diary The Stubborn Light of Things: “It’s the oldest story: the earth coming back to life after its long winter sleep. Yet spring always feels like a miracle when at last it arrives.”
As always, we’d like to give a very big thank you to all the keen local photographers who have allowed us to use their work. If you would like to contribute any pictures, favourite moments or seasonal suggestions, contact editor@thebeyonder.co.uk on email or via our Facebook group page.
