A great benefit of winter is that wildlife can be easier to spot between the leafless trees. And less than an hour's journey from London or central England is an ideal winter location, home to a host of rarities and one of our most beautiful birds ofprey. Red kites, reintroduced in 1989, soar over the wonderful beech woodlands, chalk downlands, and streams and lakes of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). And though much of the Chilterns landscape is an intensively-farmed desertfor wildlife, the gems that remain offer a rewarding day out within easy reach of a train station. Take your bike or boots to open up a wider variety of places, or simply catch a taxi to your wildlife destination. The Chilterns are a series of indented escarpments that sprawl in a ragged line from the lush sinew of the upper Thames in the south to Bedfordshire in the north. Seen from the north-west approaches, chalk grasslands rise steeply from the surrounding flatlands to a rounded ridge capped with aclay and flint plateau that slides gently towards London and the east. Dense woodlands of beech, yew, ash and oak grow on the plateau. Much of the beech is plantation, set out more than a century ago to feed a now defunct local furniture industry.
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