  Saturday 21 December 2013    1. Home»   2. Travel»   3.
Destinations»   4. Europe»   5. UK»   6. Southern England  UK:
Birdwatching in the Chilterns  To the sound of the dawn chorus,
Christopher Somerville strides out through the woods and along
the ridges of the Chilterns  AN orange crescent moon hung low
over the Chiltern escarpment, and down in silent Aldbury not a
light showed. I was lacing my boots in the square outside the
Greyhound Inn when the church clock struck four. That seemed to
be the sign that the blackbirds had been waiting for, as first
one solo singer and then an impressive chorus burst sweetly into
song in the village gardens.  Up in the beech-woods on the
Ashridge slopes above Aldbury, a softly fluting thrush was chief
herald of a dawn that had hardly broken. I had yawned my way out
of bed at two o'clock to enjoy the moment so often read about,
so seldom experienced, when the first birds crack the silence of
night before traffic roar intrudes to spoil things.  The
Chiltern Hills, less th